So some of you may know, I have a PhD in medical history, and I will absolutely say that the University of Padua is like the pinnacle of medical history. It's where anatomy started [INAUDIBLE], so if any of you can go, I strongly, strongly encourage you. 

On another note, I get the privilege of introducing Dr. Frank Dukes. I have to say that he really is one of the most respected individuals in the UVA community as well as in Charlottesville. And partly because he's had such a longstanding commitment to building bridges across grounds and across the university, to really address very troublesome issues like the legacy of race and racism. In 2016, he was honored with the John Casteen Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leadership Award, which is UVA's highest honor for work in social justice. 

He's been part of the UVA community for almost 30 years, based at the Institute for Environmental Negotiation, where he started as a senior associate in 1991. From 2000 to 2015, he served as Director of the Institute-- teaching, conducting research, as well as leading negotiations projects, locally, at the state level, regionally, and nationally. And they are in the fields of tobacco, environment, as well as race and reparations. 

As an author of six books, and nearly a dozen articles, he approaches negotiation with a grounding in historical knowledge, using this understanding to find ways to overcome injury to communities. And I've seen him in action. I was a member of the President's Commission on slavery in the university. And as part of the work of that commission, we decided to undertake the planning for a memorial to the enslaved persons who built UVA, and who maintained the facility and its faculty and students for nearly 50 years, until they were freed at the end of the Civil War. 

And Frank spearheaded this entire community university collaboration to design this memorial with enormous community input. And I have to say to be at the table, listening to what he was constructing was really an experience of healing I could see, between the university and the people in the larger Albemarle area. As co-founder of UCARE, which stands for University and Community Action for Racial Equality, he continues to build bridges and create opportunities for repair. As we explore ways that the department, residence, faculty, students can be involved in community initiatives, I think we have much to learn from Frank, from his current efforts to address Charlottesville problems with health disparities, and its ongoing effort to create a space of healing. It's yours. 

Thank you. 

[APPLAUSE] 

I think [INAUDIBLE]. Is this working, and you all can hear me OK? Very good, thanks. Thank you so much, Preston. What a generous introduction that you gave. I'm honored to be here. Pleased to be here. I'm going to be talking about some things that may be uncomfortable for people. I know you're used to seeing slides that maybe that ordinary people see as uncomfortable. I'm thinking that these may be different, and uncomfortable in a different way, and not just uncomfortable. So if you need to take care of yourself, please take care of yourself in ways that are best for you. 

The key takeaways-- I'm actually going to be offering some hypotheses, but some of the key takeaways I'm going to give. So that white supremacy has been deeply ingrained in our country, our locality, UVM medical system, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, central Virginia, et cetera, et cetera. And our community spaces in particular, these enduring impacts, deep racial disparities, and harms that until we confront them, our communities will be less resilient, less whole, and really-- and a lot of people are making arguments that we just need to let the past be past and we need to move forward. Why do we raise questions about ugly parts of our history that we all know were wrong? We need to just move on. 

I want to give you an answer to that question that I think is a strong answer to that question. And then that our community spaces may be transformed to build resilience. So building more resilient communities. For me, resilience also equates to healthy communities. I tend to use those terms interchangeably. 

Now, we can also see that anytime there've been gains that were made, or challenges to white supremacy, there's been violent pushback, right? So the Confederate monuments here and in the rest of the south-- and actually, not just in the south, in some places in the north, too, were erected as part of the project to ensure white supremacy, primarily from the 1890s to the 1920s, coincided with the effort to put down the gains of emancipation reconstruction. 

Naming schools and parks, the use of one of the Confederate battle flags of the army in northern Virginia actually didn't really come about until the Civil Rights era, 1950s, 1960s. And now as we're seeing, and as we saw in Charlottesville, August 11, August 12, 2017, and other times, too, that efforts to tell more complete histories, to become better communities, more whole communities, receive their own type of pushback, too. 

Now, I'm going to introduce the slide here. How many of you heard the term white fragility? I'm hoping that-- I was hoping that everybody in the room would raise their hands at that. So that's interesting. OK. I'm in some groups actually, where everybody raises their hand. So this idea that where stress can become intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. So Robin D'Angelo has written a lot about whiteness. 

What I'm going to ask you to do is actually, if you find yourself thinking some of these thoughts, that you can actually take the metaphorical wastebasket and kind of shove them to the side, at least for the time that we are together here. And you can pick them up again afterwards if you want to. But I'm asking for people to be open, and really open. To be to be thinking about what it is that I'm talking about, that so many people talking about today, too. 

