Letters to the Editor: Summer 2025

I found great joy in reading about the bridge between UVA and the Charlottesville community, especially as a former Lawn resident who has been married for 44 years to Renae Shackelford, a former resident of the Prospect public housing development, thus creating our own personal bridge. I recall a fellow UVA student telling me, back in the 1970s, that all the “townie” girls were floozies. Interesting. The townie girl, a Charlottesville High grad whom I married, went on to teach sociology, African American studies and other areas at numerous universities. She gave the greatest lecture I have heard, at Trinity Church in Charlottesville, based on our co-authored book Urban Renewal and the End of Black Culture in Charlottesville, Virginia: An Oral History of Vinegar Hill. After excitedly reading President Ryan’s brave column and Ed Miller’s breathtaking cover article, one of my concerns is that the opportunities for Black people now will be mainly service-oriented, which in most ways is better than nothing, but in other ways is located on a continuum that has its roots in slavery and mid- to late-20th century service-oriented work that has substantially kept Charlottesville and UVA going since the days of our founder, Thomas Jefferson.

I read with great interest your article on UVA’s recent efforts to be a good neighbor to the greater Charlottesville community. As the clearinghouse for UVA student volunteerism in Charlottesville, Madison House has been serving at-risk communities throughout Charlottesville for over 50 years.

Madison House is not only a good neighbor; it also creates future good neighbors. Maybe a story for another day.

UVA should absolutely be making payments in lieu of real estate taxes. Among other services, Charlottesville provides police and fire protection and maintains the paved roads in and around the campus. Charlottesville also provides public schools for the children of the many Charlottesville residents who work at the university.

I’m glad to see that UVA finally (in 2020) implemented the $15 minimum wage that students, staff and community members had been advocating for more than 20 years. If memory serves, $15 was also about what Bodo’s was offering to entry-level employees when I was on Grounds from 2000–02.

My late cousin Kevin Bewley was involved in this campaign as an MBA student at Darden. I can still remember the big orange “Fight for $15” button he wore. But it doesn’t take an MBA to recognize that $15 in 2000 would have been worth $22.50 in 2020 (and $27 today). The university can and should continue improving the relationship between UVA and Charlottesville by paying staff competitively. Local employees, then as now, deserve a living wage.

Memorial Gymnasium was very much part of my undergraduate experience at UVA in the 1960s. Registration, phys ed, ACC basketball and great concerts.

Although it wasn’t mentioned among the artists who performed, Joan Baez gave a memorable solo performance, circa ’62 or ’63. After singing several songs, she gently asked if anyone would mind if she took off her shoes before continuing and, of course, no one did. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Regarding the names of performers who appeared in Memorial Gym during the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, I remember attending a performance, during my final year (1962–63) at the university, by the Chad Mitchell Trio along with folk singer Josh White Jr. Not long after their performance in Mem Gym, one of the singers in the trio left and was replaced by a then-unknown singer-songwriter named John Denver. They were a popular group, appearing in many venues, including colleges/universities, radio and TV.

Your list of artists appearing in Memorial Gym did not include two spectacular shows from my era. During my first year, the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Georg Solti performed to a full house and made great music, even with the windows open and the traffic on Emmet Street. I believe they had a return engagement a couple of years later. And on another occasion, the great James Brown put on one of his trademark shows, also to a packed house.

Regarding “Bridging the Divide” and “A Century of Mem,” my perspective is a little of both as I graduated from Lane High School in Charlottesville and then matriculated in 1963 into UVA.

As a high school student, I was certainly aware of the university up there, but it made no particular effort to connect with my school. But I was accepted, and I relished all four years at the university. Any connections being made today certainly would be worthwhile for both the university and Charlottesville.

My memories of Memorial Gymnasium span the gamut of good stuff, from my first concert in spring of ’63 with my future wife to see the Kingston Trio; Ray Charles; Peter, Paul and Mary; and every concert at big weekends for four years. And my late-night handball games in the basement courts plus a year of running cross-country (badly) using the athlete’s-foot-inducing locker room. I’m really enthused to know my gym will live longer and prosper for all of us.

Here is one more tidbit of Mem Gym history. In November of 1974, when Bruce Springsteen played in Mem Gym, he was relatively unknown and could not fill that small venue. Nevertheless, a famous guitarist slipped into the back of the gym to check out Springsteen. It was Joe Walsh of the James Gang, who already had major hits and would soon join the Eagles. That night I was covering the Springsteen show for the Cavalier Daily, recognized Walsh and talked to him briefly. He told me he heard about Springsteen but had never seen him and wanted to see what the hype was all about. I understand Walsh is still doing concerts. Maybe he should be invited back to Mem Gym, but this time to do a show.

