The Freedom of Choice Remembrance Project

In honor of Black History Month, we’re going to delve into some of the key moments of integration at Louisa County High School. For more information, we encourage you to plan a trip to the Sargeant Museum to see the exhibit featuring interviews documenting first-hand accounts.

Veta Scott, quoted below

The Freedom of Choice Plan

It was the 1960s and many parts of the South were resisting the integration of schools. The Freedom of Choice Plan was developed as a strategy by Southern States to undermine desegregation after the Brown v Board of Education Ruling. Louisa County adopted this plan in 1965 and while the plan outwardly complied with federal desegregation orders, in practice it allowed white families to simply circumvent integration by putting their children in predominantly white schools. No white students chose to attend previously all-black schools. However, 35 black students bravely chose to attend previously all-white schools in Louisa County during the plan’s first year, including 13 at Louisa County High School.

Image of hallway in Louisa County High School during the time

Riding the Bus

The experience of being among the first black students to attend Louisa County High School was one of contradictions. Some black students reported having felt invisible; ignored by their teachers and peers as if they didn’t exist. But the polar opposite experience was just as traumatic. According to Veta Scott-Nakai, stepping onto her school bus for the first time was, “terrifying.” Veta recalls, “It was a sea of white faces and they were looking at us funny. And we were looking at them funny.” Even though these were the very same students she saw in the community, in the context of sharing a bus to school with them, everything was different. It’s never easy to be the first to do something and Louisa County owes those students, and their parents, a debt of gratitude for taking those initial courageous steps toward a more perfect union and a more equal high school.

Desegregating Sports at Louisa High

Participation in sports provided another arena where black students faced obstacles. Desegregating sports teams at Louisa County High School was a complex process, with black students encountering both resistance and a lack of support. The school mascot was also an issue. Joe Morris, a black student who graduated in 1967 remembers hating the Louisa County High School mascot, which was “The Rebel” – a pseudonym for a Confederate soldier. Just like riding the bus, walking into the school, and attending class, playing sports during this fraught time required more than any child should have to go through, but go through it they did, while coming out stronger on the other side and making Louisa County a better place.