NORFOLK, Va. — Patricia Godbolt White, one of the first black students to enroll in Norfolk’s public schools, has died. She was 72.
Metropolitan Funeral Service says White died Friday at a hospital in Norfolk. A funeral service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at First Baptist Church in Norfolk.
White and 16 other black students, dubbed the Norfolk 17, entered the city’s public schools in 1959 after state and federal litigation reopened them.
Schools in Norfolk and several other localities were closed in 1958 as part of Virginia’s Massive Resistance to integration of public schools.
The Virginian-Pilot reported that White was a retired educator who taught science at Booker T. Washington High School in Norfolk.
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