On September 12, 2019, Brian J. Daugherity delivered the Banner Lecture, “Keep on Keeping On: The NAACP and the Implementation of Brown v. Board of Education in Virginia.” The lecture coincided with the museum’s exhibition, "Determined: The 400-Year Struggle for Black Equality."

Virginia played a central role in the process of school desegregation. The state was home to one of the five cases decided in Brown v. Board of Education—Davis v. Prince Edward County, filed after a student strike against inferior school facilities in Farmville.

After the Brown decision was handed down in 1954, Virginia helped to launch and guide the movement against school desegregation, known as massive resistance. Despite this, proponents of change sought the implementation of Brown v. Board of Education in the commonwealth, and in the 1960s their efforts led to additional legal victories that sped up the process of school desegregation nationwide.

Brian Daugherity’s latest book, "Keep On Keeping On," tells the story of the implementation of Brown v. Board of Education in Virginia. It examines the official reaction to Brown and the massive resistance movement but focuses on the overlooked strategies and efforts of the proponents of school desegregation. The story highlights the role of the Virginia State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Dr. Brian J. Daugherity, associate professor of history at Virginia Commonwealth University, is an expert on the civil rights era in the commonwealth. He is the coeditor with Charles C. Bolton of "With All Deliberate Speed: Implementing Brown v. Board of Education" and with Brian Grogin of "A Little Child Shall Lead Them: A Documentary Account of the Struggle for School Desegregation in Prince Edward County, Virginia," and the author of "Keep On Keeping On: The NAACP and the Implementation of Brown v. Board of Education in Virginia.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.