Civil Rights Coalition Calls on Justice Department

Civil Rights Coalition Calls on Justice Department
To Investigate Racial Attack on UVA Campus

For Immediate Release:
February 27, 2003
Contact: Michelle Woolley
202-263-2881

Washington, D.C. – Following news that a second-year student at the University of Virginia was assaulted because she was an African American running for president of the Student Council, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), the nation’s oldest, largest, and most diverse civil and human rights coalition, called on the Attorney General to immediately investigate this possible hate crime incident at the prestigious Charlottesville school.

According to a news report by the Cavalier Daily News, several sources confirmed that the student, Daisy Lundy, told police the assailant said, “No one wants a nigger to be president.” This assault, according to the newspaper, followed reports to police by Lundy that she had received several threatening phone calls.

“This is not the first ugly racial incident at the University of Virginia,” said Wade Henderson, Executive Director of LCCR. “There have been several over the past few years, including a fraternity party this past October where three white students wore dark make-up to ridicule blacks, which drew immediate condemnation by University President John T. Casteen III.”

“Clearly, the latest incident is serious and smacks of the kind of intimidation that was common in the South a generation ago. It appears that this incident is a hate crime — nothing more and nothing less. LCCR calls on the Attorney General to direct the Department of Justice to investigate this incident.”

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