Special Collections & Archives Guide

Norfolk attorney who represented the plaintiffs in the two cases initiated to reopen the Norfolk schools closed to avoid integration, James v. Duckworth and James v. Almond. Includes correspondence, briefs, trial proceedings, court papers, background material, and newspaper clippings.

Including correspondence, pamphlets, brochures, official reports, business papers newspapers, and a scrapbook, this collection chiefly relates to Butler's service on the Norfolk City Council during the 1930s and reflect the concerns of citizens regarding various issues affecting Norfolk during the Depression. An issue of particular concern was the possible installation of parking meters downtown and the citizens' reaction to this proposal. Also of importance is the annual report of the Norfolk Police Court for 1936, the semi-annual report of the Norfolk-Portsmouth Industrial Commission for 1936, correspondence relating to the proposed establishment of the Atlantic Coast Fleet, and business papers relating to the Seaboard Air Line Railway Co. where Butler worked as a Freight Traffic Representative. Noteworthy are Butler's activities as chairman of the Local Draft Board No. 1 during World War I and the military's attempt after the war to apprehend and convict potential draft dodgers. Collection also contains brochures and pamphlets advertising the attractions of Norfolk and surrounding areas and the commercial and trade benefits of the city, plus an issue of the Vigilant, Norfolk's police magazine, dated December 1931.

Includes audio cassettes and transcripts that document her family history, civil rights in Norfolk, establishment of the Women’s Council for Interracial Cooperation, the desegregation crisis in Norfolk, and the experiences of African-Americans in Norfolk.

Material relating to Norfolk's urban redevelopment including the revitalization of African-American neighborhoods.

Writer for the Virginia Pilot Newspaper, author of 13 nonfiction books. This collection contains D'Orso's notes and research material collected while writing Like Judgment Day: The Ruin and Redemption of a Town Called Rosewood. The collection includes interview tapes and transcripts, photographs, newspaper clippings, and other research materials.

Includes the letters of Charles Hewins, a Union captain during the Civil War and a businessman in Hampton, Virginia during Reconstruction. The letters provide a Northerner's perspective on secessionist activities and social attitudes toward Black "freedman" during this time period.

Residents of Portsmouth, Virginia. Includes correspondence relating to the family's experiences during the Civil War, and business and legal papers including a bill of sale for slaves.

Contains material relating to civil rights in Virginia and the efforts to remove the poll tax.

Contains papers of Governor John Floyd (1830-1834), Governor John B. Floyd (1849-1852), General Joseph E. Johnston, and Judge Robert W. Hughes that relate to antebellum Virginia, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. See Guide to Civil War Collections for more detail.

Consists of regional and national newspaper clippings covering the “Massive Resistance” movement and public reaction to the de-segregation and subsequent closing of some of Norfolk’s public schools. Also discussed are state and local politicians such as Governor Lindsay Almond, Jr., who ordered the closing the Norfolk schools that enrolled African American students, and Mayor William Fred Duckworth, who opposed de-segregating the public schools. Some of the clippings discuss the fate of those students whose graduation was put in jeopardy by the school closing, known as "The Lost Class of '59."

This collection dating from 1922-2006, contains correspondence, memorandum, depositions, court orders, recollections, statistical testing data, printed material, artifacts, and maps. The bulk of the collection provides a glimpse into the decisions made by the School Board through court documentation and the public sentiment during the integration process in Norfolk.

Focusing on sex roles of the 1930s, as influenced by the Great Depression, this project produced tapes of seventeen interviews and an additional recording of speeches and music. Special Collections has the typed transcripts and a detailed subject index in the file drawer labeled oral history/interviews. The subject index covers such subjects as abortion, adoption, Afro-Americans, chauvinism, contraception, co-habitation, child care, dating, divorce, education, feminism, job discrimination, marriage, menstruation, parenting, pregnancy, religion, sex, venereal disease, and virginity. These subjects, however, only scratch the surface of different topics covered and indexed from the interviews. Of note is an interview with a 62 year old black women who worked as a domestic. See Guide to Women's History for more detail.

This record group contains the office files of the university's former Presidents, Lewis W. Webb, Jr. (1946-1969), James L. Bugg, Jr. (1969-1976), and Alfred B. Rollins, Jr. (1976-1985). Includes material relating to the segregation and desegregation of the university during the 1950's and 1960's, the university's efforts to comply with demands from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare regarding affirmative action, and collaborative education efforts with Norfolk State University.

Oral histories with Old Dominion University administrators, professors, Board Of Visitors, and leaders of the community. Includes information on the segregation and integration of the Norfolk Division and later Old Dominion College, Norfolk's desegregation crisis of 1958-1959, and Seaview Amusement Park, the black amusement park in Norfolk. Of note is an interview with then President of Norfolk State, Harrison B. Wilson.

Contains a petition to the Provisional Confederate Congress seeking financial compensation for six runaway slaves. Dated May 14, 1863, the petition was written on behalf of Dr. Robert W. Rose of Norfolk.

Collection includes correspondence and publications documenting the attitudes of Norfolk and the activities of the School Board during the school closings of 1958. Of note are the files of correspondence from people throughout the United States either supporting or criticizing his efforts to reopen the schools.

Contains records documenting economic transactions in antebellum Virginia including the buying, selling, and hiring out of slaves.

Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth (1952-1961) during the Supreme Court’s decision and the passing of the Massive Resistance legislation. Contains correspondence that document racial attitudes during this time period.

Contains material related to Stolee’s work as an expert witness in 68 school desegregation cases in the US including Norfolk. Stolee helped to design Norfolk 1971 school busing plan. The material includes the court proceedings, testimony, newspaper clippings, photographs, invoices and correspondence as well as his narrative of some of the cases.

President of the Norfolk Committee for Public Schools, a committee established to preserve the public school system of Norfolk and reopen the closed schools. Collection includes both personal papers and the institutional records of the committee, including financial and legal records. Primarily relates to his activities on the Norfolk Committee for Public Schools and the efforts of this committee during Norfolk’s desegregation crisis. Noteworthy is material relating to the Gray Commission and the Perrow Commission, state government commissions organized to formulate plans to implement court ordered integration.

Norfolk school teacher during the Norfolk desegregation crisis. Includes material relating to the CBS documentary, "The Lost Class of '59," of which Norfolk was the focus, and the follow-up documentary by CBS, "The Other Face of Dixie," a report on the situation of newly integrated schools.

Contains records of an interracial organization, founded in 1945, designed to address concerns with education, health, and housing among the African-American community. Of note is a transcribed panel report titled, "How Norfolk’s Closed Schools Were Reopened" and Susan Slaughter’s personal account of, "The First Fifteen Years of the WCIC."