By Leonard E. ColvinChief ReporterNew Journal and GuideSix decades ago, the Norfolk 17 made their mark in Virginia and national history books when they desegregated six all-white public schools.This ended Virginia’s role among the six other southern states’ Massive Resistance to complying with the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court Decision declaring racially segregated public schools illegal.Virginia state lawmakers-imposed laws and used the courts, the clout of local all-white city councils, school boards, and business leaders to impose evasive tactics to not to comply with Brown.One of the most devious was a law calling for closing any public school the courts targeted for desegregation. Six of them were closed in Norfolk.Another was a strategy of foot-dragging toward compliance. Initially, there were over 100 Black students who applied to desegregate Norfolk's all-white public schools.The city then sought to use a series of filters to select the students “they thought qualified” based on academic, psychological, and emotional criteria.The process involved a series of one-on-one interviews with the students and their parents with school officials. The number of “qualified” students was whittled down to 17 and the court agreed.That is when the state closed the six schools in the fall of 1958 to avoid compliance.They kept open the all-Black schools such as Booker T. Washington High School. No white parents had planned to enroll their child in any of them.Finally, the federal courts ordered the city to re-open the schools, which occurred on February 3, 1959.Fourteen years ago, the city of Norfolk held a series of events to honor the Norfolk 17’s contributions to that passage of Norfolk’s history. At the same time, the idea of a marker or monument to highlight their deeds were also was put in motion.Norfolk Public Arts Manager Karen Rudd has been tasked with organizing the journey to plan, construct and then present some form of public art honoring the end of Massive Resistance to honor the N-17.The path toward achieving the goal of building the monument was akin to the barrier-filled pathway the Black community had to traverse to achieve the goals realized on February 3, 1959. She and her colleagues have been frustrated along the way she admits.Rejection of the proposals by a committee selected to guide the process, and city council and other issues are on the list.Recently while a GUIDE reporter was strolling through downtown, he eyed earth-moving and construction equipment, sitting silent after a period of operation along the 500 block of Granby Street.The site was the Flat Iron Park, built after the triangular-shaped Flat Iron Building was razed some years ago.It once housed a bank. The vault still exists beneath the surface venue.So does, Rudd said, a live electric wire which must be removed before construction can proceed.She said the city is waiting for Dominion Energy to remove it. But once that is complete, the public artwork named “The End of Massive Resistance Commemoration” will be built – finally.It will be a 55 fee