So I'm going to offer three key hypotheses. One is that deep trauma leaves people in communities with losses and harms that can endure over years, and even generations. So institutional trauma, personal trauma, of course, institutional trauma, and community trauma, too. The second one is that historical community trauma that is ignored, can leave communities less resilient, less able to respond well and recover from stress and harm. 

Resilience has a particular definition in the environmental community where I do much of my work, so that's the definition that I'm using for that. In the face of new traumatic events-- and we're going to go back to this-- we're going to go back to all three of them. But if it's ignored, it's going to leave communities less resilient. If we just say let's get over it, let's get past it, we're going to be less capable, less able to respond well and recover from new stresses and harms. And then third, improved resilience then can only occur when such losses and harms are fully acknowledged and addressed. 

And I've learned this the hard way myself. Preston was introducing some of the work I've done. I've done-- we tend to do most of our work in Virginia, or in nearby states. But I've also worked in other places around the country. And was finding myself repeatedly working on environmental issues. Issues where they're in environmental harm. And where, instead of people wanting to talk about the environmental harm, they wanted to talk about what happened a generation ago, or two generations ago, or three generations ago. 

And finally realizing that that's not interfering with the work that we're trying to do. It's actually part of the work that we're trying to do as well. To acknowledge such losses and harms, address them, and then be able to move forward. 

So let's take the first one, the deep trauma often leaving people in communities with losses and harms that endure over years. So I'm hoping that you all would know-- actually, how many people would recognize the name John Henry James? I don't know if you can see that back there. The jar with the soil? I will not pick on you, Preston, but in the far back, can you say-- is it OK to do this? I know we're being recorded. It's not OK to ask people questions. It is OK, but you don't want to be asked. OK, somebody else raised their hand. 

Can you say who John Henry James was? 

[INAUDIBLE] on the railroad tracks. 

Right. Right. A Charlottesville resident who was lynched in 1898. And that is actually soil from the lynching site that was just gathered. This was a story that had 150 people-- mostly white men-- that were there that took part in the lynching, took part in the mutilation of the body, that went home talked to their kids, talked to everybody, it was in the news, and somehow, a generation and a half later, there's no mention ever again of this for a variety of reasons. So that's part of our history, and we're going to return to that a little bit. 

Monacan Indians, how many of you were aware that Monacan Indians occupied this land, and that the Monacan are actually a federally-recognized tribe? You, raise your hand. OK. And then I don't have to ask you to raise your hand that you are aware that we had over 100 years of slavery. And then 100 years post-Civil War of active and overt white supremacy, of which the University of Virginia was one of the major intellectual and practical leaders in. And then 50 plus years-- but I'm calling it silent civility. And if we have time, we can maybe talk a little bit more about civility. 

But so we've had this hidden racialized history, hidden for some people. Vinegar Hill, hopefully more people-- how many have heard of Vinegar Hill? So yeah, seeing a lot more. It's been 10 years ago, 15 years ago. Actually, probably nobody would have raised their hands then. African-American business residential district demolished-- 29 businesses, 600 individuals displaced. And not acknowledged. 

So the harm that was being done actually was framed as something that was good for these people. And part of the harm that was done, too, was the fact that actually what was promised didn't happen. So the Vinegar Hill, that was demolished, laid bare for a very long period of time. And then what was redeveloped there didn't affect, didn't help the communities that had been displaced from that. 

So when you talk about Vinegar Hill today, people still not only remember it, even a generation later, full generation later, it means that they do not trust what government says that it is going to do. So there are impacts for that. 

This is a really tough one, and I wish I didn't have to do this. This is data from the Virginia Department of Health. So 1996, 26.3 per 1,000 infant mortality rate for African-American babies. So literally 10 times more likely to die in their first year of life than Caucasian babies. There's a lot of reasons for that. And I know there are a lot of people that are working to counter that, but that just is a fact of our life today. 

Our university, Mr. Jefferson's university, a UNESCO World Heritage site, always number one, number two public University. Lots to be proud of. Highest African-American graduation rate on public universities for 16 consecutive years. And yet much of the community views UVA as a plantation. 

How many people have heard us referred to as a plantation? So very common if you get out into the community. And you will hear that. And not just African-American community. Many members of the white community, too. 

