Segregation academies opened in various Virginia cities and counties subject to desegregation lawsuits, including Arlington, Charlottesville and Norfolk where Governor Almond had ordered the schools closed rather than comply with Federal court orders to desegregate. Arlington and Norfolk desegregated peacefully in February 1959. In Arlington, many (if not most) white students remained in the desegregated schools. However, that was not the case in Norfolk and other areas such as Richmond where whites largely abandoned the public schools for segregation academies and other private schools, home schooling, or moved to the suburbs. Today, more than a half-century after school desegregation, largely due to white flight, the Richmond City and Norfolk Public Schools are the school divisions with the most racially and economically isolated schools in Virginia.