Lexington, Virginia, March 2021
Rockbridge Report
What We’ve Gained
Walker Program Helps Local Entrepreneurs of Color
By Jin Ni
The Walker Program is a new community project to help people of color start businesses in Rockbridge County.
The program, started by 15 volunteers, was named after Harry and Eliza Walker, prominent African American entrepreneurs and activists in Lexington during the 1900s. The couple built a successful business supplying meat, seafood and groceries to Washington and Lee University and the Virginia Military Institute.
“It’s about giving economic mobility to people,” said Atin Basuchoudhary, chair of the Rockbridge NAACP Economic Empowerment Committee and Walker Program advisory board member. “[It’s] to make sure that people can own something, build something, find it meaningful, find wealth, and then pass that wealth down to their children.”
“There used to be thriving black businesses in Lexington, and now there’s not,” said Tinni Sen, coordinator of the 50 Ways Rockbridge racial justice group and Walker Program advisory member.
The only requirement for the free program is participants must create a business plan and commit to finishing the training phase. So far, nine people have applied.
“We’re thrilled to have so many already, since it’s still so early in the process,”said Jamie Goodin, GoBV project manager and Walker Program advisor. Entrepreneurs will also compete for cash and services to help them start their businesses.
The program is funded by 50 Ways Rockbridge and $60,000 in private donations. In addition, Staunton Creative Community Fund provided a professional business training course.
Program advisors said they hope the community initiative can rejuvenate the economy in places like Buena Vista.
The Walker Program wants to open four to six shops by December 2021. Photo of downtown Lexington by Jin Ni.
The Walkers ran their business out of the current Macado’s building (pictured above) in downtown Lexington. Photo by Zach England.
Pastors worry about the effect the pandemic has on congregations
By: Avalon Pernell
In a year where hugs and handshakes can transmit COVID-19, some pastors are offering services online and in person to meet the needs of their congregations.
Moving services online has been a blessing in disguse for attendence.
“Before we went online we averaged about 60 in person and now I would say you know we’re 20 to 30 of those people are coming in person Sunday mornings but I think we’re ranging between 150 to 250 views on a Sunday morning,” The Rev. Thomas Johnson Junior said.
But one Buena Vista pastor Michael Hamilton, is worried about congregants who are using the online option as a reason to not return to in person services.
Hamilton said he became concerned after seeing some congregants around town during the week, but not in
the pews on Sunday.
“A lot of elderly people that would call and say you know I just don’t want to come because of my age. And I understand that I really truly do, but again I go back if you can go to a grocery store, you can go to a sporting event, you can go to an outdoor concert, you should be able to come to church,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said he was worried about how staying online could impact the next generation of churchgoers.
“I think it’s another lesson for the churches to remind us all that our message over these 2,000 years has not changed but sometimes the method and how we present it. It has to evolve. It has to change.”
Under Governor Northam’s current executive order churches must opperate below capacity to accommodate social distancing. But as COVID-19 cases continue to decrease across Virginia, pastors are hopeful the summer will bring a return to normal.
Shop Small
Here is a list of some of our favorite places downtown!
Alvin-Dennis Inc.
Artists in Cahoots
Bistro on Main
Blue Sky Bakery
Bookery Limited
Brew Ridge Taps
Celtic Tides
Clover Boutique
Cornerstone Bank
Haywoods
Hess & Co. Jewelers
Juniper Lounge
Lizzie’s of Lexington
Lex Running Shop
Old Lex Mercantile
Palms
The Pappagallo Shop
Pumpkinseeds
Pronto
The Red Hen
Rockbridge Music
Salerno Pizza
Southern Inn
Restaurant
Sugar Maple Trading Co.
Sweet Things
Sweet Treats Taps
Tonic
Walkabout Outfitters
Washington Street Purveyors
Yesterday Once More
The outside of Grace Episcopal church. Photo by Jin Ni
Lexington leaders talk about COVID-19, personal goals and life in Lexington
By Mary Alice Russell
The Rockbridge Report asked the city leaders about pandemic and priorities for the upcoming term in office. What follows is an edited version of a Q&A with Friedman, Alexander, Straughan and Aligood.
What should Lexington’s priorities be given the impact of the pandemic?
Friedman: Lexington needs to remain ever aware and take steps to avoid contracting and sharing COVID-19. Wear a mask, keep your distance and wash and keep your hands to yourself.
