Danville community campaigns for U.S. civil rights and desegregation, 1963
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PDF version The Civil Rights Movement in the United States gained momentum in the 1960’s, with campaigns and demonstrations taking place throughout the country. Following the success of the campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, civil rights activists in Danville, Virginia, formed the Danville Christian Progressive Association (DCPA) and attempted to lead their own campaign.
In particular, the members of the DCPA represented the interests of the African-American members of the community, who accounted for a quarter of the Danville population. They were tired of the slow move to desegregate public schools, which the Supreme Court had mandated as a result of Brown v. Board of Education nine years earlier. The DCPA also desired the desegregation of restaurants, hotels, libraries, and other public places. Additionally, they objected to the white business owners who often discriminated against employing blacks, either refusing to hire them or giving them the lowest-paying menial jobs. The city government itself did not hire blacks and was exclusively white. The lack of representation for the black community meant that the government never truly addressed their concerns.
In an attempt to pressure the city government into action, activists formed the DCPA. The organizers created a set of demands for the city, including the formation of a bi-racial committee to determine a schedule for the desegregation of public and municipal facilities, the employment of blacks in municipal jobs (particularly the hire of black policemen), and the absolution of previously arrested demonstrators.
Activists, primarily students, began the peaceful demonstrations with a march on May 31, 1963. The local press and government ignored this first protest, and no one was arrested. However, on June 5, two members of the DCPA (Thurman Echols and Ezell Barksdale) led a demonstration wherein protesters sat in the middle of a main road and blocked traffic. Others marched into city hall and peacefully occupied the city manager’s office. The police called upon Archibald M. Aiken, the judge of the Danville Corporation Court, to disperse the crowd. Demonstrators refused, and Judge Aiken took action, issuing a temporary injunction that later became permanent. The injunction limited the range of demonstrations, making it unlawful to obstruct traffic or businesses, participate in mob violence, use loud language that could disrupt the peace, and much more.
On June 7, Aiken struck at those in charge of the demonstrations by assembling a special grand jury to indict the protest leaders with inciting "the colored population to acts of violence or war against the white population," an illegal act under the “John Brown Law” from 1859. John W. Carter, a leader on the Danville City Council, did his part to limit the demonstrations by introducing two ordinances. The first ordinance, adopted in mid-June, set bounds on the size, place, and time of demonstrations, while the second ordinance, adopted a few weeks later, required protesters to apply for a parade permit 30 to 60 days before the parade date.
Despite these measures to limit the scope of demonstrations, protests continued and grew, with activists from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), as well as attorneys from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) arriving in Danville to participate in various parades, marches, and petitions. However, under the injunction, police were able to arrest many protesters for a variety of crimes, including trespassing, disorderly conduct, parading without a permit, resisting arrest, and even simply for being the parent of a minor who had been arrested. On the evening of June 10, police attacked a prayer vigil held outside of the prison where they had detained several protesters earlier in the day. Police injured 47 of the 50 demonstrators.
Trials for those that had been arrested began on June 17. Aiken was merciless, setting bail at $5,000 for each indicted person in a city where the average non-white household income was $2,578. He refused to allow out-of-state attorneys to practice in the court and declined to release those who were convicted while awaiting an appeal. By mid-July, police had arrested over 250 people. The trials and appeals did not end until ten years later, in 1973.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., arrived in Danville on July 11 to speak to a gathering of protesters. However, he refused to lead a march due to the small turnout of about 80 people. Dr. King’s failure to effect change in the static situation was a pivotal disappointment, and reflected the slowly diminishing spirits of the African-American community in Danville.
On July 28, campaigners attempted a mass jail-in, but only 70 of the 311 who had agreed to participate were actually jailed. By August and September, demonstrators decreased activity as students returned to school, and protesters, frustrated at the lack of progress, returned to their pre-campaign lives.
Although the demonstrations ended in 1963, the legal proceedings surrounding the demonstrations lasted for ten years. In February 1973, after the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals reviewed all of the cases from the Danville Corporation Court, the VA Court overturned 270 convictions, upholding only the convictions for trespassing, illegal picketing, and obstructing traffic. The demonstrations were largely unsuccessful due to the inflexibility of the Danville city government. However, protesters were able to win one concession: in the autumn of 1963, the city officials hired Danville’s first black policeman.
