Former Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder spoke at a conference was held marking the 50th anniversary of the 1959 end of Massive Resistance, Virginia’s campaign to circumvent the public school desegregation ordered in the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954. In 1958, Virginia Governor James Almond closed schools throughout Virginia, most predominately in Norfolk, to prevent them from being integrated.


This was the keynote address of the 12th Annual Virginia Political History Project “With All Deliberate Speed? Massive Resistance in Virginia.” The speech was given at 1:05 p.m. on Friday, July 17, 2009, in the Virginia Capitol Building, in Richmond, Virginia