Former congressman Tom Perriello announced his surprise candidacy for governor of Virginia Thursday, upsetting the plans of many leading Virginia Democrats. In a hastily arranged speech at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center in downtown Charlottesville, Perriello spoke of how his father first arrived in Virginia.

"He grew up in West Virginia, Italian immigrant parents, in and out of poverty," Perriello said. "He got a local scholarship to come across the mountains and go to UVA." His father spent his first day crying on a bench in Lee Park, thinking, "'I don't belong here, this isn't a place where a mountain kid from West Virginia belongs,'" said Perriello, "but everyone here did make him feel welcome."

Read more

Source: http://www.c-ville.com/