PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — A Catholic school in Portsmouth became the first to integrate, and did it with little push back.
There were some growing pains, but as those who were there say, their strong faith smoothed the path forward.
You’ve heard of the Norfolk 17—the African American students allowed to enroll at five different all-white schools in Norfolk in 1959. But you’ve probably never heard of the Catholic 4. That year, Cecelia Brown was a second grader at Our Lady of Victory—the Catholic school for African Americans—and where the Catholic four came from…