Standing Before the Shouting Mob

A southern journalist campaigns for racial understanding during the

struggle over school desegregation in Virginia.

In 1958 the nation's attention was focused on Norfolk,

Virginia, where nearly ten thousand students were locked out of their schools.

Rather than comply with the desegregation mandate of Brown v. Board

of Education, Governor J. Lindsay Almond, supported by the powerful

political machine of Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr., had closed Norfolk's white

secondary schools.

Massive resistance to integration transformed Norfolk

into a civil rights arena. Although the process by which Norfolk's schools

were integrated was far from orderly, the transition was characterized

by debate, political maneuvering, and judicial action--not violence. Lenoir

Chambers, editor of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, conducted a five-year

editorial campaign supporting the peaceful implementation of the Court's

order. The Pilot was Virginia's only white newspaper to take this

position. Chambers was later awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his editorials.

Utilizing a wide range of primary and secondary sources,

Standing before the Shouting Mob examines Chambers's campaign, explores

the influences that shaped his racial views, and places him within the

context of southern journalism. The book also provides a detailed analysis

of Virginia's massive resistance and Norfolk's school closing.