Seventeen black students who endured isolation and their classmates' scorn to integrate Norfolk's public schools will be honored Sunday.

The Norfolk 17 are credited with ending Virginia's stubborn defiance of court-ordered desegregation.

"Massive Resistance" was Virginia's answer to Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 Supreme Court decision that outlawed school desegregation. Schools were closed and private academies were created to educate white students who could afford the tuition.

The Norfolk 17 will be honored during "Freedom Sunday" at historic First Baptist Church, a downtown Norfolk sanctuary that held classes in its basement 49 years ago when six white public schools closed rather than educate the 17.

Twelve of the surviving 14 students will attend on Sunday, and representatives for three of the dead will be recognized.