One argument made recently defending the Shenandoah County School Board in its decision to re-instate two school names for Confederates is that it only did what it was elected to do. While I agree that elected officials should listen to their constituents, I think that they should also lead them.
Towards the end of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain teaches another moral lesson. Huck and Tom Sawyer devise a plan to dig Jim, the run-away slave, out of the log pen in which he is captive, Tom says, “Well, … I wouldn’t stand by and see the rules [of slavery] broke—because right is right, and wrong is wrong, and a body ain’t got no business doing wrong when he ain’t ignorant and knows better.” Tom is explaining how he has been taught that slavery is right, thus it would be wrong for him to help Huck free Jim; but he knows that slavery is wrong, and so he will help Huck dig Jim out “because right is right, and wrong is wrong.” He makes a moral choice that goes against the rules his culture has taught him because he “knows better.”
Unfortunately, not all elected officials are leaders but the type who go along with the flow. An example of such an elected leader is Harry Byrd, Sr. Byrd, a Virginia segregationist, was governor from 1926 to 1930 and U.S. senator from 1933 to 1965. A vocal opponent of the Supreme Court decision Brown vs. Board, he developed a strategy to fight school integration in Virginia known as “Massive Resistance.” He also supported a group of laws passed in 1956 to prevent integration of Virginia public schools. The mainstay of “Massive Resistance” was a law that cut off state funds for and closed any public school that attempted to integrate.
Byrd was wrong. Yes, he was elected to listen to voters, but to also lead them. But he only led them down the mistaken path they wanted instead of using his position to persuade and lead Virginia to follow the law. What he did was harm both White and Black children and their families by denying them an education. Instead of being a visionary he was a reactionary whose legacy is ruined. Integration has proven him wrong.
Barlow, Carlineo, Rickard, Rutz, and Streett, the board members who voted to re-instate the Confederate names, say they followed their constituents. The verb followed tells us about these five elected officials and how they view their responsibilities and what they think of the children of Shenandoah County. Instead of leading they ambled along behind, using an unknown number of citizens as an excuse. Their five names-Barlow, Carlineo, Rickard, Rutz, and Streett- will go down beside that of Byrd and others like him.
Had those five board members followed Tom Sawyer’s moral example and listened to, discussed with, then led their constituents, the Shenandoah County School Board would have shown leadership and made things better for county children.
Southern Intersections 