Good riddance to RU’s Powell Hall

Posted in Articles, Campus Life, History, Media Archive, United States, Virginia on 2016-12-16 01:07Z by Steven

Good riddance to RU’s Powell Hall

The Roanoke Times
Roanoke, Virginia
2010-09-21

Christina Nuckols, Editorial Page Editor

One can, if optimistically predisposed to believe in the inherent honesty and good-natured character of people, accept the story of why Radford University’s arts and music building still bore the name of John Powell until last week.

One might, just barely, trust that university leaders in 1967 chose the name ignorant of Powell’s past, even though the U.S. Supreme Court that same year struck down the Virginia anti-miscegenation law that he had championed.

It’s easier to believe Interim Provost Joe Scartelli when he says he intended to change the name of the building in 2005 after he learned about Powell’s racism, but forgot amid renovation and construction plans…

Read the entire article here.

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We biracials can claim a unique role in race dialogue

Posted in Articles, Barack Obama, Media Archive, United States on 2013-08-04 02:29Z by Steven

We biracials can claim a unique role in race dialogue

The Roanoke Times
Roanoke, Virginia
2013-07-28

Lucinda Roy, Alumni Distinguished Professor of English
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Following a keynote on diversity I delivered recently, a woman approached me and commented on the fact that I had referred to myself as biracial. She said she was reluctant to use the term “biracial” when referring to herself because people accused her of betrayal.

“They make you choose sides,” she said.

I thought for a moment and then replied, “No one has the right to tell you who you are. You’re you. You’re free to be whoever you choose to be.”

When President Obama spoke to the nation on July 19 in his surprise address in the White House briefing room, I was reminded of the many ways in which those of us who are biracial are told we have to pick sides…

Read the entire opinion piece here.

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