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Home , Negro league baseball, Robert Russa Moton

BECOMING EQUAL

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An unidentified protester on Richmond’s Broad Street (Courtesy of The Richmond Times-Dispatch) ______BECOMING EQUAL

The two world wars of the 20th century drew attention to the paradox of fighting for democracy abroad while denying equal rights at home. World War I gave impetus to the women’s suffrage movement, and World War II gave rise to the . However, the political oli­ garchy that governed Virginia, and the narrow electorate on which its power rested, resisted change both in regard to women’s suffrage and black rights. At the same time, the massive migration of African to northern cities during and between the world wars forced racial issues onto the national scene. In Virginia, blacks and women secured their voting rights and officially sanctioned segregation by race was abolished. But, the struggle for full social acceptance and economic opportunity continued.

STANDARDS OF LEARNING

VS.1,VS.9,VS.10, US11.1, US11.3, US11.4, US11.5, US11.6, US11.7, US11.8, CE.1, CE.3, CE.5, CE.8, VUS.1, VUS.6, VUS.7, VUS.8, VUS.9, VUS.10, VUS.11, VUS.12, VUS.13, VUS.14, GOVT.1, GOVT.3, GOVT.6, GOVT.11, GOVT.14

KEY POINTS

• Virginia women gained the vote in 1920 by the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. • The 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, which included a Virginia lawsuit, declared that “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘’ has no place.” The decision sounded the death knell for the legal framework of second-class citizenship for . • African Americans won isolated victories for equal access to public accommodations in the 1940s, but it was the student lunch counter sit-ins of the 1960s that were a major catalyst for the .This act gave all citizens equal access to theaters, restau­ rants, hotels, washrooms, and drinking fountains. • The Twenty-fourth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed poll taxes, lit­ eracy tests, and other devices used to prevent blacks from registering to vote.As a result, black Virginians won control of city councils, elected the first black congressman from Virginia since 1890, and gave the nation its first elected black governor.

BECOMING EQUAL • 111 WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE Women gained the right to vote in 1920 through the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Virginia did not ratify the amendment until 1952.

Orra Gray Langhorne of Lynchburg organized a Virginia Suffrage Association in 1893, but the serious push for voting rights for women came from the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia from 1909 to 1920. The league met heavy opposition. Men feared that politics would degrade women more than female participa­ tion would elevate politics. Virginia women were deeply divided over the issue, and politicians were never convinced that most women wanted to vote. There were also fears that female suffrage meant enfranchising black women, thus endangering white supremacy.

Despite social pressure to stay at home, 42 percent of Virginia women in 1970 held jobs for low wages.After 1970, the number of working women grew rapidly, and the gender gap in earning began to slowly close. This decade marked the beginning of continuous pres­ sure for gender equality.

Equal Suffrage float for a parade

112 • BECOMING EQUAL In the Classroom The Nineteenth Amendment

The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution was a federal action. Before the amendment was ratified, the states listed below had already extended suffrage rights to women. Find them on the map.What trends do you notice? Compare this with the section on women in Becoming Virginians. Research the suffrage movement for women in such other countries as England, Denmark, or India.

1869 - Wyoming Territory 1914 - Montana, Nevada 1893 - Colorado 1917 - New York, Nebraska,* North 1896 - Utah, Idaho Dakota,* Rhode Island,* 1910 - Washington Arkansas** 1911 - California 1918 - Michigan, Oklahoma, South 1912 - Arizona, Kansas, Oregon Dakota,Texas** 1913 - Alaska Territory, * 1919 - Indiana,* Iowa,* Minnesota,* Missouri,* Ohio,* Tennessee,* Wisconsin* 1952 - Virginia

* voting in presidential elections only ** voting in primaries only

BECOMING EQUAL • 113 CIVIL RIGHTS In Plessy v. Ferguson, the doctrine of “separate but equal” was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in 1896. This system of seg­ regation requiring separate schools, parks, hospitals, and transportation led to a host of state laws known collectively as “Jim Crow.” The early 1900s saw the emergence of many organizations formed to push for civil rights. W. E. B. Du Bois organized int Niagara Movement in 1905 and was a co-founding member of the NAACP in 1909. During this time period of racism and economic distress, many African Americans left Virginia and the South to seek jobs in northern cities. The Historian Carter G. Woodson was called “The Father of History.” A native civil rights movement gained strength after of Buckingham County, Woodson was the second African American to receive a World War II. Although the movement had Ph.D. in history. He edited the Journal of Negro History and wrote numerous failures along the way, it led to a far more just books documenting the black experience in America, including A Century of and promising society. Negro Migration.

