The Cavalier daily. :: Wednesday, October 9, 1968 :: University of Virginia Library

The conference had been
planned to draw the students in the
Virginia area interested in social
action particularly those students
belonging to Church centered
organizations throughout the state.

"It was hoped that bringing
together these students, a statewide
communications system and a
genuine ability for communication
between people would develop," a
conferee said.

SSOC

Participating to a large extent in
the conference were members of
the Southern Student Organizing
Committee, who were invited to
take part to help the rest of the
students gain an idea of where the
basic needs for action lay.

Friday evening, the program was
entirely organizational, orienting
the students to Richmond and the
idea of the conference. After this
orientation, there were workshop
tables set up around the ballroom
of the Jefferson Hotel to allow the
students to sign up for Saturday's
program. Contemporary Movies
were shown, mocking the draft, war
and explaining the problems of
Delano, the center of the grape
controversy. The evening ended
with a folk singing program, in
which everyone participated.

Workshops Organized

Workshops, organized primarily
by the SSOC, were far from dull.
Saturday morning, there were five
workshops dealing with white
racism, high school and campus
organizing, the draft, prison reform,
poor white organizing, and media.
The afternoon saw a slate of
seminars on Black Nationalism,
Student Civil Rights, Free
University, and Labor.

The purpose of these workshops
had been discussed Friday evening.
In an enthusiastic harangue, a
member of the black constituency
at the conference explained the
need for these kind of workshops.
"If the communications gap
continues between students
throughout the nations, between
blacks, and whites working toward
toward the same ends, and between
activist and those who might be
drawn into the program, the result
would be wholesale slaughter as the
isolated groups in the society
reacted against the
misunderstanding rampant in
today's world," he said.

State-wide

He further suggested that at the
end of the workshops, the groups
report on their discussions and
somehow organize state-wide
communications.

Mass Media was perhaps the
subject of greatest importance at
the conference since it embodied
the goal towards which the effort
of the participants were directed.

Saturday morning, Raymond
Boone, the Editor of the Richmond
Afro-American, led a discussion on
the techniques and goals of a
communications network. That
afternoon the workshop continued
discussing the methods of
developing a communications
program among the Virginia schools
and decided to work through a
central office with key
communication men at each school.

Poster Techniques

Also discussed was poster
techniques and guerrilla theater.
Robert Folly, one of the state
directors was subjected
unknowingly to a demonstration of
the theater. He had been wearing
since the beginning of the
conference a bandoleer of
ammunition and three members of
the conference who all appeared
"straight" walked into his
discussion, the media discussion,
and proceeded to arrest him for
breaking a city ordinance
prohibiting the wearing of more
than twelve rounds of bullets in
public.

Not recognizing that this was a
demonstration of the theater he
reacted as he would have to any
policeman, with belligerence. The
result of the whole demonstration
was, that after removing him from
the room, the local radio station
representative even believed that
Mr. Foliy had been arrested.

White Racism

The workshop on White Racism
and Black Nationalism came to
almost identical conclusions. They
agreed that the best way to
approach the civil rights problem at
present was for the white man to
work with other white man in
altering their attitudes and for the
black man to work on improving
his economic and educational
status.

One of the most striking
problems presented by the
conference was the plight of the
Delano grape workers, who for
several years have been trying to
establish a labor union. A
representative of these workers was
at the conference to lead the
discussion, and a movie
accompanied his presentation

Sunday Activities

Sunday the Virginia University
Christian Community held its
organizational meeting, but little
resulted, "Interdenominational
fighting and a ludicrous tenacity to
trivia kept the VUCC from doing
anything significant at its first
meeting," said a Virginia confer.
The representatives agreed that a
Union was necessary and desirable
but this was the only major
decision made. Arguments occurred
as to whether the SSOC was to be
allowed representatives on the state
executive committee of the VUCC.
Many of the representatives from
the church groups had not realized
that the SSOC had been invited to
play in the conference and were
shocked at the efficient way that
the SSOC organized and carried out
the workshop program. Finally by a
vote of 48 to 24 the VUCC decided
to accept representation of the
SSOC.

The rest of their efforts were
delegated into electing from each
school, by a caucus of that school,
members for the state co-ordinating
committee. This done, the
conference adjourned.