Some of the language that we heard when we were doing the work that we were doing. And I know you want to just be in the audience, but Dr. Selena Cozart here, also with UCARE-- the University and Community Action for Racial Equity, and also at the Institute for Environmental Association. And she helped us do the interviews and focus groups that we did when we created a report, which I have a few copies of, and where we heard these comments from people. So the sense of arrogance still and always racist. Resentments about distortion, omissions of history and image. 

Turning to Jefferson for a little bit, and I was a student here at UVA, and I never heard any of these other elements. And these, this is actually taken from Peter Onuf, one of the so-called history guys with the podcast that's there, and one of his most recent books. So this idea that Jefferson, there's a narrative that Jefferson hated slavery and worked against it, and there is some truth to that in the early part of his career. He learned very quickly that that wasn't actually going to get him very far and he changed in a variety of ways. So while continuing to decry slavery and having an expectation that it would end of its own, nonetheless he actually helped create some of the racial narratives that we have today, and racial boundaries that we have today. 

And then the Barringer wing, and I was just talking with Preston beforehand about to me, the most, perhaps most egregious individual who worked at the University of Virginia, Barringer wing named after him. And these are painful quotes to be able to see. This was actually published in the Daily Progress, but in fact, it was an address to, I think the Southern Medical Society. And they immediately ordered it reprinted and distributed nationally. 

These are the languages of educated, white leaders who are telling the rest of our world what it means to be white. Because of course, that's what they're really talking about-- the supremacy of whiteness. And what it means to be black, too. Again-- and I didn't include all of them, but his late tendency to return to barbarism is as natural as a return of the sow that is washed or wallowing in the mire. Ages of degradation, 50 centuries of historically recorded savagery. 

This was not silent. This was not something that was hidden. This was in fact, something that was being celebrated and studied. And that there are impacts today, beyond just having a Barringer wing actually named after this person, also. 

We already talked about the lynching, so that's actually just the site. So actually, where Farmington Country Club-- there was no Farmington Country Club, so I want to people associate that with the lynching that took place. It was actually a train crossing that they had there. 

And then there's a lot of attention being paid to housing and supplying affordable housing right now. And some of the reasons for this, this idea that actually racial cleansing was actively done in our community, Charlottesville, Albermarle. It's not that it was wasn't done in other communities as well, but that it was actually done here. The redlining, the rezoning. 

I was talking with the mayor of Scottsville, which is a town in Albemarle County, and she said, yes, we of course we were a sundown downtown. Why we have something like 2% African-American today. So a sundown town meaning that sometimes they literally had signs that said, Negroes, well sometimes they would use that polite language, do not show your face in town after the sun sets. And so sometimes they were called that because they had the sign, sometimes they were called that because they'd actually see extensive violence. And there's a good bit of research has been done on sundown town. 

James Loewen, in particular, sometimes that you saw in one census, there might have been 10%, 15% of a population in a largely white community that was African-American, in the next census it was none. And that was because there'd been violence that has-- using the language of displaced people, it didn't displace people, it was racial cleansing that we had. 

So it's not still sun down? Was Charlottesville a sun down? 

So Charlottesville was not known as a sun down town, no. No. However, we are actually having some elements of sun downing now. Today, you could argue as we see the declining population, the declining African-American population as older members of our community-- not just older members, in the newer generation, too-- find they have less opportunity here and less reason to stay here. 

So that last part of this then. Unresolved trauma equals less resilience. So if it's not fully addressed, leaves communities less resilient, less able to respond well, recover from stress and harm. And of course we had the stress and harm August 11, August 12. And actually earlier, too. 

Ostensibly the people that came here were protesting the Charlottesville Commission on Race Memorials and Public Spaces that I served on, and the language that we used, that the Confederate statues don't belong here unless you're transforming them substantially, in ways that promote freedom and equity, and not just contextualizing. And eventually City Council voted to remove them after the summer of 2017. So how many people were here, were in town, actually, August 11, 12, 2017? So I know quite a few, but some of you were not here, but I'm sure everybody has heard of that as well. 

Lots of levels of trauma there, of course. Individual trauma. And I'm not-- I'm putting that aside, not to say that that's not hugely important. It is. But looking more at community trauma and the impacts that that had on that us. So commission recommended actions to transform these racialized community spaces. The summer of hate, and three dead, 30 injured, and what professor Willis Jenkins called moral trauma. I'm just going to pause here for my next image for just a second. 

