Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

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Use Restrictions

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Preferred Citation

Portsmouth (Va.) School Records, 1920-1980 (bulk 1966-1974). Local government records collection, Portsmouth (City) Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.

Acquisition Information

These items came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of papers from the city of Portsmouth Public Schools under the accession number 44418.

Historical Information

Portsmouth was located in Norfolk County, which is now extinct. It was named by its founder, William Crawford, for the English seaport and was established in 1752. Portsmouth was incorporated as a town in 1836 and as a city in 1858.

Michael Copeland was six years old in April 1965 when his petition to attend neighborhood schools helped achieve integration. The case in Portsmouth was contentious, since the NAACP disputed the Portsmouth school board's plan to assign pupils and the case went to U.S. District Court. The NAACP's lawyer was Henry L. Marsh, III. The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later ordered the implementation of free busing in Portsmouth. Copeland was a student at I.C. Norcom High School in Portsmouth by the time the Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star reported that the suit was settled and the School Board had agreed to pay the NAACP lawyers for legal costs.

Scope and Content

Portsmouth (Va.) School Records, 1920-1980 (bulk 1966-1974), concern the desegregation of Portmouth city schools. They include proceedings for the trial, Michael Copeland vs. the School Board of the City of Portsmouth, along with transciptions of hearings and motions. There is also a transcription of a hearing on busing (1972) and a public hearing with "concerned parents" (1969). Box 1 contains correspondence (1971-1973) between M.E. Alford, the Division Superintendent, and the federal Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Box 2 contains statistics on enrollment that were gathered for the case including school censuses for 1920 and 1925, as well as organizational charts for the schools, information on elementary school zones, and plans for desegregation proposed by the school board.

Related Material

For a general history of the desegregation of Portsmouth schools, see Charles Henry Edward Smith, Sr., The History of the Education of Blacks in the Portsmouth City Public Schools, 1871-1973: A Case Study (University of Virginia, 1976), chapter 5, "The Desgregation and Integration Era, 1962-1973."

Index Terms

Corporate Names:

• Portsmouth (Va.) Public Schools. Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Department of Student Services.

Subjects:

• African Americans -- Education -- Virginia -- Portsmouth.
• African Americans -- Segregation -- Virginia -- Portsmouth.
• African Americans -- Virginia -- Portsmouth.
• Schools -- Records and correspondence -- Virginia -- Portsmouth.

Geographical Names:

• Portsmouth (Va.) -- History -- 20th century.

Genre and Form Terms:

• Census records -- Virginia -- Portsmouth.
• Judicial records -- Virginia -- Portsmouth.
• Letters (correspondence) -- Virginia -- Portsmouth.
• Local government records -- Virginia -- Portsmouth.
• School records -- Virginia -- Portsmouth.

Added Entry - Personal Name:

• Marsh, Henry L. III, 1933- .

Adjunct Descriptive Data