Virginia Commonwealth University
VCU Scholars Compass
Theses and Dissertations
Graduate School
2006
Virginia's Pupil Placement Board and the Massive
Resistance Movement, 1956-1966
Sara Kathryn Eskridge
Virginia Commonwealth University
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Abstract
VIRGINIA'S PUPIL PLACEMENT BOARD AND THE MASSIVE RESISTANCE
MOVEMENT, 1956-1966
By Sara Kathryn Eskridge
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of
Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Virginia Commonwealth University, 2006.
Major Director: Dr. John T. Kneebone, Associate Professor, History Department
Virginia's Pupil Placement Board was the most enduring vestige of the state's "massive
resistance" movement in the 1950s. Following the example of other Southern states, the
state's General Assembly passed the Pupil Placement Act in 1956 as part of a package of
legislation designed to counteract the Supreme Court desegregation ruling. The Act, and
the Pupil Placement Board that enforced it, lasted a decade, much longer than any of the
other legislative initiatives born during that session, longer than the massive resistance
movement itself.
Whites, including many of Virginia's leaders, considered the Board to be ineffective at
stemming the onslaught of integration, while African-Americans felt that the agency
breeched their constitutional rights. From its inception to its dissolution in 1966, the
Pupil Placement Board had to defend itself in a slew of desegregation cases all over
Virginia, and the General Assembly changed the law several times to comply with court
orders. Despite this adversity, the Board was consistently effective in stemming
desegregation in Virginia throughout its tenure.