So people react to trauma in different ways. Collectively, City Council session and takeover by activists. The sign, blood on your hands. Right after that, August 11, August 12. First independent councilor elected, selected as mayor, first African-American female on this council. Police chief resigning, City Manager fired. If you read the news or if you listen to the news, you can see that we're having a hard time. We're struggling. Recriminations, resignation, dysfunctional governments, hyper conflict, and then this sort of narrative, well, this isn't us. And many, many people seeing that as reinforcing the harm that in fact yes, you don't want this to be us, but this has always been us. 

So focusing then on redress that improved-- the third part of the hypothesis-- or the third hypothesis that improved resilience can only occur when these harms are properly acknowledged and addressed. So what that would mean for Charlottesville, what that means for central Virginia? It means taking a look at our history, not just to understand our history, but to understand the impact of our history today. And how the legacy of white supremacy continues today in so many forms, in so many areas. And obviously, in health-- and I just gave the one element around infant mortality. But in terms of housing, in terms of employment, in terms of education. We can see these racial disparities that continue. 

But I don't want to leave you with that. There are people that are actually working actively. It's as though we had a wound that we had festering, and we've been trying to cover up for a long time, and we ripped it off. And it's painful, but finally, at least we're actually able to treat it. And the person who had the wound, of course, the people that had the we always knew that they had the wound. But the rest of people-- the rest of us now learning about that. 

So Preston asked me to talk about UCARE, so yes, I am getting to that. University and Community Action for Racial Equity. We were founded in 2007. We started by going around the community and looking at the University of Virginia, which had issued an expression of regret, and a commendation to the general assembly's expression of regret. It was not an apology, because the concern was that the apology would actually mean you had to do something. 

So the Board of Visitors actually issued it. And so we spent a good bit of time-- actually, a year-- going around the community, talking to staff, and talking to people that had experiences with various parts of the university, and not in my presentation, but I remember talking with one woman who talked about her father being in the hospital, being in the basement, and sharing a room-- a room actually-- with the university mascot the dog, that they were treating there as well. That story may not be true, but that story is emblematic. The story that it tells, the history that it tells, is in fact, true. 

This is an independent project. And our goals are really to address the racial disparities that affect quality of life. And doing so-- whoops, going back to there-- by really understanding our history, and telling our history, and engaging with community members to say, what is it that you think would make this right? How do we deal with that? 

So we've been a catalyst. I'm not going to go over all the elements in that raising awareness of the need for change. I think that we prompted the President's Commission on [INAUDIBLE] university. We have a weekly news that comes out with about 560 subscribers. And I actually, I will have that up front. If you want to sign up to get news that comes out weekly on issues of race and equity in the community, so the people at UVA can learn about that, but also at UVA, so that people in the community can learn about that, too, to help build bridges. Networking and coordination, and then support for ongoing actions. 

And right now we are focused on-- we had a project we started the beginning of the year, Charlottesville Acts for Racial Equity, and we're actually focusing now on creating something more substantial an actual Truth Commission, working with a number of organizations to make that happen. We'd love to have people from the medical community and public health community here. I just separated those two communities. I hope that they're not actually separate. 

And just to let you know, this is not being done alone, right? So we're seeing lots of people paying attention. How many people have been out to Montpelier to see their new exhibition, The Mere Distinction of Color? It's well worth a visit. Just a couple of hands there. Not that far away. And they look-- one thing that we're doing different that Monticello, which has been doing this work for years, reaching out to the descendent community, is they're also looking Montpelier, James Madison's home, and the home of a couple hundred enslaved people, too. They're actually looking at what is the impact today? How do we continue to tell that story today, looking to the descendant community to help them do that. 

James Monroe's Highland, too. University of Virginia telling more complete histories. Whoops, go back there. The President's Commission on Slavery in the university that Preston talked about, issuing a really detailed and brutally honest report about the history of slavery. And then monuments and memorials. So council still hoping to remove Lee and Jackson. You may have read that this week has seen some of the hearings where the trial that will take place some point either in March, or sometime in September, and actually the city counselors who vote to remove have been ruled that they could be held personally liable, not just institutionally liable, but personally liable for their votes to do this. 

And that is the image of the new memorial to slave labor that Preston was talking about that I and Selena worked on. And that actually if you walk up past the corner, or go up to the corner, you see that new fence that there. That's what that is. And we have a report that we did several years ago, and we say in the report that you could come here as a student for four years, or you could actually come here to work and have a 35-year career, 40-year career and never even understand the impact of slavery and segregation discrimination. Once this memorial is built, you won't be able to miss it. And the memorial is built, yes, to memorialize enslaved people, but really to open a window for people to understand the impact and legacy of slavery and segregation, white supremacy, and why we need to deal with it today. 

