Squared up
Charlottesville’s Historic Resource Committee continues to work toward replacing the Court Square slave auction block marker, which was thrown into a river by a local resident in 2020.
During a February 11 meeting, University of Virginia graduate students Jake Calhoun and MaDeja Leverett presented their research on Court Square to the committee. Over the past few months, the students have searched the city’s courthouse books for records of sales of enslaved people.
From 19th century wills, the students learned that the court played a prominent role in selling enslaved people after their enslavers died.
“Normally, what the court decides to do is appoint a commissioner to basically take charge of the enslaved and sell them at the courthouse,” explained Calhoun. “The court is basically acting as an arbiter, or tool of enslavement.”
So far, the students have identified the names of over a dozen enslaved people who were sold on the courthouse steps. They also plan to search for records of enslaved people in the Albemarle County court minute books, as well as share their findings on a public database.
“Simply naming the people who were a part of this is an extremely important aspect, much more so than necessarily identifying the exact spots,” said committee chair Phil Varner.
Committee member Jalane Schmidt, director of UVA’s Memory Project, said that she plans to continue facilitating research on Court Square for at least another year, and may bring more students onto the research team in the future.
The committee also discussed the Court Square project progress report that it’s doing for City Council. Some members advised against the report title including the terms “human trafficking” and “antebellum.”
“If we’re writing a report for council, and we want their support, we should probably keep it as simple and as straightforward as we can. And let them come to their own terms with this new language that is much more emotion-invoking,” said member Dede Smith.
Schmidt explained that journalists and the mainstream public have begun adopting such terms—often used by historians—in recent years, and suggested the report take time to explain human trafficking and other historical terms.
Council is expected to discuss the report during its next meeting, on February 22.
Super-duper
Two UVA alums earned Super Bowl rings when the Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals over the weekend. Bryce Perkins (right), who starred at quarterback for the Cavaliers in 2018 and 2019, was the Rams third-string quarterback this year. Perkins has had a long road to the top—he suffered a serious neck injury while playing for Arizona State, and transferred to a junior college before leading UVA to its best record in the last 14 years. He went undrafted, but managed to carve out a place for himself amongst the Rams practice squad and reserves.
Meanwhile, James MacRae, a computer engineering major from the UVA Class of 2014, won himself a ring for his work as a video manager for Rams. It takes a village!
Students say, paper please!
Living in a college dorm has its perks—but it also means sharing a communal bathroom with 20 other people. You never know what you might find in the sink, especially in the aftermath of a UVA weekend.
Since January, residents of the school’s McCormick Road dorms have been without access to paper towels, and instead have only hand dryers available. Housing and Residence Life explained that this action was taken for sustainability purposes, but students have started a petition calling for paper towels to be restored, saying that bathrooms have become unsanitary in their absence. Residents also pointed out that hand dryers can spread pathogens, especially during the ongoing pandemic.
“Whereas students used to clean up after themselves habitually, now in the absence of paper towels, the sinks are caked with toothpaste, hair, hair-dye, and bodily fluids among others,” the petition reads.
The messes become the custodial staff’s responsibility, which first-year Ezgi Stump, who started the petition, finds unfair. More than 350 students across the university have already signed the petition.
“As first-years we overwhelmingly do not consent to UVA reaching its ‘sustainability goals’ by subjecting us to noisy and unhygienic conditions,” Stump says. “This decision reflects incredibly poor judgment on behalf of HRL and any other parties involved.”
Paper towels, we need you.—Maryann Xue
In brief
Come on down, Joe Biden
POTUS took a trip south of the Capitol last week, making an appearance in Culpeper to speak about health care and prescription drug costs. He reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to lowering drug prices, and also put in a good word for Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, who represents Culpeper and could be in for a tough 2022 reelection fight in the reshaped 7th Congressional District. Spanberger’s new district is rated “highly competitive” by FiveThirtyEight.
What in the Dickens?
Ever dream of cracking a century-old code? Ken Cox, a 20-year-old UVA student, won second place in a competition from the University of Leicester to decode parts of a one-page letter written by Charles Dickens in his baffling shorthand over 165 years ago. The son of a Dickens fan, Cox was already familiar with some of Dickens’ writing, and worked on deciphering the code for a few hours each day across a few weeks, reports The New York Times. Thanks to the work of Cox and other decoders, the meaning of 70 percent of Dickens’ text has now been uncovered. (And no, it wasn’t just his shopping list—the note details a dispute Dickens had with a newspaper advertising department.)
Youngkin’s mix-up
Governor Glenn Youngkin texted State Senate Majority Leader Louise Lucas to thank her for giving a speech on Black history last week—except the speech was actually given by a different Black woman, Senator Mamie Locke. Youngkin apologized and Lucas told The Washington Post she was initially “going to let that one go,” but after the fight over Youngkin’s cabinet appointees heated up last week, Lucas decided to call the Gov out on Twitter. Lucas posted photos of Locke and herself, and wrote, “Study the photos and you will get this soon!”