'That did not happen': Virginia’s 'cotton situation' is spin, some parents and pages say
By Laura Vozzella Laura Vozzella Local reporter covering Virginia politics Email Bio Follow March 1 at 10:07 PM RICHMOND — Virginia first lady Pam Northam did not focus on black students as she handed out raw cotton during several back-to-back presentations on slavery at the Executive Mansion, several participants and their parents said in interviews Friday.
In all, about 100 legislative pages visited the mansion on Feb. 21 for a reception. They broke into smaller groups to tour the 200-year-old main house as well as an adjacent cottage that once served as a kitchen. Stationed in the kitchen, Northam handed out tobacco leaves and raw cotton bolls to each group and asked the students to imagine how hard it must have been for the enslaved workers to handle those rough agricultural products all day.
Some legislators, including Del. Marcia S. “Cia” Price , have praised the student “for her courage in speaking out when a lot of times African Americans have not always had the opportunity to confront offenses in this way.” In all, 10 pages gave their accounts to The Washington Post, either directly or through their parents, most of whom did not permit their 13- and 14-year-olds to be interviewed because of their age. In four of those cases, the pages were in the same tour group as Walker’s daughter. The other six visited the kitchen with different groups on the same day.
Celina, who is African American, said Northam passed around raw cotton bolls and tobacco leaves for the whole tour group to touch. In the case of her tour — one of perhaps four Northam led for pages that day — the first lady handed the cotton to a white page. “The first lady’s intent was to show the horrors of slavery and to make sure everyone felt the pain they felt in some small measure,” Stanley said.
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