Community Content

Judith Conlon wrote a letter published in the Lexington Gazette on Feb. 7. Mr. Kinney responded in his Feb. 13 letter to the Lexington News-Gazette. I read Mr. Kinney’s letter. I am a 1974 alumnus of Washington and Lee. I have worked with students on campus since 2015; I offer my perspective. Ad Hominem: Mr.…

Rector McAlevey and the Board of Trustees issued a statement Friday denying that they are erasing history on the campus of W&L. Yet their message rings hollow.  They are saying in effect: “We’re not erasing history.  We’re just whitewashing it.”  They have literally whitewashed Lee Chapel. They promise to preserve W&L history in a future museum…

President William Dudley and his administration have engaged in a methodical campaign to purge W&L of any reminders of Robert E. Lee. After changing the name of Lee Chapel (and almost dropping the “Lee” from W&L), Dudley has removed Lee’s image from diplomas, hidden the Recumbent Statue of Lee from public view, and cancelled Founders’…

Tracing The Travails of Our Next-Door Neighbor 23 October 2022 For years, these pages have sought to report objectively about the recurring onslaught on the history, values and traditions of Washington and Lee University. We believe the ongoing attempt to expunge its legacy will have profound effects on its ability to survive as the extraordinary…

VMI Two Years After Ralph Northam’s October 17, 2020 Letter The Roanoke Star-News For those who’ve forgotten when Critical Race Theory (CRT) and its “close cousin,” Diversity-Inclusion-Equity (DIE) were still relatively unknown, it was early 2019 when Virginia’s previous governor, Ralph Northam, came within a political heartbeat of being forced from office when his blackface…

Cancel Culture Strikes Nearby A Family Member Responds To Denaming 16 October 2022 This past week the endemic forces of higher education Cancel Culture dropped an unexpected bomb at nearby University of Richmond.  We learned about it through receipt of a copy of a reply letter from Robert C. Smith, the double great grandson of…

14 August 2022 As a Lexington native, I was very interested in your recent article entitled, “Unheard Voices of Black Lexington.”  Congratulations to all who were involved in that historic project.  I delivered the Richmond Times-Dispatch to residents of Diamond Hill community in 1939-40. In that same article, quoting Eric Wilson, executive director of the…