Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 18, 1992 TAG: 9202180027
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
FORUMS TURN HATE TO HEALTHY DIALOGUE
What could have been a community disaster has turned into a productive union of community leaders.When the Ku Klux Klan obtained a permit to march in Blacksburg on Martin Luther King Jr. Day last year, members of the student chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Pepole hinted at violence and community groups protested the town's decision to allow the hate group to march.
As a result, community leaders banded together to promote a positive image for the town. And they have continued to meet and discuss ways to create a positive multicultural environment.
An all-day forum on hate crimes, "People Understanding People," is scheduled for Wednesday at Virginia Tech's Squires Student Center.
A similar forum was held in September for New River Valley law enforcement officers.
"The KKK march served as a catalyst for a number of segments of the community," said the Rev. Gary Schroeder of Luther Memorial Lutheran Church.
"Racism is a problem, unfortunately, that's always there in any society," he said. "Sometimes it's apparent and sometimes it's not so apparent."
A shooting at a Tech dance in the fall of 1990 involving blacks who who were not Tech students, racial slurs that followed, and the attention to gay and lesbian harassment were local issues that reflected national concerns, said Tom Goodale, vice president of student affairs.
Blacksburg is a cosmopolitan community, he said, because of international students and those from Northern Virginia where people of color are more numerous. "Our ability to learn from each other is extraordinary."
The forums are "just another way to address inappropriate behavior . . . to tolerate and embrace diversity," Goodale said.
Tom Hunt, NAACP member and chairman of the curriculum education department at Tech, said leaders thought the community should respond as one.
In December 1990, representatives from Tech, town, religious and community groups called for a boycott of the Klan march and supported alternative activities.
"We decided to do what we could," Schroeder said. "What they [the Klan] represented was not the feeling of the community."
The hate crimes forum in September was conducted in the wake of charges of police brutality in the nation and in Radford. But the group didn't want to stop there.
"We wanted to keep the momentum going," Hunt said.
Wednesday's forum was planned primarily for students. Representatives of the clergy, town and Tech police and county schools also will attend.
"So far, I'm pleased," Hunt said of the community effort. However, "success will be seen in continued efforts of the community on a broad-front scale."