Other elements. There is a Charlottesville clergy collective, did a pilgrimage, Charlottesville to Jamestown. The slide show that I had earlier showing the soil that was collected, there was a pilgrimage. Some 95 people that went there that offered libations for that, and then went to Montgomery-- sorry, went to Montgomery, Alabama to participate Equal Justice Initiative. And on the way there, took this photo. 

So how many know Congressman John Lewis, or recognize the name? Congressman John Lewis, one of the Civil Rights heroes. And I love this quote, "Get into this great revolution that's sweeping this nation. Get in and stay in the streets of every city, every village and hamlet in this nation until true freedom comes, until the revolution of 1776 is complete." So the idea that the Revolution of 1776 was, of course, primarily for white males who were property at that, and we've seen that slowly peeled away. 

And this is an image that we have for the effort that Selena and I are co-leading to create a Truth Commission for this region. And we have the leading institutions, certainly people at UVA, some of the leadership of UVA, Monticello, Highland, Montpelier, Jefferson School African-American Heritage Center, and others. And I'm going to close with a quote from Ta-Nehisi Coates, where he talks about this idea of, actually his focus on truth telling and reparations. And this idea that actually there is payment owed. 

So "For Americans, the hardest part of paying reparations would not be the outlay of money, it would be acknowledging that their most cherished myths were not real. We invoke the words of Jefferson and Lincoln because they say something about our legacy and our traditions. We do this because we recognize our links to the past, at least when they flatter us. But black history does not flatter American democracy, it chastens it. The popular mocking of reparations as a harebrained scheme authored by wild eyed lefties and intellectually unserious black nationalists, is fear masquerading as laughter. 

Black nationalists have always perceived something an unmentionable about America that integration is dare not acknowledged. That white supremacy is not merely the work of hotheaded demagogues or matter of false consciousness, but a force so fundamental to America that it is difficult to imagine the country without it." 

I look forward to conversation-- and I actually thought about asking you all questions to get into groups, too, because that's what I do with my work but I'm kind of chickened out for that. Not knowing how many people, and who were here, and so forth. So actually I'm not going to chicken out about that. But I'm not going to ask you the questions. I've just-- if you wouldn't mind getting into groups of two or three, just turn to each other and what are one or two things that either surprise you, or that maybe you're going to stay with. And then we'll open it up for questions. 

I'll give you not very long time, right? Maybe two minutes, tops. Groups of two or three. What about this presentation either surprised you, or something that struck you that you feel like you need to pay attention to? 

[INTERPOSING VOICES] 

I'll join your group if you don't mind. 

[INTERPOSING VOICES] 

Yeah. Yeah. 

[INTERPOSING VOICES] 

Yeah. Well I think-- do you have response to that? 

I think we are moving forward. I think that looking to the past, we're standing [INAUDIBLE] is a way of moving forward. And I'm all about improving health outcomes, making this a more whole community. I'm not doing this to make people feel guilty at all. 

[INTERPOSING VOICES] 

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. 

I think if we consider ourselves part of a larger community, then we have to think about the good of that whole community, right? And that clearly our whole community is still divided by those who have privilege and those who don't, right? So there's no need to feel guilty, even if your family was involved with this, at some point. I just think we all have a responsibility to act, if we want our communities to become more whole, and to pay attention to that. I think I'd benefit from that. [INAUDIBLE] 

[INTERPOSING VOICES] 

OK, I promised just a couple of minutes, but actually I know that these are better conversations that are going on. And I'm hoping you'll continue the conversation. Are there are there questions that people would have? I know this is not a data rich presentation. There is a lot of data about this. But yes, so if you wouldn't mind, just identifying yourself so people in the room know. Yes, please? 

So you mentioned housing equality. I've only been here for three years, but I've kind of noticed that [INAUDIBLE] like areas of the city, [INAUDIBLE] those areas or more typically like [INAUDIBLE]? 

OK, so the question around gentrification hitting primarily minority communities. And it does hit the poor white communities as well, and we need to recognize that we have those communities, too. So it's an issue that finally people are paying attention to. And I would just say, i had that one slide that talked about the way that we developed into segregated neighborhoods was not accidental. As a matter of fact, we didn't used to have segregated neighborhoods in the late 1800s, even into the early 1900s. It was done intentionally. 

