"Virginia Negroes Back Integration" - Greensboro Daily News, 1956

Containers:
Box 2, Folder 31
Scope and content:

This is a newspaper clipping of an article reporting on a meeting of the Pittsylvania County Citizens Executive Committee. At that meeting, 500 Black residents of the County unanimously voted to support the racial integration of schools, even at the price of having the school system closed.

The article reports that Gregory Swanson, who was not invited to the event, spoke. It is reported that he said, "Anyone who asks you to sleep on your rights while they are being stolen-I'd say get thee behind me ... I have been moved by this meeting tonight. I am moved to see that we had some Negroes who hadn't sold their birthright for a mess of pottage. This thing is like a snowball going down hill. Nobody can stop it. But you can't sit idly by ... Stay with it. I was crippled, from lack of opportunities. Most of you have been crippled. But stay with it. The people of Alabama are still walking, not riding those buses. We can do the same thing here."

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
170 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Special Collections Public Services & Reference Staff
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Parent restrictions:
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Parent terms of access:
Because of the nature of this collection, copyright status varies across the materials. Copyright is assumed to be held by the original creators of the content that has not yet entered the public domain.