The Norfolk 17

OLIVIA DRIVER (LINDSAY)

Olivia Driver was one of seven students to integrate Norview High School.

Olivia recalls being spat upon, having things thrown at her, being called names that can't be repeated - the 17 students endured all of this. It was definitely violent, even though the press reported that there was no violence. It may not have been what the public expected, but the Norfolk 17 felt it and lived it for several years of their lives.

As she mentioned at a program honoring the Norfolk 17*, Lindsay believes that the city tried to prevent integration for years. She commented that Old Dominion University and Norfolk General Hospital wouldn't be here if not for people trying to keep blacks out of white schools. [She is referring to the urban development that tried to keep neighborhoods segregated, so that schools could be segregated.]

Olivia Driver married and is now Olivia Driver Lindsay. She lives in Norfolk and is a retired teacher. She attends many of the events honoring the Norfolk 17 because it is important that their story be told and remembered.

	in 2004 Link to NSU's "Brown Decision in Norfolk, Virginia" Web site for video interviews Olivia Driver leaving Norview High School on her first day there 2/2/1959. (AP Photo from Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch news clipping in the collection of Paul T. Schweitzer.)

*Notes from Chrysler Museum program on May 16, 2004, "Celebrating the Legacy of Brown v. Board of Education: Then and Now," by Karen Vaughan.