And understanding that, and then realizing that then moving forward, that the planning that we do, the way that we zone for residential growth and how that is done can impact the gentrification and the resegregation, or the increasing segregation as well. I'm in the planning department, and we can talk a lot about how that's being done. But right now there are actually people working on the planning commission, on the comprehensive plan that are focused on exactly that, and finally paying attention to that. 

So the idea is looking at our planning practices, encouraging development, encouraging the preservation of neighborhoods Did anybody go-- I know you all are really busy and I'm not trying to embarrass people, but just last week there was a presentation by a group from the Sweet Auburn Historical District in Atlanta. Did you get to go to that? Didn't get to go to that. 

They created a Neighborhood Development Corporation that is intended to and is protecting longtime residents, in this case, primarily African-American residents in the community from being able to keep affording their homes and being able to keep the neighborhood intact. And it's a challenge, right? Because we also, it's not like this is so easy, there's one thing to do, we also want to welcome immigrants, we want to welcome new people into our communities, too. So I just say that we need to pay attention to it. We need to understand why it has happened, that was intentional, and that we can actually be intentional in figuring out how to deal with that. 

Part of it is a new housing fund that's being done. There's also a new housing activist group. I'm forgetting the acronym, CEREC. CLIHC, yeah. Charlottesville Low Income Housing Coalition. There's PHAR, which is Public Housing of Residents which is really active. There-- I know you don't have time, right? But if you have time to pick one element to be able to work with, you can connect to people in the community that are working on that. And that wasn't really your question. Your question was how do you actually deal with that? 

It is happening, it's harming people in this community. I want to be in a community that is really diverse and where everybody feels valued. And so I'm supporting people that are making the housing affordable and are working to keep neighborhoods. Or to reintegrate the neighborhoods, too. Other? Yes, if you could identify yourself. 

I'm Josh [INAUDIBLE]. [INAUDIBLE] actually met [INAUDIBLE] 40 years. Can you say something about why the Barringer [INAUDIBLE]? 

Well I don't have any responsibility for that. I would rather pick, well, I don't know why. I don't know why. And I understand that actually the name-- the signs have been removed, and there've been changes made. And sometimes change takes a while to actually happen. I know I used to tell the story about Harvey Jordan, right? Because of Jordan Hall. And then that was changed. Jordan Hall was changed and named after a real heroine, Vivian Penn. 

But I don't know. Did you want to say anything more about that? 

[INAUDIBLE] 

A lot of people like me have been ignorant about our past and the meaning of that. And we just sort of accept that sometimes the way things are the way that things should always be. So I must have been in Barringer Wing I don't know how many times without ever thinking, who is this person Barringer? And asking about that. But I'm glad that you're asking that question, and I hope other people ask that question, too. Yes? 

Andrew Jackson. [INAUDIBLE]. One of the things that struck me is that the location of slavery [INAUDIBLE] well, I was at that location on August 11, 2018, when I saw a bunch of students of color leading a protest surrounded by a line of police [INAUDIBLE] 

Right. 

And it seems to me that kind of directly undermines the efforts being made [INAUDIBLE] physical [INAUDIBLE]. What efforts are being made to kind of adjust how the university [INAUDIBLE]? 

OK. OK. So to be clear, you're saying that the way that the university was policing the protest is undermining that relationship, right? 

Yes. 

Yeah. OK. Well I don't speak for the police element. My understanding is, I mean this one of the things that happened that we have new leadership within public safety. And our hope would be that they would be recognizing that there are changes. I think one thing is that actually have them be communicating with student leaders. And so often that we don't. We just see people as the other, and we need to actually figure out how to have those bridges with them. 

So I've not met the new Vice President for Safety. I think, is it Gloria Graham? New Vice President for Safety, and there's actually a new Chief of Police for university, too. I have heard from people that they are paying attention to that. I do want to actually also point out, since you talked about the memorial and student protests. One of the reasons that it is where it is-- well actually the main reason that morale is where it is, is because people in the community were pretty insistent about putting it there, instead of putting it on the lawn, or someplace where I personally would have liked to see it go. But they said, well, we will never we don't go to [INAUDIBLE]. We don't feel welcome there. 

And another reason is there's a lot of space, and students said we would actually like to have a place where we can assemble when there's something that's going of significance. And so the design actually has a pretty large space inside there. You can fit quite a few people there. And so not incidentally, it was done deliberately to satisfy the students' interest in having something like that as well. 

