Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 4, 1993 TAG: 9305040475
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Half-truths, biased anecdotal evidence and slanted tales are used in an attempt to make an alleged act of racial prejudice in Franklin County High School into evidence of an ongoing major racial struggle in the county. For example, it was stated that there is no public pool where black youths can learn to swim. The inference is segregation has returned. In fact, there is no public pool for either whites or blacks.
Much is made of a convicted felon hiring his former cell mate to burn a black neighbor's home. Typical racism? Hardly. Basketball hoops were removed at Sontag because both white and black youths misused the courts. Again, race was not involved. And, despite the threats allegedly communicated by the Ku Klux Klan to the News-Post in the '50s, there was not, and has been, no organized Klan activity in the county since the late '20s.
Sure, there is racism in Franklin County, as there is in Roanoke, Richmond, Botetourt and Los Angeles. It is deplorable wherever it occurs. But, as in those places, the great majority of Franklin County citizens, white and black, are opposed to it and respect each other. This newspaper might have trouble acknowledging that very real fact.
CABELL F. COBBS\ ROANOKE
by CNB