Old Times Soon Forgotten
The State of Virginia is taking a step that I think shows that we the people have indeed come 'a long way, baby'. In passing a resolution that apologizes for slavery and its practices, Virginia does more than make a meaningless gesture. The attitude change that condemns what was once common practice, and defended as part of a way of life, is one that should be commemorated.
The resolution was introduced as Virginia begins its celebration of the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, where the first Africans arrived in 1619. Richmond, home to a popular boulevard lined with statues of Confederate heroes, later became another point of arrival for Africans and a slave-trade hub.
The resolution says government-sanctioned slavery "ranks as the most horrendous of all depredations of human rights and violations of our founding ideals in our nation's history, and the abolition of slavery was followed by systematic discrimination, enforced segregation, and other insidious institutions and practices toward Americans of African descent that were rooted in racism, racial bias, and racial misunderstanding.">[emphasis added]
In Virginia, black voter turnout was suppressed with a poll tax and literacy tests before those practices were struck down by federal courts, and state leaders responded to federally ordered school desegregation with a "Massive Resistance" movement in the 1950s and early '60s.
The apology is the latest in a series of strides Virginia has made in overcoming its segregationist past. Virginia was the first state to elect a black governor -- L. Douglas Wilder in 1989 -- and the Legislature took a step toward atoning for Massive Resistance in 2004 by creating a scholarship fund for blacks whose schools were shut down between 1954 and 1964.
This has particular meaning to me, as I attended Hampton High School in Hampton, VA, where segregation was ended by one lonely soul during my junior year, 1960-61. That lonely child was the son of the president of Hampton Institute (now Hampton University). And HHS was the place that many dislocated white students from the closed Princess Anne High School attended to avoid losing years from their education.
I can honestly say that I never thought what all my elders were doing was wrong. I accepted their reasons, that involved racial inferiority. I had attended elementary school with Mexican Americans in a Texas where most schools were segregated but ours were not. I never thought about the fact that although my society said we were smarter than that race, too, I knew it not to be a fact. As I never personally was in a position that required a choice, I never remember that I really questioned those beliefs. Later, in college, I made a good friend who was spending her Senior Year in the North, (incredibly condescending thought) from Hampton Institute.
I am very glad to see the State of Virginia making a statement that it is wrong to treat another race as an inferior one. It speaks to the heart of people who aren't involved in racial choices but whose attitudes will be improved by making the stance of enlightenment public. It makes a difference that will be felt by a world at large. Making public statements of ignorance emboldens the recidivists of the world, as we experienced when Lester Maddox stood with a pistol and armed his employees with ax handles, threatening violence to any black person who came to his Pickrick restaurant to eat. When candidate George Allen demeaned his opponent's representative as 'Macaca', it ended his race for the Senate, instead of providing a rallying cry for Virginia's racists. These are better times for all of us.
Thank heavens, those days of racism triumphant are times soon forgotten (a line taken from "Dixie") and we are glad to step into the future.
The resolution was introduced as Virginia begins its celebration of the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, where the first Africans arrived in 1619. Richmond, home to a popular boulevard lined with statues of Confederate heroes, later became another point of arrival for Africans and a slave-trade hub.
The resolution says government-sanctioned slavery "ranks as the most horrendous of all depredations of human rights and violations of our founding ideals in our nation's history, and the abolition of slavery was followed by systematic discrimination, enforced segregation, and other insidious institutions and practices toward Americans of African descent that were rooted in racism, racial bias, and racial misunderstanding.">[emphasis added]
In Virginia, black voter turnout was suppressed with a poll tax and literacy tests before those practices were struck down by federal courts, and state leaders responded to federally ordered school desegregation with a "Massive Resistance" movement in the 1950s and early '60s.
The apology is the latest in a series of strides Virginia has made in overcoming its segregationist past. Virginia was the first state to elect a black governor -- L. Douglas Wilder in 1989 -- and the Legislature took a step toward atoning for Massive Resistance in 2004 by creating a scholarship fund for blacks whose schools were shut down between 1954 and 1964.
This has particular meaning to me, as I attended Hampton High School in Hampton, VA, where segregation was ended by one lonely soul during my junior year, 1960-61. That lonely child was the son of the president of Hampton Institute (now Hampton University). And HHS was the place that many dislocated white students from the closed Princess Anne High School attended to avoid losing years from their education.
I can honestly say that I never thought what all my elders were doing was wrong. I accepted their reasons, that involved racial inferiority. I had attended elementary school with Mexican Americans in a Texas where most schools were segregated but ours were not. I never thought about the fact that although my society said we were smarter than that race, too, I knew it not to be a fact. As I never personally was in a position that required a choice, I never remember that I really questioned those beliefs. Later, in college, I made a good friend who was spending her Senior Year in the North, (incredibly condescending thought) from Hampton Institute.
I am very glad to see the State of Virginia making a statement that it is wrong to treat another race as an inferior one. It speaks to the heart of people who aren't involved in racial choices but whose attitudes will be improved by making the stance of enlightenment public. It makes a difference that will be felt by a world at large. Making public statements of ignorance emboldens the recidivists of the world, as we experienced when Lester Maddox stood with a pistol and armed his employees with ax handles, threatening violence to any black person who came to his Pickrick restaurant to eat. When candidate George Allen demeaned his opponent's representative as 'Macaca', it ended his race for the Senate, instead of providing a rallying cry for Virginia's racists. These are better times for all of us.
Thank heavens, those days of racism triumphant are times soon forgotten (a line taken from "Dixie") and we are glad to step into the future.
Labels: Enlightenment, Liberals
posted by Ruth at 3:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home