Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County: A Family, a Virginia Town, a Civil Rights Battle – Kristen Green

Sorry doesn’t erase the pain.  You know, reading this harkens me to today’s age with the mindset of our new education secretary.  The past repeating the present; shaping the future.

In 1954, the Brown v Board decision ruled segregation in the nation’s school system is unconstitutional. Erasing the separate but equal ruling (Plessy v Ferguson) of 1896.  Even against the wishes of President Eisenhower, who deemed forced integration won’t work.  It takes time he said and felt…

A letter from Birmingham.

But the decision was the new law of the land and regardless, schools across the country reluctantly began integrating.  But not all of them.

This book chronicles a family’s story intertwined with the battle of integration following that landmark decision.  The author, grand-daughter of one of the architects of segregation in Prince Edward County, Virginia, researches the town’s history where she was raised and comes to the realization that bigotry led to the ‘unschooling’ of the county’s Black children.  After the decision, Prince Edward County’s leaders decided to close the public schools and not accept integration.  They didn’t want their children going to school with Black kids.  But their kids needed an education so they raised money and created their own private ‘white only’ schools.  Meanwhile, the resilience of the parents of the Black children shown through as they sent their kids to live with family members as far as Massachusetts in some cases in order for them to finish their schooling.

But the damage was done with the school closures.  While the White kids continued their education, including the author’s mom, the Black kids struggled and most never received a degree due to this hardship.

The Brown v Board decision was right.  But like most laws, loopholes can be found and exploited and it’s always the lesser class that bears the weight.  Education is necessary in America as both the Black and White parents knew but the means continued to be separate and unequal.