Alexander: We should keep the CDC precautions in mind to ensure safety for all. There are concerns about job losses and businesses finding it necessary to cut back services, hours and staff. Anytime we receive funding and find other opportunities to help improve their outlook we should be at the forefront to lend a hand.
Straughan: Lexington’s priorities should be to provide city services to our community; working with our businesses, schools and non-profits; providing clear and open communication; preventive measures being taken, and working together to limit the spread of COVID-19.
Aligood emphasized that the city’s top priority should be supporting local businesses and schools.
As a returning or new city leader what are your goals for this term?
Friedman: My goal is to work with council to give guidance, policy and support to our city employees.This effort is critical to serve our residents plan for the future and be good stewards of our time leading our community.
Alexander: I am extremely excited about working with groups to continue educating the public about the history of Black residents in Lexington.
Straughan: My goals are to continue to upgrade the city’s infrastructure, support our local economy and enhance the livability. We need to upgrade our water and sewer lines, repair and repave our roads, and work with Rockbridge Area Network Authority to make broadband available throughout the city.
Aligood: I would like to see city business discussed more openly during council meetings than it appears to be at this time.
What’s your favorite thing to do in Lexington?
Friedman: My favorite thing to do in Lexington is to greet and engage visitors. Also, for fun, I really enjoy wandering around our beautiful community and admiring the pride of friends and neighbors with their homes and businesses.
Alexander: My favorite things to do in Lexington are shopping and eating out.
Straughan: My favorite thing to do in Lexington is walk through the town. It amazes me that in a 2.5-square mile town, you can find so many interesting things to see and explore, including nature trails at Brushy Hills and the Chessie Trail.
Aligood: I am very much an outdoors person. I enjoy walking and hiking in the woods with my wife. I find it very relaxing and I leave my phone at home.
If you want to learn more about Lexington city council and the mayor, you can watch their meetings via the city’s Facebook page. Meetings are held on the first and third Thursday of each month.
A Year in Weather
Despite this relentless year, Mother Nature has not gone easy on us. From piercing downpours to cutting winter storms, you could argue that the weather has imitated the chaotic events that occurred. But monsoons revived the wilting grass and treacherous snowfalls created beautiful Lexington snowscapes.
Throughout craziness, there is still an opportunity to recognize beauty: a valuable lesson that we must take when looking back at this year. While the pandemic seems to feel never-ending, rain always leads to flowers just like time will lead to normalcy.
by Carson Allsteadt
Laughy is concerned about the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on all children. “Everyone is behind a grade now,” she said.
Lexington students attend classes in person four days a week and virtually on Fridays. But Laughy said pandemic-related requirements of mask-wearing and the hybrid week of learning added extra stress for Harry and made it harder for him to complete his work.
Professor Haley Sigler, director of education studies at Washington and Lee University, said some
“It is very hard to teach a child how to read over a screen,”
children are thriving in online learning. Her seventh grader, Claire, has enjoyed working at a personal pace and has seen an improvement in grades. But Sigler had to facilitate class video calls and help her second grader, Alice, complete assignments.
Jason Kirby, director of technology and human resources for Rockbridge County Public Schools, said he worries most about mental health problems for middle schoolers and educational setbacks for elementary students. “It is very hard to teach a child how to read over a screen,” Kirby said.
Sigler said the lack of in-person, small groups that teach kids how to sound out words could take a toll on the reading development of young children. Older students generally aren’t struggling as much, she said.
“These experiences will cause teachers to look, re-look at their classroom practices to see why some have thrived,” she said, while others have struggled.
Sigler said teachers are worried that students are losing their love of learning because school is not fun anymore.
Gov. Ralph Northam strongly encouraged school systems to offer some type of in-person learning by March 15. He also announced that his administration will work to provide resources to school systems for summer learning. “It’s time for this to happen,” Northam said in a statement. “It’s critical to prevent greater learning loss and to support our children’s health and well-being.”
schools early in the fall.
At a school board meeting last week, Lexington Superintendent Rebecca Walters said the schools want to use federal funding from CARES Act II to expand summer school for kindergarten through 8th grade to address learning losses in reading and math.
Walters said the funding would pay teachers for summer curriculum work in math, reading, technology and history.
The CARES Act II was a $900 billion stimulus bill passed by Congress in response to the economic fallout from COVID-19. It contained $53.4 billion for K-12 education.
Laughy said she opposes summer school. She said she prefers to send her children to summer camps, if they’re open, because she wants her kids to experience a normal summer.
“Everyone’s worried about the learning loss,” Laughy said, “not the social loss.”