And I will give the university administration huge credit. They have been-- everybody involved with it from President Sullivan, to new President Ryan, and obviously the architects have been really strongly advocating for doing what we heard from the community, and what we heard from the students and alumni in making that work. So my hope would be that-- yeah I was at that event also and had the same experience. Others? 

There's-- I would also say that I think that there is a real concerted effort to try to address bias-- seclusive bias-- among police. Charlene Green, who heads the Charlottesville Commission on Human Rights, does work with the police around bias training. And then there's his new initiative, this Equity Institute, that Susan Kools and the Dean of the university, and engineering school are doing. And they're doing bias training focus groups. And one of their groups is police. 

So I think the more that we take the understanding that we have around bias [INAUDIBLE] other groups, to get them aware that how their subconscious is then manifesting in behaviors, acting negatively black students or black [INAUDIBLE] community, trying to address police behavior, and using that as one of the tools. 

I'll just take that as an opportunity to also plug the speaker was supposed to be here, Dana Matthew, or at least earlier going to be here, who's book, Just Medicine, I don't know if people have looked at that, but it's very much about implicit bias. And is a very thorough-- if you're a data person, is a very thorough book. Other comments, observations? 

The only thing that I would just add is that I've been involved in the Martin Luther King planning committee for, gosh, a decade. And was asked by as part of [INAUDIBLE] to do a lecture on eugenics, I took that information to President Sullivan, and had lunch with her as one of our MLK lunches. And she turned to me and she said, and I said to her, I think we need to change the names of all these buildings, because all these buildings are named after eugenicists, and they're having a conversation that we need to change. 

And so she turned and she said let's start with the medical school. In fact, that was one of the agencies for changing Jordan to the Vivian Penn wing. So it is not that this leadership of this institution is against changing, because they absolutely will do that. I think they need to hear from people, that in fact it's time to move forward, not just with Penn, but now with Barringer and some other spaces. 

OK. 

So I think this is [INAUDIBLE]. 

I heard a really good question that I want to mention also, and address, too, this idea that a lot of us that look like me, or if you don't look like me, right, that my family had nothing to do with this, right? My family immigrated here, or that was a long time ago, and why should I be responsible? And I think the answer that I'm trying to give is if we want to live in a better community, if we want to have healthier communities, if we want to live in a community that we can be proud of, that we can say, this is a community that values everybody, we need to pay attention to these. So yeah, I don't actually know about my family's heritage. And I do know that I have so many privileges that so many people don't have right now, and that I feel that those of us that have those privileges have an obligation. 

And it's not just an obligation to help the other. It's an obligation, also, to help ourselves. That we will be better off, ourselves, if we live in these types of communities, too. 

Other questions? Yeah? 

[INAUDIBLE] I guess what the plans are for replacement of the Lee [INAUDIBLE]? I'd say that because when I leave the Paramount Theater and go around the corner, I love the fact that they have left in place the old colored entrance. It's just a wonderfully powerful [INAUDIBLE]. 

Right. 

And they have to go, and they have to be replaced by something that isn't [INAUDIBLE]? 

Right. 

We have to teach [INAUDIBLE]. 

Yeah. The commission-- so the question about what plans, if and when the Lee and Jackson monuments are removed, and I think the implicit question is, how do you also make sure you don't lose that history? I think after 2017, probably we're not going to lose that history, ever. So I'm less worried about that. 

But the idea, actually, the city council already had passed appropriation for up to a million dollars to redesign the parks. And that was sort of-- depending on whether, well, it actually doesn't depend on, if the statues have to stay-- and I don't think they're going to stay forever. But if they do have to stay, how do you redesign them to tell more complete histories? What can you do for that? And if they are removed, then what else needs to happen there? 

And our commission said if they are removed, you need to tell that story. You can't whitewash that history by removing the statues and just sort of getting rid of that. So that's their plan. But they're waiting. The trial has dragged on. It was actually-- the lawsuit was filed in spring 2017. They literally spent three days this week with more hearings about it. And again, the trial may be in March, or may not be until September about whether or not they can actually-- one, whether they could actually move them, and two, whether the counselors are liable, and in fact have to pay personal damages out of their own pockets for trying to move those. So whatever happens, there's going to be a lot of community engagement in changing those places. 

Other? Yes? Yeah. 

