George,

As long as we're reminiscing about the 1970 days of unrest at UVa, here's some background never revealed.

During the Vietnam War protest years I was the Daily Progress reporter assigned to cover UVa. It required 60 and 70 hour weeks (no overtime) but the story was worth it.

I tried to cover all sides of the issues in depth with equal sympathy. In the newspaper trade, that means all sides will be displeased and the narrow minded will hate you. Periodically a delegation of right wing townies would make the trek to Publisher Lindsay Mount asking him to "assign a more responsible reporter" or however they groused it.

There were three of those treks. I know because after each one Lindsay gave me a $10 raise.

The night the police declared martial law and invoked the Virginia Riot Act, the announcement came via bull horn that any gathering of two or more people would result in arrests. Within minutes police in riot gear stormed the Grounds, passing a few feet from where I was standing.

A few hours later around 4 am I was interviewing three students on Madison Lane. All of a sudden we were surrounded by police and within 20 seconds, I was alone. The cops hauled the students off, but honored the right of the press to cover the story. They knew exactly what they were doing. The cops didn't say one word to me.

The next morning the usually unflappable Charlie Huddle on WINA was outraged by the inflated tales he heard. Dr. Charles Hurt, at the instigation of his pastor, posted bond to get the arrested students released. And that day's story in the Prog stuck to the facts and avoided the distortions.

Rey Barry (electronic mail, December 24, 2003)