Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 5, 1990 TAG: 9004041214
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
"There will be those who will tell you you can't make it because of where you live," Wilder told students at Armstrong High School in the Church Hill neighborhood.
"There will be those who will tell you you can't make it because of how you look. There are those who will tell you you can't make it because of the way you talk," he said. "We all have heard that."
Wilder said he "almost listened" when people told him he had no chance of being elected a state senator, lieutenant governor and governor.
"I said, `Why don't you just give me your vote and get out of the way?' " Wilder said.
The governor urged the students to watch the news and documentaries on television instead of just entertainment shows and to keep up with current events.
Wilder graduated from Armstrong in 1947 when it was located in another building and was one of two high schools for city blacks.
The governor recalled his long walks to the segregated school, but admitted that even when he attended an elementary school just a block from his home, "I was always late . . . always fooling around doing something that wasn't important."
Wilder said Armstrong's teachers were black but the principals always were white until the year after he graduated.
"Even during those times when some of us did not see beyond the horizon as to what could take place, we were taught every day that we could, that there was a horizon, that there was a reason to do the best we could," he said.
"Though we would look at the want-ad columns and find nothing there in terms of a job, nevertheless we were told to be prepared for when that job comes," he said.
Wilder also remembered lighter moments. He said he wasn't good enough to play sports, but he was a cheerleader.
"I was the smallest member of the cheering squad," he said. "Those are some of the richest memories that I've ever had in my life."
The student body at Armstrong remains nearly all black.
Students said they were inspired by the governor's speech.
"My goal is to try to be governor or president," said Wilbur Hurdel, a 19-year-old senior. "Today, listening to him made me want to go for it."
by CNB