Henry Hurt tells us what happened when the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors blew it when they picked DCC Foundation executive director Shannon Hair for a seat on the Institute’s Board of Directors instead of Joyce Wright.
This article is written by Henry Hurt and we are publishing it unedited.
Now and then hard facts and good sense prevail even in the rowdy world of local government. That seemed to be the case when Shannon Hair, executive director of DCC Educational Foundation, suddenly declined his appointment by the Pittsylvania Board of Supervisors (BOS) to represent the county on the board of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR).
Upon learning of concerns over his June 16th appointment, which he had sought, Hair declined the position a month later on July 15th , saying that his “love and passion” for Pittsylvania “is so great I would never allow my appointment to have a detrimental impact….”
The trouble lay not in Hair’s qualifications but in the ham-fisted way that the supervisors, on a 4-3 vote, walked over a distinguished county educator who believed she was the supervisors’ first choice. That person, Joyce A. Wright, a woman of color, holds advanced degrees from the University of Virginia and has 41 years of local experience in education. Prior to her retirement this year, her last seven years were as principal of one of the top-rated county schools.
“I was floored,” Wright said after the June 16th meeting when the vote went for Hair. “It had to be politically motivated, but I still don’t know what was behind it.”
When informed that Hair had declined his appointment and that Supervisor Coy Harville intends to nominate her again at the BOS meeting this coming Tuesday, Wright expressed surprise and said that she remains prepared “to do my civic duty.”
A fair question is whether Shannon Hair was a good fit anyway. If he had gone onto the Institute board, he would have become the third DCC employee holding a board seat. As for racial balance, the Institute’s website shows a total of 30 leadership positions—all filled by whites.
Propped up with over $100,000,000 in public money during the past decade, the lily-white Institute has always been challenged to explain what it does. Now, at least, it is crystal clear what it is not doing: working successfully to include representatives of the multi-racial population of its footprint.
Hair’s now-defunct appointment was won with the support of Supervisors Brenda Bowman, Jesse Barksdale, Jerry Hagerman and James Snead. Supervisor Coy Harville nominated Wright with the support of Supervisors Elton Blackstock and Tim Barber. Those three voted against Hair’s appointment.
Joyce Wright said that she was particularly shocked that Supervisor Barksdale, himself a minority representative from Banister District, opposed her. And even though Wright lives in Gretna, her own supervisor, Jerry Hagerman, cast his vote against her. (Wright later reported that Hagerman called her and apologized for voting against her.)
In speaking to Wright from the podium, both Barksdale and Bowman had sugary praise for her qualifications. But, they explained, they felt Hair was more qualified than she and could “talk the language” of the IALR better than she could. Both praised Wright as being qualified, and Bowman cheerfully assured her that “There will be some opportunities for you” in terms of some other appointment.
“None of that makes any difference,” Supervisor Harville said after the meeting. “Joyce Wright is the perfect person for this slot, given her great educational experience and the fact she lives in the northern end of the county that has no representation on the IALR. And on top of that, she knows our people and is a top educator, and the institute is supposed to be about education, isn’t it?”
Willie Fitzgerald, long-time president of the county NAACP and a strong supporter of Wright, called the rejection of Wright “a sad day for Pittsylvania County,” adding later:
“For many years, we in the minority community have been told that we must present qualified candidates for any position, and we have agreed with this and done this, and now it’s like the supervisors have changed the rules on us….they’re now saying that while Joyce Wright is qualified, Mr. Hair is more qualified and so he gets the job….This way, they’re just forgetting about minority representation. What are we supposed to do?”
Fitzgerald was elated when informed that Hair has declined and that Wright will be re-nominated.
Following the June 16th meeting, when questioned, Supervisor Bowman, chairman of the board, defended the Hair appointment in an email, calling it “well handled, fair, above-board and very transparent.”
To this observer, the most painful part of the meeting was the seeming condescension expressed by Bowman and Barksdale in telling Joyce Wright that while she wasn’t good enough for this job, don’t you worry, we’ll find something else for you. At a time when racial tension has intensified around the country, that approach carries an echo with a very ugly resonance.
Doing business in this manner is not the path to progress in race relations. Such cavalier thinking cuts to the heart of the efforts of good-willed people of all colors in our community who, for so long, have tried to do right by each other.
In the end, we can all do better.
SouthsideCentral would like to think Henry Hurt for writing this article and keeping a close eye on Pittsylvania County’s Board of Supervisors.
Maybe Danville United should be consulted about adding additional board members of diverse background.
Heh. I like that.
