Times-Dispatch editorial expresses regret for Massive Resistance
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Massive Resistance
Times-Dispatch editorial page editor Todd Culbertson discusses the editorial expressing regret for Massive Resistance.Sometimes the era seems ancient; sometimes it resembles yesterday. Fifty years ago Virginia had a rendezvous with destiny and came up wanting. It scorned human rights and the promise of the Declaration of Independence and instead took a course known as Massive Resistance. Tomorrow at the Capitol, the University of Virginia's Center for Politics will convene a conference on the chapter and its legacy.
Throughout the episode, Richmond Newspapers played a central role -- but not a centering one. The hour was ignoble. Editorials in The News Leader relentlessly championed Massive Resistance and the dubious constitutional arguments justifying its unworthy cause. Although not so intimately engaged,
The Times-Dispatch was complicit. The record fills us with regret, which we have expressed before.
Massive Resistance inflicted pain then. Memories remain painful. Editorial enthusiasm for a dreadful doctrine still affects attitudes toward the newspaper. Many remember. We understand. Words have consequences. Artful paragraphs promoted ugly things. Stylish sentences salted wounds. Euphemism was profligate. As members of the Fourth Estate these pages did not keep a proper distance, either. The debate is over. It is done.
Virginia long has prided itself on its gentility. The state's political tradition has lacked firebrands such as Gene Talmadge, Orval Faubus, George Wallace, Bull Connor, Theodore Bilbo, and James K. Vardaman. Massive Resistance shattered pretensions. Although the commonwealth's campaign to evade Brown v. Board of Education did not produce the pyrotechnics seen in other states, it was directed toward the same dead end. Pride, humanity learns ever again, is not a virtue but a sin. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Hubris prevailed. Those who railed against oppressions visited upon sovereign states by an allegedly imperial Washington relied on government's coercive might to deny the full humanity of their fellow citizens. Massive Resistance was neither a departure nor an exception but the extension of Jim Crow and the attitudes informing it. Segregation and its associated indignities were in retreat. Massive Resistance formed a last stand.
"Empathy" has been politicized and in some circles invites derision. Yet, properly understood, empathy leads away from hatred and cruelty and opens hearts to the loving-kindness men and women are intended to magnify. "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master," Abraham Lincoln said. Many simply could not see the harm they did to so many others. Jefferson trembled for his country when he reflected that God is just.
Yesteryear's words cannot be revoked. They endure on newsprint yellow and brittle, on microfilm, and in the computer files into which they have been translated. They belong to history, and history lives. It is well and good that the words be remembered, as a warning perhaps best. We will not forget.
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I was going to say before I accidentally hit transmit, that these excuses are pure PROPAGANDA! Believe me, when I tell you this. It is the truth!
Virginia has never had a goal to educate African-Americans. It is still Massive Resistance. If not, why don’t we create charters and give choice? Why don’t we give minorities vouchers to to go the private schools where they would get an education? Why do we keep them trapped in failing schools year after year? We put the youngest, least able teachers in poor schools.
This is a civil rights issue that still plagues Virginia. Virginia is under the influence of an powerful Spirit of Domination that must be rebuked!
I just want to say that many comments display a great deal of ignorance as to the fact that massive resistance is not just a fact of history, but still continues to this day. Just visit a Title I school or a school with a high number of African-American students and witness the pathetic quality of the teachers and the instruction. I am not entirely blaming the teachers - I think the good teachers who cared were forced out. The educRAT$ do not want to educate the poor and minority students; that is not their goal. Our school is about 70% minority with all white teachers. Minority students are treated with disrespect and not given an education. They are bullied by adults not the other way around. I think this is intentional.
I actually bought into the propoganda about low parent involvement, difficult home life, etc contributing to students’ negative behavior. Then I got to know many of these students, through volunteering, tutoring, etc and discovered these are great kids. They don’t have behavior issues. They love to learn just like all kids! (that is until some teachers and the corrupt system destroy that love of learning) Then I noticed these kids are being bullied by the teachers and are treated with disrespect.
I have figured out how low socioeconomic schools work - administrators who are practicing massive resistance to educating minorities need to blame low test scores on something outside of the school (it is never the school’s fault) so they block parent participation and blame (1) lack of parent involvement and they bully students in order to PROVOKE bad behavior so that they can also blame (2) student behaviors and they disproportionately drive black students into sped classes that everyone knows are just babysitting classes so they can also blame (3) low student ability.
Folks, this stuff is pure prop
Well, can there be any doubt that the RT-D’s circulation has cratered? Leave it to the Culbertson Editorial Board to devote a measly seven paragraphs to an apology for 1950s Massive Resistance editorials published in the Times-Dispatch and in the News Leader. Very fashionable - these apologies. The RT-D pre-dates the Civil War - why not apologize for its editorial support of the Confederacy, too? I can only imagine that Virginius Dabney and Jas J Kilpatrick, highly-credentialed editors and opinion-writers, would, if possible, like to apologize for the inane and vapid editorials written and published daily under the direction of Todd Culbertson. To their credit, Dabney and Kilpatrick were gifted men - who 50 years ago - wrote principled and ethically-sound opinion pieces which reflected and factually depicted the times in which they lived. What’s Culbertson’s excuse? Once a great newspaper - and not because of its defense of Massive Resistance - but because of its brilliant writing.
Certainly Massive Resistance is regrettable and was a mistake. I’m at a loss, however, to see how the Times Dispatch editorial adds anything new or helpful. Apologies spoken or written by those with no connection whatsoever to those who offended impresses me as being pointless, self-serving, presumptuous, and insulting.
“The Times-Dispatch was complicit. The record fills us with regret, which we have expressed before.“ Considering the TD’s failure to tell the whole truth regarding the continuation of the “massive resistance” within the public school system, specifically as it existed within Henrico County Public Schools, the record proves that TD is still complicit when it comes to civil rights violations for children, parents, and educators.
This editorial is severely lacking and not heart felt based on their present actions and unwillingness to cover those without a great deal of power and influence.
What is going to happen fifty years from now? Will there be another editorial expressing sorrow for TD’s indifference today?
So sad…..
Did someone have too much of the adult beverages? Get over it. At the time we were all doing what we thought was correct. To wring our hands and agonize now is nothing more than ego looking for approval on how great we are now. We can expect another apology after the obama era is over.
most times it makes more sense to get to the point, minus the rambling.
Anon: My wife tells me the same thing, but the consolation is she loves me.
23230: Thanks for ‘getting it’and showing a little humor. The world could use a lot more of it. By the way, just so you know, some of my best friends are Roman Catholic and they don’t even all look alike.
Well, since the editorials are the institutional voice of the paper, it is appropriate to look at what they’ve said in the past.
But this is written so oddly. For one thing, it’s all weirdly passive voice. And it reminds me of spies writing poetry: “Wrongs persist. Barks echo. Guns, fired once, now slumber. Snow lies deep in Vienna.“ What IS this? Just say, “We screwed up. It was a dumb position for the paper to take, it hurt a lot of people and held back the state. We’re sorry. We’ll try to take less lamebrained positions in the future.“ Sheesh.
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