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Interview with Dr. R. O. Nelson, Newport News School Superintendent
(WDBJ Television, Roanoke, VA)

According to Newport News Schools Superintendent R. O. Nelson, one black family submitted three applications for admission into a white elementary school. Because of this, Nelson believed the Newport News school board was "under no action of the federal court" to mandate school integration. Nelson confirmed that Newport News had made "no special planning" for the coming school year; schools, in other words, would operate just as they had in previous years--on a segregated basis. Without a federal court order to integrate but with black applicants to white schools, Newport News school board decided to change nothing and in essence to wait and see what the outcome of the massive resistance program would be. Many other localities were in the same position.
About the film
  • Date: 1958
  • Sound: Yes
  • Duration: 00:46
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