University of Virginia Library

Pre—College Aid

Nineteen sixty-nine portends to
be a remarkable year. Hardly seven
weeks have gone by, and already
the University has been aroused
from her quiet apathy over a truly
worthy issue — that of integration
— for perhaps the first time in her
history. It is, however, unfortunate
that seemingly many a University
man, having been aroused from his
stupor, has jumped on the proverbial
bandwagon without so much as
even casually examining the facts
and concepts behind the cause in
favor of which he has prepared to
do battle.

Among these true believers are
the perpetrators of the blue sheets
which we dorm-dwellers received
Sunday evening. The resolutions
proposed by the authors contain an
astounding number of inaccurate
assertions, the examination of one
of which can at least start us on the
road to a calm and logical consideration
of the facts.

In this pastel immortalization of
Mr. Jefferson and his ideals, the
reader finds the passage, "...all Men
are created equal;" but as usual, the
quotation is employed entirely out
of context. Had the authors of the
sheet bothered to read further in
the Declaration, they would have
realized that the idea relates to the
equality of men with respect to the
God-given rights they possess at
their creation; and that it has no
meaning in relation to the issue of
integration, here or anywhere else.
Indeed, all men are created equal —
but only in relation to these rights.
On a somewhat less lofty plane,
men are disturbingly unequal.

Examine, for instance, the educational
opportunities of the black
Virginian — not on the college level,
but on the secondary level. Negro
high schools in Virginia are, I fear,
strikingly inferior in general. A
concrete example: the University's
Upward Bound Program takes disadvantaged
black (and white) students
primarily from rural areas of
the state, students who show high
potential but somewhat lesser
achievement, College board scores
of these students (when they begin
the program) are frequently less
than half of the mean score of the
University student. Granted, the
SAT is perhaps as much a measurement
of socio-economic acculturation
as of academic preparedness
for college, but it does have some
validity as a measurement of the
latter. How, then, are such gaps to
be overcome by the rural black
student? Of course, a number of
urban black students will undoubtedly
exhibit a greater preparedness
— yet these will tend to be
students from middle class families.
I fear that those who could keep up
with their studies at the University
would be in the great minority; and
that the ghetto or rural Negro, who
must be our first concern, will
benefit little from a crash integration
of the University.

Therefore, in petitioning the
Governor, the Board of Visitors,
and the Administration, should we
not only ask that the qualified
black students be admitted, but
also that a serious effort be made to
improve the quality of the high
school education, and indeed, of
the elementary education, of the
urban and rural Negro student?
When that is done, the cry for
large-scale integration will be valid;
and the average Negro will be able
to compete for admission on a
more nearly equal basis to this and
other southern universities. Mass
integration today, if not conducted
with the greatest of care, could
easily result in the academic failure
of many black students or in the
lowering of the University's academic
standards. No thinking man
could sincerely desire either.

Indeed, the days are not g
in which "progress can be measured
by minute degrees." The
black student, like all men, must be
taught to walk before he can be
expected to run.