Danville United has no clue. The lilly white institute is an example of things that should not be. Why had no one ever questioned an all white board before? Are there other boards that need to be looked at for their lack of African Americans, Latinos, women and others?
The problem with Danville city boards and commissions is the lack of people willing to volunteer for them. That makes it tough.
And I am definitely not saying to appoint one person over another because of their race or ethnic background. Joyce was highly qualified for the Institute board and DCC already has representation there.
No wonder race relations in our city are such a mess. If the Institute big shots with all the jobs won’t accept minorities, they sure as hell aren’t going to hire us. Duuuuuh.
Jason, I don’t think you read the distinguished Mr. Hurt’s piece. This is not about Danville. it is about Pittsylvania County, and the “big shots” at the Institute were not “accepting” or rejecting any minority. The vote was taken by the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors.
The REAL question is really what do they do there? It is a nice meeting hall, but what do they DO there?
Correct, but I’m sure that there has to be a two-way street between the Institute’s leadership and the appointing government bodies on “Who would you like to have?”.
Nothing surprising about new embarrassments from Pittsylvania supervisors but God help us to learn that IALR is lily white. No wonder they can’t get anything right. Will somebody tell them that we are living in a world that actually VALUES minority contributions. What is their excuse? Have they ever allowed minorities?
So what Henry Hurt is saying is that we need a quota system for the IALR, instead of consistently selecting the best available candidate? How’s that worked out elsewhere?
He’s not saying that at all. If anything, Joyce is a voice of education instead of yet another business person that the board is already stocked with.
Well, maybe he isn’t saying we ‘need’ a quota system, but in his comment below he certainly makes the case that we ‘have’ a quota mentality in this nation. He’s right, we do, and it often has unintended consequences.
Why did Hair “suddenly decline his appointment?”
Sunlight is an awesome disinfectant, isn’t it?
Like it or not, our country has accepted the importance of racial balancing in terms of hiring, in terms of the composition of boards of companies as well as the boards of non-profits and private foundations. The federal government has mandated “minority” magisterial districts that in Pittsylvania, is the Banister District that has a large black majority that currently has produced a highly distinguished member of the Board of Supervisors. So that’s the way things work and why it is surprising that the Institute, with 30-some people in leadership positions, is “lily-white.” I do not know why that is, so all you can do is point it out as a factual oddity. It would be interesting to hear what the Institute leadership has to say about it. As for the Board of Supervisors, I attend most of their meetings because i like seeing local government working through all sorts of things. I was taken aback over what I witnessed happening at the meeting I described which is what led to my wanting to tell about it. The supervisors meet again tonight to accept Shannon Hair’s letter declining his appointment to IALR. I look forward to seeing whether the supervisors will appoint Joyce Wright or, perhaps, go in another direction. In any case, I appreciate Southside Central running the piece.
Excellent job Mr. Hurt. I appreciate you letting those of us who do not attend the meetings know what’s going on. Really sad it wasn’t reported elsewhere.
Let me quickly apologize to SouthsideCentral. I certainly did not mean any disrespect. What I should have said was it is really sad it wasn’t reported in any of the newspapers.
No offense taken at all. Henry Hurt brings class to this website. Heh. Seriously, I wish I had the time to cover the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors more.
SC could use some class. It is a shame Hair was bullied into declining the appointment. Now, that is class! Some places bullying is frowned upon. Not in Pittsylvania co. Bullying is alive and well.
What does the institute do again? In ten years it was supposed to solve the problems in danville. Danville would in bad shape w/o the institute. Haha
The institute has padded a few pockets however.
I could also say that you’re bullying SouthsideCentral by sockpuppeting at least three different names. 😀
Politics can be a contact sport. You gotta take off your cocktail dress to play.
Arnie, you notice that a lot of conversation is going on here, but still nobody has told us what they do there. I have doubts nobody can plainly state what they do there. The only jobs it has created are for the ones lucky enough to work there, and I use the term “work” lightly.
I can help with that. You’ve got the plant research laboratory part and the conference center part. then you’ve got the education part, and that’s big. Students come to the Institute for distance learning classes. Julie Brown and her team also put on the annual Career Expo at the Olde Dominion Ag Center, and that’s amazingly huge. You’ve also got the Haas Center for Precision Machining about to start up. That’s the CAPSTONE project that I’ve done a lot of articles on. Finally, you’ve got the Southern Virginia Regional Alliance. That’s the economic development arm headed up by Steve Bridges.
I wish you could cover the BOS as well.
