The Norfolk 17

Four years after the May 1954 U. S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation of public school students based on race was unconstitutional, the Commonwealth of Virginia continued to resist compliance. A fierce legal battle ensued that included a strategy called Massive Resistance.

Rather than admit 17 black students who had been assigned by the Norfolk School Board, Governor J. Lindsay Almond, Jr. seized Norfolk's all-white junior and senior high schools on September 29, 1958, and ordered them closed, thereby barring nearly 10,000 students from attending classes, including the 17 black students. Granby, Maury and Norview high schools; and Blair, Northside and Norview junior high schools remained closed until February 2, 1959, when they reopened with the 17 black students in attendance after rulings by the Virginia Supreme Court and the U. S. District Court in Norfolk.

Fifty years later, this marker recognizes the pioneering achievement of The Norfolk 17.

The Norfolk 17

Granby High School

Betty Jean Reed

Maury High School

Louis Cousins

Norview High School

Olivia Driver

Patricia Godbolt

Alveraze Frederick Gonsouland

Andrew Heidelberg

Delores Johnson