--- title: Brown v. Board of Education: Integration in Virginia, 5 Years Later description: On the 60th anniversary of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision, LIFE recalls an integration battle in Virginia five long years later. canonical: https://time.com/3879874/brown-v-board-of-education-photos-of-integration-in-virginia/ author: Liz Ronk article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-15T15:52:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:42.320Z og:title: Brown v. Board of Education: Integration in Virginia, 5 Years Later og:description: On the 60th anniversary of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision, LIFE recalls an integration battle in Virginia five long years later. og:url: https://time.com/3879874/brown-v-board-of-education-photos-of-integration-in-virginia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24f3ade57b278204/69884bcbe20a8742bba8ae81/140512-integrated-schools-20.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 1959 School Integration og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Brown v. Board of Education: Integration in Virginia, 5 Years Later twitter:description: On the 60th anniversary of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision, LIFE recalls an integration battle in Virginia five long years later. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24f3ade57b278204/69884bcbe20a8742bba8ae81/140512-integrated-schools-20.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # After 'Brown v. Board of Education': Portraits of Integration, Virginia, 1959 by [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) ## Liz Ronk May 15, 2014 3:52 PM UTC  Not published in LIFE. Fifteen-year-old Louis Cousins, Maury High School, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Not published in LIFE. Fifteen-year-old Louis Cousins, Maury High School, Norfolk, Va., 1959.Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) ## Liz Ronk May 15, 2014 3:52 PM UTC Sixty years ago this week, the United States Supreme Court handed down the landmark [_Brown v. Board of Education_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown%5Fv.%5FBoard%5Fof%5FEducation) decision that declared “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,” setting the stage for the desegregation of all of America’s public schools. But integration didn’t happen overnight. In fact, in many places around the country, it took years. The most often cited and arguably the most memorable integration battle took place in 1957, in Arkansas, when the [Little Rock Nine](http://life.time.com/history/little-rock-nine-1957-photos/#1) entered high school — after President Dwight Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and, incredibly, sent in troops from the storied 101st Airborne to ensure the teens’ safety. But the drama and tension so evident in Little Rock also played out — albeit with less firepower on hand — in schools around the country for years after _Brown v. Board of Education_. Here, on the 60th anniversary of the decision that forever reshaped the country’s educational landscape, LIFE.com remembers one of those post-Little Rock battles: the integration of high schools in Virginia five long years after the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling. In February 1959, the state’s governor, J. Lindsay Almond, reluctantly abandoned his carefully choreographed “massive resistance” to integration — including the closing of schools and keeping thousands of kids out of class in an attempt to forestall desegregation. Shortly thereafter, 21 African-American students began attending classes in Norfolk and Arlington. LIFE photographers Paul Schutzer and Ed Clark were there, in Norfolk, when 17 of those students made history. [\[Visit the ‘Norfolk 17’ page on the Old Dominion University site for more information on these remarkable students.\]](http://www.lib.odu.edu/specialcollections/schooldesegregation/n17/index.htm) LIFE’s coverage of the integration of the Norfolk schools painted a relatively rosy picture of what the magazine called the “calm and hopeful integration start” in Virginia. “The peaceful transition,” LIFE wrote in its Feb. 16, 1959, issue, “went a long way to restore the climate of inevitability of integration in the South, which had been badly disturbed a year and half ago by violence and diehard defiance in Little Rock.” (That same issue of LIFE, unfortunately, also repeatedly misidentified one of the Norfolk students, 15-year-old Louis Cousins, as “Lewis” Cousins.) Despite LIFE’s optimistic characterization of the “peaceful transition,” it’s worth noting that many of the students later recalled their experiences as hurtful, isolating and confusing, even if they kept up a brave front for the cameras — and, perhaps more importantly, for their white peers. Six decades later, their courage still astounds. _— Ben Cosgrove is the Editor of LIFE.com_  Seventeen of the African-American students who were ordered admitted to white schools in Norfolk, Va., pose for a photo at a church where they had been getting private schooling, 1959\. Upper row: Andrew Heidelberg, Louis Cousins, Patricia Godbolt, Carol Wellington, Reginald Young, Freddy Gonsouland, Edward Jordan, Olivia Driver; lower row: Betty Jean Reed, Johnnie Rouse, Delores Johnson, LaVera Forbes, James Turner Jr., Lolita Portis, Patricia Turner, Claudia Wellington, Geraldine Talley. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Betty Jean Reed, the only black student at Granby High School in Norfolk, Va., 1959 Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Betty Jean Reed, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Caption to similar photo: "Alone in line, Betty Jean Reed tensely waits for lunch at Granby High cafeteria as other students ignore her." Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Betty Jean Reed, Granby High School, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Betty Jean Reed on the phone with a friend during her first week as the only African-American student at Granby High School, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Granby High student Betty Jean Reed studies at home, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Granby High School student Betty Jean Reed and her mother, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Six of the "Norfolk 17" -- students who integrated Virginia schools in 1959: Lower row: LaVera Forbes, Alveraze "Freddy" Gonsouland, Johnnie Rouse; upper row: Lolita Portis, James Turner Jr., Claudia Wellington. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Crush of journalists covering desegregation of Norfolk schools, 1959. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Desegregation of Norfolk, Va., public school, 1959\. Students: Delores Johnson, Patricia Godbolt. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Desegregation of Norfolk, Va., public school, 1959\. Students: Olivia Driver, Freddy Gonsouland. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Three of the "Norfolk 17" -- students who integrated Virginia schools in 1959: (l-r) Delores Johnson, Reginald Young, Carol Wellington. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Patricia Godbolt eats lunch alone, Norview High School, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Journalists covering desegregation of Norfolk schools, 1959. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Desegregation of Norfolk, Va., public school, 1959\. Students: Freddy Gonsouland, Patricia Godbolt. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Six of the "Norfolk 17" -- students who integrated Virginia schools in 1959: Lower row: Patricia Godbolt, Andrew Heidelberg, Olivia Driver; upper row: Geraldine Talley, Edward Jordan, Patricia Turner. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Fifteen-year-old Louis Cousins, the only black student to attend Maury High School, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Fifteen-year-old Louis Cousins, the only black student to attend Maury High School, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Fifteen-year-old Louis Cousins, Maury High School, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Louis Cousins orders lunch in cafeteria at newly desegregated Maury high school, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. White student stops to speak with Louis Cousins at newly desegregated Maury High School, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Fifteen-year-old Louis Cousins, the only black student to attend Maury High School, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Alveraze "Freddy" Gonsouland (hand on cheek) at home with his half-brother and mother, Norfolk, Va., 1959. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Practicing at home, integrated pupils Alveraze Gonsouland and half-brother toss ball." Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ![Caption from LIFE. "Doing homework, \[Freddy\] Gonsouland reads Spanish lesson. 'I'm studying like never before,' he says.'"](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cd16dc874e19ea1/69884bcdcd6848c45109f6fd/140512-integrated-schools-26.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp) Caption from LIFE. "Doing homework, \[Freddy\] Gonsouland reads Spanish lesson. 'I'm studying like never before,' he says.'" 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