In Virginia, More to 'Get Over' Than Slavery

Recall (courtesy of the Virginia Historical Society) this repugnant chapter of Virginia's racial history that occurred in Hargrove's time:

· On Feb. 20, 1960, students from the historically black Virginia Union University entered Woolworth's department store on Broad Street in Richmond, sat at the lunch counter and patiently waited to be served. Instead, the management closed the store.

· On June 9, 1960, an integrated group of youths sat at a Peoples Drug store lunch counter in Arlington. Waitresses served the whites, then walked away. A few minutes later, the lunch counter was closed.

· In 1963, protesters gathered in front of the College Shoppe Restaurant on Main Street in Farmville. Management refused to serve blacks. Sheriff's deputies, in keeping with Virginia's Jim Crow laws, forcibly removed them.

Today, black Virginians no longer must ride in the backs of buses. They aren't confined to theater balconies or other designated areas. Their visits to restrooms, parks, beaches and swimming pools are not blocked by "White Only" signs.

Most changes didn't result from state action. Virginia's Jim Crow system was brought down by a combination of lawsuits, a courageous civil rights movement, people such as Elaine R. Jones and Oliver W. Hill of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and federal civil rights laws.

And contrary to what Frank Hargrove and others may wish to believe, the state's legacy of segregation and discrimination in education and employment has harmed many black Virginians, depriving them of the tangible benefits enjoyed by their white counterparts.

Professor Richard F. America put it this way in his book "Paying the Social Debt: What White America Owes Black America": "Discrimination is good for someone, but most people have chosen to think of it merely as unkind or socially unfair. . . . Restitution theory strips away the pretense. It lets us see how discrimination has indirectly enriched millions of people relative to those who have been excluded."

Now chill. This piece isn't about reparations. It is, however, a reminder -- as if one is needed -- that the Emancipation Proclamation did not remove the shackles from the descendants of slaves; that injustice and inequality were an integral part of Virginia during the adult life of Frank Hargrove.

Which gets me to the source of his consternation: the legislative proposal for Virginia to issue an apology for slavery. I'm not sure it's worth the trouble. But if the effort must be made, why should the apology be limited to involuntary servitude? Why not include the sins of segregation and discrimination? Unlike slavery, those are sins that loads of Virginians, alive and well today, had something to do with.

kingc@washpost.com