Segregationists Rally At State Capitol
(WSLS Television, Roanoke, VA)

No spoken word. File footage of a segregationist's rally at the state capitol. As the Virginia General Assembly met in Richmond to try to shape an acceptable school program that followed state and national court decisions, a group of extreme segregationists calling itself the "Bill of Rights Crusade" demanded that the assembly buck the authority of the Federal Government and return to massive resistance. Demonstrators called on the legislators to take leadership in the fight for segregation away from Governor J. Lindsay Almond, who recently admitted he was powerless to prevent integration in public schools. About five thousand people in Richmond's Capitol Square backed the demands of the Crusade group, whose leaders had asked a hundred thousand people to attend. They called for Governor Almond to speak, but he refused. (Washington Post, April 1, 1959)