roanoke.com Real Politics / Preston Bryant

DEC. 23, 2002

Republican General Assembly should support black heritage, MLK programs

Preston Bryant is a Republican who has represented Lynchburg and part of Amherst County in the Virginia House of Delgates since 1996.

If there is any good that has come out of the Trent Lott fiasco, it's that our country - at least for a brief period - has been forced to look inward on the whole issue of race.

As for Lott himself, he seems intent on turning his admittedly insensitive remarks about segregation, and his downfall from them, into a positive. Though he's been forced from his position as Senate majority leader, the Mississippian has vowed to spend the remaining four years of his current Senate term working to make amends with those he's offended and improve race relations in America. That's admirable.

It's especially important that Lott, as a Republican, work to improve our party's image on race. To be sure, the GOP has gotten a bum rap on race. Republicans, historically, are abolitionists and civil libertarians, going back to our 1854 beginnings. And let's not forget that it was Senate Republicans who came to LBJ's aid and provided the edge to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act in the face of Southern Democrats who were its staunchest foes - including Bill Clinton's hero, Sen. J. William Fulbright, Sen. Albert Gore Sr., and Sen. Robert Byrd, who still represents West Virginia today.

But so much for Lott. Let's wish him well and support him - strongly - as he sets out to become a national spokesman for improved race relations.

In Virginia, we can get started, too. Even on the state level. And we should.

When Gov. Mark Warner, a Democrat, unveiled his budget last week to the General Assembly's appropriations and finance committees, he was generally praised for doing the best he could given the nearly $2 billion revenue shortfall he's had to fill. Even his harshest GOP critics praised him for not cutting K-12 public education, which House Republicans had already vowed to safeguard in the upcoming 2003 legislative session.

Deep in the budget, however, Warner inexplicably cut by 50 percent funds for the state's African American Heritage program that is run by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities in conjunction with the Virginia Tourism Corporation, the state's official tourism agency.

Since 2000, when then-Gov. Jim Gilmore, a Republican, got behind the VFH-inspired program, the Republican legislature has invested $550,000 in it. The program is designed to educate Virginians and non-Virginians alike on our state's black culture and history, warts and all, as well as to promote tourism to African American heritage sites and organizations. An online database of hundreds of such sites and organizations has been created, as well as educational materials, and a guidebook that tourism officials reportedly can't keep in stock. This program has been wildly successful in its first couple of years, and it's destined to make Virginia a hot destination for tourists interested in African American history.

An additional $400,000 was put toward the program in the current 2002-04 budget, though only $18,000 has been allocated to date. And now, Warner's budget cuts that $400,000 in half.

This is not to suggest that Warner singled out this program. He didn't. It took a hit like everything else - though certainly well beyond the maximum 15 percent cut that so many other programs got. Despite inquiries, nobody has been able to adequately explain why it was chopped in half.

So now is the time - truly, what better time could there be? - for the Republican legislature to put that money back. Now is the time to show that Virginia is dedicated to promoting - and celebrating - its black heritage.

And there's a second initiative that our GOP General Assembly can get behind. A very exciting one.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Commission, composed of state legislators and private citizens, has now laid the groundwork for the nation's first "virtual" King Center.

For months, the commission has been working with a consortium of five state universities - Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, Old Dominion University, and Norfolk State University - to cement plans to establish a web-based King Center whose mission is to promote educational programs and events that preserve King's memory and continue his work to bring about non-violent social change and equality among the races. In time, a bricks-and-mortar center may be established, too.

In addition to Virginia's virtual King Center that will reach the world, the commission has plans to develop SOL-friendly educational materials, fund an annual scholarly fellowship at each of the five participating universities, and sponsor an annual conference to highlight the center's ongoing accomplishments.

In 2003, the commission will begin planning a statewide conference for 2004 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown decision ending segregation in our nation's public schools.

There is about $100,000 currently held by the legislature that should soon be released to the commission. That money will help leverage hundreds of thousands more in private funds. The Republican-led General Assembly should get behind establishing this new virtual King Center and fostering the good things that will flow from it.

Virginia is not the Deep South. While it is true that there are still pockets of community racism that flare from time to time and hit the front pages (in this respect, Virginia is no different than any other state) it must be said that the Old Dominion is an increasingly progressive state whose exploding suburban and urban populations are changing her face for the better.

Virginia also is an increasingly Republican state. Demographics prove it with each passing election. The GOP should work overtime to wed the changes in our population with the changes in its voting habits.

Our two U.S. senators, Republicans George Allen and John Warner, played crucial roles in bringing an end to the Lott saga. Allen, last Wednesday, was the first senator to call Lott in Mississippi and tell him it was time to resign his leadership post. Warner, on Thursday, was the first senator to announce publicly the head of steam building for Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist to be the new majority leader. On Friday, Lott resigned. Three days later, on Monday, Frist became the new leader of the Republican Senate.

Allen and Warner have made all right-thinking Virginian Republicans proud.

Now, the Republican General Assembly can speak volumes by supporting - that is, fully funding - Virginia's African American Heritage program as well as the new Martin Luther King Jr., Center.

Trent Lott would be proud, don't you think?

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