Good afternoon.
Many of you in here, like most, have
had stories told you about your families, your descendants,
your arrival to this great country.
And most of you have similarities.
Similarities of crossing the Ellis Island,
signing documents, welcome into the new world
and lands of opportunity.
I, too.
My family had these very similarities
with the exception, slave ships, shackled, landing,
hurdled in like cattle, signing papers,
come into a whirl of harsh reality.
My name is George Thompson.
I'm happy to stand here to be the voice of my ancestors,
to those who could not speak, those
who would not speak because of fear, but to tell the story.
Not very long ago I was born here
in Charlottesville, Virginia, during the years
of massive resistance.
This is right after desegregation.
And I have to tell you the University of Virginia
was not always a great place.
My mother labored for children.
However, when she was brought here,
she did not have the privilege of entering the medical center
like her white counterparts.
We were hurdled into a side building.
She went into labor in a separate labor room.
The baby was born.
Food was given to her, not like her white counterparts.
Oh no, no, no.
You could work here, but you don't set here.
But nevertheless, we persevered.
As I became a young man to start school.
Again, my mother wanted-- and my father, my father's deceased.
So if I speak about my mom, it's because she's here with me.
But as they wanted me to have a really good education,
they thought about enrolling me into one
of the private schools here.
Of course, the interview starts on the phone.
And it was like, yes, we will have you in for the interview.
Nevertheless, once she arrived there,
they saw that she was not a Caucasian
it was, you just been served.
We can't bring your son in because the others would
be taken out.
But that was OK, we went on.
As I mentioned, we were going through massive resistance
here.
So a lot of the schools were shut down.
Schools were held in basements, churches, wherever.
My elder sister and her friends were
part of the groups that help integrate schools here
in areas such as Lane High School and Albermarle High
School.
They too, like Dr. Penn, we're up against a lot of things.
Some of the things that I went through as seven-year-old once
schools were forced to take us in--
I'm going to back up and let you know how my parents are.
My dad was one of sit, think, talk it out.
My mother was in real time.
And if you don't know what real time is,
think about it true, strong black matriarch.
So my first day of school, I was prepared
to what I may face as to being called names, may be pushed
and shoved.
And of course my father's like, think about it,
be strong, and just eat a little humble pie.
Mother, on the other hand, was real time.
Yes, sit think, and serve up.
Never did know that the first day I was
met with a lot of hello, hi.
And then the humble pie came up with the harshness of nigger,
get out, the slap in the face, and the spit.
So I have one shoulder number one, dad.
On the other side, mom.
Speak, think, or real time.
So the smart aleck as I am, I'm sort of like reality of both--
spoke and served up.
Only to be sitting in front of the principal's office,
not because of what had happened to me, but what I had done.
This was the harsh reality of separate but equal.
Moving forward, as a young person,
we wanted to go to movies.
But here in the area, you had separate entrances.
If you are a person of color, you entered the side
and you went to the balcony.
You did not enter the front door.
That was reality.
Thank goodness things have changed.
As my life moved forward, some of the harsh realities
of being a person of color, being segregated,
degraded, things begin to change,
and I was with the list of a lot of my counterparts
who were the first of.
Some of those same students who called
me names, who spit on me, et cetera, became my best friends.
I became one of the first black school presidents, honor
student, leader of the band.
My cousins and all were all part of the same thing.
In fact, one of my cousins was one of the first black mayors
here.
Some of you may even say, oh, knew of my family.
And I don't have time to go through the whole thing.
But some of the names such as Howard, Barber, Wheeler, Goings
were some of the first families here.
And as you know, blacks took on names of their slave masters.
So yes, in essence, yeah, I was blueblood.
Yeah, first family, all of that.
But welcome to reality.
It was not all of that.
As you can remember, the events of August 12, 2017.
To a lot of us, it was an event that opened up
wounds that had once healed.
Yes it was bad.
I commend this university for standing tall.
I commend our new president who has given me
a lot of hope, President Ryan.
We need to move forward.
Racism, bigotry, hatred, has no place anywhere, anywhere.
We have to stand up to it.
The needless acts of patience, such as my mother who had
an experience during that time.
To come for a surgery, only due to the physician who
was supposed to take care of it decided
that he had another patient to take care of,
so she was left with one who didn't know anything about it.
Practically a Med student, who left her with a horrific scar.
And it was terrible.
So the mindset of, oh, I don't want to go here.
Or I don't want to go to University of Virginia
because they're just going to experiment with me.
I'm just going to be a laboratory experiment.
You can understand why.
Hopefully these things have changed.
And it takes each and every one of you in here
to make that change.
Every one of you.
And yes, I will not elude to say that it was only on one side.
Because, yes, there are stories of those
who were white who were also discriminated against.
With the events of August 12, my husband
who's sitting here, who also went down to stand,
to face, and to speak up for all of us as well.
He said, George, it's mostly my people
who are doing the bad side.
And I need to be the voice.
And I commend him for that.
I didn't want him to go down.
But he came back.
He said, you know that 20 minutes, 30 minutes I
was scared.
I was scared to death.
And my comment was, I am so sorry that you were scared.
But welcome to reality.
I'm scared all the time.
This is what we've had to face.
So again, I just want to say, hatred, bigotry, discrimination
has no place.
My name is George Thompson, and this is our story.
Thank you.