I took the top photo of Louis Cousins at Maury High School in Norfolk Virginia on February 2, 2009, at a ceremony honoring the 50th anniversary of the Norfolk 17. These were the first black students to attend formerly all white public schools in the city. The second photo comes from the Ledger Star newspaper in 1959. It is a powerful photo of the 15-year old Cousins sitting alone in the Maury High auditorium awaiting his home room assignment. White students can be seen in the background maintaining their distance from the only black student in the school.
Louis Cousins passed away in January 2020 but his legacy and that of his fellow Norfolk 17 pioneers live on.
#history #integration #norfolk17 #brownvsboardofeducation #massiveresistance #1959 #norfolkva #photooftheday
