Harry Flood Byrd Middle School
Encyclopedia
Harry Flood Byrd Middle School is a public middle school in Henrico County, Virginia
. It is located at 9400 Quioccasin Road. It teaches grades six, seven, and eight.
, Gifted Alumni, and Knowledge Master Open
. There are no clubs offered for 6th grade.
movement after Brown v. Board of Education
ordered the integration of schools in 1954. Massive resistance did great damage to racial relations in Virginia by singling out the black population and treating them as second class citizens. "For a period of five years, 1959-1964, public education was denied to more than 2,000 African-American children and a number of poor white children who, with only a few exceptions, remained unschooled."
Some see the naming of a prominent middle school after a leader who kept so many students from receiving an education and who strongly supported keeping black students as second class citizens to be offensive.
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. It is located at 9400 Quioccasin Road. It teaches grades six, seven, and eight.
General information
Byrd Middle has an athletic program which provides sports such as football, wrestling, boy's and girl's soccer, boy's and girl's basketball, coed (boy's and girl's) gymnastics, baseball, softball, boy's and girl's track and field, and boys and girls tennis. The clubs offered at Byrd for 7th and 8th grade are A Club, Drama, Forensics, Books to Movies, Ecology, Digital Media, Digital Graphics, French, Spanish, Sports for Teens, Fellowship of Christian AthletesFellowship of Christian Athletes
The Fellowship of Christian Athletes is a non-profit interdenominational Christian organization founded in 1954 and that has been based in Kansas City, Missouri since 1956. It falls within the tradition of Muscular Christianity. Although established by evangelical Protestants, the concept has...
, Gifted Alumni, and Knowledge Master Open
Knowledge Master Open
The Knowledge Master Open is a computer-based semiannual worldwide academic competition in which teams of students from many schools earn points by answering multiple-choice questions quickly and accurately...
. There are no clubs offered for 6th grade.
Controversy
Some controversy has arisen in relation to the naming of the school. Harry Flood Byrd was a leader of the Virginia Massive ResistanceMassive resistance
Massive resistance was a policy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. on February 24, 1956, to unite other white politicians and leaders in Virginia in a campaign of new state laws and policies to prevent public school desegregation after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision...
movement after Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...
ordered the integration of schools in 1954. Massive resistance did great damage to racial relations in Virginia by singling out the black population and treating them as second class citizens. "For a period of five years, 1959-1964, public education was denied to more than 2,000 African-American children and a number of poor white children who, with only a few exceptions, remained unschooled."
Some see the naming of a prominent middle school after a leader who kept so many students from receiving an education and who strongly supported keeping black students as second class citizens to be offensive.