The Charlottesville Twelve were twelve African American students whose struggle helped force the integration of Charlottesville City Schools. Their fight began in 1955 after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v Board of Education decision, when parents sought to exercise their civil rights by petitioning the Charlottesville School Board to transfer their children from the segregated Jefferson Elementary School and Jackson P. Burley High School. With assistance from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the parents sued the Charlottesville City School Board for equal access after the board took no action. In 1956, U.S. District Court Judge John Paul ruled that Charlottesville had to integrate Lane High School and Venable Elementary School, but the School Board filed several appeals challenging compliance. Using the strategy of massive resistance, Governor James Lindsey Almond, Jr. ordered Lane and Venable closed on September 19, 1958, to prevent integration. When Charlottesville schools reopened in February 1959, students were given space in the School Board office for classes while officials decided how to proceed. On September 5, 1959, Judge Paul ordered the immediate transfer of twelve students who became known as the Charlottesville Twelve, and on September 8, 1959, nine of them entered Venable Elementary School.