Stanley Plan

The Stanley Plan was a package of 13 statutes adopted in September 1956 by the U.S. state of Virginia. The statutes were designed to ensure racial segregation would continue in that state's public schools despite the unanimous ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that school segregation was unconstitutional. The legislative program was named for Governor Thomas B. Stanley, a Democrat, who proposed the program and successfully pushed for its enactment. The Stanley plan was a critical element in the policy of "massive resistance" to the Brown ruling advocated by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd Sr.[1] The plan also included measures designed to curb the Virginia state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which many Virginia segregationists believed was responsible for "stirring up" litigation to integrate the public schools.[2]

The plan was enacted by the Virginia Assembly on September 22, 1956,[3] and signed into law by Governor Stanley on September 29.[4] A federal court struck down a portion of the Stanley plan as unconstitutional in January 1957.[5] By 1960, nearly all of the major elements of the plan (including the litigation curbs aimed at the NAACP) had been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal and state courts.[6][7] The constitutional invalidity of the Stanley plan led new governor of Virginia, J. Lindsay Almond, also a Democrat, to propose "passive resistance" to school integration in 1959.[8] The Supreme Court declared portions of "passive resistance" unconstitutional in 1964 and again in 1968.[9][10]

  1. ^ Duke, p. 18.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Mays158 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference PlanPassed was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Signed was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Pupil Placement Plan Overturned in Virginia: U.S. Judge Says It Flouts Integration". Evening Star. January 11, 1957. p. 1. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference BakerVoid was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Dickson, p. 320.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference BakerLost was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference ClaytonOpen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference CourtRejects was invoked but never defined (see the help page).