ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, July 9, 1996                  TAG: 9607090044
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER 

INSTITUTE ALUMNI LOOK FORWARD

Efforts to rejuvenate Christiansburg Institute have a long way to go, but supporters reaffirmed their commitment to the project this past weekend at the school's annual alumni gathering.

"This is our opportunity," Clarence P. Penn Jr. exhorted black graduates of the school. "It wasn't easy passing four or five schools on your way to the institute each morning. Up at dawn, back home at nine at night to start your lessons."

"We succeeded in spite of it. That ought to mean something to you," said Penn, a Pulaski native and Christiansburg Institute graduate. Today, Penn is superintendent of Surry County schools.

Alumni solidarity is the key to ensuring the $2.1 million fund drive to renovate one of the old institute buildings into a center for cultural and historical studies, Penn said.

Christiansburg Institute was the region's only secondary school for blacks during its century of operation, which spanned the end of the Civil War in 1866 to the end of public-school segregation locally in 1966.

Two years ago, the school's alumni association and Virginia Tech announced a joint effort called Project CI. Their goal is to raise enough money to renovate the institute's Edgar A. Long building into a learning center for African-American culture.

Glenda Blake, a Virginia Tech graduate student working with Project CI, told the alumni that the renovation drive is progressing, but will take some years to complete.

The renovated building will contain both old and new elements that will convey "a sense of the spirit of Christiansburg Institute," Blake said. There will be computer-equipped classrooms, a theater, an archive and library and a small museum to replicate an old classroom at the school.

Architectural drawings of the renovated Long building have been completed. Officials of the alumni association are waiting for paperwork to be completed that will transfer the property from its present owner, Christiansburg businessman and Town Councilman Jack Via.

Via announced two years ago his plan to donate the institute property, located on Scattergood Drive near Christiansburg High School, to the alumni association. Via was recognized for that $250,000 gift by a standing ovation from alumni who attended a banquet on Friday.

Once the time-consuming process of transferring the property is completed, fund-raising efforts from donations and grants can be stepped up, said Carl Williams, treasurer of the alumni association.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Christiansburg Institute's closing. Several hundred alumni came from as far away as California to spend the weekend celebrating at the Red Lion Inn in Blacksburg.

"To think, a school's been closed for 30 years. And here we are, still devoted," said Evelyn Young, a Christiansburg Institute graduate who works for Henrico County schools.

"This is a community we're not going to let die," she added.

Penn, the keynote speaker at Friday's banquet, talked of the days when black students traveled from surrounding counties and from out of state to attend the institute.

They made the trip out of necessity, because for years the institute was the only school that offered educational opportunity to young black students. Penn said that experience built character - and should not be forgotten.

Penn posed several questions to the audience: "Where do we go from here? What's the significance of what we're doing?"

Then he answered them by saying, "We're taking too much for granted. We need to put more into working with each other on a genuine level. We need more local people to get involved."

Part of the weekend's activities also included awards for distinguished service to four past presidents of the institute's alumni association, David Hickman, Archie Rollins, Charles Johnson and Walter Lewis.

Contributions to renovate Christiansburg Institute can be send to the Christiansburg Institute Alumni Association Building Fund at P.O. Box 433, Christiansburg, VA 24073.

LENGTH: Medium:   82 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  ALAN KIM/Staff. The Edgar A. Long classroom building 
          (above) on Scattergood Drive at the site of the old Christiansburg 
          Institute is the focus of fund-raising efforts to renovate the 
          structure into an African- American cultural center.  2. A marker 
          (left) on North Franklin Street tells of the school's historical 
          significance. color.