Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Virginia’s First Anti-Racists

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by

James A. Bacon
in

Maybe it’s not so surprising that Black students in Wise County schools out-perform their racial counterparts in Loudoun County (see previous post) when you consider that far Southwest Virginia was the first region of the Old Dominion to integrate — years before Civil Rights legislation was enacted. Frank Kilgore, a long-time coalfields booster, sent two photos as evidence. The first, above, shows the first integrated Little League team in the South — Norton, Va., 1951.

This 1939 photo shows the first documented integrated high school football team in the country, in Dante, Russell County.

— JAB1

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19 responses to “Virginia’s First Anti-Racists”

  1. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    What percentage ok kids in Wise County were Black in those years? How many Black kids lived there. It’s hard to keep “separate but equal” schools when one school would only have 7 students.

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      That is what came to my mind….

  2. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    I think we need a little more background info here.

    1. Frank Kilgore Avatar
      Frank Kilgore

      I am glad to answer your questions. There is a big difference between coal field Appalachia and the agrarian sections of Appalachia including the rest of Virginia. The coalfields of Appalachia (including only Buchanan, Dickenson and Wise counties with some coal in western Russell, Tazewell and Lee, in Virginia) constituted the largest melting pot of immigrants (at least 15 nationalities) and Blacks (sharecroppers) in the nation. Coal camps and towns built from scratch by the companies housed all of the above and although the schools in Virginia were segregated by law the coalfields (which do not include Roanoke, Giles etc) were much more inclusive because the miners worked together daily side by side at the world’s most dangerous occupation at the time and each miner may in an instant be called upon to save the miner next to him. That bond plus the pro-union sympathy of the coalfield south (you know, places like West Va that seceded from Virginia due to slavery and NE Tn which per capita sent more soldiers to the Union army than ANY state in the nation) we’re not like the rest of the South including Virginia (arguably the most racist of them all for centuries). So people of color and immigrants in the coalfields were in the 10s of thousands, mostly pro union, usually received the same pay for the same job, and many belonged to a workers union (UMWA) that disallowed discrimination and at its peak at one million members published its monthly journal in three languages. As for the Black player in the football team photo it seems a little racist to count him out because of his light skin color. I happen to know his descendants (and they sure think they are Black) as I was raised 3 miles from Dante, Va. So a little research might be a good thing before spouting off about what happened in Virginia 50-150 miles away from the coalfields. Read books.

    2. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      I feel absolutely no guilt for the injustices of the past, despite the constant efforts to make me do so. Just responsible for my life. But others are determined to claim the era of passive segregation or even active Jim Crow were not as bad as claimed. I remember the SW Virginia of the 60s and early 70s and it was no different that the rest of the state. So what? Then is not now.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        Well, no surprise, I disagree on the part about making you feel guilty. I don’t see it that way at all, but I do see dealing with the truth of the injustice done and recognizing that the damage has not gone away , that people who were subject to that, their generational families still suffer from the effect of their grandfathers and grandmothers denied a decent education, denied decent jobs and as a result were not able to build wealth comparable to those families that were not subject to that injustice.

        There are two parts:

        1. – recognizing and acknowledging the injustices, but without blaming oneself or ones race.

        2. – what might (or might not) be done about it.

        WRT Wise County , I think I read that maybe 100 schools in various localities in Va – allowed blacks to attend their schools prior to enforced integration. I don’t know the localities or the circumstances, but if Wise was one of them, I’d certainly like to know – and understand more about that history.

        But no, I have NO GUILT at all… but that’s way different than acknowledging the injustice of that era and it’s terrible effect on other human beings – and yes , some of our ancestors undoubtedly participated or went along with it, far fewer actually fought it – and some paid a price for it.

        1. Stephen Haner Avatar
          Stephen Haner

          Yes, we honor them — those who paid the price — today. I do. Not sure about you.

          1. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            ? – not sure your point here.

            I not only honor those who paid the price, I think our country needs to live up to the ideals they died for – as a matter of respect.

  3. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Uh, the football team doesn’t look integrated… well, not obviously. Unless it’s because some of the players’ names end in vowels.

    BTW, it says 38 & 39

    1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
      James C. Sherlock

      The young man on the right of the standing group is assuredly Black. Look at him. Any football coach would want him. So likely is the young man kneeling second from right.

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        Nah, don’t think so. You can zoom in as much as you like, but without some contrast enhancement with Photoshop…

        Reminds me of a “no $#!t” story. I went with a friend after school to watch a baseball game. His dad was watching the game when we got there.

        Now, his TV was kind of old and the color was all screwed up. The grass looked blue and the sky redish.

        I said, “Hey! What’s with the color on your TV.”

        Without skipping a beat, Steve said, “Dad’s been adjusting the color again trying to make Willy Mays white.”

    2. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      If “integration” qualified as “anti-racism” in the world of CRT, then this argument would have ended long ago….clearly it doesn’t meet their definition. My experience with Southwest Virginia (more Giles, Christiansburg, Bluefield and Roanoke and not those localities) was still full bore segregation in the 1960s. Christiansburg (1962) was where I first asked why the black kids had a different bus. Roanoke built the old Lucy Addison High in the 1950s and my dad was on the architecture team (before Uncle Sam invited him to Korea), and it was the segregated Roanoke City high school until closed with integration under court order 20 years later.

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        CRT? Critcal Rage Theory? Judging from BR articles, that’s what it stands for.

        Now, it’s just a red meat dog whistle for those who don’t know how it works or what it is. Oh, and to run hit pieces on black historians.

        My experience with integration, racial that is, is that when busing was forced into Norfolk schools, the percentage of whites at my high school rose. Based on neighborhoods, we were almost perfect before busing at about 80-20.

      2. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        Hey! Interesting article…
        https://bangordailynews.com/2021/07/03/news/new-england/heavily-armed-men-on-their-way-to-maine-standing-off-with-mass-police-on-i-95/

        “The standoff began around 2 a.m. when police noticed two cars pulled over on I-95 with hazard lights on after they had apparently run out of fuel, authorities said at a Saturday press briefing.”

        If this is the average right wing terrorist group, we are all safe. A solid 80 in the IQAnon.

        Edit: Well, they AIN’T white supremacists. “Rise of the Moors”. A sovereign citizens group.

        1. WayneS Avatar
          WayneS

          “Well, they AIN’T white supremacists. “Rise of the Moors”. A sovereign citizens group.”

          Are you sticking with your 80 IQ estimate?

          1. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            In the interest of anti-racism, guns, and sovereign citizens, why yes, yes I am.

  4. William Cover Avatar
    William Cover

    I think you will find one African American on the 1936 Dante football team.

  5. William Cover Avatar
    William Cover

    After further research, I nominate Sheriff Corder and Commonwealth Attorney McCorkle for stopping the lynching of an African American Prisoner in Wise County 1920. Also, the Sheriff organized a team of armed citizens to meet the armed lynching mob where the leader of the mob was shot and killed.

    1. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      That incident is mentioned in this article:

      https://sites.lib.jmu.edu/valynchings/three-lynchings-in-wise-county/

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