University of Virginia Library

Chase Stuart Wheatley

Why Wheatley? C. Stuart Wheatley bears
heavy responsibility for the deplorable effects
of Virginia Massive Resistance to school
desegregation in 1959. As a member of the
General Assembly, he introduced the tuition
grant program which allowed the state of
Virginia to give money to children attending
private schools. This in effect allowed a city or
county to close its public schools, and replace
them with all white private academies. In Prince
Edward County - the most extreme
manifestation of massive resistance - public
schools were closed for six years and many
black children went without formal education.
The action of Wheatley and the other leaders of
massive resistance retarded the growth of a
truly equal educational system within the Old
Dominion which would provide the best
education possible for all of the state's citizens.

The difficulties many black students encounter
at the present time in meeting the
standards for admittance to the University are
rooted in the substandard separate and unequal
educational system Mr. Wheatley and other
sought to perpetuate.

Our intentions are not that Mr. Wheatley be
made a scapegoat. His guilt is shared by most
white Virginians, including other members of
the Board of Visitors. Yet, because of his
central role in massive resistance it seems
incumbent upon Mr. Wheatley to publicly
repudiate the principles behind massive resistance
- principles it might be suggested which
were less rooted in the preservation of states