NAACP Civil Rights Victory: Integration of Johnson School, 1962

NAACP Civil Rights Victory: Integration of Johnson School, 1962. . In 1962, Johnson Elementary School became the third Charlottesville public school to desegregate due to a lawsuit brought by the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Initially, to avoid court-ordered desegregation at Venable Elementary School and Lane High School, those two schools were closed for five months during 1958-59 as part of "massive resistance." Following a modified school reopening in the spring and an additional NAACP court victory in the fall, on September 8, 1959, twelve black students began attending Venable Elementary and Lane High School. However, further integration was minimized, and other city schools remained segregated. To address this, Charlottesville's NAACP President, Eugene Williams, and his wife, Lorraine , herself a teacher in Charlottesville's City Schools , sued to allow their daughters' transfers from all-black Jefferson Elementary into all-white Johnson Elementary. Fifteen other students and their parents were part of the suit, seeking transfers to Venable and Lane. Appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, Dillard v. School Board of the City of Charlottesville ultimately forced Charlottesville City Schools to stop the discriminatory handing of school transfer requests. Consequently, on October 24, 1962, Johnson Elementary was integrated by Karol and Scheryl Williams and by Michael Lewis and Rosalind Whitlock, whose requests to transfer into Johnson were also approved following the court ruling. Each victory paved the way for greater access to an equal education, and the ruling had significant impact across the state and country. Widespread integration of Charlottesville's schools occurred from 1965-1966, but the work for true racial equality continues.