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Acknowledgments
- University of Virginia Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Historians have few friends, but they do have many sources. This aphorism is doubly true in reference to this long-gestating project, which is bound to make Norfolk’s civic oligarchy a little less comfortable. Our most significant ally in this business of muckraking has been Cassandra Newby-Alexander, professor of history at Norfolk State University, who has always been willing to speak truth to power. We benefited enormously from her encyclopedic knowledge of the port city and its secrets, both “open” and otherwise. Local archivists also aided and abetted our research. In particular, we depended on the assistance of Sonia Yaco at Old Dominion University and Tommy Bogger at Norfolk State University. Sonia’s help in navigating her newly acquired Norfolk school board papers was especially timely, while Tommy combined his historical and archival experience to help us understand the complexity of the local African American leadership . In addition, we were lucky to have the help of a wonderful team of librarians at the Norfolk Public Library: Robert Hitchings, William Troy Valos, William Inge, and Peggy Haile McPhillips were indispensible. Robert ’s deep knowledge of genealogy solved many of our mysteries, while Troy and William found forgotten documents and photographs with aplomb. Peggy also led us to sources that we had earlier overlooked. We could not have been as thorough as we were without the invaluable guidance and insight of these friends. Outside of Tidewater, John N. Jacob, head of the Lewis Powell, Jr., Archives at Washington and Lee University’s School of Law in Lexington, Virginia , was most gracious in scouting and copying key documents from the Powell and Hoffman Papers housed there. Ted DeLaney, chair of the History Department at Washington and Lee, was the perfect Virginia gentleman in hosting the visits of Charles H. Ford to his lovely campus’s archives. Ted also organized a most memorable and useful panel that included us at the annual meeting of the Southern Historical Association in Louisville, Kentucky, in November 2009. The comments provided there by eminent historians Patri- viii | acknowledgments cia Sullivan and Raymond Arsenault were invaluable. In addition, the staff members of the Leyburn Library’s Special Collections at Washington and Lee, the Library of Virginia in Richmond, and the Albert and Shirley Small Library at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville contributed to the success of this project. We would like to thank the staff at the University of Virginia Press for their patience and guidance. In particular, Richard Holway, Ellen Satrom, Morgan Myers, and Raennah Mitchell helped tremendously. Copyeditor Robert Burchfield and map maker Chris Erichsen enhanced the project. And our colleagues Peter Wallenstein, James Hershman, Thomas Cox, Bernadette Pruitt, and Michael Martin helped at various stages of the book’s production. Furthermore, we would also like to thank the following underwriters of Jeffrey L. Littlejohn’s frequent research trips to Hampton Roads and vicinity : Page R. Laws, dean of the Honors College at Norfolk State; the Colvin Gibson Funds of Norfolk State’s Department of History; Norfolk State’s Black History Month Committee; and his own Department of History at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. Several venues helped to enhance pieces of the work-in-progress. A special thanks goes out to the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, both of which supported Jeff’s early research on this project. The Virginia Foundation gave additional support in 2009, when its radio program, With Good Reason, and program host Sarah McConnell allowed Charles to hone his knowledge of the role of white moderates during Massive Resistance. Cathy Lewis of WHRO in Norfolk also gave Jeff and this developing project ample publicity on both her daily noontime talk show and weekly evening public affairs program. Channel 48, the city of Norfolk’s public access television station, ran several pieces that showcased research from the project, including the taping of a high-profile civic event commemorating the end of Massive Resistance that was put on by the Norfolk-Portsmouth Bar Association. Charles would especially like to thank local lawyer James R. Harvey III, of Vandeventer and Black, and the grandson-in-law of Judge Hoffman himself, for his key role in making that panel discussion a memorable success. And, last but certainly not least here, we would like to thank the stalwarts of the New Journal and Guide, publisher Brenda Andrews and reporter Leonard E. Colvin, for allowing us to comment on public education in Hampton Roads. [18...