Whitt Clement speaks at the Institute about the region’s progress

By John Crane

Published: October 9, 2008

Danville has come a long way economically compared to 20 years ago, thanks to strong leaders in government and the community, said the city’s former delegate and ex-secretary of the state’s transportation department.

About 25 years ago, tobacco and textiles symbolized Danville but were declining, the city had an outdated community college and an ill-prepared workforce, Piney Forest Road was Danville’s bypass and the population was getting older and poorer, Whitt Clement said Thursday night during a speech at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research.

“But boy, how things seem to have changed,” Clement said to about 50 people at the Institute. Clement served as a Democratic Danville delegate in the General Assembly from 1988 to 2001 and as Virginia’s secretary of transportation under Gov. Mark Warner.

Clement’s speech was sponsored by the University of Virginia’s Sorenson Institute for Political Leadership and the Danville Register & Bee. 

Now the area has the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research and more than 6,000 new jobs, he said.

“Didn’t I read about that on the front page of the Washington Post?” Clement proudly asked.

He cited the Institute as an illustration of the region’s progress.

“It makes me aware of how far our community has come in the last 20 years,” he said. 

But local leaders are also aware of how far the city still has to go, Clement said. Community and local leaders have risen to the occasion to bring change. Collaborating with others, including Pittsylvania County, and working within the system to create a new system are key to moving a community forward, he said. And seeking outside professional help is also necessary, Clement said.

Clement also cited the area’s broadband, high-speed Internet access as a shining example of the area’s progress.

“We’re one of the largest rural areas in America with broadband, high-speed Internet,” he said.

He pointed to the efforts of A.L. Philpott, the state’s former Speaker of the House from Henry County, to push legislation for the U.S. 58 superhighway in 1989. 

Clement implored young people to get involved in their communities and become leaders.

During a question-and-answer session after the speech, Clement offered his views on uranium mining and a host of other issues. 

Clement, a partner with Hunton & Williams law firm in Richmond, said that if he lived in the Southside and “had a stake in the community,” he would support a study to determine whether uranium mining could be done safely in the commonwealth. It would be “foolish” not to conduct a study, he said.

“It’s important the study is done in an independent, unbiased way,” Clement said. “I think proponents are willing to stand by that.”

When asked about concerns from local mining opponents who say radioactive dust would contaminate the air, farms and water supplies, Clement reiterated his original point.

“Don’t we need to study it?’ he said. “Isn’t that why we need a study?”

Southside Concerned Citizens has said Clement helped persuade Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, to add a uranium-mining study to the state’s energy plan.

“To my knowledge, there was no lobbying done to get it into the energy plan,” Clement said.

Clement is the brother-in-law of Walter Coles Sr., owner of Virginia Uranium Inc., which seeks to mine and mill a uranium deposit six miles southeast of Chatham.

Contact John R. Crane at or 434-791-7987.