Browse Items (224 total)
Bill Signing for Emergency Preparedness, Photograph, 2002
Governor Mark Warner signed the Emergency Preparedness Executive Order on Jan. 31, 2002. The order launched the Secure Virginia Initiative, established the Secure Virginia Panel, directed state agencies to prepare or update emergency response plans,…
Autograph Album (First Five Entries), Library of Virginia, September 11, 2002
On the morning of September 11, 2001, four flights were hijacked by members of the Islamic extremist group, al- Qaeda, in a coordinated attack against the United States. All four hijacked planes were scheduled to be cross-country flights from the…
Governor Kaine Announces Aerial Option for Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project, Press Release, 2006
Like other places around the country, Virginia saw increased suburban development in the years after World War II, especially around the naval and shipbuilding areas of Hampton Roads and near Washington, D.C. The construction of better roads and…
Executive Order 55 Supporting Virginians with Disabilities in the Commonwealth's Workforce, 2012
Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 to protect people with disabilities from discrimination. In 1999 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Olmstead v. L.C. that the ADA prohibits unnecessary segregation of mentally ill or…
Letter from Ainslee B. and Alvin R.L. Dohme, Front Royal, 1959
After the United States Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that school segregation was unconstitutional in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, Virginia's white political leaders at the state and local levels led a Massive Resistance movement,…
J. Lindsay Almond School Integration Speech, January 20, 1959
On May 17, 1954, after nearly two decades of legal challenges against racial segregation in public schools and higher education, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that school segregation was…
Interposition and Massive Resistance, 1955
When the United States Supreme Court issued its ruling on May 17, 1954, in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, it declared that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. The ruling overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine…
Petition from Students at Lane High School to Reopen Schools, Charlottesville, September 1958
On May 17, 1954, after nearly two decades of legal challenges against racial segregation in public schools and higher education, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that school segregation was…
Washington, Alexandria, and Mount Vernon Electric Railway, Photograph, n.d.
Trolleys, or electric railway streetcars, were a very popular way for people to travel across cities or towns in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Earlier versions of the trolley, or tram, were drawn by horses. By the late 1800s, however,…
Woman and Child Reading, Photograph, n.d.
In earlier eras, books were expensive luxury items only owned by those who could afford to purchase them. The advent of the printing press made it easier to produce books; however, it was far easier to mass produce newspapers, pamphlets, and other…