Skip to main content

Interview with Elizabeth Cooper and Jane Cooper Johnson

View
@ James Branch Cabell Library. Special Collections and Archives

Carrington, Ronald E. (interviewer)

Description

Elizabeth Cooper was the plaintiff in the Federal lawsuit desegregating Richmond City Public Schools. She and her daughter, Jane Cooper (Johnson), discuss their role in desegregating Richmond's schools; their lawyer, Oliver W. Hill, Sr.; and the types of obstacles and harassment Jane faced by fellow students when she was the first African American to integrate Richmond's Westhampton Junior High School (under a U.S. Desegregation Court Order) and the first African American to integrate Thomas Jefferson High School. Some historical background: In 1958, an application was filed with the Richmond City School Board on behalf of the plaintiff, Mrs. Elizabeth B. Cooper, requesting that her daughter, Jane, be transferred from the all-black George Washington Carver Elementary School to the all-white Westhampton Elementary School. Two other plaintiffs joined Mrs. Cooper; however, they eventually withdrew. Attorneys representing the case were Oliver W. Hill, Roland D. Ealey, Martin A. Martin, and Samuel. W. Tucker. The application was forwarded to the Virginia Pupil Placement Board. In turn, the State Board was ordered to submit a plan for the integration of Richmond City Public Schools. The State Board, however, denied the application that same year. As a result, a suit was filed with the Federal District Court, requesting the court to order Jane admission to Westhampton Elementary School. The segregation case continued over a three-year period. In July 1961, Jane was granted admission to attend Westhampton Junior High School, under a Supreme Court order, which was handed down by Judge Oren R. Lewis (1902-1983), U. S....
Type:
Text
Contributors:
James Branch Cabell Library. Special Collections and Archives (contributor)Virginia Civil Rights Movement Video Initiative (producer)
Rights:
In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use PermittedThis material is protected by copyright, and copyright is held by VCU. You are permitted to use this material in any way that is permitted by copyright. In addition, this material is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). Acknowledgment of Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries as a source is required.
View Original At:

Record Contributed By

James Branch Cabell Library. Special Collections and Archives

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia