EXHIBIT PANEL III - Segregation Continues in Buckingham County

“There wasn’t a whole lot being done in 1954 in Buckingham. Schools were still open. Everything was basically how it was.” Charles White

By late 1955, Buckingham blacks were increasingly frustrated with the school board. The board members viewed the situation as “serious but not alarming” and therefore decided to “proceed cautiously” and “take a wait and see attitude” regarding changing the segregated dual school system in the county.

To avoid desegregation, white officials in Prince Edward County closed the public schools from 1959 to 1964. Buckingham schools remained open, despite their close proximity and relationship with Prince Edward County. Alan Gooden recalls that white officials in Buckingham County shared a similar attitude about segregation that was “just about the same as [those] in Prince Edward. Buckingham officials “were willing to close schools…to say that they didn’t want to mix… up the races.”