St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1952-04-18

very lHcOn peteHJ Olllcidl ~
deal of very competent priv
Preface: Too True to be Go
The data: Forrest Oran Wig
gins, 1907, Vincennes, Indiana;
public schools, Indianapolis; B. A.
Butler University; NJ. A., Ph.D.,
University of Wisconsin; l928-29,
France ("my first sense of free
DOM; the Depression; teaching
positions at Morehouse College
(Negro), Howard University me
gro), the University Of Minnesota
Grounded in the Faith the Men
are Ennobled by Understanding,
Dedicated to the Advancement Of
Learning 80. the Search for
Truth etc. y
The name: Virgins, originally
Virgins with apostrophe), de-
noting that the slave was the pro-
perty of the master.
Apostrophe dropped, 1855.
Married: his wife was a student
of his in an ethics class.
So back in 1855 the family was
set free, and it moved up North
because North was the next best
place to Heaven and settled in In
diana where everybody loved
everybody 1.-THE elementary schools
segregated, however, according to
whether the child was white or
brown, and a generation later a
child was born, and it was named
Forrest oran Virgins (no apos-
trophe).
II was a nice little boy. ! never
caused anybody any trouble. /
read AMERICAN magazine and
believed that IL l never watched
the clock I would grow up and be
a success and own an Oldsmobile. I"
But as he grew older he culu-
waited an interest in Ethics and the
Search for Truth and stuff like
that which he soon decided some
how more important than owning
an Oldsmobile, and he went off to
college and studied literature and
philosophy and sociology. He cop
ped three degrees and was entitled
to call himself "Dr." Virgins.
However. partly because of the
Depression and partly because he
was the wrong color he could not
fin a job, even with DIR" before
his name and no apostrophe after.
He went to France, enjoying in
that traditionally immoral land
my first sense Of freedom"
This seemed strange to his i'm
moral French friends who had
been informed by usually reliable
sources that in the U.S.A. all men
were entirely free from the mo-
ment they were born in a log cab
in until the moment they entered
the White House in Washington
d. c. 1.-THE elementary schools
segregated according to whether
the child was white or brown.)
So Forrest Oran Virgins re-
turned for another look at the u.
8. A., accepted q teaching posi-
ton at Morehouse College me
gro), in Atlanta, Georgia. He did
not feel comfortable down South.
Zone day he saw a Negro woman
beaten my a freedom-loving street
car conductor) After one year he
returned TO the North where
everybody loves everybody, and
where, after the Depression was
ousted by the War. he was APP
pointed (1946) to the staff of the
Philosophy Department OF the
University of Minnesota ca. the
Search for Truth etc. -.
He was still convinced that Ethics
and Truth and stuff like that were
more important than an Oldsmo-
bile. He pursued Ethics and Truth
in a battered Chevrolet.
He was a good teacher. Tie
raised questions. He did not snuff
them out'-former student James
Herman Hlner. Phi Beta Kappa
He was invited to speak at pub
lie functions. At public functions
he said such violent and inflam-
matory things as:
by and large American Ne
groes are content TO remain within
the framework of u. S. democra-
tic-capitalism. When capitalism
fails they will seek another way"
ut seems regrettable to me that
Americans cannot have prosper
ity except when preparing for. or
engaging in, warfare" Even
when the American workers
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