Category: Virginia history
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The Continuing Transformation of Virginia Politics
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Toscano, David. Bellwether: Virginia’s Political Transformation, 2006-2020. Lanham: Hamilton Books, 2022 In this book, David Toscano, whose prior work was Fighting Political Gridlock: How States Shape Our Nation and Our Lives (2021), turns his focus on Virginia. The author is a former Democratic member of the Virginia House of Delegates (2006-2020) from…
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Once Upon a Time, Schools Didn’t Need Fancy Buildings, Big Bureaucracies and Trauma Counselors to Teach
by James A. Bacon When Gail Smith talks about growing up in 1950s-era Goochland County, she calls her time attending the Second Union Rosenwald School as “the best years of my life.” The two-room schoolhouse was lacking in what we refer to today as “amenities.” But it was supported by the local African-American community, and…
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1619–A Portentous Year. A Book Review and Summary
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Horn, James. 1619: Jamestown and the Forging of American Democracy. New York: Basic Books, 2018. Notwithstanding the title, this book is not part of the controversial 1619 Project. The author is currently the most prominent and knowledgeable scholar of early colonial Virginia. He is the president and chief officer of the Jamestown…
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Would TJ Be a Republican or Democrat Today?
by Jim McCarthy “Don’t know much about history,” admitted Art Garfunkel in the opening line of the 1978 Wonderful World hit song. History was but one of several subjects Mr. Garfunkel recognized as wanting in his store of knowledge. A few lines later, however, he was confident to assert that “one and one is two.”…
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Comparing Freeman and Lincoln on Race
by Phil Leigh Based upon a background report on Douglas Southall Freeman (1886-1953) by Dr. Lauranett L. Lee, the University of Richmond removed his name from Mitchell-Freeman Hall owing to his alleged racism. All the good that he had done for the school’s funding and academic reputation as a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Board of…
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Richmond University Cancels Douglas Southall Freeman
by Phil Leigh The University of Richmond is “canceling” one of its most distinguished graduates, Douglas Southall Freeman (1886 – 1953). Specifically, they are dropping his name from Mitchell-Freeman Hall. After leaving Richmond University to earn a PhD at Johns Hopkins, Freeman returned to Virginia’s capital where he joined the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 1909 and,…
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Monumental Lies
by Phil Leigh (March 25, 2022) In this morning’s Richmond Times podcast, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Michael Paul Williams asserts that the reason there were no Confederate monuments in the city until the 1890s and afterward was because whites wanted them to symbolize the return of white supremacy after the end of Reconstruction. He implies…
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Slave-Holder Jefferson Paved the Way for Ending Slavery
by Phil Leigh Critical Race Theory and Identity Politics advocates have gained enough influence to cause many Americans to despise some of our country’s most significant founders. Chief among such founders has been Thomas Jefferson. New York City, for example, removed a 200-year-old statue of Jefferson from its city hall last year. When race hustlers…
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The Battle Over History Never Ceases
by Jock Yellott Visit the Virginia Regulatory Town Hall, and you will find that the Department of Historic Resources is fast-tracking regulations governing the contextualization of “monuments or memorials for Certain War Veterans.” I object to this fast-tracking. The new regulations will expedite the promulgation of Woke propaganda to litter the Virginia landscape. The fast-tracked regulations…
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Move On, Can’t Have Divisiveness Over Schools
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Here is a comment by a politician that would fit very well in the comments in BR over the last year or so and is in full accord with Governor Youngkin’s effort to “root out” divisive concepts in schools: “Nothing in my lifetime, and I doubt at any other time in the…
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Remembering
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Jeff Shapiro of the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a nice column today remembering people in Virginia politics and government whose deaths in 2021 may have gone largely unnoticed. For those interested in recent political history, you may want to check it out. During my time around Capitol Square, I knew and have fond…
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Does Jim Ryan Value Jefferson’s Legacy?
by Walter Smith University of Virginia President Jim Ryan has stated that, as long as he holds office, the Thomas Jefferson statue in front of the Rotunda will remain in place. UVa’s founder, he says, will not be de-memorialized. Talk is cheap. When given a golden opportunity to publicize Jefferson’s contribution to religious freedom —…
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Jefferson Defended
by James A. Bacon I was proud of the University of Virginia last night. The Young Americans for Freedom organized an event, “Defending Thomas Jefferson,” featuring National Review editor Rich Lowry and Texas Congressman Chip Roy, both UVa alumni. Organizers believe it was the first time that conservative speakers from outside the university had been…
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Defending Mr. Jefferson
by James A. Bacon Tomorrow evening Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, and Texas Congressman Chip Roy, both of whom are University of Virginia alumni, will participate in event entitled, “In Defense of Mr. Jefferson.” One might not think that the author of the Declaration of Independence, third president of the United States, and founder…
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The Anti-Racist History of Vouchers in Virginia
by James A. Bacon The school choice movement — and vouchers in particular — are portrayed by proponents of public school monopolies as elitist and racist in origin. According to historian Nancy MacLean, the idea for vouchers came out of Virginia’s Massive Resistance to school integration as a way to transfer white children from integrated…