University of Virginia Library

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."