
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 28, 1990                   TAG: 9004280118
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

SCLC TAKES WILDER TO TASK ON VMI STANCE

The state president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference criticized Gov. Douglas Wilder on Friday for refusing to take a stand on whether women should be admitted to Virginia Military Institute.

"The governor should have and still should take a stronger position on what is public policy in the state of Virginia and in this country," the Rev. Curtis W. Harris said at a news conference.

Harris, a veteran of the civil rights movement, said the attorney general's office gave bad advice to VMI's Board of Visitors by saying the men-only admissions policy is constitutional.

A lawsuit filed by the state to defend the admissions practice is "a waste of taxpayers' money," Harris said. "The law is set. Public policy in this country is opposed to separate but equal, opposed to segregation in facilities that are owned and operated by the government."

He said the SCLC may file a brief in support of a second lawsuit, filed by the U.S. Justice Department to get the admissions policy overturned.

The SCLC is the first black organization to criticize Wilder's stand on VMI. Wilder, who could not attend the University of Virginia Law School in the 1950s because he is black, has said he will leave the VMI matter to the Lexington school and the attorney general.

"Gov. Wilder has rightly said that the responsibility for making the decision is in the board of visitors," Harris said. "But the leadership to help that board of visitors to make the right kind of decision still remains in the governor."

Wilder recently reappointed four VMI board members who support the men-only admissions policy.

Harris also urged blacks to boycott an annual Labor Day gathering in Virginia Beach that led to a confrontation between police and young blacks last year.

Harris said Virginia Beach officials have refused to apologize for their handling of a riot at the event last year.

"Virginia Beach and the City Council have not said that `We have made a mistake,' " Harris said.

He did not suggest another location for the party, formerly known as Greekfest, which attracted thousands of young people from black colleges and universities along the East Coast.

"Virginia Beach is the wrong place because they've already shown how they feel about blacks," he said.

by CNB