Not included, but not to be forgotten, was a concert of bluegrass music performed by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs with the Foggy Mountain Boys. These wonderful musicians played to a full house in Memorial Gym in ’64 or ’65. This concert was sponsored by a group of medical and nursing students. I still have a framed, treasured copy of the program with an article and “artwork” by yours truly, and that’s autographed by all of the musicians, hanging on my home office wall.

I was quite moved to read the stories of best friends developed at Virginia.

I had friends in the dorms, my fraternity, Navy ROTC and classes. My fraternity brother was the best man at my wedding. I enjoyed attending many other Virginia alumni weddings and celebrations over the years. In the years since graduation, I have met many other UVA alums whom I call friends. I cherish each who wore the orange and blue. 

During reunions, I met old friends and new. My sister never attends, so I work on her every so often. I recommend you do the same with friends and family. I last attended in 2022 with great physical difficulty (I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s later that year). I plan on attending my 40th reunion in 2027 to see my UVA friends again. I don’t want to hear excuses about why you can’t.

I believe the painting of Beta Bridge started in 1967. When I entered the university in 1965, the only adornment was scores from past football games. Then, right before St. Patrick’s Day of my second year, someone applied a coat of green paint and scrawled “Erin Go Bragh” on one side of the bridge. A month later a group painted it red and inscribed “God Save the Queen,” along with an obscenity. Both incidents were viewed as acts of vandalism, and the latter, which was reported in the April 17, 1967, Daily Progress, led to the arrest of 10 students. Two of them were sentenced to 30 days in jail, and a third was fined $25 for “cussing in public.”

A year later the self-proclaimed Charlottesville branch of Sinn Féin repainted Beta Bridge green and hung the flag of the Republic of Ireland above the Rotunda. According to an article in the March 16, 1968, Daily Progress, the same group affixed a shamrock to the office door of every member of the English faculty. The article further reported that Sinn Féin had declared a “revolution” by renaming the English department the Department of Irish Studies and appointing an Irish American as its chair.

Within the space of a year, painting Beta Bridge went from being a crime to an amusing prank before it became a tradition.

I was surprised to read letters suggesting UVA do away with basketball. I don’t see that happening; the brain trust is hot at work trying to find a new coach. Before one says, “Oh we need a big-time coach from a Division I program,” let me suggest that a winner from any level is a winner. Whether it is at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletes level or the DI level, a coach who has won a national championship and competes for one consistently is a winner and will be a winner at any level. However, let me suggest an alumna who not only led UVA to a national championship game at Virginia as a player, but won national championships at the DI level: Dawn Staley. Virginia always says it’s on the cutting edge, a leader. Oh, I can hear the litany of the excuses. All of which will be to follow the well-traveled path, not blaze one.

I started my photographic career at UVA, buying a camera in 1967 at the Barracks Road shopping center. UVA had no photo education at the time but did have a student darkroom. That’s where my career began.

In the evenings, I’d leave my apartment and go study at Fayerweather Hall, which was then the Architecture School. When I needed a break, I’d wander the building looking at the models that the architecture students were building. That experience plus living amongst the incredible architecture at the university became a building block of my career. I’ve been doing architectural photography for over 50 years.

Architecture imprints on your psyche. My dreams are often architectural, and I still dream of the architecture at the university 56 years after graduating.

The story about UVA architecture graduates making an impact in such a wide variety of ways was tremendous! As many forces, including our own Board of Visitors, try to stop DEI initiatives, this is also a great example of illustrating how much better UVA has become as it became more diverse. First by accepting women and then working to broaden the student population in so many other ways. Thank you!

In reading the story of Bob Elkins in your Fall 2024 issue, I was struck by the phrase “a disease called ‘tradition’ [that] included the degradation of women…” I was an undergraduate in the late 1990s, and during my tenure, as well as after, I believe that I was either a witness to or a victim of the degradation of women under the guise of tradition. One personal anecdote that could be used as a small example (but by no means the most egregious): After I graduated, I attended an old friend’s engagement party, where I met his uncle, who, after I said I was a UVA grad, looked me dead in the face and said, “UVA was better before they let girls in.” What struck me about that particular line in the article is the use of the past tense, suggesting misogyny at UVA was part of a “disease” that has since been treated if not cured. Misogyny certainly ran rampant 20 to 30 years after the events described in the article, and I imagine it still plagues the campus today, so I would appreciate language that doesn’t relegate societal ills as fundamental as misogyny to a thing of the past.