VCU news

By Brian McNeill

Teachers from across the country will spend a week at Virginia Commonwealth University next summer to learn about the history of school desegregation and the civil rights movement in Virginia.

Brian Daugherity, Ph.D., a professor in the College of Humanities and Sciences' Department of History, has received a one-year, $175,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to provide school teachers with an in-depth look at civil rights in Virginia.

"When people think about the civil rights movement, they don't typically think about Virginia. They typically think about Alabama or Mississippi," Daugherity said. "But the same struggle that was unfolding in those states was unfolding in Virginia as well."

Two groups of 35 school teachers each will take part in the program, which will be co-directed by Yonghee Suh, Ph.D., an assistant professor of social studies and history education at Old Dominion University.

Daugherity, an expert on the civil rights movement and Virginia history, co-edited a collection of essays examining the implementation of Brown v. Board of Education, titled "With All Deliberate Speed: Implementing Brown v. Board of Education," and is currently writing two additional manuscripts related to school desegregation in Virginia.

Virginia played an important role in the civil rights movement, Daugherity said, and was particularly notable because many of the movement's most effective lawyers and landmark court cases emerged from the state.

As part of the course, the teachers will visit several sites around Virginia, such as the Robert Russa Moton Museum in Farmville, which honors the 1951 student strike that produced many of the plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education, and which explores the subsequent decision by Prince Edward County to close its public school system to avoid integration.

The teachers will also visit New Kent County, out of which arose the Supreme Court's 1968 decision in Green v. School Board of New Kent County that hastened the pace of school desegregation across the country.

And the teachers will visit sites and monuments around Richmond, including VCU Libraries' Special Collections and Archives, the state Capitol and the Virginia Historical Society.

The teachers will also complete reading assignments, engage in group discussions and hear guest lectures by experts from Virginia Tech, Norfolk State University and the College of William & Mary.

"We've got a week packed of civil rights in Virginia, with guest lecturers, group activities and travel to historical sites around the state," Daugherity said.

Daugherity, who previously taught high school, said he believes the teachers will gain valuable insights into Virginia's experience with civil rights and school desegregation.

"Being a former school teacher, I realized the benefit that the teachers will get out of this weeklong, hands-on, intensive instruction on civil rights," he said. "It's our hope that they will complete the program and find it useful in their own teaching."

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