1968 was a momentous year for the nation and the Commonwealth. It was also the year the Virginia Military Institute became the last public higher education institution in the state to integrate.
It was an adjustment for the men and the institution, according to Harry Gore, Jr., the first of five Black men accepted at VMI.
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“Holy cow, what did I get myself into?” he told 10 News in 2019.
Along with Gore, Phil Wilkerson, Adam Randolph, Richard Valentine and Larry Foster also arrived in Lexington that year.
“They spoke to us equally badly. And I say that in a good way,” Gore said.
That equal treatment was important to VMI’s superintendent at the time, Gen. George Schell. Historian Keith Gibson said Schell didn’t just want the new cadets to integrate classrooms.
“The cadets, the Black cadets, will live with white cadets. They will go to the mess hall together. They will march side by side. They will be true 100% integrated brother rats. And that was what was accomplished in that class of 1972,” Gibson said.
Three of the five men graduated from VMI and went on to successful military and business careers. Randolph later transferred to another institution. Foster died in a drowning accident.
More than 50 years later, VMI appointed its first Black superintendent, Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins, himself a 1985 graduate of VMI.
“In the study of the history of the Virginia Military Institute, I’ve always been amazed at the occasions in which VMI is being impacted on and impacting American history and Virginia history,” Wins said.
This includes opening doors for a new generation of leaders.