Black agricultural workers, like these peanut pickers in Isle of Wight County, faced tremendous hardships in post Civil War Virginia.

114 • BECOMING EQUAL Right: Maggie Lena Walker, of Richmond, was the first female bank president in the United States. She worked to secure female suffrage and helped establish the Vir­ ginia Lily-Black Republican Party.The historical themes of race, class, and gender can be explored through the life of Maggie Walker.As an African American, she faced different challenges and adversities from those of white suffragists.As a woman, she faced business difficulties not experienced by editor John Mitchell, Jr., or Booker T. Washington.

Left: In this c. 1899 photograph, John Mitchell, Jr., is shown among the people posed at the office of his newspaper The Planet in Richmond. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Reproduction no. LC-USZ62-118032)

Right: Booker T. Washington was born a slave in Franklin County, and was educated at Hampton Institute, 1872–75. During the late nineteenth century he was the principal black spokesman on race and argued that blacks should focus on assuming a produc­ tive place in society rather than agitating for immediate social equality. Other African Americans took a more confrontational approach to race relations.

Critical Thinking Booker T.Washington Booker T.Washington has been criticized for emphasizing black education and economic gains as opposed to social equality. He has also been maligned for working with whites in power instead of challenging them. Was this the correct decision during his lifetime?

BECOMING EQUAL • 115 SCHOOL DESEGREGATION In 1954, the Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, struck down legal segregation in public schools.This decision consolidated five lawsuits and included a case from Prince Edward County,Virginia. Black students at Moton High School engaged in a boycott of their school under the leadership of a sixteen-year-old girl, Barbara Johns. These students were represented by Richmond civil rights lawyers and Spottswood Robinson of the NAACP.

The response of the leadership of Virginia to the 1954 decision was called massive resistance. Senator Harry Byrd and A 1951 student boycott at the Robert Russa Moton High School led to Governor Lindsay Almond led a one of five lawsuits involved in the 1954 Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education (National Archives, Mid Atlantic Region, ) political movement to close those schools being forced to integrate. This took place in 1958–59 and included schools in Norfolk, Alexandria, and Char­ lottesville. In Prince Edward County, the local government took the additional step of cut­ ting taxes to eliminate funding for public schools. From 1959 to1964 all public schools were closed in this county. However, tax money was used to provide vouchers for white students to attend a new private school while most black students were left without educational options. Although Virginia’s massive resistance to the court order failed, housing patterns and white flight to suburbs accomplished some of the same aims.

In the Classroom Political Cartoons

This editorial cartoon by Fred Seibel appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on September 2, 1958. Identify the symbols in the cartoon, then discuss the conflict between federal and state authority.What is the constitutional basis for fed­ eral action? What is the constitutional basis for Virginia’s defiance?

(Courtesy of The Richmond Times-Dispatch)

116 • BECOMING EQUAL SCHOOL DESEGREGATION IN VIRGINIA & THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN AMERICA: A PARTIAL TIMELINE, 1951–68

4/23/51 Black student strike to protest inferior facilities at Prince Edward County’s Moton High School.

5/23/51 The NAACP files suit seeking to desegregate Prince Edward County schools.This case, Davis v. County School Board, works its way through the court system with four other desegregation cases. The five cases are collectively known by the title of the Kansas suit, Brown v. Board of Education.

5/17/54 The U.S. Supreme Court issues its Brown decree, outlawing in public schools.

8/28/54 Virginia governor Thomas B. Stanley appoints the Gray Commission to study the school segrega­ tion issue.

5/31/55 In a second Brown decision, the U.S. Supreme Court orders schools to desegregate “with all deliber­ ate speed.”

8/28/55 murdered in Money, Mississippi.

11/12/55 The Gray Commission recommends the creation of a state pupil placement board to assign students to schools. It also calls for amending the state constitution to provide tuition grants so students in integrated schools may attend private schools.The plan, informally called the “local option plan,” is an attempt to limit integration, but recognizes that some integration will occur.

12/1/55 arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. The bus boycott begins shortly thereafter.

1/9/56 In a constitutional referendum,Virginians vote two to one to amend the constitution to allow tuition grants.

2/56 Virginia’s General Assembly adopts a resolution of interposition, proclaiming the right of a state to prevent the implementation of a Supreme Court decree.Although the resolution has no legal effect, it signals a shift from an acceptance of limited integration to massive resistance.

7/31/56 Judge Albert Bryan orders the desegregation of Arlington schools to begin in January 1957. His order is stayed pending appeal.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., offers encouragement to students in Prince Edward County in 1960. (Courtesy of Virginia Union University)

BECOMING EQUAL • 117 8/7/56 Judge John Paul orders the desegregation of Charlottesville schools to begin in September 1956. His order is stayed pending appeal.

