Governor Almond Signs the "Little Rock" Bill

Virginia governor J. Lindsay Almond signs the "Little Rock" bill in February of 1958, strengthening Massive Resistance laws throughout the Commonwealth. After the 1954 and 1955 U.S. Supreme Court rulings in Brown v. Board of Educationof Topeka, Kansas and Brown II, U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower had dispatched the National Guard to help enforce desegregation in public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. Anxious to avoid a repeat in Virginia, Almond urged the Virginia General Assembly to grant him the power to close any Virginia school facing the presence of federal troops. Virginia state senator Earl Fitzpatrick looks on in the background.