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Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly

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public school that tried to integrate.<br />

“How can Senator Byrd and [Virginia]<br />

Congressman Hardy be so distressed one<br />

minute about our lagging behind the<br />

Russians in our missile program and the<br />

next minute advocate closing the schools<br />

in Virginia?” demanded one Norfolk<br />

Journal and Guide columnist.<br />

Supporters of integration and<br />

segregation faced off with growing<br />

intensity: in 1956, the NAACP filed<br />

lawsuits in Newport News, Norfolk,<br />

Charlottesville, and Arlington, with the<br />

aim of forcing each of those Virginia<br />

school districts to integrate. The Byrd<br />

cronies retaliated by diverting taxpayer<br />

money to fund whites-only “segregation<br />

academies,” private schools founded to<br />

circumvent integrated public schools.<br />

The no-go situation in the Virginia

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