University of Virginia Library

Letters: Recruiting
Of Negro Athletes

The NAACP's protest against
the Student Aid Foundation's
Peter, Paul and Mary concert.
Saturday focused attention on a
real problem at U. Va.-for all
extents and purposes we appear
to be lily-white. We are responsible
for an "image" which discourages
African international students as
well as black athletes from applying.
As one coach said, "The
Negro boy has a very hard time
fitting in at U. Va." While the
real problem may be in the procrustean
"fitting in" ethos which
pervades the grounds, the race
problem is one of its most visible
manifestations.

The fact that the coaches, the
University, and the Student Aid
Foundation have been unable to
induce a "Jackie Robinson" to
attend may indicate something
about their recruiting efforts. But
it says far more about the University
and its student body. Why,
225 years after our founder's birth,
do black students feel uncomfortable
here?....perhaps the even
sadder truth is that U. Va. reflects
America too authentically.

Some had hoped P, P & M,
great advocates of and contributors
to the civil rights movement, would
criticize their lily-white audience or
rebuke our semi-segregated establishment.
But PP&M did far more
than that. Their message was not
one of rejection of the present
but rejoicing in the future. Their
irrepressible hope and confidence
swept everyone in U. Hall to their
feet. Here was unembarrassed affirmation
of LOVE, JUSTICE,
PEACE. They sang of changing
times when all men would be
brothers, when war would be no
more. They cheered while we "tear
this building down" and affirm the
fullness of life. Their power came
from the truth and beauty of their
message. And just as it happened
Saturday night, they are saying,
it can happen everywhere men will
be men, and allow men to be men.

Listen again to "Blowin' in the
Wind" and "If I had a Hammer"
-they ought to be a rallying cry
for a new semester as we seek
to affirm what we sang in spirit
and life, "the times they are a-changin''."

The Dinner Party

There were no Negroes among
the forty delegates to the Virginia
General Assembly who refused to
attend the dinner given for the
delegates by J. Johns of Charlottesville
at the racially discriminatory
Commonwealth Club last Wednesday
night. The absence of these
men was a statement of support
of, specifically, the Negro delegate
who could not attend the dinner,
and, generally, the duty of the
majority to oppose such immoral
discrimination even if it causes
some personal discomfort.

There were no Negroes among
the University professors who
ceased patronizing Buddy's because
of the unreasonably prejudicial
policy of that establishment.
Undoubtedly this also caused some
personal inconvenience.

In Virginia, as these examples
suggest, the rights and freedoms of
the minority are protected by the
majority even if the cost of such
defense is some inconvenience or
discomfort.

There is a similar situation, but
with a far different conclusion in
the recent Student Council actions
concerning the Nurses' Council,
the Phi Alpha Delta Legal Fraternity
and the temporary dropping
of the non-segregation rule for
some immediate group convenience.
To circumvent the spirit
of what ultimately is a moral statement,
is not only immoral, but
dishonest, hypocritical, dishonorable
and without personal or institutional
integrity. That the Student
Council has assumed such a
posture for petty reasons causes
one to wonder-in spite of the constant
exaltation of Honor and Mr.
Jefferson (as if this campus had a
monopoly on both)-if perhaps
Karl Shapiro was right when he
wrote of the University of Virginia
in a poem, "To hurt the Negro....
Is the curriculum."

Exposes Self

The good old Student Council
has exposed itself. It voted 11 to
6 (I think that was the exact
tally) with 1 dignified abstention
to protect the ephemeral lily pure
Southern white girl (does she
exist?) from the horrible polluting
effects of black skin; to protect
its reputation with the Klan;
to protect the University from
atheistic, Communistic race-mixing.
(Note on the abstention: To
abstain is to be a moderate. Thus
proving again, after all these years,
that a Southern moderate is a
moderate segregationist).

Racism will never falter! No
matter how obvious we are, no
matter how insulting, no matter
how tiresome, no matter how cruel
or ignorant our vote may show us
to be, we must never shirk our
pursuit of the ideal inhuman civilization.
Oh, wow.