Defeating Massive Resistance:
Andrew Heidelberg and Louis Cousins

Thursday, February 15, 2007
AB4 | Olson Auditorium | 4:30 - 6:00 p.m.

Come meet two of the foot soldiers of the early civil rights movement. Louis Cousins and Andrew Heidelberg were not lawyers or professional activists, they were high school students, who braved insults and threats to tear down an entrenched system of segregation in the heart of the South.

Louis Cousins was the first African American student to attend Maury High School in Norfolk, Virginia in 1959. As such, he paved the way for future generations to pursue educational equality, a difficult quest that continues to this day.

Andrew Heidelberg was the first African American student to play football on a desegregated high school team in Virginia in 1961. His bravery opened opportunities for dozens of young men who followed in his footsteps.