The Uprising
The Uprising
Embedded Files
White fear reached new heights at a basketball game at James Blair High School on the evening of December 10, 1968. The news spread that a white girl was dating a Black boy. As The Virginia Gazette reported in the days that followed, "certain whites were angry because of an instance of inter-racial dating." The events at the basketball game would lead to an uprising in the school hallways.
Source: The Virginia Gazette. December 13, 1968. "Altercation Rocks James Blair High."
A young, white man, Thomas David Warren, was charged with the stabbing of two Black youth - James Jackson Jr., 19, and Ernest James, 18 - with a hunting knife in the boys' restroom during the game. According to news reports, James Jackson suffered deep wounds to the lower left chest and was hospitalized for numerous days. Ernest James was cut in the lower left chest, right thigh, and right hand. Neither of the victims were involved in the inter-racial relationship, yet they nonetheless became targets for the hatred and violence.
Source: The Daily Press. December 12, 1968. "JCC Youth Charged With Cutting After Incident at Blair Ball Game."
The stabbing lit the powder keg that had been building at James Blair for months. Although neither the attacker nor the victims were James Blair students, Black students' frustration with the state of integration had been simmering since September. The violence at the basketball game was the last straw. When students came face-to-face at school on Wednesday morning following the stabbing, Black students led an uprising in protest of months of exclusion, frustration, and, now, violence.
Cynthia Druitt describes the riot, and Annette Washingston recalls the fear that she will never forget.
Source: Class of 1969 Oral History. March 12, 2022. The Village Initiative Oral History Collection.
Source: Class of 1969 Oral History. March 12, 2022. The Village Initiative Oral History Collection.
The police were called to respond to the "altercation" at the school. By Thursday, 15 state, county, and city police officers were patrolling the halls of James Blair, while around 300 students - mostly white - did not attend school.
Source: The Richmond Times-Dispatch. December 13, 1968. "Police maintain James Blair patrol." Pg. 21.
Black parents stepped in and called for the withdrawal of the police from the school. Seventy-five people attended a meeting at the school on Thursday. Black parents insisted that parents - not the police - should patrol the school hallways.
"The kids do not have any respect for those cops," one Black mother said, "because they are white."
Source: The Daily Press. December 13, 1968. "Negro Parents Call for Police withdrawal."
As the Daily Press reported, Black parents "voiced the dissatisfaction which their children have felt since Blair was totally integrated last September. Negro students do not feel they are part of the school, according to Phillip Cooke, a Negro real estate agent."
Around thirty parents, both Black and white, joined school administrators on Friday to patrol the hallways with police officers outside the school. Dennis Gardner recalls participating in the parent patrol.
Source: The Daily Press. December 13, 1968, "Negro Parents call for Police Withdrawal: Suggest Parents Patrol."
Film Credit: Media Collections, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
While newspapers reported that "quiet" had been achieved by the end of the week after the "disturbances," teacher Phyllis Crudup recalls that the tensions remained high even after students returned to school in January following the winter break.
Source: The Daily Press. December 14, 1968. "Blair Termed Quiet As Parents Patrol after disturbances."
Source: Phyllis Crudup. August 2, 2023. The Village Initiative Oral History Collection.
Dale Jackson discusses whether integration would have unfolded this way if white students would have integrated into the Black high school.
Source: Class of 1969 Oral History. March 12, 2022. The Village Initiative Oral History Collection.
Banner image: Collage of news articles and headlines created by Lanni Brown
Source: Kinner, John T. April 26, 1969. 100 at Blair Stage Sit-in and Boycott. The Richmond Times-Dispatch.; Anderson, Maria. May 2. 1969. James Blair Problems. The Virginia Gazette. Page 2A.
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