RICHMOND, VA. — Once the capital of the confederacy and the breeding ground of the massive resistance movement, many former students and staff of Richmond’s public school system still associate the midsize Virginia city with its history entwined with the torment and the disenfranchisement of an entire people.

“We should have made more progress than this,” said William Carr, the former assistant principal of John Marshall High School during the first year in full schools integration. “The race issue is still there.”

Marshall says many of the problems currently facing the Richmond Public School system are very similar to the ones of yesteryear.

“Sometimes you can see the racial issues,” Marshall said. “It’s going to be there for awhile, but yet there has been progress made as well.”

In face of the progress Richmond has made since the late 1950s, Marshall says a lot of the abhorrence that existed then still exists today but has “gone underground”.

“It seems that even at that time when there was a confrontation between a black and a white person, the black had to have a little more evidence that he was not involved than the whites,” Marshall said.

Despite stepping into the position at a time of great bigotry and distress, Marshall says that during his time as an administrator, and oftentimes mediator at John Marshall High, he was even-handed and unbiased with respect to the school’s newly-united students.

“I call myself a fair person, but I do see things,” Marshall said. “I still feel it, and I have to deal with that internally, and still stay neutral. And it hurts.”

Marshall says he would stand his ground when dealing with racial outbursts and various threats from parents. he says at the time such instances were a common occurrence.

With respect to Richmond’s public schools today, Marshall says the problem— now more than ever— is that children now are growing up without a family.

Marshall describes his upbringing as being rather well grounded. There was never the question of whether or not he would attend college.

“You were going to college or you were going to the army,” Marshall said. “Thats what the black families preached. We knew that education was the answer. Without education you ain’t going anyplace.”

Though the all too common sight of a cafeteria-gym-library all-in-one has been eradicated from Richmond’s schools, Marshall often wonders how many nurturing families are out there now compared to then.

“You have children having children,” Marshall said. “When you put that into your equation, what do they learn?”

Some phycologists think Marshall’s suspicions are not only valid, but quantifiable.

Steve Fannin is one such phycologist. A Kentucky native, Fannin worked for the Richmond Public School system for more than a decade. During his time with the schools’ Fannin says he dealt with “extremes” that led him to suggest that the impacts of generational poverty are far more pertinent to the city’s welfare.

“Although it was done with the best of intentions, perhaps, you’re seeing that places like places like Gilpin Court, which were built to provide housing and serve a need…” Fannin said. “By segregating that population, that need altogether, you could not have come up with a better plan if you were the ku klux klan.”

Fannin’s sentiments reference Richmond’s history of deficient and segregated housing of African-Americans, the implications of which reached beyond the neighborhood and into to the schools.

“Looking for bias in RPS… I’m not really coming up with a strong evidence that there is except than the biases that exist in everyday life that we all have and don’t really think of,” Fannin said. “It’s not because of the melatonin in the skin its because of the generational poverty.”

The effects of generational poverty, according to Fannin, push people “down down down down down” and keeps them there.

Though Fannin says he has forged relationships with professionals between both races, some argue the racial component in RPS is still at play.

Click to hear Virginia Secretary of Education Anne Holton discuss generational poverty in Richmond’s public schools.

A 1969 graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School, Mikey Francioni recalls her days as a Richmond Public Schools’ student overhearing teachers talk about how they planed to transfer to Chesterfield or Henrico counties rather than continue teaching in city schools. Francioni says some of them even talked about retiring instead of having to deal with “those other” children.

The teachers Francioni references reflect the widely-held ideals of society at the time.

Only a few years prior, the commonwealth’s legislators would have closed down the public schools rather than fully integrate them.

On Sept. 12, 1958, Warren County High School became the first in the state to close under the commonwealth’s massive-resistance movement. The school was slated to be removed from the list of public schools effective three days later.

Warren County was not the only occurrence of such an act. It was not until Norfolk ruled in James v. Almond that the school-closing statue ultimately violated the fourteenth amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The statute was nullified, but that action did little to shape public opinion.

A recent retiree from Richmond City Department of Social Services, Francioni says there are issues of discrimination still present in the city’s schools today. Most notably among foster children, the majority of whom are African-American.

Francioni tells of more than one instance when the school system was unaware children had been absent for weeks and months on end.

““There are times we get children and they’ve been out of school for three months,” Francioni said. “Did nobody miss them … I mean, how do you stay out of school for three months?

Click to hear former Richmond educator James McGinnis discuss racial relations in Richmond’s public schools. 

Rarione Manience has always considered herself a scholar and a student of other cultures. Among her peers, she is regarded as a person who can light up a room and positively affect everyone she encounters. But most importantly, she is admired as a resolute and dedicated journalist.

Rarione has a lively portfolio any budding journalist would be proud of. She already has had the privilege of reporting on national politics from Congress as well as White House and covered such topics as health emergencies and higher education.

She has gathered most of her reporting experience through a variety of internships, both in broadcast, and in print and online media. She familiarized herself with the essential elements of working in a newsroom while interning for Clear Channel Radio and WTKR News Channel 3, a local broadcast station based in Virginia’s Hampton Roads area.

Originally from New Orleans, Rarione did not always want to pursue a career in reporting the news. She reflected on what she now refers to as “crazy” dreams of becoming a fashion designer or a nurse.

However, it was in August of 2005 that the vicious winds of Mother Nature would shift, forging the defining moment that would change her career aspirations and her life forever.

“After Hurricane Katrina my family and I just watched the news so much,” Rarione said. “Some news sources were twisting the story and were focusing on the bad areas of New Orleans rather than what was really happening —thats when I knew I wanted to be a news reporter.”

Having relocated from New Orleans to Virginia during her sophomore year of high school, Rarione went on to earn her undergraduate degree in mass communications from Old Dominion University and currently is pursuing her masters degree in multimedia journalism from Virginia Commonwealth University.

While attending ODU, Rarione lobbying for higher education reform and worked closely with such as VA21, a non-partisan organization focused on making college affordable and ensuring young people can confidentially enter the workforce thereafter.

It also was while attending ODU that Rarione met Brittany Gentry, who originally encouraged her to study abroad.

“She is very diligent and very focused,” Gentry said. “She is someone who knows how to switch on and off. She can be hilarious and have a good time, but also be very serious when it comes to her work ethic.”

Additionally, Rarione spent some time as a feature writer while studying in England. It was while studying abroad she acquired the taste for travel and experiencing the world beyond her own backyard. She says interacting overseas with such a diverse group of people inspired her to leave political reporting behind and transition into travel reporting as she continues her journalism career.

“I’m not really a political reporter. I feel like politics for me is hard to grasp,” Rarione said. “It’s crazy but I really want to work for the Travel Channel one day. Getting paid to travel and experience so many different cultures is something I could see myself growing old doing.”

Rarione says she is bright-eyed and hopeful to begin her masters degree. She added she will be the first member of her family to attain such an honor and is confident it will help turn her aspirations into reality.