To mark the 70th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, VPM News spoke to Virginians who were students during the period of school segregation and eventual integration.
Florence Stith-Jackson grew up in Brunswick County — and was part of the Brunswick 15, a group of students that integrated Brunswick High School. Below, she describes her 10th grade transition to the all-white school in 1964, a full decade after the court ordered schools to desegregate.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
One morning, I went into school, and one of my teachers gave me an application to go to Brunswick High School, which was the white high school at the time. She talked to me and told me that she thought it would be a good idea if I went, and she told me to go home and talk to my parents about it, which I did.
My parents were not excited about me transferring, but I explained what the teacher had said: that it would be a good experience for me, and that Brunswick would be a good learning opportunity for me. I knew they had newer books than what we had, so I just wanted to take advantage of those things. My mother said if I filled out the application, she would sign it, and we got a letter through the mail saying that I had been selected.
During that summer in preparation for going to Brunswick, we had a series of meetings at Saint Paul's College with the NAACP. They told us what to expect, and ran us through some activities and scenarios that we could probably run into during the course of our time there.
I can remember one time when I had gotten a new outfit for school. And back then, getting a new outfit was really a major event because my parents really didn't have a lot of extra money. So, in order to get me a new outfit, they put it on what they call “layaway.” You put the clothes on layaway, and then you pay on them, and then when they're paid for, then you get them.
I had gotten this brand new outfit, and it was a blue pleated skirt. I'll never forget it, because I loved it, pleated skirt. And then it was a baby blue blouse that my mother got me to go with it. It was really cute. I wore it to school the first day, and somebody threw ink on it. They threw it on the back of me.
So, I didn't know that it had happened until I ran into another Black kid, and they wanted to know how I had gotten ink on the back of my outfit. I didn't know what they were talking about, so I went to the bathroom and I looked, and there was, [a] big ink spot on the back of my shirt and my skirt. And of course, it was ruined. My mother couldn't get it out, and that really hurt me.
It was worth it to me, because I was — in my mind — I was clearing the path for somebody else.
Part of why I decided to participate in going to Brunswick High School [was] because I knew that I would be a good example of a good student, and maybe I could convince other people to accept Black students. That would be something that the younger people coming behind me wouldn't have to do.
