| No Images? Click here  Hello from Virginia!The Listen To America bus is in Charlottesville today. While there, Ashley Calloway spoke to Kara Peters, 18, a first-year student at the University of Virginia and an aspiring journalist. Kara is from Suffolk, Virginia, and originally planned to attend a historically black college or university, or HBCU, like many of her friends. But she fell in love with UVA as soon as she set foot on the grounds.After a white supremacist rally was held at the school in early August, Kara said her friends were worried about her safety, and she also saw many HBCU students making negative comments about black students who chose to attend a predominantly white university like UVA.“It was very embarrassing, and a little humiliating, to just know that they’re bashing the school that I’ve worked so hard to get into,” Kara said. “I feel like it took a lot of willpower in me … as a first year, to try to overcome that, even for those I call my friends, to tell them everything is going to be OK, everything is fine.” Kara said she and her family remained optimistic, and the recent events on campus have encouraged her to become involved, make new connections, go to meetings and meet new people.“It’s easy to be just a number here at UVA; it’s huge,” Kara said. “It’s just been motivation for me, to try to figure out how we can move on from this, to make UVA a better place.”Kara said she wants to do what she can to push the school to live up to its promises of diversity and equality.“We’re going to get through this. That’s what equality and togetherness is all about. That’s something they try to uplift here at UVA, but I’m going to stand by that,” Kara said. “This is the perfect opportunity for me to have a say in something, knowing that it really hits home for me, just being able to talk about these issues, despite me being a first year. This is the perfect time.”  UVA didn’t ask for a white nationalist rally to take place on its doorstep, but now students and faculty are dealing with the aftermath. HuffPost partnered with The Cavalier Daily to investigate how the community is looking forward and dealing with its past.
30 years of fighting racism  C-Ville Weekly/Annalee GrantDr. M. Rick Turner has been fighting inequality in Charlottesville for a long time.“When the city closes schools because white folks don’t want their kids to go to school with black folks, that’s a stain that lasts forever,” he told HuffPost. “That mentality is still here.”  Why do you love your hometown? Show us through photos (3 photos maximum) or tell us in 200 words or less! Tag us using #ListenToAmericaSweepstakes, #ListenToUKSweepstakes, #ListenToCanadaSweepstakes on Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram, or email us at whyilove@huffpost.com. Social accounts must be public and submissions must include country of residence to be eligible. Three lucky winners from U.S., Canada and U.K. submissions (one per country) will be selected at random for a $1,800 prize toward a trip to New Orleans for the Listen To America closing event. Terms and conditions apply. Spotify analyzed some data and found quite a few Sonny and Cher fans in Virginia. Blue Bend Photography“We didn’t need all the fluff and flowers,” Amanda Magee told HuffPost about eloping with her husband, Sean. “We wanted an experience we could remember and always revisit.” Hey, West Virginia!We’ll be in Charleston tomorrow, and would love to see you! You can find us at the Charleston Civic Center in the afternoon, or at a forum about the opioid crisis in the evening. Join us virtually on the bus! Ride along with our editor-in-chief, Lydia Polgreen, as she dispatches news from the road via Facebook Messenger.  Learn more about what it really means to be an American by signing up for our morning news brief.Did a friend send you this? Subscribe here. For more politics news, check out our HuffPost Politics email.©2017 HuffPost | 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 |
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