Loudon County, Virginia, which is already in the news quite a bit over issues with Critical Race Theory (CRT) and transgender pronouns, just made news once again. According to Nathaniel Cline for Loudon Times-Mirror, the Loudon County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday directed the Joint Board of Supervisors and School Board Committee to study the harm faced by the Black community.
Despite the U.S. Supreme Court finding that racial segregation in public schools is illegal when it decided Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, the Loudon County school district remained segregated until 1965.
The measure passed 6-3, with Republican Supervisors Caleb Kershner (R-Catoctin), Matt Letourneau (R-Dulles), and Tony Buffington (R-Blue Ridge) voted against.
Kershner is quoted in Cline's piece as expressing concerns over a lack of a specific action:
Kershner and Letourneau cited questions and concerns with Briskman’s motion, saying the initiative does not define any particular action.
“We don't know all the details, perhaps, but we know there was a history of segregation, there was a history of all sorts of things that occurred in this county, but I would think the discussion we would want to have is about how do we move forward as a society, as a county, as a school system, all those things together [to] address them,” Letourneau said.
“My mind goes to places that are completely unrelated to the school system — economic development, business grants for the disadvantaged; all those sorts of things. But those aren't topics for the Joint School Board,” he said, “And I'm not sure a public hearing, or a Truth and Reconciliation committee is going to get us there.”
Further, Cline reported that Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) has already signed a similar initiative, Executive Order 32. The order, from June 4, 2019, established the Commission to Examine Racial Inequity in Virginia Law. According to a press release from the governor's office at that time:
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The Commission will review the Virginia Acts of Assembly, Code of Virginia, and administrative regulations with the goal of identifying and making recommendations to address laws that were intended to or could have the effect of promoting or enabling racial discrimination or inequity. In the case of the Acts of Assembly, discriminatory laws were enacted and in some cases obviated by court rulings, but the words still remain.
And, according to a subsequent press release, from February 2021:
The Commission’s recommendations played a key role in the formation of Governor Northam’s current legislative agenda, which includes proposals to automatically restore the voting rights of people with felony convictions, legalize adult-use marijuana, abolish the death penalty, invest in education infrastructure and early childhood education, expand expungement of previous convictions, and protect the ownership rights of “heirs property.” The Commission’s work also informed many of Governor Northam’s legislative proposals for the August 2020 special session that centered on meaningful police reform and COVID-19 relief.
Governor Northam established the Commission to Examine Racial Inequity in Virginia Law in June 2019 and appointed its members in September 2019. The Commission was initially tasked with reviewing the Acts of Assembly, Code of Virginia, and administrative regulations to identify racially discriminatory language still on Virginia’s books and making recommendations to address laws that were intended to or could have the effect of promoting or enabling racial discrimination or inequity. The Commission’s interim report, published in December 2019, cited nearly 100 instances of overtly discriminatory language. Working closely with the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, Governor Northam proposed and secured the unanimous passage of fourteen bills that repealed racist language related to education, housing, transportation, health care, voting, and more. While many of these Acts of Assembly are longer enforced or have been invalidated by subsequent federal and state legislation and court decisions, they had remained enshrined in law.
In June 2020, Governor Northam extended the term and scope of the Commission with the goals of identifying existing state laws and regulations that create or perpetuate racial disparities and developing policies that increase protections for minority and marginalized Virginians. The Commission’s expanded charge underscores the Northam Administration’s ongoing work to remedy historical inequities in areas like education, health care, housing, and criminal justice.
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The Commission’s work is slated to continue after the 2021 legislative session, when members will focus their attention on laws and regulations that directly contribute to inequity in economic achievement and stability. The Commission will also use this report as a tool to engage with people across the Commonwealth and gain a deeper understanding of the effects of and solutions to centuries of state-sanctioned racial bias and discrimination in Virginia.
Reporting from Tom Fitzgerald with FOX 5 quotes Supervisor Juli Briskman, who brought up the proposal, as saying the board should remain focused on the issue before them:
On Tuesday night, County Supervisor Juli Briskman will call for a vote on her new initiative for both the county government and public schools to study what she called the harm caused by the county’s discrimination of Black residents, and its impact on Black students.
"The anti-CRT movement is much more about ‘today’ and what we’re teaching today. And my Board member initiative is looking back at potential harm that was because we operated segregated schools illegally against the ruling of Brown vs. the Board of Education," Briskman said.
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But with tempers having already flared up in Loudoun County in school board meetings, Briskman says she’s not concerned about turned up the heat with a debate on disparities because she start it’s a systemic issue that needs to be dealt with.
"I would just encourage our joint commission or whatever committee to come out of this to just ignore the outside noise because what’s happening in Fairfax and us, has little to do with us and in many ways has to do with ‘message testing’ for the 2022 elections and beyond," she said.
Meanwhile, another school district in Virginia is making headlines for other reasons.
In Stafford County, as FOX 5 also reported, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve a resolution that denounces teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT), the 1619 Project, and requiring students to give preferred pronouns as a way to cater to transgender students.
