Standing Before the Shouting Mob: Lenoir Chambers and Virginia's Massive Resistance to Public School Integration

Leidholdt, Alexander S.

ISBN 10: 081730858X / ISBN 13: 9780817308582

Published by University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa and London, 1997

About this Item

"Lenoir Chambers and Virginia's Massive Resistance to Public-School Integration" Near Fine hardcover in a Near Fine dustjacket s.172 pages including index plus a note on the author. Illustrated with photos from the period.

Seller Inventory # 46932

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Standing Before the Shouting Mob: Lenoir Chambers and Virginia's Massive Resistance to Public School Integration
• Publisher: University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa and London
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 081730858X
• ISBN 13: 9780817308582
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Regional/Genealogy

About this title

Synopsis

A southern journalist campaigns for racial understanding during the
struggle over school desegregation in Virginia.

In 1958 the nation's attention was focused on Norfolk,
Virginia, where nearly ten thousand students were locked out of their schools.
Rather than comply with the desegregation mandate of Brown v. Board
of Education, Governor J. Lindsay Almond, supported by the powerful
political machine of Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr., had closed Norfolk's white
secondary schools.

Massive resistance to integration transformed Norfolk
into a civil rights arena. Although the process by which Norfolk's schools
were integrated was far from orderly, the transition was characterized
by debate, political maneuvering, and judicial action--not violence. Lenoir
Chambers, editor of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, conducted a five-year
editorial campaign supporting the peaceful implementation of the Court's
order. The Pilot was Virginia's only white newspaper to take this
position. Chambers was later awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his editorials.

Utilizing a wide range of primary and secondary sources,
Standing before the Shouting Mob examines Chambers's campaign, explores
the influences that shaped his racial views, and places him within the
context of southern journalism. The book also provides a detailed analysis
of Virginia's massive resistance and Norfolk's school closing.

 

About the Author

Alexander Leidholdt is Assistant Professor of Communication
at Purdue University.