University of Virginia Library

'Racism' And Reason

In clarifying its policy on the use of
"white only" facilities by University organizations,
the Student Council should
consider the report released this past weekend
on the causes of last summer's riots
in Newark and the "progress" report on
school integration in Virginia published in
the February 3rd issue of The New Republic
by a member of the University's department
of government and foreign affairs.

The Newark report, the first comprehensive
study of a city involved in last summer's
holocaust, was harshly critical of the
Newark city administration and of the police
and National Guard units called in to quell
the four-day disturbance.

The New Jersey Governor's Commission
on Civil Disorder concluded that there was
insufficient evidence that the riot was the
result of any "conspiracy" and was, in
fact, the culmination of long-standing ills,
chief among them Mayor Addonizio's insensitivity
to the needs of the Negro community.
The riot was preceded by a complete
breakdown in relations between the
Negroes and the police, who, when the rioting
started, were guilty of "excessive and
unjustified" use of force-in the Commission's
words, "overkill."

The Commission, it is interesting to note,
was assembled to reflect a wide spectrum
of political opinion in the state, and included
not only three Negro leaders, but
two former governors, the president of New
Jersey Bell Telephone and a judge known
for his political conservatism. This makes
its conclusions seen particularly valid.

In the next few months, we are likely
to hear much the same language used by
similar commissions formed in the wake of
last summer's violence. We are likely to
hear the same grim conclusion: "There
is no evidence of improvement since the
riot last July." And we can easily see the
implication: this coming summer will prove
even more violent than the last.

Although the state of Virginia saw none
of the anarchy that afflicted Newark and
Detroit and a number of other industrial
cities, the Negroes of this state have ample
reason to feel that they, too, have been
sold out by a government yielding to political
expediency. This is a conclusion reached
after reading "How To Beat Integration,"
an article in The New Republic by Gary
Orfield, assistant professor of government
and foreign affairs at the University.

Mr. Orfield writes that "political compromises
in Washington have virtually destroyed
the federal effort to desegregate
Southern schools." Focusing on Virginia,
he says that the government has failed to
use its power to cut off the flow of federal
money into local school districts despite
flagrant violations of desegregation guidelines.
"It was as if the Internal Revenue
Service demanded full payment of income
tax but then clearly demonstrated by its
actions that it was perfectly safe to leave
three-fourths unpaid." He cites the case
of Henrico County, a bastion of liberalism
compared to some Southside Virginia
counties; with only six per cent Negro students,
the county last fall failed to meet the
minimum requirements of even the "freedom
of choice" compromise plan.

"The Civil Rights Act could still make
race irrelevant in education in most of the
South," Mr. Orfield concludes. "There
could be no greater contribution to Southern
education, but the opportunity will be brief.
There are no signs of the needed commitment
in Washington now."

The American Negro, whether urban or
rural, is still living as a second-class citizen.
If he lives in the ghettos of Newark,
the indifference at City Hall, the filth, the
unemployment, the lack of opportunity
for a decent education, the agonizing contrast
between the affluence of white society
and the poverty of his own-all are the same
as they were last summer. If he lives in
rural Virginia, his life will be little better,
the slights heaped upon him by the whites
will remain, and the only hope of advancement-a
good education, which in
economy-minded Virginia would require an
integrated school-will have been erased by
the equivocation of politicians in Washington,
despite all their promises of a Great
Society.

The Student Council's action should be
considered in light of the American Negro's
plight. There are only 71 Negro students
at the University, out of an enrollment of
8,332, but they are paying activities fees
like any other student, and many of their
parents are paying Virginia taxes like the
parents of any other in-state student. It is
little to ask, then, for the Student Council
to respect their feelings by requiring University-subsidized
organizations to avoid
patronizing restaurants and clubs that exclude
Negroes. At a time of so much
racial injustice and strife-we have only to
look as far as Orangeburg, South Carolina-such
a ruling on the Council's part is
a very small concession indeed, but one
well worth making if it helps one Negro
student feel more at home at the institution
intended by its founder to be the capstone
of education for all the citizens of the
Commonwealth.

The Council has administered its policy
of requiring student organizations to be
recognized in such a haphazard and incomplete
fashion that Mr. Evans was wise
to suspend the no discrimination rule
temporarily so the entire issue can be
studied. We look forward to seeing the Council
conclude this study with a clear-cut
decision, first, to inform all organizations
exactly what its rules are, and, second, to
enforce them strictly and fairly.

We still do not agree with Mr. Gay
that the University is "racist." While most
of its students might reflect a white Southern
heritage in proving something less than civil
rights zealots, this is far from "racism."
If the University were truly racist, Mr.
Gay would not have been elected to the
Student Council, and the Council would
not have approved the no discrimination
rule in the first place.

Rather than being racist, the majority
of University students are merely oblivious
to the urgency felt by most Negroes and an
increasing number of whites for ending the
legal and social inequities between the races.
Compared to the Newark riots and the desegregation
guidelines, the issue of holding
dances at Fry's Springs may seem trivial,
but what it symbolizes for the Negro students
at the University is not unimportant
in the least.