It took a high school student to put race on the table for Richmond's five mayoral candidates.

Danny Yates, a Richmond resident and senior at the Maggie Walker Regional Governor's School, asked the candidates yesterday whether they would support the use of race-based affirmative action to improve racial diversity at the school and others like it.

None of the four candidates at yesterday's forum, sponsored by the Greater Richmond Chamber, answered the question directly.

Instead, they applauded Yates, who works on the high school's newspaper, for raising a sensitive issue that few want to address.

"This is a community that always has had difficulties with race," attorney Robert J. Grey Jr. said.

Grey, Del. Dwight Clinton Jones and architect Lawrence E. Williams Sr. -- all of whom are black -- said the governor's school should save the money that it plans to spend on a consultant to address ways of improving diversity in the school, which draws top students from Richmond and 10 other localities in the region. The school is in Richmond but is not a city school.

Instead, they suggested a community dialogue to explore the issue. City Council President William J. Pantele, who is white, said the need for diversity is worth study and discussion, especially because of concern that quasi-public charter schools face similar challenges to having student bodies that mirror the communities they serve.

However, Williams went further on the race issue, declaring that Pantele would not go into a predominantly black community such as Fairfield Court to solve problems there, while he would.

Pantele bristled at the comment. "Pure and simple, that was just a gratuitous attack," he said in an interview later. "It was extremely irresponsible of him."

Pantele has represented Gilpin Court, the largest and oldest public-housing complex in Richmond, for seven years as 2nd District councilman. He said he also participates in the reading program at Woodville Elementary School in the East End and has spent a considerable amount of time in Fairfield Court.

"There are very few people in the city who have covered the city from end to end the way I have," he said.

A fifth candidate, Paul Goldman, was not at yesterday's forum at Willow Oaks Country Club in South Richmond because of the Jewish holy day, Yom Kippur.
Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or mmartz@timesdispatch.com.