Having Richmond, Virginia, as our first stop was most appropriate. In the Confederacy's former capital, Richmond residents were more than willing to share their stories, quite possibly because "the original ideas of freedom and justice were conceived here," said Mayor Rudolph McCollum, Jr.
It was also fitting that we met hundreds of residents at a historically black school, Virginia Union University, since educational disparities were such a major aspect of the Civil Rights Movement. "It's true that things started for us at Virginia Union, but if it weren't for Virginia Union, there would've been no me," said former Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder.
VUU president Belinda Anderson, the first woman to lead the campus, retraced her own educational journey, which included being one of eight blacks to start integrating the local schools. In more recent years, as an administrator, Anderson has worked to improve the state's educational systems so that they meet court-ordered mandates to fully desegregate public universities. Under law, any schools that receive federal monies, including Pell grants, must offer opportunities to all students, as well as offer essentially the same quality of education and facilities as any other school in the state.