8/22/56 The Gray Commission repudiates its own recommendations and endorses massive resistance by a nineteen to twelve vote.

9/1956 In a special session, the General Assembly enacts massive resistance laws, giving the governor the authority to close schools under court order to integrate.

11/13/56 The Supreme Court bans segregated seating on Montgomery buses.

2/12/57 Judge Julius Hoffman orders the desegregation of Norfolk schools to begin in September 1957.

8/29/57 Congress passes its first civil rights act since Reconstruction.

9/24/57 President Dwight Eisenhower orders federal troops to Little Rock,Arkansas, to enforce the desegre­ gation of Central High School.

8/4/58 Judge Sterling Hutcheson grants Prince Edward seven years to carry out its desegregation order.

9/12/58 Faced with court orders to desegregate, Governor J. Lindsay Almond closes white schools in Warren County and two schools in Charlottesville.

9/27/58 Governor Almond closes six schools in Norfolk.

1/12/59 Norfolk city council adopts a resolution to close black secondary schools, but the law is never put into effect.

1/19/59 U.S. Supreme Court and Virginia Supreme Court strike down massive resistance laws.

2/2/59 A handful of black students enter previously all-white schools in Arlington and Norfolk.

6/2/59 The U. S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reverses Judge Hutcheson and orders the immediate desegregation of Prince Edward Schools.The school board announces it intention to appropriate no money for public schools.

9/14/59 A private school for white students, Prince Edward Academy, opens. Public schools in the county close and stay closed for five years.

2/1/60 Black students stage sit-in at lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.

12/5/60 U.S. Supreme Court bans segregation in bus terminals.

5/14/61 Freedom Riders attacked in Alabama.

4/1/62 Civil Rights groups launch voter registration drive.

9/30/62 Riots erupt when James Meredith, a black student, enrolls at the University of Mississippi.

6/11/63 Alabama governor George Wallace stands “in the schoolhouse door” to prevent integration of the University of Alabama.

6/12/63 Civil Rights leader is assassinated in Mississippi.

8/28/63 Before a crowd of 250,000 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr., gives his “I Have a Dream” speech.

9/15/63 Four black children are killed in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

1/23/64 Poll tax outlawed in federal elections.

118 • BECOMING EQUAL 6/20/64 Freedom Summer brings 1,000 civil rights volunteers to Mississippi.

6/21/64 Civil Rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner abducted and slain by Ku Klux Klan in Neshoba County, Mississippi.

7/2/64 President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act of 1964

3/765 State troopers beat back marchers at Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma,Alabama.

3/25/65 Civil Rights march from Selma to Montgomery completed.Viola Gregg Liuzzo killed by KKK.

7/9/65 Congress passes Voting Rights Act

10/2/67 sworn in as first black Supreme Court justice.

4/4/68 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr,. assassinated in Memphis,Tennessee.

EQUAL ACCESS TO PUBLIC ACCOMMODATIONS In 1946, the United States Supreme Court overturned a 1930 Virginia law requiring segregation on bus travel between states. In 1949 President Harry S Truman desegrated the armed forces by executive order. It took the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 to end segregated restaurants, bath­ rooms, water fountains, hotels, and theaters. Student sit-ins at restaurants and lunch counters helped force this issue to national attention.

A sit-in at a Richmond lunch counter (Courtesy of the Valentine Richmond History Center)

In the Museum Segregation

Find the lunch counter.What does it symbolize? Write a short paragraph about how you might feel if you were denied the right to sit in a fast food restaurant.

BECOMING EQUAL • 119 VOTING RIGHTS In 1964, the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution banned the poll tax in federal elections. In 1966 the United States Supreme Court struck down the Virginia poll tax the since 1902 had been used to disfranchise blacks and poor whites. The federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned literacy tests and provided federal reg­ istrars to enroll black voters in southern states. As a result black political power grew across the South and in Virginia. In 1969 L. became the first black state senator of the twentieth centu­ In 1947, in Richmond’s predominantly black Jackson Ward, Calvin ry. Twenty years later he became the first black Hopkins, Lester Banks, and Puss Owens worked hard to overcome elected governor in any state. In 1992, Robert C. the poll tax’s discouragement of black voting. (Courtesy of Virginia Scott became the first Virginian of African descent Union University) elected to Congress since John Mercer Langston in 1890.

