Interview with D. D. Harrell
(WDBJ Television, Roanoke, VA)

WDBJ reporter John Meredith Patterson interviewed the Greenbrier County Superintendent of Schools, D. D. Harrell, about the school integration issue. He described Greenbrier as one of the largest counties in the East and located about 85 miles west of Roanoke. Similar to Hoxie, Arkansas, and Milford, Delaware, the local school board in Greenbrier County moved in the summer of 1954 to comply with the Brown v. Board of Education decision and approved integrated schools for the fall of 1954. However, the school board changed its approach in September and adopted a wait and study strategy. On September 20, 1955, the superintendent unveiled three desegregation plans. Plan One would desegregate grades 1 & 7 during the first year, grades 1 & 2 and 7 & 8 during the second year, and by year three the entire system would be desegregated. Plan Two would desegregate the entire system during the 1956-57 school year, and Plan Three would desegregate the junior high first. With these plans in place, they waited to receive directives from the federal court. At the same time the local NAACP filed a lawsuit seeking integration. On October 12, 1955, the Board of Education and Federal District Judge Ben Moore reached an agreement. Greenbrier would begin to desegregate some of its public schools during the current semester and move toward total desegregation during the 1956-57 school year. The school board and superintendent worked to comply with that order. On January 9, 1956, the school board passed a resolution to accept formally Judge Moore's plan.