THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 17, 1997 TAG: 9702170043
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 120 lines
Sitting blithely between state Sens. Steve Newman and Louise Lucas, Wayne Byrd tapped his pointy boots and smiled through his mustache as the gritty sound of a 50-year-old recording filled the room.
``Carr-y me back, to old Vir-ginny,'' the Satchmo-like voice sang. ``. . . That's where this old darkey's heart am long'd to go.''
Newman sat to Byrd's right, the entire weight of his body seemingly supported by the five fingers digging into his temple. Newman, a 32-year-old Lynchburg Republican, crumpled further into his seat each time the word ``darkey'' or ``massa'' was sung.
To Byrd's left was Lucas, leaning against a column with her arms folded. The Portsmouth Democrat, who is black, glared at the panel of lawmakers before them, peering down her nose and wrinkling her brow in a way that shouted: ``Now do you see why we don't like this song?''
For six years, Newman and Lucas have served together in the General Assembly. And you wouldn't normally find them on the same side of a room, much less sharing a lectern and lobbying together for a bill's passage.
But in Virginia's state song the two have common concerns - controversial lyrics that evoke memories of Virginia's slave-owning heritage, and historical purists such as Byrd who want to keep those memories alive.
The unlikely political duo of a liberal black woman and a friend-of-Falwell white man has become a conspicuous sideshow of this year's General Assembly session.
But Newman and Lucas are more than a spectacle; they're an influential legislative pairing. And by the end of June, ``Carry Me Back to Old Virginia'' likely will be history.
``Without her help I think this would have went where it's always gone - nowhere,'' Newman said.
``I'd get in bed with a rattlesnake to get that song gone,'' Lucas said.
Then she paused a moment and grabbed Newman by the arm.
``Oh, you're not the rattlesnake, Steve,'' she said.
With her high heels and puffy hairdo, Lucas is the same height as her Lynchburg colleague.
The similarities, however, pretty much stop there.
NEWMAN IS ONE OF THAT NEW BREED of young Republicans huddled in the corner of the Virginia Senate. They eat, sleep and vote conservative. The ``nay'' buttons on their desks ought to be worn clean, all the times they've bucked the majority.
``I'm not a politically correct person,'' he's proud to say. ``I'd usually be the last guy in here to stand up and plead for something like this.''
Lucas sits across the chamber on the Democrats' side, and her voting record is about as conservative as the red leather suit she wears on Valentine's Day.
Liberal?
``I don't mind anyone saying that about me,'' she said.
Consider the legislation they've sponsored:
Lucas wants home detention for inmates to count as good time in reducing their sentences. Newman wants to let police officers and deputies shoot inmates when they try to escape from labor crews.
Lucas co-sponsored a bill to legalize any sexual act committed privately by consenting adults. Newman wants to make sure that Virginia, which already doesn't recognize same-sex marriages, doesn't recognize gay marriages performed in other states either.
But they both say they really like the other.
And they both want to finally get rid of Virginia's state song.
``Yes, it's an unlikely relationship,'' Lucas said, ``but it works.''
THE TWO FIRST GOT TOGETHER a year ago to champion legislation together. Lucas, not the legislature's biggest death penalty fan, nonetheless decided that serial murderers ought to face the ultimate punishment. When Newman proposed it, she helped get it passed.
So when Newman decided this year the state song ought to be retired to ``emeritus'' status, he knew where to look for support.
Newman and Lucas come to the issue from different perspectives. Newman represents people who like the state song, and he considers emeritus status a graceful way to cast it adrift. Lucas represents people who hate the state song, but she figures emeritus status is the only way to reach consensus.
When the Senate approved the plan, opposition came from two sources - Newman's fellow Republicans, who thought the song's history should be preserved, and Lucas' Black Caucus colleagues, who think emeritus status is too good for it.
``We're simply instilling in the Code the reality of today - we don't have a state song, no one ever sings it or plays it,'' said Newman.
``Emeritus means it's not dead, but it's a little bit dead and that's better than before,'' said Lucas.
Newman and Lucas' bill to retire the state song isn't law yet. The House of Delegates still has to pass it, and the Senate will get another chance to vote before the plan could go to the governor.
But most members agree the two have forged an adequate coalition, and that their bill will pass and the state song will die July 1.
And after that?
``Steve and I will do it again, if we can,'' said Lucas. ``We'll keep working together. I think we're good at it.''
``I have a great deal of affection for Louise,'' said Newman. ``I think we both help each other see different sides that we might not have seen otherwise.
``I doubt that I'll be anywhere near her campaign, though, when that time comes. I doubt that it would help her much anyway.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
Sens. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, left, and Steve Newman,
R-Lynchburg, are not often on the same side, but their partnership
has proved beneficial in an effort to get rid of the state song
because of controversial lyrics that hearken to Virginia's
slave-owning past.
[The song:]
CARRY ME BACK TO OLD VIRGINIA,*
There's where the cotton and the corn and 'tatoes grow,
There's where the birds warble sweet in the springtime,
There's where the old darkey's heart am long'd to go,
There's where I labor'd so hard for old Massa,
Day after day in the field of yellow corn,
No place on earth do I love more sincerely,
Than old Virginny, the state where I was born.
* sung as ``Old Virginny'' in most songs
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY STATE SONG