LAWRENCE DOUGLAS WILDER (B. 1931) Lawrence Douglas Wilder was born January 17, 1931 in Rich- mond.The grandson of slaves, he was named after abolitionist ora­ tor and poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Wilder attended Richmond’s racially segregated public schools— George Mason Elementary and Armstrong High School. In 1951 he graduated from Virginia Union University with a degree in chem- istry.While serving in the army during the Korean War,he won the Bronze Star for heroism in combat. After the war,Wilder returned to Richmond and worked as a chemist in the state medical exam­ iners office. Using the benefits provided under the G.I. Bill of Rights, he studied law at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He received his degree in 1959 and after passing the bar examina­ In 1969, Lawrence Douglas Wilder was elect­ tions in Virginia established his own law firm, Wilder, Gregory, and ed as the first African American senator in Virginia since Reconstruction. Associates.

In 1969 Wilder entered politics, running in a special election for the Virginia state senate. He became the first African American state senator in Virginia since Reconstruction.Wilder spent ten years in the General Assembly and was recognized as one of its most effective legislators.

In 1985 Wilder was elected lieutenant governor. Four years later he was elected Virginia’s sixty- sixth governor. He is still the only elected African American governor in United States history. During his administration,Wilder was praised for his sound fiscal management and his ability to balance the state budget during difficult economic times. He sponsored new construction proj­ ects at many of the Virginia colleges and universities, mental health facilities, and state parks.

After leaving the governorship, Wilder returned to private life but remained active in public affairs. In 2004 L. Douglas Wilder was elected mayor of the city of Richmond.

120 • BECOMING EQUAL Primary Source “Elective Franchise and Qualifications for Office,” Virginia Constitution of 1902

Sec. 20. After the first day of January, nineteen hundred and four, every male citizen of the United States, having qualifications of age and residence required in section Eighteen, shall be entitled to register, provided: First. That he has personally paid to the proper officer all state poll taxes assessed or assessable against him, under this or the former constitution, for the three years next preceding that in which he offers to register; or, if he has come of age at such a time that no poll tax shall have been assessable against him for the year preceding the year in which he offers to register, has paid one dollar and fifty cents, in satisfaction of the first year's poll tax assessable against him; and Second. That, unless physically unable, he make application to register in his own hand-writing, without aid, suggestion, or memorandum, in the presence of the registration officer, stating therein his name, age, date and place of birth, residence and occupation at the time and for two years next preceding, and whether he has previously voted, and if so, the state, county, and precinct in which he voted last; and Third. That he answer on oath any and all questions affecting his qualifications as an elector, submitted to him by the officers of registration, which questions, and his answers thereto, shall be reduced to writing, certified by the said officers, and preserved as a part of their official records.

In the Classroom

Under the suffrage provisions of the Virginia Constitution of 1902, the number of black voters declined by about 90 percent.The constitution created a permanent roll of voters, mostly Confederate veterans and their sons, and a temporary roll.The requirements for the temporary roll included both a poll tax and an “understanding clause.” Read the requirements reproduced in the primary source above. How did they restrict suffrage? How might local registrars apply these requirements unevenly?

Activities & Questions

• Interview women from different generations. Include in your sample women born in the 1930s, 1950s, and 1970s.Ask them about their lives: their attitudes toward family and work outside the home. How do their answers differ? How are they similar? What do they feel were their most important contributions to society? • Research the 1890s.Why has the decade been called the nadir of the black experience in America? Make a timeline of events in African American history from 1880 to 1920.Why was the 1890s considered a low point? • Research Booker T.Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois. Compare these two men. How are they similar? How do they differ? • Trace the legal history of school desegregation from Plessy v. Ferguson through Brown v. Board of Education. How did the NAACP strategy change from the 1930s through the 1950s? • How did schools in your locality respond to desegregation? Interview teachers and parents who remember massive resistance.What were their reactions to integration then and today? • Examine voting returns in Virginia.What percentage of eligible voters cast ballots? Compare this figure with voter turnout in other countries.Why is participation in Virginia and America so low? What do you suggest to make clear the importance of voting in a democracy?

BECOMING EQUAL • 121 AFRICAN AMERICANS AND In the mid-1880s, baseball was called “town­ ball” and was played with few rules. During the Civil War, letters and diaries reveal that base­ ball was played by teams of prisoners or by sol­ diers waiting to be called into battle. As com­ petitive baseball teams were formed, standard rules slowly evolved.The National Association of Base Ball Players was organized to regulate play and schedule competition between teams. As early as 1867, there were teams of white Americans and teams of black Americans. In 1872, “Bud” Fowler, an African American, played on a white minor league team in Pennsylvania. In 1884, two brothers, Welday and , played for Toledo, Ohio in the American Association and became the first African Americans to compete in the major leagues.When Toledo was sched­ uled to play in Richmond, letters were sent to the Toledo manager threatening violence if Walker played with the team.The situation was resolved when Walker was injured and released from the team before it arrived in Richmond. Although several other African Americans played on white teams, sentiment was growing against this practice. In 1887, the agreed to “approve no more contracts of men.” Welday and Fleet Walker’s contracts with Toledo were not renewed in 1889, ending the participation of African American players in white baseball leagues for more than fifty years. In the meantime, African American players began to form teams of their own.An attempt to form a league with both African American and white teams lasted less than full season in 1906. Traveling teams of black players played both white and black teams. In 1921, the com­ missioner of baseball barred interracial play, partly to avoid the embarrassment of white teams being defeated by African American teams.

