University of Virginia Library

Stunted Generation

There have been several arguments
advanced against demanding
that Mr. C. Stuart Wheatley resign
from the Board of Visitors. I would
like to address myself here to only
a couple of the illusions that prevailed
at the Student council meeting
Tuesday night.

The first is the apologetic plea
on behalf of Mr. Wheatley, that
"He was only acting as a representative
of the popular will, in accordance
with the democratic process,
when he fought for massive resistance
in the 50's and 60's." It was
most distressing to see that it was
the Southerners and Virginians on
the Council who most frequently
expressed that view. As Southerners,
we should have a more accurate
picture of our own history and the
realities of our society than these
government-text-books illusions of
how things happen. We should
know that our history has not been
one of our political leaders merely
legislating on or ratifying what just
happened (by some unexplained
phenomenon) to be the popular
view, i.e. racism. In fact, the entire
history of the South has been one
of the politicians, plant managers,
and the media they control creating
and perpetuating racism as a tool to
maintain their own power. If you
think that sounds like an unfair
conspiracy theory, I can only recommend
that you first read and
know your own history, and then
decide for yourself. Ask yourself
the following. How, in the old
South, did 400,000 slave holders
maintain total political control over
ten million other, less-well-off black
and white Southerners? How did
the "New South" Democrats divide
and defeat the Southern Populists?
What has been a major tool used by
the Yankee-owned companies and
their Southern political allies to
divide and break the Southern labor
movement? — to prevent an alliance
of poor whites and blacks, in order
to exploit both? Who finances the
activities of the Klan? Why? And

who finances schools such as Hampton
Institute and Virginia State
College for Negroes (as originally
chartered)? And why? An examination
of these and other important
questions in our history may
lead one to the conclusion that the
racist institutions of the South have
not been created by objective politicians
reluctantly responding to
the ignorant yet natural prejudices
of the "popular will."

Relevant to our discussion of
Wheatley is the recognition of one
logical tool traditionally used by
those in power to maintain the
"white supremacy" mythology —
total separation of the races. How
can you teach young whites that
they are superior, or young blacks
that they are inferior, if they play
basketball together every day at
recess? Thus, it was essential for
such "responsible leaders" as
Wheatley, Godwin, Byrd, and Gallard
Gray to fight for the maintenance
of a system that kept in
perpetuation their main avenue to
power — racism. How can you
shake the "nigger stick" in a campaign

if people have learned through
association that "niggers" don't
really exist?

The questions now become —
Who was affected by Mr. Wheatley's
actions? And Who are we? The
answer to both questions is the
same. WE ARE THE GENERATION
WHOSE GROWTH AND
EDUCATION WAS STUNTED BY
MR. C. STUART WHEATLEY!!
The lives of the black members of

our generation were harmed beyond
apology by "massive resistance."
It is impossible to comprehend
the damage done to young
black people who were denied an
education by Mr. Wheatley and his
cohorts. Having worked in Southside
Virginia with the Virginia
Students Civil Rights Committee, I
was able to learn more of the
effects of "massive resistance" than
I ever could have learned at this or
any university. As late as 1967, for
instance, black students were being
drafted in Farmville, Va., because
they were too old to receive a high
school deferment. They were too
old to be in high school because for
eight years, they had no school to
go to —thanks to the gentile Mr.
Wheatley. It is true that only black
Virginians really understand the
effects of "massive resistance," but
when two black people that broke
through enough of the barriers to
get on to the U.Va. Student Council
tried to tell what it was like and
why Wheatley must go — nobody
could hear them. They could have
shouted out their oppression — but
at least fifteen members of the
Student Council just couldn't hear
them, possibly couldn't even see
them.

But what about us? — the white
students — Didn't Mr. Wheatley and
his friends have an affect on us?
Apparently so. One of the most
important reasons for the validity
of Mr. Ogle's oft-quoted statement
that "We are all racists," is that we
grew up and were socialized in a
segregated school system established
by Mr. C. Stuart Wheatley, et
al. Okay, so we grew up in this
guy's racist training institutions.
But we are here now. We are
mature and we have now found out
who at least one of the people was
who deprived us of a meaningful
social education in secondary
school. So what do we do? Do we
let the man who presided over our
miseducation from age 6 to 18
continue to preside over our education
from age 18 to 25? I hope that
we would have a little more sense
than that.

The man is a criminal. He has
violated the 1871 law against conspiring
to deny equal protection of
the laws, and he has committed a
crime against us. He has contributed
to our own cultural deprivation
by pushing us through a segregated
school system. He has helped
to make us racists.

Neither the post-facto promises
of a murderer "not to do it again"
nor the fact that other people
commit the crime alters our attitudes
toward preventive measures
regarding that kind of criminal. Nor
does the state fail to prosecute
because it took a couple of years to
gather the convicting evidence.

The issues are clear enough. We
are the generation that Mr. Wheatley,
through his actions, screwed
up. We are now older and wiser
members of a university community.
We have found this man out. We
no longer want to be ruled by
"gentlemen" such as him. And we
therefore demand that Mr. C.
Stuart Wheatley resign from our
Board of Visitors.

For a Free University in a Free
South,