Tag Archives: Virginia

It Happened in Virginia

history, human rights,

Virginia has a very complicated history. Home to 8 presidents, all of whom owned slaves themselves or, in the case of Woodrow Wilson, came from slave-owning families. Hotbed of segregation following Board v Board, in some cases choosing to close public schools rather than integrate.

Through my book group’s September book selection, I have learned of Virginia’s leadership in another infamous chapter in US history: the eugenics movement.

The Lies They Told by Ellen Marie Wiseman is a powerful and disturbing novel. Wiseman focuses on the eugenics movement in the United States in the years between the world wars. She does so through the story of Lena, a German immigrant who arrives in Ellis Island in 1928 with her mother, brother and young daughter. We follow Lena through the often humiliating process of being admitted to the country on Ellis Island and learn more about those who are turned back from our shores.

From there, the story moves to the hollows of Virginia’s Blue Ridge. Plans for Shenandoah National Park include removing the families whose ties to the mountains go back for generations. Eugenics plays a large role as outsiders use dubious science and deceptive tactics to label the people inbred and feebleminded, institutionalizing and in many cases sterilizing them.

What makes this novel so powerful is the way Wiseman brings horrific history down to human level. The mountain people understand the injustices being done to them but are trapped in a system beyond their control, some literally imprisoned against their wills for decades. Sections of this novel were tough to read. Wiseman does not spare the reader the horror of the treatment of people who were deemed not quite human. And now, some 100 years later, we are seeing a resurgence of these repugnant ideas.

I am sad that Virginia was a leader in this movement.

World Photography Day

Photography,

I was not aware of this celebration until I played Spark, a phone app I recently downloaded. It is a series of little games related to a daily theme. Today was dedicated to World Photography Day. This unofficial global event originated in India in the 20th century as mostly in-person events. The Internet helped it spread and eventually settled in as an annual event. The holiday recognizes the invention of the daguerreotype by Louis Daguerre in 1837. This process was the genesis of photography. The French government gifted the process to the world for free on August 19th, 1839.

Choosing a favorite photograph is a challenge so I decided to browse my Flickr photo stream and choose the first one that spoke to me. This photograph depicts the James River Footbridge near Snowden, Virginia. It is part of the Appalachian Trail. We visited in October 2025.

photograph of wooden footbridge over the James River

Erasing Equity

Education, history, thinking out loud,

The first thing Virginia’s governor did (day one literally) was to order the Department of Education to rescind all the policies and programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion. Somehow helping people see how past and present inequities and discrimination have created huge cultural, political and economic gaps in our state and country might make those who benefitted from those policies and practices and live on the “right” side of the gap feel badly about themselves.

This concern for the tender white people is playing out in the history standards revisions, the third draft of which came out earlier this year. That draft is only marginally better than the second one, hurriedly put together late last year to replace the comprehensive draft developed by state educators and historians. The National Council for History Education recommends that the Board of Education adopt the alternative, collaborative standards developed by VASCD, VSSLC, and AHA as they offer a more complex approach to teaching history and social studies, one that encourages critical thinking rather than rote memorization.

Do not forget that Virginia’s response to Brown vs. Board of Education was to essentially close the schools. Once they were forced to desegregate, localities closed Black schools, fired Black teachers and forced Black students into hostile, white-centered environments. Friends who lived through the process tell the story of finding their school memorabilia–from football trophies to administrator photographs–in a dumpster. Their lives, their stories, were being erased.

Youngkin and his minions are simply continuing that tradition. Fortunately, the Virginia Education Association stepped in to post the EdEquity VA website. You can also find the original site by using the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive.

Ending Solitary Confinement

advocacy, ,

In 2015, in honor of long-jailed South African activist Nelson Mandela, the United Nations updated and adopted the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, calling them the Nelson Mandela Rules. These rules include guidelines for the use of solitary confinement:

The Mandela Rules, updated in 2015, are a revised minimum standard of UN rules that defines solitary confinement as “the confinement of prisoners for 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human contact.” Solitary confinement may only be imposed in exceptional circumstances, and “prolonged” solitary confinement of more than 15 consecutive days is regarded as a form of torture.

United Nations Report on Use of solitary confinement in United States, february 28, 2020

This week, news came of a hunger strike by prisoners in Texas prisons to protest the extensive and prolonger use of solitary confinement. The practice is often used “proactively” by separating gang members and others considered a danger even if they have not committed infractions. According to PBS News Hour, some 3100 prisoners are in solitary confinement in Texas, many of them held that way for more than a decade. This is, under the Mandela rules, torture.

Virginia’s General Assembly is considering a bill that would limit the use of solitary confinement using the Mandela rules as its guideline for no more than 15 consecutive days over the course of a 60-day period. I have contacted my representative to let him know that I support this legislation. I also used it as an opportunity to remind him that I am against the death penalty as well. You can read the legislation at the Virginia’s Legislative System website. While you’re there, you can browse other legislation, and if you feel called to contact your representative but aren’t sure who it might be, use the Who’s My Legislator website to find out.

Virginia does not have a good track record when it comes to the use of solitary confinement. Twelve inmates and former inmates filed a lawsuit against the Virginia Department of Corrections, alleging that VDOC has been using semantics to get around its own program to end solitary confinement. The investigation into the death of an inmate in solitary confinement in January 2022 provides some insight into the practice as well as the semantic games: solitary confinement is now called “restorative housing.”

Bucket List Item: Finding More LOVE

travel,

I actually don’t have a formal bucket list. But, after doing a bit of traveling around Virginia this year and finding LOVEworks in various places, I have decided that tracking down all 300+ of them would be a great way to continue to explore the Commonwealth.

Here are the five I saw this summer and fall. I wasn’t formally tracking them so am sure I missed some, especially out in Southwest Virginia.

There is a Google map of the various locations. I’ll bet there is one near you. I pass one on I-95 at the Keystone Truck and Tractor Museum in Colonial Heights but haven’t pulled over and don’t dare try a picture!