Late report from BOS meeting. The supervisors accepted Shannon Hair’s resignation from his appointment to the Institute’s board and appointed Joyce Wright in his place on a 5-2 vote. Supervisors Barksdale and Bowman were the two votes against Wright. The Danville Register and the Star-Tribune were present and no doubt will provide full coverage.
Mr. Hurt I guess Star Tribune will report it next week. Not in today’s edition.
What small minded bigots! Unbelievable that the two losers would vote against Wright after what they did to her. It’s mean and classless . No wonder the county is an embarrassment across the state.
I agree with Henry.
What went on a few weeks ago was a disgrace to the county as a whole. With Mrs. Wright in the audience and having to see this cat fight go on. For anyone to see it was an embarrassment per say. But for a board member to say. ” We will find something else for you” that was a total utter understatement.
I feel that when an appointment comes up that everyone should be considered for them together at one time not just thrown out there. The should be considered together . Both parties should be aware that 2 people are being considered for the position and not be thrown into the cat fight of the Board of Supervisors like Mr. Hair and Mrs. Wright were.
What kind of example are we setting for our young people if we can’t conduct ourselves in a meeting. They see 7 people act like little children who can’t get their way so they will rebel against mommy and daddy.
I have read the interesting comments above and appreciate them all. Things are not as they seem and because it is a personnel matter, I can’t go into detail. There are procedures that were not followed. It was orchestrated for the headlines with the sole purpose of making some people look good and some look bad. Also, none of the applicants were invited to the meeting but one was there. There is so much more to this. The stories will follow and I know SouthsideCentral has smart readers and they will see right through this.
And that’s fair enough of a reply.
What defensive, garbled nonsense. Can you believe anything this woman says? It’s so “retro,” saying if we knew the facts, we would understand but I can’t give you the facts…And this person is supposed to be a LEADER? No wonder your county is in such a mess with prayers, foya, lawsuits and NO economic development.. I’ve heard you actually fired your economic development person in these times!
What a joke. Bowman’s contempt for our intelligence is loud and clear when she claims she can’t give us the reasons for her barbaric treatment of Joyce Wright. We should hope she is ashamed of her hurtful actions. What could be more nasty and spiteful than voting against Wright when she was the only candidate? How can a woman hold such hate in her heart?
I know it looks bad, but Bowman is right. She would be in the wrong to discuss a personnel matter. What little she can say strongly suggests me that appointments of this nature are vetted and the folks who orchestrated this sprung it on the rest of the folks. I wouldn’t put that past Tim Barber who has a fight on his hands for re-election and may have been cruising for the support of certain demographic groups with this stunt.
I think this is a smart post. It does look ugly. But if this is about African-American representation, why in the world would Barksdale vote against the appointment??? I, too, will reserve judgment. Something makes me think there’s more to this than race when I look at Barksdale’s vote.
Is an appointment to a board considered a personnel issue that can be discussed in closed session?
I grew up grew here in Pittsylvania and came home for a visit and read about the disgraceful actions of the supervisors in humiliating an African American woman who offered to represent the county on some board. As incredible as the mess was about the prayer issue that was laughed at all over the state, which made the supervisors look like a pack of fools, for them to move into racist expressions toward a distinguished black educator….There are no unprofane words to properly describe the wrongness of it as well as the stupidity of the two who still voted against the black candidate–even after they said she was qualified!!!!! I mean, this sort of thinking is one reason I left here soon as I could. I understand you are getting rid of the chairwoman who has set the tone of the board and let all this happen. May God help you to find a decent replacement. My folks can’t stand anymore embarrassment. PS: I just read another story about a whole new legal mess involving the farmers and the supervisors…..and I don’t think I want to understand it.
I am proud that Mr. Shannon Hair declined. As an African-American it is very important for me to be able to see a woman of color serving in distinguished capacities. After deciding to educate myself I got to meet Mr. Shannon Hair on many occasions and he has always made himself available for me to take advantage of many programs and sadly I declined or rather because I was mistreated by others I did not want any help and I although I am not as educated as Ms. Joyce Wright I can totally resonate with how she may have felt. Mr. Shannon Hair never displayed those actions of not believing that I can handle any job towards me. I also got to meet him outside of school by going to Scotland and I was once again treated very nicely. I know that he will have many other appointments in life because of his goodness; however, I am excited to see what Ms. Joyce Wright will bring to the table as far as empowering others. I have been hurt too many times from Danville and it’s time to heal and invest. Too many bright minds are “getting out of dodge” instead of growing Danville and the areas surrounding Her. Protect and Heal Her of all afflictions! Mr. Shannon Hair once said to never hesitate to make a request of him. Never thought it would mean so much until today. For it is I that must live up to his vision for us!