Rights Group Organizes as Holton Plan Watchdog
Dublin Core
Title
Rights Group Organizes as Holton Plan Watchdog
Description
Student, faculty, and administrative representatives from Virginia colleges will join forces with civil rights officers to regulate and evaluate Governor Linwood Holton’s statewide desegregation plan before its release in December
The committee was formed at a conference on “Civil RIghts and the Status of Higher Education in Virginia” meeting last weekend at Virginia Union University in Richmond. Two hundred civil rights officials, high school and college administrators, instructors and students converged on the predominantly black campus to “exchange ideas and develop strategies for dealing with the problems of higher education and race.”
William and Mary was represented at the conference by eight students and faculty members but no College administrators participated in the panel discussion which revolved around civil rights in higher education and featured six state college presidents and administrators from three other institutions.
The conference was sponsored by the State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the State Steering Committee of the Coalition of Concerned.
Resolutions from smaller conference workshops proposed that all admissions standards for blacks be dropped at primarily white schools, and that funds intended for the expansion of white state-sponsored schools be instead allotted to primarily black institutes.
To eliminate “dual systems” of education where discrimination is inherent and facilities needlessly duplicated, the conference called for a firm schedule for the establishment of a “unitary system of higher education.”
Early Saturday, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Civil Rights Director J. Stanley Pottinger described HEW desegregation policy guidelines. He stressed the state’s responsibility to devise the exact manner for change and to eliminate any “racial identification” at federally funded schools, in accord with Title 6 of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
A panel discussion followed, featuring representatives from every major state institution except William and Mary and Virginia Tech. According to SAC chairman David Sprunt, invitations had been sent to top administrators at each college. Director of Public Information Ross Weeks, who attended the conference, disagreed. “We weren’t asked to serve on the panel at all,” he said yesterday. “We were asked to go only to the part with Mr. Pottinger speaking.”
Assistant to the President Dean Olsen also attended the Saturday session. According to Olsen, “We weren’t asked to stay for any specific part we went as observers, not as participants in the panel.”
Continuation on page 4
Dr. Roy Hudson, new president of the Hampton Institute, dominated the panel discussion, beginning with an attack on white college administrators who pride themselves on their efforts toward desegregation.
“The white university,” he declared, “seeks to be congratulated for doing what it ought to be doing.” He maintained further that the “university has been perpetuating this discrimination” all along.
Hudson also criticised the lack of funds sent to black schools, claiming that this contributes to “cyclic racism”, in which black institutions are called “inferior” and are thus given even less money which perpetuates their inferiority.
Describing civil rights laws, Hudson stated, “We keep making laws and building loopholes to get around them. Title 6 is just more of this.”
He further attacked the “all talk and no action” aspect of the convention. “This convention offers a great opportunity for catharsis--we go away with the feeling that our consciences have been salved.”
In discussing exchange programs, Hudson warned that unless sufficient changes were made in student life and attitudes, a black placed in a white school setting would be molded into an “Afro-Saxon.”
At a workshop near the end of the conference, Student Association Minority Affairs Chairman Tom Rees of William and Mary advised representatives from other colleges as to the possibilities for instituting inter-institutional exchanges between predominantly white and predominantly black schools such as the one between William and Mary and Hampton Institute which begins next semester.
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The committee was formed at a conference on “Civil RIghts and the Status of Higher Education in Virginia” meeting last weekend at Virginia Union University in Richmond. Two hundred civil rights officials, high school and college administrators, instructors and students converged on the predominantly black campus to “exchange ideas and develop strategies for dealing with the problems of higher education and race.”
William and Mary was represented at the conference by eight students and faculty members but no College administrators participated in the panel discussion which revolved around civil rights in higher education and featured six state college presidents and administrators from three other institutions.
The conference was sponsored by the State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the State Steering Committee of the Coalition of Concerned.
Resolutions from smaller conference workshops proposed that all admissions standards for blacks be dropped at primarily white schools, and that funds intended for the expansion of white state-sponsored schools be instead allotted to primarily black institutes.
To eliminate “dual systems” of education where discrimination is inherent and facilities needlessly duplicated, the conference called for a firm schedule for the establishment of a “unitary system of higher education.”
Early Saturday, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Civil Rights Director J. Stanley Pottinger described HEW desegregation policy guidelines. He stressed the state’s responsibility to devise the exact manner for change and to eliminate any “racial identification” at federally funded schools, in accord with Title 6 of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
A panel discussion followed, featuring representatives from every major state institution except William and Mary and Virginia Tech. According to SAC chairman David Sprunt, invitations had been sent to top administrators at each college. Director of Public Information Ross Weeks, who attended the conference, disagreed. “We weren’t asked to serve on the panel at all,” he said yesterday. “We were asked to go only to the part with Mr. Pottinger speaking.”
Assistant to the President Dean Olsen also attended the Saturday session. According to Olsen, “We weren’t asked to stay for any specific part we went as observers, not as participants in the panel.”
Continuation on page 4
Dr. Roy Hudson, new president of the Hampton Institute, dominated the panel discussion, beginning with an attack on white college administrators who pride themselves on their efforts toward desegregation.
“The white university,” he declared, “seeks to be congratulated for doing what it ought to be doing.” He maintained further that the “university has been perpetuating this discrimination” all along.
Hudson also criticised the lack of funds sent to black schools, claiming that this contributes to “cyclic racism”, in which black institutions are called “inferior” and are thus given even less money which perpetuates their inferiority.
Describing civil rights laws, Hudson stated, “We keep making laws and building loopholes to get around them. Title 6 is just more of this.”
He further attacked the “all talk and no action” aspect of the convention. “This convention offers a great opportunity for catharsis--we go away with the feeling that our consciences have been salved.”
In discussing exchange programs, Hudson warned that unless sufficient changes were made in student life and attitudes, a black placed in a white school setting would be molded into an “Afro-Saxon.”
At a workshop near the end of the conference, Student Association Minority Affairs Chairman Tom Rees of William and Mary advised representatives from other colleges as to the possibilities for instituting inter-institutional exchanges between predominantly white and predominantly black schools such as the one between William and Mary and Hampton Institute which begins next semester.
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Creator
Swem Special Collections
Source
November 24, 1970
The Flat Hat Volume 60, Number 18
The Flat Hat Volume 60, Number 18
Publisher
The William and Mary Flat Hat
Date
November 24, 1970
Contributor
Ellie Dassler, metadata and transcription
Files
Citation
Swem Special Collections, “Rights Group Organizes as Holton Plan Watchdog,” The Lemon Project, accessed April 19, 2024, https://lemonlab.wm.edu/items/show/153.