For its first 91 years, West Virginia schools and most public facilities were segregated by race. In 1954, in the Brown v. Board of Education case, the U.S. Supreme Court ended school segregation nationally. The state accepted the ruling, and most schools integrated without major trouble—though progress was slow, and some counties resisted.

Desegregating restaurants and stores was harder. Groups like CORE and student activists led sit-ins and protests in cities such as Charleston, Huntington (pictured), and Bluefield. Their efforts forced many businesses to open to everyone. By 1964, most public places had integrated, with a few notable holdouts.

That same year, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. Senator Robert C. Byrd forcefully opposed it at the time but later apologized. Even after the law passed, many Black students still attended separate schools, and a segregation clause technically remained in the state’s constitution until 1994.