Guest of Honor Dr. Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin

Author, Speaker, and Civil Rights Pioneer, Dr. Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin is our Guest of Honor

As a 13-year-old in rural Warren County, Virginia in the 1950s, Dr Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin was a plaintiff in the case of Betty Ann Kilby v Warren County Board of Education, one of many desegregation cases that followed the landmark Brown case

Despite the Brown ruling, many states protested the controversial ruling and kept their schools segregated in the 1950s.

One of those schools was Warren County High School, which barred Dr Kilby Fisher Baldwin from attending, even though it was close by Instead, black students in Front Royal, Virginia were required to travel more than an hour to attend a separate black high school She described how her father appalled by the distance his children traveled for their education heard about the Brown decision and chose to fight to desegregate the local Warren County High School

A Virginia judge ruled in Kilby's favor to desegregate Warren County High School in 1958, but the state closed the school for six months under its Massive Resistance laws--Virginia's attempt to delay school integration During that time, Kilby recalls, her family received abusive phone calls and shots were fired at their house In January 1959, the Virginia Supreme Court struck down the state's Massive Resistance laws and ordered Warren County High School to open and integrate

Today, Dr Kilby Fisher Baldwin is a speaker and the Author of "Freedom Road", Warren County's History from 1836 to 1986; "Wit, Will, and Walls", her historical autobiography where she shares her journey of fighting for education as well as her climb up the corporate ladder and she Co-Authored with Phoebe Kilby “Cousins” the story of their journey of confronting the past to a path of reconciliation

Dr Kilby Fisher Baldwin is featured in several documentaries, “Wit, Will and Walls, the Betty Ann Kilby story” by Moore Films and “From Betty to Barack” by Dones Media Netflix Documentary “Stories of a Generation with Pope Francis “Episode 2

Dr Kilby Fisher Baldwin earned her Doctorate of Humane Letters from Shenandoah University; Masters, in Business Administration (MBA); from Nova University; Bachelor of Business Administration from Shenandoah University; and Associates in Business Management from Lord Fairfax Community College

Dr. Kilby Fisher Baldwin is also a mother and grandmother who lives with her husband, Pastor David Baldwin, in Texas.