Today was such a special, once-in-a-lifetime experience for me at Virginia Tech. The African American chair of the Board of Visitors’ Nominating Committee, Greta Harris, on behalf of the committee nominated the first Black rector, Ed Baine, and a Black Vice-Rector, Sharon Brickhouse-Martin.
In Greta’s remarks, she acknowledged that last night, there was a dinner hosted for the Board and senior administrators on the former Smithfield Plantation. I have been on the plantation many times, but still, I often feel something I can’t articulate, but she did.
And she shared it in her remarks:
“Yesterday evening, at our lovely group dinner, we walked on hallowed grounds where enslaved Africans worked to help build this great university. For those of us of African decent, walking through any plantation is challenging because we can feel the lingering spirits of our ancestors. The unimaginable adversities and sacrifices they endured were with the hope that their collective future could be better than the present they lived.”
And I thought, Yes, their spirits are still there, holding us accountable in some ways. Still reaching for the future with outstretched hands full of hope for something better. A yearning, a longing, unfulfilled. Yet, today, something spectacular happened with Greta’s nomination of Ed Baine.
In her own words:
“I am humbled and extremely proud today to put forth the name of an outstanding leader who fully embodies our Ut Prosim motto and, after 151 years, would become the university’s first Black Rector. With this vote, we would not only be making university history, we would be making one more spectacular step forward of manifesting our ancestors hopes and dreams for a better future.”
And I could almost feel the ancestors’ hope and dreams in that hollowed Board room, in which the three Board members and myself, were the only African-Americans in the room.
Greta’s reference of enslavement in Ed’s nomination has personal significance for Ed. A WTVR interview in 2021 references a picture of his grandparents’ old home in rural Lunenburg county on land once worked by relatives during slavery.” He said in the interview:
“I wouldn’t be sitting in front of you today if it weren’t for my grandparents, parents and others that have been in my life. Growing up on a tobacco farm, it was hard work. Some people did it because they wanted to. I did it because i had to. It taught you hard work, dedication, responsibility” Baine said.
https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/black-history-month-spotlight-ed-baine-president-of-dominion-energy-virginia
And I remember conversations with Ed with him sharing what it meant to work on a tobacco farm and how that motivated him to go to college.
All Virginians and all alumni, Greta, Sharon, and Ed, came to Virginia Tech at different epochs, with Sharon mentioning that when her sister came to VT in 1972, Virginia Tech’s Marching Band was still playing Dixie. Dixie, popularized during the Civil War, was often viewed as the de factor national anthem of the Confederacy.
It is so important that we remember that Virginia Tech was founded on land of Native Americans and on land in which enslaved people lived and worked and was an all White and all male institution, founded in 1872, that did not admit the first Black student until 1953.
Yet change has happened. The band plays Enter Sandman now, and carries an American flag!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC8LLYMp4M4
And as of today, three amazing board members, Ed Baine, President of Dominion Energy, Greta Harris, CEO of Better Housing Coalition in Richmond, and Sharon Brickhouse Martin, Founder and President of Brickhouse·Martin Healthcare Engineering, and a leader in healthcare, who have all succeeded in their chosen professions, were part of making history and new future at Virginia Tech.
Today, I am also grateful for President Sands’ remarks during open session, acknowledging the legacy of enslavement and discrimination at Virginia Tech and it is impact on the African-American community. He acknowledged that though we had doubled Black student enrollment, yet are still so far away from what should be a representation consistent with that in the State.
This type of transformation around diversity cannot happen without an exceptional leader and board, and I am so honored to be part of this amazing institution.
His remarks, on the eve of the Black College Institute that will bring 600 students interested in the African American experience to Virginia Tech, was so inspirational.
And, for me, I am so so proud to be part of Virginia Tech and to call myself a Hokie!
Let’s Go! Hokies!..