The Pupil Placement Board in Lynchburg (1959)

In 1959, Crystabel Harris requested a transfer from Dunbar High School to E.C. Glass. Crystabel Harris was the daughter of Fred Harris, a Lynchburg insurance salesman and bail bondsman for Lynchburg civil rights activists. Fred Harris’s employer, a White-owned insurance firm, threatened to revoke his license if his daughter’s case drew too much "negative" attention. The Harris family tried, unsuccessfully, to enlist other Dunbar students to challenge Lynchburg’s segregated schools.


Miss Harris’s transfer request was sent by Lynchburg school board—without its signature of approval—to the Pupil Placement Board (PPB) in Richmond. The PPB realized Miss Harris was African-American because the Lynchburg school board had not signed its approval. The PPB denied her request on the basis that she lived closer to Dunbar than to Glass. Lynchburg’s school board therefore could claim the decision to deny Miss Harris’s request was out of its hands.

 

Discouraged by the lack of community support, the Harris family discontinued seeking a transfer. 1

 

Notes:

1. “No Matter How Long: The Struggle to Integrate the Public Schools in Lynchburg, Virginia, 1954 –1970, by Henry Faulkner Heil, University of South Carolina–Dept. of History, 2001, p. 30