Interview with Charles Perdue About the Integration of Norview High School in Norfolk
(WDBJ Television, Roanoke, VA)

Seven black students arrived at Norview High School, making it the first racially integrated school in Virginia. Approximately 800 white students arrived at Norview High that day, but another 800 did not. Norfolk Education Association President Charles Perdue believed the absent students would return to Norview in two weeks. Although this would boost enrollment to 1,600 students, total enrollment was much lower than the projected enrollment of 2,200 students. According to Perdue, approximately 700 Norview students were "scattered in twenty-six different states and thirteen cities and counties in Virginia." Perdue concluded that their return to Norview was unlikely. As for Norfolk school teachers, many asked Perdue if they could leave Virginia to teach in another state and at age sixty-five draw their retirement from Virginia.