Charlottesville apologizes for school segregation
CHARLOTTESVILLE — City Council has apologized for Charlottesville’s role in Virginia’s Massive Resistance to school integration in the 1950s.
The resolution unanimously approved Monday will be sent to the 12 black students who first integrated the city’s public school system.
Massive Resistance was Virginia’s state-sanctioned response to the 1954 Supreme Court decision that ruled unconstitutional school segregation.
In Charlottesville, all the city’s white schools were closed in the face of integration. Several other localities also refused to integrate.
Charlottesville School Board member Juan Wade says the apology was “very honorable.“ Wade says the school board should consider similar action.
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Once a deed is done, you cannot go back and undo the deed. Once a word is spoken, you cannot take it back.
I went to segregated schools in southern Louisana. There was no racial tension where I lived that I am aware of, ok.
Not all caucasians were born with a silver spoon in their mouth.
What most people do not realize is that during slavery, less than 5% of the population controlled the wealth.
How many of the young people have ever heard of endentured serveants or share croppers?
I owe no one an apology about race. I did not hear it at home, nor in the schools.
Growing up as a member the working poor makes me appreciated what I have today. We were only poor in the monetary sense, not in priciples and values.
The good old days are now, even though I still remember how to milk a cow, churn butter, slop a pig and work in a garden.
For posters pulling the old race card, kindly get your hands dirty then we might have something in common. Manual labor is good for the soul.
Does that mean I can expect an apology for being bused out of my white/safe neighborhood into a black neighborhood where whites were beat up based on the color of their skin?
It would make me feel so much better about myself if a sap group of government leaders would pretend they cared about me.
Just when you think you heard all the nonsense something like this story appears
While I agree with many posters that the need for an apology from those who did not commit the wrong is unnecessary (not to mention meaningless), I do want to point out that for those systems who completely shut down their school, rather than integrate, not only denied young black children from attending school, but also denied the opportunity for white children from poor families to attend school. In many localities, once the public schools were shut down, the only option left for education was to attend private school. If a family (white, black, brown, green, purple) could not afford private school tuition or still weren’t from the “right” side of the tracks, they too were denied an opportunity to attend school. To think that adults would deny kids the opportunity to learn simple because of skin is disgusting.
I rather see any living members of city council, school board, etc apologize for their direction role in Massive Resistance, rather than some brand new member who may not even have been alive during that time.
kerri: What does the apology accomplish? What’s the point other than to get the last word in? I could obsess over plenty of folks apologizing to me about a host of things, but life is short and I choose to get on with it. Schools are integrated now - have been for decades. Problem is black achievement in those schools hasn’t improved over what it was in segregated schools. Shouldn’t someone be apologizing to today’s students for that fact? Wallowing in past injustice is a way of avoiding present inadequacy. If you wish to take that as a racist comment, that’s your problem but it is also the problem of a black community in denial over it’s failures.
Give it a rest allready no one has to give an apology for something they never had anything to do with.I am so sick of people pulling the race card when things don’t go there way.
Now, let’s hear from the NAACP. I would like to hear, “Apology accepted. Now, let’s move on together.“
Ignorance of the affects of segregation still facinate me and I was born in the 70’s long after segregation ended. For those who did not clearly read the article or understand the intention of the city council - 1) the city apologized for the role they played in denying education to American citizens. Can you imagine schools in an ENTIRE city actually closing because they refused to admit children based on the color of their skin? Of course not. 2) The city apologized to the 12 students (who most definitely are still alive!) who personally endured this kind of hatred and ignorance. The apology should have been given years ago when the city made the ridiculous decision to close schools rather than integrate. This apology is long overdue for something that should never happened…and the ignorance displayed in previous posts is something that should never have happened as well.
Why should they have to apologize? They were not directly involved and no one alive today sufferred from it. I do not owe you an apology and you do not deserve one. Move on from the past.
I wonder why the council members didn’t apologize for the slaves they owned or any other possible transgressions they have committed during their lives?
This bunch of liberal apologists just can’t stand to live in a democracy where the people themselves are the government instead of them.
I do not nor none of my ancestors owned slaves or had anything to do with segregation. I have nothing to apologize for and the rest of you should get over it yourselves.
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