Youngkin Seeks to Whitewash UVA's History

Glenn Youngkin won the governorship through a highly deceptive campaign which falsely depicted Youngkin as a moderate.   Nothing could be further from the truth as Youngkin - who is the darling of the vicious and extreme Family Foundation which tracks its history to opponents of desegregation - continues to demonstrate through his efforts to erase blacks for Virginia's and America's history, bar references to the existance of LGBT people in the public schools and further restrict women's access to abortion and control over their own bodies.  Now, Youngkin through his far right appointees is taking aim at the University of Virginia which in recent years belatedly faced its intertwined history with slavery in Virginia, including the slave labor used in the contruction of the original university grounds.  As a double UVA alumni - College 1974 and Law 1977 - I know UVA very and have a number of family members who are alumni as well.  When I first arrived at UVA one heard nothing of the history of blacks laboring to construct buildings and many other functions.  It was as if the university miraculously sprung up out of the ground at Thomas Jefferson's direction. It has been encouraging to see UVA face its true history - the good, the bad and the ugly - not to mention Jefferson's many contradictions as a Founding Father and a slaveowner.  I expect many UVA alumni (many still angry over the neo-Nazi invasion in 2017) will be enraged to see Youngkin assault their alma mater as he tries to model himself as a mini Ron DeSantis.  A piece in the Washington Post looks at Youngkin's insideous agenda:

After Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) named him last summer to the University of Virginia’s governing board, Bert Ellis had a platform to influence the school’s administration. He spotted a potential target, a vice provost named Louis P. Nelson, tasked with community engagement, public service and academic outreach programs.

Nelson, who reports to U-Va.’s chief academic officer, Provost Ian Baucom, is also a professor of architectural history and an award-winning scholar and teacher. He has researched buildings and landscapes that shaped slavery in West Africa and the Americas, including at the prestigious public university that Thomas Jefferson founded in Charlottesville.

Ellis was unimpressed. “Check out this numnut who works for Baucom and has nothing to do but highlight slavery at UVA,” . . . .

That and other text messages from Ellis were obtained last week through Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act by Richmond-based author Jeff Thomas, who provided them to The Washington Post. They provide an unfiltered window into the conversations of a controversial board newcomer who has voiced skepticism of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, been protective of the legacy of Jefferson and advocated for a new course for the flagship university.

They also underscore mounting political tensions throughout public higher education as Republican governors and their appointees challenge university culture, norms and operations.

The Virginia legislature voted this month to confirm Ellis, Pillion, Long and another Youngkin appointee, Douglas D. Wetmore, to four-year terms on the U-Va. Board of Visitors. For now, appointees from Youngkin’s Democratic predecessors continue to hold a majority of the 19 board seats. That will change as members rotate off and Youngkin fills openings.

After this article published online, Ellis relayed his reaction Thursday through a blog called Bacon’s Rebellion. “We’re like Patton,” Ellis was quoted as saying. “We go forward. We don’t retreat.”

Thomas, 38, author of the 2019 book “The Virginia Way: Democracy and Power after 2016,” has previously submitted FOIA requests to U-Va. on topics including university admissions. He has specialized in analyzing the state’s political culture and is an advocate for institutional transparency. He asked for the Ellis texts in August, but U-Va. refused to release them. Then he sued. A Richmond judge this month ordered the university to send him redacted documents.

In a statement to The Washington Post, the university said: “These text messages demonstrate a disappointing disregard for the hard work of UVA faculty and staff, as well as the University’s core values of civil discourse and honor.

Youngkin’s office also declined to comment.

Thomas faulted U-Va., Youngkin and Ellis. “The University squandered taxpayer money in court for six months and illegally withheld these documents from the public because they demonstrate Governor Youngkin’s Board appointees are ignorant reactionaries consumed by hatred and neo-Confederate fantasies,” he said in an email to The Post.

U. Bertram Ellis Jr., who goes by Bert, earned two U-Va. degrees in the 1970s: a bachelor’s in economics and a master’s in business administration. His board biography describes Ellis as a serial entrepreneur and investor who runs a business based in Atlanta. Legislative records say Ellis resides in Hilton Head, S.C.

Like many universities, U-Va. in recent years has confronted its role in slavery and the Jim Crow era. In 2007, the Board of Visitors issued a statement of regret for the university’s use of enslaved people from its founding in 1819 through the end of the Civil War in 1865. Scholars in 2018 issued an in-depth report concluding that “slavery, in every way imaginable, was central” to the founding and early operations of the university. In 2021, the university dedicated a Memorial to Enslaved Laborers in a prominent location on what U-Va. calls the Grounds.

Soon after his term began on July 1, Ellis was reaching out via text to other board members and U-Va. officials. In some messages, he expressed disdain for the administration of university President James Ryan and the leader of the board, Whittington W. Clement, who holds the title of rector and was named to the governing body in 2015 by then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D).

In 2021 Ellis criticized how guides were portraying Jefferson to campus visitors. They seemed intent “on ‘contextualizing’ Mr. Jefferson as a slave holder and rapist,” Ellis wrote at the time . . . Several weeks after they both joined the board, Long sent Ellis links to an opinion piece in the New York Post criticizing student efforts to “erase” Jefferson from the U-Va. campus and a Cavalier Daily article about the removal of an inscription to a Confederate soldier from a campus memorial known as the Whispering Wall.

Long replied: “We get a majority soon....policies can be reversed.” Long appeared to be referring to Youngkin’s power to reshape the board through appointments. The Cavalier Daily’s editorial board opposed the Ellis appointment.

On Aug. 5, Ellis replied to a woman who congratulated him on his appointment.

“Many thanks,” he wrote. “This is going to be a battle royale for the soul of UVA and a microcosm of what must happen across America to save the soul of our country.” He urged her to join the Jefferson Council. “We need to build this into a big Army to fight agst the UVA Adm and unfortunately to also fight agst the UVA Alumni Asso which has become a total mktg arm of the Presidents office.”

I hope that alumni and suburbanites who were duped into voting for Youngkin (and the other extremists on his ticket) will wake up to their error and realize that in 2023 and beyond they need to vote a straight Democrat ticket to combat Youngkin's and the GOP's far right agenda.