Imagine...
All public schools in a county closed for five years.
The officials of Prince Edward County Virginia failed to consider the education rights of all children in the county... They expressed their profound beliefs that the races should be kept separate. Consequently, public schools in Prince Edward County closed and remained closed for five years.
If you can grasp these truths, then you can appreciate the magnitude of this story.
Dorothy Lockett Holcomb was a fourth grade student in Prince Edward County Virginia public schools when schools closed in 1959 to avoid integration. When the schools closed she was tutored in the basement of a church for two years before migrating to Appomattox County to attend public schools again.
In 1968, she graduated high school and attended Johnson C. Smith College in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In 1972, she was hired as the first minority professional staff of the Virginia Employment Commission in Farmville, Virginia where she worked for 31 years before retirement.
She served as a member and president of the Farmville-Prince Edward Community Library for many years and worked to unite two public libraries in the Prince Edward County that were separated only by race. She also served as a member of the Prince Edward County School Board from 1999 to 2003.
She is currently vice-president of the Robert Russa Moton Museum Board of Directors. The museum is the site of the 1951 student strike which led to the Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County. This case became a part of the historical landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas which outlawed segregation in public schools for the entire country. Most recently she has published a book of her life experiences entitled, "Educated in spite of...."
"My dad kept the promise he made to his children when obstacles seemed insurmountable. I am able to share these memories and do what I do because of that kept promise. The promise my father made to me enabled me to keep a promise to myself. I will always be grateful to my parents for the major sacrifices they made to give me the opportunity to be 'educated in spite of...'"
