Justin Reed’s take on Race and the Constitution

Ryan Foresman, staff writer

Constitution day was celebrated at PVCC with a talk by Justin Reed. Reed is the director of African American studies for the state; he is also a leading expert on Race and the Constitution, which was consequently the title of his talk.

He regaled PVCC students with his insights on constitutional amendments and clauses  many had never been aware of. The example he used was the three-fifths compromise, which taxed African Americans as property.

As the talk continued, he brought up issues such as counting the slave population as citizens to give southern states more representation in congress. This was a thought many in the room seemed to have been previously unaware of.

Another point was how involved Virginia has been in the fight for civil rights. One of the key plaintiffs in the Brown versus Board of Education was the Moton School in Farmville, which was the first school in Virginia to integrate. The students of Moton went on strike for close to a semester for the right to be educated with other children in their community. With PVCC being such a diverse space, this rang very close to home.

While in his view the Constitution was written by morally questionable men, Justin Reed agreed they created it with change in mind.

Reed encouraged students to be active and vocal in their beliefs for the future of our country.

The crowd was a diverse group of students and faculty all different in race, age, and background. Many of the history and political science faculty were present.

The question and answer session at the end of Justin Reed’s talk was particularly lively with students asking for clarification and insight into various points that were made.