Virginia beach VA Labor Day Greek Fest Riot



Virginia beach VA Labor Day Greek Fest Riot

Introduction

On the surface, this city looks like an American melting pot. It ranks among the most integrated in the nation, with blacks, whites, Asians and a growing Hispanic population living side by side. Virginia Beach schools have been integrated for 40 years and the city's work force matches the diversity of its population. Yet peel back these facts and the city's laid-back lifestyle, and a more complex, less flattering picture emerges. 1

In a city with a growing black population, only two blacks have served on the City Council, each for just one term. The School Board has been more diverse. In one of the city's oldest black neighborhoods, residents still lack city sewer and water service.

And 20 years after Greekfest, the city's leaders and residents still wrestle with the legacy of the civil unrest and police crackdown during the gathering of black fraternities and sororities. The 1989 event brought the city national attention and left some with the impression that Virginia Beach's crown jewel - its Oceanfront - didn't welcome blacks. Soldiers holding machine guns stood on street corners. Plywood covered more than 100 shattered storefronts, shards of glass sparkling on the sidewalk. It looked like a hurricane had struck a 10 -block stretch of Atlantic Avenue.

In a way, it had. Hours earlier, a Labor Day weekend college party known as Greekfest, which attracted thousands of students from historically black colleges and universities, had gone horribly awry. While many in image-conscious Virginia Beach prefer to relegate Sept. 3, 1989, to the annals of history, its legacy endures. 2

Two decades later, black tourists still shy away from Virginia Beach. Only recently has the city seen success attracting black-oriented conventions. When the city got serious about wooing them back in 2003, officials hired Al Hutchinson. His job: Win back the trust of local blacks so national groups would come to Virginia Beach. "There wasn't a warm fuzzy embrace," said Hutchinson, now vice president of marketing for the Virginia Beach Convention Center. 2"The residue from Greekfest was still on the minds of people in Hampton Roads."

Started in the early 1980s as a picnic at Croatan Beach for black sorority and fraternity members, the event grew every year. In 1986, a promoter got involved, named it Greekfest, and moved the party to the Oceanfront, where its popularity exploded. Like today, the resort area in 1989 was billed as a family resort, a safe haven for kids and parents. If the tens of thousands of students pouring into Virginia Beach that Labor Day weekend felt unwelcome, as many said they did, it was because they were not welcome - not that year. 2

The song for the summer of ' 89 for many young blacks was "Fight the Power," by Public Enemy, a hip-hop group known for politically charged lyrics of black empowerment. "Fight the Power" was the theme song of one of the summer's top movies, Spike Lee's "Do ...