The Negro School Movement in Virginia: From "Equalization" to "Integration"

Abstract

The rapidly-growing literature on changing South emphasizes urban-industrial development and Federal court decisions as the main forces underlying recent progress toward equalizing white and Negro schools in that area; but it hardly ever mentions that dynamic force which is most directly involved-the organized efforts of the Negro people. There is no doubt that urban and industrial development helps to create an environment congenial to progress; yet, the purposeful activities of human beings are always the immediate causes of social change. And as for the Federal courts, they would hardly be active in this realm without prior action by people bent on changing school conditions. As McIver has noted: Courts are not themselves primary agents of social change. They register, often laggingly, the changes that move in the community. Thus, clarity on the role of the Negro school movement is essential to an understanding of recent developments around Negro schools in the South; and it is the purpose of this article to interpret that role in, one of the Southern states. Specifically, analysis is here made of recent stages in the development of organized efforts by Negroes first to equalize and then to integrate the public elementary schools of