Harry F. Byrd

Virginia Enacts Massive Resistance Laws Authorizing School Closures to Prevent Integration

1956-09-21 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 8/10

Following Senator Harry F. Byrd’s February 24, 1956 call for “massive resistance” to avoid implementing public school integration in Virginia, the Byrd Organization-controlled Virginia General Assembly passes a series of laws in September 1956 known as the Stanley Plan (after …

Harry F. Byrd Thomas Bahnson Stanley Virginia General Assembly Byrd Organization massive-resistance stanley-plan school-closure-laws byrd-organization virginia-segregation

Southern Manifesto Signed by 101 Congressmen Pledging Resistance to School Integration

1956-03-12 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 9/10

On March 12, 1956, as the second anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education approaches, Senator Walter F. George rises in the U.S. Senate to announce the latest weapon in the segregationist arsenal—the “Declaration of Constitutional Principles,” known as the Southern Manifesto. Senator …

Walter F. George Harry F. Byrd Strom Thurmond 19 U.S. Senators 82 U.S. Representatives massive-resistance southern-manifesto congressional-obstruction states-rights constitutional-defiance