The Supreme Court decision outlawing school segregation began with a student strike in Prince Edward County, Virginia. Justice didn’t follow that ruling — white officials in Prince Edward County closed public schools rather than integrate. Host Ed Ayers learns about the drama that unfolded through conversations with two of the student strikers. He discovers how black women activists defied the school closures by starting grassroots schools, and he meets an author whose grandfather helped start a whites-only “segregation academy.” In a museum at the school that started it all, Ed talks with a descendant of strikers who inspires students today to take up the fight for justice.
School Interrupted
The movement for school desegregation took some of its first steps
with a student strike in rural Virginia. Ed Ayers learns about those who made it happen.