1974 SPECIAL REPORT: "CRISIS IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS"

During the late 1960s, issues of acculturation and assimilation for many black Virgin Islanders became a reversal of the usual immigrant experience. Large numbers of whites from the U.S. mainland migrated to the island, threatening to overwhelm Virgin Islanders and their culture. Marilyn Krigger, a professor at what was then the College of the Virgin Islands, maintained that black students at the college experienced a serious crisis of identity as a result of this migration. Chief among the students' observations was that faculty members were mostly white Americans from the mainland. Public school teachers, also from the mainland, were largely unaware of local history, customs, foods, and other aspects of island life. The distinctive history and culture of the Virgin Islands became endangered. Unlike immigrant ethnic groups struggling to maintain a balance between their cultural past and their new homeland in the United States, U.S. Virgin Islanders had to struggle for cultural survival on their own land. Separate black and white communities began to emerge as a result of economic disparities. There were great discrepancies between blacks' and whites' wages and status in business. Educational segregation developed as whites sent their children to expensive private schools out of the reach of most black Virgin Islander families. All-white residential areas appeared as well. An atmosphere of distrust and hatred arose. For those Virgin Islanders who came to the U.S. mainland, cultural identity remained a troublesome issue. They have struggled to balance their identity as U.S. citizens with memories of Virgin Islands life. Because most black Virgin Islanders are descendants of slaves, they have tended to identify with black mainlanders.