Norfolk officials plan to hold events marking the 50th anniversary of the end of Massive Resistance, Virginia's policy to defy federal orders to desegregate public schools.

Mayor Paul Fraim said a special commission led by former Mayor Joseph Leafe and former Vice Mayor Joseph Green will coordinate the observance, which will include a reunion of many of the first black students to attend Norfolk's previously all-white schools.

Virginia adopted Massive Resistance in 1958 to defy the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Rather than desegregate, Virginia closed schools, including several in Norfolk, Charlottesville and Warren County.

Norfolk's public schools were integrated on February 2, 1959, when 17 black students, the "Norfolk 17", started class in the city's formerly all-white schools.