A life well lived

By what yardstick do we measure the value of a life?

If the recent talks by Pope Francis serve as a guide, then we should look at someone’s life in terms of the compassion they have shown to others and the work they have done to bring about justice in the world.

In that realm, we reflect here on the life of Dr. Allix B. James, the president emeritus of Virginia Union University, who died late last week at age 92.

He was an imposing figure with a deep, booming voice that commanded attention and respect from students and others alike. But when he smiled or laughed, the gentler side came through that encouraged, engaged and inspired listeners.

A Texas native, he was unused to the rigid segregation rife in Richmond, he explained in a memoir published in 1998. He had a quick and rude awakening when, passing through Washington on his way to enroll at Virginia Union University as a student in 1942, he was remanded to the train car reserved for black people. It was situated right behind the train’s coal-fired engine. He arrived in Richmond dressed in a suit flecked with ash and couldn’t get a cab to campus. When he finally hailed a black-owned cab, he stopped at a fast food restaurant, but was told to go to the side window for service. He refused and spent his first night on campus hungry.

His eyes were further opened during his work as a waiter at a segregated Richmond hotel. When a speaker, a learned man who happened to be black, arrived at the hotel to address a large crowd, the man was escorted to the banquet room via a service elevator and not allowed to sit and eat lunch with the crowd he was to address.

So it is no wonder that Dr. James’ life was spent enhancing the educational opportunities available to African-Americans and broadening the vision of the community.

When Richmond police officers arrested VUU students protesting segregated lunch counters and stores in Downtown in 1960, he and his wife put up their home to bond the students out of jail.

Even in his position on the state Board of Education, he fought for quality education for schoolchildren in Virginia, particularly the disadvantaged and the disabled.

He was sensitive to the needs of those who wanted to attend college, but couldn’t because of work schedules and family obligations. So early on, he helped establish a “weekend college” at VUU, where adults could earn a degree by taking classes on Friday evenings, all day Saturday and Sunday afternoons. VUU was the first college in the Richmond area to adopt such a program. It ended after the state established the community college system and other institutions expanded evening programs.

He also was instrumental in the start of Community Learning Week, a celebration to help young people, college students and the community to remember, understand, honor and build on the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Throughout more than 70 years of public service to education and the community, Dr. James moved adroitly through the corporate world and academia, winning millions of dollars in support of VUU from business leaders and foundations.

He served on the boards and held membership in more than 50 community organizations. His work earned him praise as a bridge builder by some and criticism from others who viewed him as being too cozy with the white business establishment. But it didn’t faze Dr. James.

In a 1980 newspaper interview, he responded: “There are several ways to get a job done. One way is to march and protest, but we also need those who can sit around the conference table and negotiate.”

He didn’t rest. In recent years, even with his eyesight failing, he continued to write and keep up correspondence with the help of family and an assistant.

He put his own resources up for the good of the VUU and its students, setting up endowed scholarships in honor of his late father, the Rev. Samuel H. James Sr., also a Baptist minister, and in honor of his wife, Susie Nickens James. Mrs. James, a longtime guidance counselor with Richmond Public Schools, died in early 2012.

The legacy that Dr. James leaves is this: If we believe in the value of education, then let us commit — as he did — our efforts and our resources to foster opportunities for the next generation and to the institutions that are preparing young people as scholars and leaders.

Through our efforts, Dr. James’ work will live on.