The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1962-11-02

abolished completely for at least
a period of time. That statement
Of opinion did come after the
1894 supreme Court decision.
yes. but it became, it came.
some three or four years before
any overt action in the county
Of q public nature. Tie man
whom l heard express that be-
lief was j. Barrye Wall. 0Wi.er
and publisher and editor of the
Farmville Herald, and certainly
the principal spokesman for the
Prince Edward Foundation Of
recent years. Not upon that one
assertion alone, but starting with
that, I have believed ever since
1859 that our lack of schools in
Prince Edward County actually
was in no way. in no causative
way. the result of the Supreme
Court decision of "a. was in no
way directly the result of the
demand by the Negro population
OF the county for Indignation in
tie schools. Such matters have
been merely the excuse used to
accomplish. at least tempo
ralily. a far deeper and far
more serious effort. We are a
county with a very small eco
nomic upper class and the great
majority of the population both
white and colored of relatively
low economic status. And have
contebded, and I still believe my
contention is true, that what has
caused our situation there is
that the small in number veal
thy members of the county, for
one thing. and this is the minor
part of it. have desired to re-
ieve themselves of the financial
burden of being the principal
supporters of public school
system and to substitute for that
the financial burden of maintain
ing a private school for their
own children. But that primary
purposce is to destroy public edu-
cation for both, yes, the Negro
children of the county. but also
the white children of the county
in order that they might retain
an unlimited cheap labor sup
ply for the few, for the indus
tries of the county. A cheap la
Dor supply. a non-oraani7ed la
Dor supply. and they don't have
to bother about the fact that I'M
educated. it will be an unskilled
labor supply. There are no in
dustries in the county that need
or require high skills. That l
believe. explains the fact. the
depth and the length that people
in the county have been willing
to go to. to accomplish their
purposes. In other communities
in Virginia there has been oppo-
sition to Indignation of the
schools. but is largely, it has
quickly collapsed. The adamant,
the prolon ged. the indie
finite resistance to integrated
public schools in our county.
believe. owes its existence and
its length of existence to this.
this belief on the part of the
weather. part Of the population
that they can get along better
without public education. l grant
you that it is one of the most
cruel, heartless things, l have
ever seen in my lifetime for II
1900. 1000 children regardless OF
the color of their skins to be de-
MED education for one year. for
two years. for three years. and
now for the fourth year. But I
ask you. despite our acute con-
seriousness Of such a thing, is it
not an even more heartlesS, it /
is not an even more unbelieva-
bly, cruel thing in the democracy
of the United States Of America
dependent upon education for
the continued existence of that
democracy for the people in
even one county to set out pur-
posely, intentionally, not admit !
tedly, but set out to destroy pub
lie education completely for the
entire population of the county
for as long as they are capable
OF maintaining such destruction?
Maybe should attempt to
support that Interpretation some
what further l think this sue
cession of events does support
it:
Take Initiative
when in June of 1859, the
Board of Supervisors refusel to
appropriate funds for public
schools for the year $3.50, one
other white citizen of the county
and myself, because somebody
has to take the initiative, we be-
gan Immediately to attempt to
discover some way of preventing
so calamitous a thing as the
closing of schools. OF course, our
remarks to the Board of Super
viSorS were moth hing. accom-
plished nothing whatsoever. But
by the end of August of that
year of SO. we had found that
the two men who could more
nearly speak the mind of the
Negro nOnu1atiOn Of tho co,,nfv