Jo Freeman's Review of The Road to Healing: A Civil Rights Reparations Story in Edward County, Virginia

Jo Freeman's Review of The Road to Healing: A Civil Rights Reparations Story in Prince Edward County, Virginia

Students striking in Farmville

This would be a concrete reparation for a concrete injury.

Right: In July 1963, students march in Farmville to protest the long-term disruption of their education. Photo Richmond Times- Dispatch, Encyclopedia Virginia

This book is the story of how the General Assembly finally created those scholarships. There was a lot of politics involved. For example, the General Assembly voted to "express regret" rather than apologize for massive resistance. While Virginia’s current Governor was an early convert, it was the joint statement of support by a group of former governors that turned the tide. The last governor to sign on was Virginia’s only African-American governor. The politics behind that is fascinating reading.

Even with agreement on the purpose, funding was a problem. Supporters wanted at least two million dollars at a time when state money was tight. A private philanthropist offered one million and the sitting governor finally came through with another million.

Then there was the question of who exactly should benefit: Only those who couldn’t go to school in 1959-1964? Those who managed to get some schooling and now wanted to complete college or graduate degrees? Only blacks, or also the whites who lost years from school?

This book threads its way through these and other complications to the final victory, which of course was a compromise, as all political victories are. Students of state government will want to follow the ins and outs closely.

Once he found his cause, Woodley became a missionary. Indeed he writes more like a preacher than a journalist, let alone an historian. But he was a missionary in the right place. His years at The Farmville Herald had given him contacts in the government. He knew whom to talk to and had access. There was still a lot to do, but not just anyone could have pulled this off. The fact that he was white may have been an asset; it certainly wasn’t a liability.

While two million dollars in reparations for a specific group might not seem like much for all the harm that was done by segregated schools, that fact that it was done tells us a lot about how much has changed since the 1950s. We can celebrate the fact that the fight was not a moral one. Everyone accepted the idea that massive resistance to integration was wrong. We can lament the fact that no one who has resources really wants to pay for the harms that were done – or at least not many of them.

Talking about reparations won’t erase the color line that still divides this country. But it will raise consciousness. That’s a good thing. As we have learned from other countries, truth and reconciliation can take us down the road to healing.

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Jo Freeman's Review of The Road to Healing: A Civil Rights Reparations Story in Prince Edward County, Virginia

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