Massive resistance was a strategy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. of Virginia along with his brother-in-law as the leader in the Virginia General Assembly, Democrat Delegate James M. Thomson of Alexandria, to unite white politicians and leaders in Virginia in a campaign of new state laws and policies to prevent public school desegregation, particularly after the Brown v. read more
Home - Collections - Virginia History Explorer - Civil Rights Movement in Virginia - Massive Resistance Massive Resistance In 1954, the political organization of U.S. senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr., controlled Virginia politics. read more
Massive Resistance Contributed by James H. Hershman Jr. Massive Resistance was a policy adopted in 1956 by Virginia's state government to block the desegregation of public schools mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 1954 ruling in the case of Brown v. read more