A devoted and talented group of Rockingham County Public Schools students, with the support and guidance of their instructional mentors—has released an impressive, moving film about a dimension of the contest in Virginia over the racial integration of the public schools. In Knocking Down Walls, the students poignantly remind us—through the eyes and voices of those impacted—what occurred in a part of the western part of Virginia post-Brown v. Bd. initially decided in 1954.

Here’s a link to the posted video, provided on Rocktown History’s website: https://www.rocktownhistory.org/upcoming-events/knocking-down-walls-the-deliberate-speed-of-harrisonburgs-federal-court/. The film includes mention of federal Judge John Paul, who was the last Article III resident federal judge in the Harrisonburg Division of the Western District of Virginia.

For more detail on the legal history of  “massive resistance” in Virginia, we refer you to pages 7-10 and the accompanying footnotes in Doug Guynn’s leading article on Virginia school board authority under Article VIII of Virginia’s Constitution, which assumed a significant role in the battle and the role of the state and federal courts in implementing the two Brown v. Bd. decisions. Here’s the article. And some reference is also made to the history in the Postscript to the biography of the revered Lucy Simms of the Valley. Here’s the Postscript.