Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Virginia’s Civil Rights Monument

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by

James A. Bacon
in

I know it has been mentioned, but don’t know of a separate post here for Virginia’s Civil Rights monument.

I look forward to seeing it when I am Richmond.

This $2.6 million memorial is worth every penny. It’s exactly what the Commonwealth should do to elevate and perpetuate the best of our civilization. From one generation to the next.

I’d love to know what was it in the education, experience, family or faith of Barbara Jones that lead her – at age 16 – to lead the walkout at Moton High School in 1951. How remarkable a young woman.

What a proud legacy for all Virginians.

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  1. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    In 1951, how was it that the rest of the state was so backwards that this walk out was necessary?

    Now look at the GA today.

    RH

  2. James Atticus Bowden Avatar
    James Atticus Bowden

    RH: I’m not sure I understand your comment. Jim Crow separate but equal was the law for the whole state in the 1950s until Brown v Board of Education, Topeka.

    I suppose the backwardness is akin to the prejudices that came with the riots in Boston,MA in 1974 over the integration of South Boston High School. The 82nd Airborne Div was alerted for possible deployment there.

    That kind of backwardness in Massachusetts might be similar.

  3. J. Tyler Ballance Avatar
    J. Tyler Ballance

    It is called playing hooky. Lots of kids played hooky to get out of school back in those days.

    Only in Virginia (and perhaps Berkeley California) would they try to elevate such nonsense to monument level material.

    To these do-gooders like Colis-Warner, I offer an alternative to pissing away millions on this feel good wall of propaganda: Put those millions instead into the impoverished communities around Virginia in the form of business start-up grants. Get your celebrity pals and their rich Leftist benefactors to put their millions to work in job training centers and help to create real jobs that will help restore our strategic manufacturing base.

    Virginians have been preached to by the Northern liberals about “civil rights” since before the War for Southern Independence. This $2.6 million propaganda piece is intended to continue the tradition of the Northern Liberals talking down to both Black and White Southerners.

    We have had enough leftist propaganda about struggles in the South. Most citizens in the South, regardless of their color, have known very hard times. Indeed, 44 Million White people STILL live in poverty; a number greater than the ENTIRE Latino population and the ENTIRE Black population respectively.

    Those who want to promote civil rights need to pour their money into job programs, not more useless perches for pigeons

  4. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Ballance,
    Point taken about helping poor communities, but what the hell do Northern liberals have to do with all of this?
    You sound like some Professional Southerner that I pray died long ago. Hopefully, those racist, pompous blowhards won’t come back.

    Peter Galuszka

  5. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Yeah, but in South Boston you were trying to integrate the Irish.

    I just think it is odd that Virginia’s history seems to include the first leaders for liberty and the last bastions against it.

    RH

  6. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    excellent point!

    and the ultimate paradox also…

    how can Virginia claim to be the birthplace of freedom and liberty with it's substantial list of freedom & liberty "rock stars" of history… and as RH points out.. get dragged kicking and streaming into the world – as one would hope – was envisioned by those "rock stars".

    Either that.. or we have the specter of those guys saying that all of their words were never actually intended to be applicable to people of color .. which .. would … ahem.. tend to undercut their shtick.

    Interesting also.., that all of those years that we had other leaders in Virginia involved in policies … that today .. most of us would agree were against the interests of liberty and freedom.

    It's very, very difficult for me to hold our early leaders in high repute for their staunch statements about liberty and freedom…. when those pious words apparently excluded people of color.

    If you are – a person of color – reading textbooks about Virginia's early history – what are you to think?

  7. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Governor Kaine has named Julian Bond a Honorary Co-Chairman of the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial. The dedication of a Civil Rights Memorial is to be commended. The participation of Julian Bond at this Official State sanctioned event is to be condemned. Why?

    What did Julian Bond say about his fellow Americans who happen to be of a different political persuasion?

    On February 1, 2006, Bond made the following statement at the Fayetteville State University in North Carolina: “The Republican Party would have the American flag and the swastika flying side by side.” Link to the story here: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48635

    A Bigot is defined as a person who is utterly intolerant of any differing creed, belief, or opinion. Julian Bond is a bigot who, at the invitation of Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, is going to speak at a State sanctioned event in the Commonwealth of Virginia on July 21, 2008. This is unacceptable. But then, who really cares if Tim Kaines involves a real life Bigot to represent Virginia in an official capacity?

  8. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Get real!

    Julian Bond is a respected, long-serving member of the civil rights movement.

    He is no bigot.

  9. James Atticus Bowden Avatar
    James Atticus Bowden

    I don’t see Virginia as being the first and last in the cause of liberty.

    My buzzwords that speak volumes to me, perhaps nothing to others, include:

    Demographics are destiny.

    Culture commands.

    Ideas motivate humankind.

    Individual humans can change destiny.

    Which is what happened in the 1950s. Virginia lead the way in the South of the 20s with ending lynching.

    But in the 50s massive resistance had a name – Harry F. Byrd. That prolonged the pain of transition for 5 or 10 years.

    S

  10. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    It is good to know that there will be a monument in Richmond celebrating a winning cause (Civil Rights) to go along with all the statues celebrating losers (Civil War Confederates). Hopefully, unlike the Arthur Ashe statue, the Civil Rights memorial will be larger than the statues of the losers and closer to the center of the city.

    Massive resistance was not the product of a single person but rather the product of a warped and backwards state. It will be forever a stain of dishonor on the history of Virginia. The Richmond school integration court case was settled in 1986, not the 1950s. One of the few historically accurte facts in Remember the Titans was the year 1971 – the year Alexandria public high schools were integrated. This, also was not the 1950s. Prince Edward County public schools were closed rather than have Biffy and Buffy attend classes with African Americans. The schools were only reopened after a US Supreme Court ruling – in 1964. Fairfax County public schools (like Groveton) were integrated in 1963.

    Racist imbecile and former Virginia governor Harry F. Byrd is a member of Virginia’s Byrd family – a family counted as one of the first families of Virginia. The Byrds trace their ancestry back to John Rolfe and Pocohontas. Harry F. Byrd was just one more of The Descendants of Pocohontas.

  11. James Atticus Bowden Avatar
    James Atticus Bowden

    Groveton: Check your facts on Alexandria.

    In 1964 I came home from Europe and went to integrated schools in Arlington. I had a friend who went to integrated GW HS in Alexandria. I don’t remember, but 1971 may have been the first year the old black schools went away and busing integrated made all of Alexandria share GW, Hammond and TC Williams.

    I agree the slavery and segregation are stains on the flag of Virginia – as they are on the US national flag. But, the stains come clean after atonement. See President Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address.

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