The University of Virginia’s board passed a resolution last week professing regret for the use of slaves on the campus between 1819 and 1865, according to this article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
“The board expresses its particular regret for the employment of enslaved persons in these years and . . . expresses as well its profound respect for the contributions of these women and men, by whose ingenuity and labor much of what is now admired at the university as a national and world treasure came to be,” the resolution reads in part.
The Washington Post also has an article about this resolution, which was adopted April 13, the birthday of UVa founder Thomas Jefferson. In it, one person laments that such resolutions, including that adopted by the Virginia Assembly earlier this year, don’t go far enough.
“In addition to apologizing for slavery, the board might have apologized for the lamentable record of the university in bringing about integration,” said [professor emeritus of Southern and civil rights history Paul] Gaston, who has been at the school 50 years. The first black student was admitted in 1950, but it was more than 15 years before more widespread change came. “That’s scandalous.”
The Daily Progress reports that M. Rick Turner, former dean of African-American affairs, would like an apology. He gives a bit of a history lesson regarding slaves at UVa:
Turner said for too long the university has remained silent on the issue of slavery, and that people need to remember just how profoundly the local black experience was shaped by slavery.
“The first connection of many African-Americans to Charlottesville was as slaves brought in to work at the university,” Turner said. “For example, slaves rang the bell before school started and students at the university were accommodated to bring their own slaves to school with them.”
Turner expressed hope that the resolution would be the start of a conversation. I agree. That’s all these resolutions can do: help start the conversation about slavery and its lingering effects on our society.
And speaking of conversations, don’t forget that there are two remaining in the series being hosted by Norfolk United Facing Race, both of them this weekend.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
So if I understand this right…
UVa is apologizing to a bunch of dead black people for the actions of a bunch of dead white people?
I’m sure it meant a lot to their dusty bones.
I can’t figure out why this offends white people, I really can’t.
It doesn’t offend me, I’m just not sure why it is news. Or why it needed to happen, even.
I doubt it made anyone feel better — except UVA’s board.
Maybe some live male white people can apologize to some live black people, other minorities, and women for the school’s shameful failure to integrate until long after Jim Crow was dead, and for its treatment of women when it first went co-ed in the 70s. Still waiting….