Anti-Busing Motorcade in Washington, D.C., February 1972

Anti-Busing Motorcade in Washington, D.C., February 1972

Black and white photograph of a Richmond-based anti-busing motorcade passing through Washington, D.C. on 2nd Street behind the U.S. Supreme Court building. A policeman walks beside two cars.

On February 17, 1972, nearly 3,300 cars traveled in a motorcade from Richmond, Virginia to Washington, DC. Despite snow, the protesters made a symbolic journey to Capitol Hill to voice their opposition to Judge Robert Merihge's ruling (Bradley v. School Board of City of Richmond, Virginia) that public schools in Richmond, Henrico County, and Chesterfield County must be consolidated. At that time, Richmond public schools were 70 per cent black while those of the two counties were about 90 per cent white.

Cars in the motorcade carried red and white signs reading “Help Save Freedom” and imprinted with a picture of a little red schoolhouse. 

Richmond Newspapers, Inc.

P.74.11.18m, The Valentine

1972 February 17

The Valentine

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Learn more: 
3,300 Autos Driven To Capital in Protest, The New York Times, February 18, 1972.

Pratt, Robert A. The Color of Their Skin: Education and Race in Richmond, Virginia, 1954-89. 

The Conscience of Virginia: Judge Robert R. Merhige, Jr., and the Politics of School Desegregation 

Bradley v. School Board of City of Richmond, Virginia, 338 F. Supp. 67 (E.D. Va. 1972)  

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