More than a half century ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the doctrine of “separate, but equal” was unconstitutional. On February 2, 1959, seventeen students fought fear and prejudice to integrate Norfolk Virginia’s all-white public schools and became known as “The Norfolk 17.” Their accomplishment did not come without a struggle. Initially, the U. S. District Court’s refusal to defer the seventeen’s admission led Governor J. Lindsay Almond, Jr. to close all schools on September 27, 1958, thereby interrupting the education of the 17 black students and nearly 10,000 white students.

Upon the re-opening of schools, these 17 young black pioneers attended Blair, Northside and Norview Junior High Schools and Granby, Maury and Norview High Schools in Norfolk, Virginia. Their courage, endurance and sacrifice carved out a page in history by embarking upon a journey that would demonstrate separate educational facilities were truly unequal.

This book is about the personal experiences and feelings of Andrew I. Heidelberg, one of the Norfolk 17, who went through the hardship of the initial school desegregation debacle from 1958 to 1962 in Norfolk, Virginia.  It will provide some historical events, but more importantly, a first-hand account of what truly happened.

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