Massive resistance was a policy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. of Virginia on February 24, 1956, to unite other white politicians and leaders in Virginia in a campaign of new state laws and policies to prevent public school desegregation after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954. Although most of the laws created to implement Massive Resistance were negated by state and federal courts by January 1960, some policies and effects of the campaign against integrated public schools continued in Virginia for many more years; many schools, and even an entire school system, were shut down in preference to integration.
Read more about Massive Resistance: Byrd Organization, Opposition To Racial Integration, Circumventing Brown Ruling By New State Efforts To Maintain Segregation, 1958–59 Massive Resistance Vs. The Courts, Segregation Academies, Prince Edward County: No Public Schools 1958–64, Freedom of Choice: Most Public Schools Remain Segregated, Federal Courts Order Busing Programs, Historical Reaction, Artistic Interpretation
Famous quotes containing the words massive and/or resistance:
“A woman can get marries and her life does change. And a man can get married and his life changes. But nothing changes life as dramatically as having a child. . . . In this country, it is a particular experience, a rite of passage, if you will, that is unsupported for the most part, and rather ignored. Somebody will send you a couple of presents for the baby, but people do not acknowledge the massive experience to the parents involved.”
—Dana Raphael (20th century)
“It is not the first duty of the novelist to provide blueprints for insurrection, or uplifting tales of successful resistance for the benefit of the opposition. The naming of what is there is what is important.”
—Ian McEwan (b. 1938)