Public School Bonds and Virginia's Massive Resistance

Abstract

Although the era of Virginia's massive resistance to public school desegregation has drawn considerable and continuing interest and study, certain aspects of the period have been neglected. For example, the story of the difficulties encountered by Virginia localities in marketing their school bonds in the years immediately after Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka' has not been told. At this time, almost three decades later, when the persistence of proposals to provide government subsidized, racially segregated private schooling is apparent, a historical case study of the repercussions from and the resulting problem caused by the first such public-private school plan has current relevance. Moreover, a look at the school bond problem throws additional light on the desegregation crisis and reveals one of the important economic constraints on massive resistance.2 In May 1954, when the Supreme Court rendered the Brown decision, numerous Virginia counties and cities were faced with rapidly rising public school enrollments and the consequent need for more school buildings. The post-war baby boom and immigration were pressing the educational system to expand. From 1950 to 1955, the state's total number of pupils increased by more than 107,000, almost 16 percent. Much of the rise was concentrated in a few cities and suburban counties. Fairfax County, for instance, was