Dr. Henderson also twice served as President of the NAACP's Virginia Council, from 1955 to 1958, the height of Massive Resistance declared by Virginia's political boss (and U.S. Senator) Harry F. Byrd, Sr. after the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Brown v. Board of Education. In addition to the portions of the Stanley Plan that sought to maintain racial segregation in schools (and that were declared unconstitutional by a three-judge federal panel as well as by the Virginia Supreme Court on January 19, 1959), Virginia Governors Thomas B. Stanley and later J. Lindsay Almond and the Virginia Assembly attempted to harass and dismantle the NAACP in the Commonwealth during Henderson's presidency.