be cited under academic fair use guidelines. Integration With a Minimum of Integration

Thompson became the first black students to attend a segregated white school in Virginia when they entered Arlington’s Stratford Junior High. This moment was the culmination of a five-year quest by blacks and whites in the state’s smallest county to break free of the policy of “Massive Resistance. ” While many believed that integration was inevitable in Arlington due to the popularity of the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, there was by no means a consensus. Despite sparse instances of resistance, Arlington appeared progressive when compared to other places in Virginia, where in some cases schools were closed for years. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) saw an opportunity to break down segregation in Northern Virginia given that the integration of its relatively small black population would not be as drastic as the changes that would have to occur in Southside Virginia, where the black population approached fifty percent. As a result, Arlington was able to accomplish integration of its segregated white schools without having to close schools for a single day. Despite the fanfare surrounding Arlington’s initial integration measures in 1959