You have heard of the Montgomery Boycott, the bombing in Birmingham, the sit ins at Greensboro, North Carolina, the students in Prince Edward County, Virginia and the Freedom Riders during the Civil Rights Era. This is the story of the integration of the school systems in Prince William County, Virginia.
It is the story of the Russell Family — Reverend James P. Russell, President of the NAACP, who selected his daughter Joyce to integrate Gar-Field High School in Woodbridge, Virginia, her sister Deborah and brother Cameron to integrate Occoquan Elementary School, and brother Jimmy to integrate Fred Lynn Middle School.
It tells of the danger of their house being shot up on a hot July night, and how Bobby Kennedy sent the Federal Marshals the next morning to get Joyce out of the area. It describes the true feelings of fear, courage, and endurance as well as ostracism and harassment that led to a phone call from A. Philip Randolph encouraging Joyce to stay in school at her lowest moment.
Then, there is the tragic account of the death of his young son Willey, a boy who was unable to adjust to the heat and unsanitary conditions of Mississippi and Memphis.Shortly after this personal loss, General Sherman was ordered east to deal with the problems at Chattanooga.The rest of the book is his account of how this was accomplished, and the subsequent mission to the relief of General Burnside at Knoxville.
The photographs used to illustrate this volume were taken by myself, my photographer Bruce Wilkey, and various period photographers. In fact many of the photos were taken by General Sherman's Photographer and this is the first account with both the pictures and the text in the same volume.
This brief account of some of the historic African American places in the Chattanooga area was made possible through the earlier work of numerous researchers and the assistance of many individuals, and I would like to take this time to acknowledge their help and express my thanks for all that they did.
This volume begins with his move against the Confederate Army at Dalton, Georgia in the spring of 1864.Then, in a brilliant series of flanking movements, he slowly pushed the Confederates further south, with much less loss of life than Grant suffered in his head on attack policies in Virginia.Due to his failure to stop Sherman, General Joseph E. Johnston was replaced by John B. Hood, who did no better against Cump Sherman.The Confederates were forced out of Atlanta and Sherman occupied the city in time to swing the presidential election in Lincoln’s favor.When Hood attempted to relieve the pressure on Georgia by turning back to invade Tennessee, Sherman followed him back into Alabama, and then left his destruction to General George Thomas at Nashville, while he turned south for his famous march to the sea.
The photographs used to illustrate this volume were taken by George N. Barnard, who was the official photographer for Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign.
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