Sunday, January 18, 2009

Civil Rights in Central Virginia: Reverends shared frustration over segregation of city


Civil Rights in Central Virginia (sixth and last in a series): With Barack Obama poised to become the nation’s first black President, The News & Advance looks at significant post-1950s civil rights moments in Lynchburg.

In 1961, the Revs. Virgil Wood and John Teeter stood together to voice a shared frustration and outrage over the segregation of Lynchburg.

It “makes you so blasted mad that the police think they can get away with this type of thing,” said Teeter, who just hours before was forcibly ejected from the local courthouse after challenging its color barrier.

Wood, a close colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., condemned the court’s “Gestapo tactics” and urged listeners to don black armbands to mark the occasion.

“The hour has come to show our true colors and stand up to be counted,” he said.

Wood, a black Baptist minister, and Teeter, a white Episcopalian, both made headlines throughout their tenures here for their work in civil rights. A newspaper article on their respective departures from the city, just months apart, observed the two were “closely associated.”

http://www.newsadvance.com/lna/news/local/article/civil_rights_in_central_virginia_reverends_shared_frustration_over_segregat/12522/

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