122 • BECOMING EQUAL In 1920, the Negro was formed in Kansas City, Missouri.The league was success­ ful, and a second league was organized in 1923. Several “colored World Series” were held dur­ ing the next few years. From 1932 to 1946, Negro League baseball experienced its longest peri­ od of success.A number of outstanding players emerged such as the great pitcher, , and Raymond Emmett “Dandy” Dandridge, from Richmond.“Dandy,” called the “best third base­ man never to play in the major leagues,” had a lifetime batting average of .355 and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987.

The most popular Negro League events were the all-star games called the East-West Classics. These events drew both black and white supporters.White baseball executives began to look at outstanding African American players as a way of attracting new fans and improving finances. In 1944, the new commissioner,A. B.“Happy” Chandler, let it be known that he would not oppose black players on major league teams. In 1946, , a former Negro League star, was signed by the Brooklyn Dodger organization and played with the team’s Montreal affiliate. In 1947 Robinson joined the Dodgers as the first African American player in the major leagues since Moses Fleetwood Walker. Other teams soon contracted with such black players as , who played for the . Opposition to the mixing of races remained strong in Virginia and in the South. During Robinson’s tenure with the , the team was scheduled to play an exhibition game in Richmond.The owner of the all-white Richmond Colts canceled the game rather than have Robinson take the field against white players. Four years later, Danville became the first Virginia city to have an integrated team when it signed the outfielder Perry Miller. In 1953, two African American players, Garnett Blair and Whit Graves, broke the color barrier by joining the Richmond Colts, but segregated seating at the base­ ball park in Richmond continued for another decade.

In 1959, the last all-white major league team, the Boston Red Sox, signed a contract with Elijah Green, and all major league teams were integrated. This brought about the end of the Negro Leagues. Even though their numbers were small, the former Negro League players won many honors. Younger men who first integrated the major leagues such as ,, and became outstanding players. In recognization of the accomplishments of African Americans in baseball, Satchel Paige and ten others who played in the Negro League have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame—the highest honor of this sport.

In the Classroom African Americans in Baseball

Students can often grasp an abstract concept such as “civil rights” more easily if these concepts are expressed in more concrete terms.When we combine a popular interest, such as baseball, with the history of segregation and civil rights, learning appears to be easier. A study of the history of African Americans in baseball can provide a vehicle for developing an understanding of civil rights as well as an overview of African American contributions to the game of baseball. Have the students review the and then study the following information.The timeline comparing baseball and civil rights offers the opportunity to research some of the historical terms involving segregation, discrimination, and racial equality.

BECOMING EQUAL • 123 African Americans in Baseball Civil Rights Events

1842 Organized teams in baseball begin in New 1840s The issue of slavery continues to grow. York City. 1865 Civil War ends. Slavery ends. 1867 First Negro teams formed. 1868 Fourteenth Amendment to the U. S. refused admis­ Constitution ratified. sion to the National Assoc. of Base Ball 1875 Civil Rights Act guarantees certain rights Players. to former slaves. 1884 Richmonders threaten violence if Fleetwood Walker plays in a scheduled game. 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision by the Supreme Court—“separate but equal” approved. Color line established in baseball.

1900 Negro baseball teams continue to devel­ 1900– Jim Crow begins. op—playing each other and sometimes 1920 white teams. Interracial play banned. 1933 of Richmond begins his career in the Negro Leagues. 1941 World War II—many black soldiers serve in the armed forces. Montreal Royals game in Richmond can­ celed because of the presence of Jackie 1945 Soldiers return home to continued segre­ Robinson. gation. 1947 Jackie Robinson begins play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. 1950 Danville is the first Virginia team to be 1954 Brown v. Board of Education—decision integrated. makes segregation in schools illegal. 1953 Richmond Colts integrate. Virginia leaders choose massive resistance approach to avoid integration. 1960 Negro Leagues close—many players signed by Major League teams. 1964 Congress passes Civil Rights Bill, ending many forms of segregation.

124 • BECOMING EQUAL