[INAUDIBLE]. I think of questions like yours. [INAUDIBLE] They asked to protect those [INAUDIBLE]. They asked [INAUDIBLE] outside [INAUDIBLE]. Writing on the pavement [INAUDIBLE]. And 10 people compare that [INAUDIBLE] took a week for this protest. [INAUDIBLE] 

OK. 

And simple question. Actually doesn't [INAUDIBLE]. Had there been a request [INAUDIBLE] know, or we just know want to know that answer that somebody [INAUDIBLE]? 

I don't-- I don't know. The question is has there been a request to change the name of Barringer? There actually was a group, and I think they finished their work to look at names and places at the university. So former President Casteen and history professor Claudrina Harold co-chaired that, and they had some public meetings with people and they gathered. But I don't actually know what's happened with that. So the idea is that there would be some policy that would guide names of new buildings, and the names of old buildings, too. 

One of the concerns is that we are in a landscape of slavery and segregation. We don't want to forget that. We want that history to be remembered. So I think there is some caution there, that again, just whitewashing and getting rid of a name is not sufficient to actually articulate that history. I don't know where that actually stands right now. Actually, I do know partly that answer. I don't why I forgot that. 

There is a new President's Commission on Slavery-- I'm sorry, on the university in the era of segregation. And I know that that's going to be part of what they're going to be looking at as well. Is anybody on that? Do you if Bobby's in? Anybody from the medical side on that? Are you on that, Preston? 

[INAUDIBLE] 

OK. And they will be doing some public meetings and public hearings, I'm sure, as part of that as well. 

[INAUDIBLE] 

Yeah. Yeah. So that will be one of the elements that they're looking at. But they're not just looking at that. And I don't know if people saw that there is a survey that's out right now from President Ryan's community. I forget what they're calling it. Community Impact Group, a group of people from the community and UVA that were making recommendations to him to say what is it that we need to do right now to improve university community relations? And they're looking at really substantive issues such as paying a living wage, providing housing for employees, and they're asking people to vote. 

So if you have any interest in this-- I don't actually-- I don't know the link. I'm not on that group, but you can look up President Ryan Community Survey. And I've seen some email now, going around about that. If you have an interest in that go ahead and vote on that. 

I've been asked to address the commission for two hours on [INAUDIBLE] and its impact on health disparities. [INAUDIBLE] 

Great question, great comments. Yes. Hi, Patrick. 

Many thanks, Frank for and incredible presentation. So this is the big issue with the statues, is that they're the same statue [INAUDIBLE] removal of Civil War statues from the [INAUDIBLE]? 

Exactly. So that's why-- 

Is there any-- the question is is there [INAUDIBLE]? 

Yeah. So and actually, Albemarle County-- I was going to say to our surprise, but I will give them more credit than that. Albemarle County Board of Supervisors put that in their legislative packet that localities should have the right to decide what to do for themselves about their statuary just like they should have other rights as well. And delegate Toscano has introduced legislation. Who knows where that's going to go? 

Last year they introduced it and there were veterans groups who were concerned about like World War I memorial, World War II memorials, Vietnam memorials. So they excluded those and just said Confederate era memorials to be changed. So it may have a chance, and of course the General Assembly changed considerably last time. But yes, there is a state law. And there is some debate about whether that's applicable, and whether those are actually war memorials. 

And I would-- going outside of my expertise, although I do teach monuments and memorialization. But I would say that those are not consistent with other war memorials which tend to be naming victims, offering dates, representing sort of larger eras, as opposed to there's definitely monuments and memorialization for big people, great people, which that seems to fit within that much larger. So they may or may not win that argument. So it's going to be decided in court, but it also may be decided in the legislature. Yes? 

What are your thoughts on [INAUDIBLE]? 

OK. I've been forgetting to ask people to give their name. So again. So-- 

[INAUDIBLE]. 

OK. But what about? 

What are your thoughts on Wes Bellamy? 

About Wes Bellamy? So how many people even know who Wes Bellamy is? So he's our former Vice Mayor, and current City Councilor, and a person just issued a book on it was never about the monuments and memorials. I found my interactions with him always to be just first rate. That I found him to be actually somebody who's humble, but also a leader, and someone who's willing to listen to other people. I know he had a history where he wasn't that way. And I didn't go to this session, but I heard he was talking about that. He's still very young. 

But he speaks truth. But my experience of him has been a very inclusive person, that he cares about everybody. That he cares about everyday in the community getting better. So I can only speak to my experience with him as well. But apparently the book was sold out. So again--