Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 4 · column 4 of 5 · from the scan, no model involved
Rappahannock schools were segregated when I grew up; the whole structure of Jim Crow was still in place. Like many of my generation I came to see it as w rong and unfair, even if it meant alienation from one’s own community. Or thinking you are the only one in your town or school who thinks that way. My mock election speech for Johnson contained no mention of civil rights. I was in contemporary parlance, a “closet liberal."
And never in my wildest dreams did I think I would one day be sitting and composing a piece celebrating the election of our first African American president. The only other event comparable in terms of the feeling of elation and plain simple feeling good, feeling proud of one's state, was in 1989 on the election night that saw Doug Wilder elected governor of Virginia. Virginia, the state of “massive resistance" and school closings to thwart integration, where the poll tax was a weapon employed to suppress voter participation not just by blacks but by anyone that might not be in favor of the Byrd Machine.
Our country and our state*, and our people, have come a long way since 1964 when I was a senior at Rappahannock County High getting my first involvement in the civic process. Truly, the election of 2008 marked a revolution, a peaceful, orderly one, and January 20, 2009 marks a day w’hen the words of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution took one giant, irreversible step toward fulfillment.
I am a 1965 graduate* of Rappahannock County High School and proud native of Gid Brown Hollow. I still regard Rappahannock as my home, despite residing for many years in the shadow of Monticello.
Patrick Alther
Charlottesville
81.1%