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Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (Case citation:Civ. A. No. 1333) was one of the four cases combined into Brown v. Board of Education, the famous case in which the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1954, officially overturned racial segregation in U.S. public schools. The Davis case was the only such case to be initiated by a student protest. The case challenged segregation in Prince Edward County, Virginia.
Background
R.R. Moton High School, an all-black school in Farmville, Virginia, suffered from terrible conditions due to underfunding. The school did not have a gymnasium, cafeteria or teachers' restrooms. Teachers and students did not have desks or blackboards, and due to overcrowding, some students had to take classes in an immobilized, decrepit school bus parked outside the main school building. The school's requests for additional funds were denied by the all-white school board.
In response, on April 23, 1951, a 16-year-old student named Barbara Rose Johns covertly organized a student strike. She forged notes to teachers telling them to bring their students to the auditorium for a special announcement. When the school's students showed up, Barbara Johns took the stage and persuaded the school to strike to protest poor school conditions. Over 450 walked out and marched to the homes of members of the school board, who refused to see them. Thus began a two-week protest.
The trials
On May 23, 1951, two lawyers from the NAACP, Spottswood Robinson and Oliver Hill, filed suit on behalf of the students against the school district to integrate the schools. The district was represented by Hunton, Williams, Gay, Powell and Gibson, a large Virginia law firm, with its primary office in Richmond (now known as Hunton & Williams).
The students' request was unanimously rejected by a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court. "We have found no hurt or harm to either race," the court found. The case was then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and consolidated with several other cases from other districts around the country into the famous Brown v. Board of Education case. In it, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in public education was, effectively, unconstitutional and illegal.
Aftermath
The ruling was extremely unpopular in Virginia, and white Virginians attempted to resist integration through every means possible, during a period known as Massive Resistance. Schools remained segregated for several years. In 1959, the Board of Supervisors for Prince Edward County refused to appropriate any funds for the County School Board at all, effectively closing all public schools rather than integrate them. White students often attended "segregation academies", which were all-white private schools that were formed. Black students had to go to school elsewhere or forgo their education altogether. Prince Edward County schools remained closed for five years.
See also
Equal protection cases | 1954 in law | United States racial desegregation case law | United States Supreme Court cases | United States education case law | United States Supreme Court cases without an infobox
"Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County"