Schools Closed for Five Years: The Prince Edward County Story (Part 2)
That the 2020 pandemic closed public venues including schools for three to six months across 13,000 districts in the country startled American families upending familiar daily routines. Most Moms and Dads had never experienced such a turnabout in their daily lives. Then many Americans learned of earlier influenza and polio epidemics when public officials closed schools during the first half of the 20th century.
But the vast majority of Americans know next to nothing about a Virginia county in 1959 that shut down its public schools until 1963.
That is what happened in Prince Edward County when an all-white school board, refusing a court order to desegregate, shuttered its schools and using public funds for vouchers and tax credits created a private white-only academy for students. That decision left black children and youth with no access to public elementary and secondary schooling for five years.
What did black families do when the doors to their schools were locked?
Black leaders, parents, students, and a few whites protested. The white-controlled Board of Supervisors and the County Board of Education, nonetheless, kept the schools closed.
Some families sent their sons and daughters to relatives elsewhere in Virginia where at least segregated schools were open, to families in North Carolina, CONTINUE READING: Schools Closed for Five Years: The Prince Edward County Story (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
