Kristen Green’s book Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County tells the story of the white resistance in Prince Edward County to the 1964 landmark Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling that declared segregation in schools unconstitutional. The author, Kristen Green, is a white woman who grew up in Prince Edward County and was not aware of her hometown’s shameful past or her family’s involvement. Prince Edward County demographically was split almost equally with black and white residents, but the community was segregated. The black students attended Moton High School which was an unsuitable place for education because it was overcrowded, underfunded, unsafe, and lacked resources. In 1951, Barbara Johns, a black
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She marries and has two children with a multiracial man. When she learns of her county’s racist past and her grandfather’s involvement, she begins her research on the history she was never told. In 2006, a few weeks before his death, Green interviewed Robert E. Taylor, a vital contributor to the All White School. He defended his position by saying his children needed a place to go to school. She supplemented the memories of her youth by returning to Farmville with her two daughters and staying for two months in order to report, research, and go through the way of life. Green met with community members, School Board members, and former Moton students. These interviews strengthen the story of the school closures with different perspectives and details. The students that were not allowed to attend school were all different ages and came from different incomes and family models. Moton High School was turned into a museum, Green attended several events at. Green attended meetings of the Prince Edward County School Board, the Board of Supervisors, and reviewed articles from the Richmond News Leader and the Farmville Herald. Green used papers from the Library of Virginia, looked at the pamphlets about the defenders at the Virginia Historical Society, and researched records at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. The author reads books about the decision, and the Civil Rights Era, and she credits her most influential source as Bob Smith’s They Closed Their Schools: Prince Edward County, Virginia, 1951-1964. Green utilized factual records from the period as well as human testimony of victims and perpetrators and her own childhood and experiences in Prince Edward County. The author's research and reporting about the school closures in Prince Edward County, which she grew up in, provides a closeness to the story. She is
She marries and has two children with a multiracial man. When she learns of her county’s racist past and her grandfather’s involvement, she begins her research on the history she was never told. In 2006, a few weeks before his death, Green interviewed Robert E. Taylor, a vital contributor to the All White School. He defended his position by saying his children needed a place to go to school. She supplemented the memories of her youth by returning to Farmville with her two daughters and staying for two months in order to report, research, and go through the way of life. Green met with community members, School Board members, and former Moton students. These interviews strengthen the story of the school closures with different perspectives and details. The students that were not allowed to attend school were all different ages and came from different incomes and family models. Moton High School was turned into a museum, Green attended several events at. Green attended meetings of the Prince Edward County School Board, the Board of Supervisors, and reviewed articles from the Richmond News Leader and the Farmville Herald. Green used papers from the Library of Virginia, looked at the pamphlets about the defenders at the Virginia Historical Society, and researched records at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. The author reads books about the decision, and the Civil Rights Era, and she credits her most influential source as Bob Smith’s They Closed Their Schools: Prince Edward County, Virginia, 1951-1964. Green utilized factual records from the period as well as human testimony of victims and perpetrators and her own childhood and experiences in Prince Edward County. The author's research and reporting about the school closures in Prince Edward County, which she grew up in, provides a closeness to the story. She is