Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
With Barack Obama poised to become the nation’s first black President, The News & Advance looks at significant post-1950s civil rights moments in Lynchburg.
Vivian Camm made history through quiet defiance
One day in 1977, Garland-Rodes Elementary School principal Vivian Camm made local civil rights history. Not that many people in Lynchburg noticed. There were no television cameras to record Camm’s act of quiet defiance, no police to oppose it, no cheering crowd to support it. And yet, the symbolism it carried and the personal courage it required were undeniable.
Lynchburg residents took a stand by sitting down
The hour was late on Dec. 15, 1960, when 18-year-old Miriam Gaines walked into a downtown drug store and dared to do something she’d never done before — sit down.
From student to activist
Rebecca Owen, a privileged daughter of the South who was taught integration should be brought about slowly, was a principal organizer of the "Patterson Six" sit-in and is remembered today as one of the pioneers of the local civil rights struggle.
Slideshow: Newspaper coverage of sit-in protests in Lynchburg
Read six articles from The Lynchburg News in 1960 and 1961 about local residents' arrests for sit-in protests.
Clarence Seay: The man who would be mayor
Clarence W. ‘Dick’ Seay was Lynchburg’s first black City Council member since Reconstruction, but he threatened to resign in 1974 after he was passed over for the mayor’s position.
Thaxton’s ‘swim-in’ turned tide at Miller Park
After residents chose Miller Park to protest segregated pools, city officials shut the swimming spots down.
Slideshow: Swim-in changed Miller Park
Photos from Lynchburg's newspapers and the Lynchburg Museum show the progression of the pool from segregated to integrated.
Football coach took responsibility ‘to the future’
When Dunbar and E.C. Glass high schools combined, Coach Otis Tucker worked to smooth relations between the black and white players.
Reverends shared frustration over segregation of city
In 1961, the Revs. Virgil Wood and John Teeter stood together to voice a shared frustration and outrage over the segregation of Lynchburg.