Teachers and administrators in Rockbridge area public school systems are in the beginning stages of their plans for summer school programming. Tim Martino, director of K-12 curriculum and instruction for Rockbridge County Public Schools, said officials are discussing offering two threeweek sessions in June and July and starting the elementary
Central Elementary School. Photo by Zachary England
Harrington Waddel Elementary School. Photo by Emma Derr
Life on W&L’s campus during the COVID-19 pandemic
Students’ concern about mental health took center stage during a virtual meeting held by the COVID-19 committee on Oct. 8
By Bri Hatch
Washington and Lee University students voiced concerns about student mental health and problems in the COVID-19 conduct process in a Zoom meeting with the Covid Committee on Oct. 8
“Mental health should be the number one priority,” Caroline Snyder, ‘21, said. “We pay over $70,000 to go to this school and we can’t even get a counselor.”
The COVID-19 Committee held the town hall meeting to help students brainstorm ideas for ways to have “safe fun.”
Toni Locy, professor of journalism, said she got the idea from her students, who said they were feeling “cut off” from the committee.
“We are ‘they’ when you talk about ‘they are doing this’ and ‘they are doing that,’” Committee Chair and Associate Provost Paul Youngman said.
Isabel Chiodo, ‘21, spoke specifically about seasonal depression and the lack of services available to students to address their mental health.
Youngman said that Student Affairs is looking into expanding its operations.
“There is no easy answer,” Shaefer said. “Mental health issues can be deadly as well and we recognize that. We have to keep balancing that. But it really is a tough balancing act that we have got to find the right middle ground on.”
Committee members said that mental health services are not under their purview but they can and will serve as advocates to the administration.
Some students also called for loosening restrictions. Many students also brought up the fact that there is no appeals process when it comes to conduct violations, or other chances to defend oneself from accusations.
“I was not offered an appeal, and no one I have known to be in trouble has ever been offered an appeal,” Mac Lyerly, ‘22 said.
Riley Thornbury, ‘21, stressed the need for more transparency and communication in the conduct process. She said that there is an extreme lack of communication between public safety, greek life, the administration, the health center and the student body.
Since the meeting in October, the COVID committee has introduced office hours, held every Friday from 3:00 to 3:45 p.m. for students to voice any concerns related to COVID-19.
Photo by Emma Coleman
VMI faces a $1 million investigation into allegations of racism
By The Associated Press
Virginia lawmakers on Monday approved budget changes proposed by Gov. Ralph Northam, including adding $1 million to pay for an independent investigation into allegations of racism at the Virginia Military Institute.
Northam — a VMI graduate — and other top Democratic elected officials sent a letter to the public school’s board last month announcing an investigation into its culture, policies, practices and equity in disciplinary procedures after a Washington Post story that described Black cadets and alumni facing “relentless racism.”
VMI’s superintendent, retired Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III, resigned last month under pressure from the governor’s office after the article was published.
The House of Delegates and the Senate both approved the budget allocation for the investigation, although several members said they felt there has been a rush to judgment.
VMI board votes to move Stonewall Jackson statue
By Grace Mamon
The Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors voted on Oct. 17th to move the statue of Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson from its central location in front of the campus barracks.
The president of the board, John Boland, said that it was the “general consensus” that moving the statue was the right decision.
Spokesman Col. Bill Wyatt called the decision “a bold and unanimous action to move VMI forward.” There was little discussion among board members. Boland said his only concern was cost.
It is unclear where the statue will go. Both storage and the New Market battlefield were
Northam’s revised budget also includes enabling language for a new redistricting commission voters approved through a constitutional amendment last week. The House and Senate also approved that amendment Monday.
A bipartisan commission of citizens and legislators equally divided between Democrats and Republicans will now redraw the state’s congressional and General Assembly districts to conform with the 2020 Census.
The revisions were made to a two-year state budget that the General Assembly passed last month during a special legislative session that focused on economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, as well as police and criminal justice reforms.
mentioned as potential locations.
The move was unexpected, given Boland’s previous comments about the atmosphere at the school, saying “systemic racism does not exist here and a fair and independent review will find that to be true.”
The board also unanimously voted to create a diversity office to focus on issues of gender, race and hiring. The college will also form a naming committee that will make recommendations on other existing statues and building names.
Boland said these actions are “appropriate and good,” and will not have a negative impact on the school’s mission or method of education.
Photo by Grace Mamon
Avalon Pernell
Image by Avalon Pernell
Photo of Big House Mountain by Todd Echols