Black History Month is more important than ever
In 1926, when historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) first conceived “Negro History Week” for the second week of February, the idea was to celebrate and remember the struggles and ...
Parting ways
After more than 30 years, the Richmond Free Press and reporter Jeremy Lazarus have permanently parted company.
When partisan politics leave migrants out in the cold, by Clarence Page
As a long, dreaded January chill made life on the streets unthinkable for waves of migrants bused North from Texas, city, state and federal officials engaged in a new round of finger-pointing and buck-passing.
Biden-Harris administration’s LNG decision means hope, by Ben Jealous
James Hiatt lives in an area along the Mississippi River in Louisiana that has been dubbed “Cancer Alley.” Teeming with chemical plants and oil and gas refineries, the air the residents of this area breathe contains more carcinogens than anywhere ...
Recent accounts of Richmond businesses dealing with tax issues must be fixed, by Andreas Addison
Richmond is running the risk of losing its charm.
Jason Kamras must resign
Photos of Shawn Jackson, smiling proudly as he accepts his diploma on the Altria Theater stage, are hard to look at knowing that just minutes later the 18-year old would lay outside the downtown theater gasping for breath before dying ...
Miyares pro proton radiation treatment, by Hazel Trice Edney
The announcement that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is being treated for prostate cancer has hit home with millions of families across the nation. But in Virginia, the announcement is particularly relevant as the state’s legislature examines an opinion by the ...
Redefining policing in America, by Marc H. Morial
“The only way to get this number down significantly would be to make more significant changes to, you know, what policing means in this country.”—Justin Nix, criminal justice professor, University of Nebraska Omaha
Civil War was about ‘secession, not slavery’, says reader
Marc H. Morial, in excoriating Nikki Haley, parrots the tiresome myth of American history by claiming the Civil War (which it was not, by definition) was “about” slavery, quoting slavery as one among the reasons for the secession of the ...
‘Richmond’s restaurants struggle to stay alive,’ says mayoral candidate
Richmond continues to attract new business and investment, create jobs, and provide an invigorating economic climate for expansion—but once businesses decide to invest in Richmond, we need to treat them better.
America’s ‘hands off’ treatment of illegal immigration creates crime
David W. Marshall is correct in his editorial that America is having major problems coping with crime, immigration and sanctuary cities. The solution would be to follow the Constitution in allowing only legal immigration.
Mining Richmond’s Black community for 32 years
The first tenet of a free and democratic society is the establishment of an honest and forthright press. And for 32 years, the Richmond Free Press has done just that in our community.
Clean-energy tech must become a reality in U.S. manufacturing, by Ben Jealous
What if the answer to undoing the harm wrought by the demise of America’s manufacturing sector was right in front of us? Perhaps it’s an economic boom waiting to happen, to rebuild communities and revitalize our beaten-down working class.
King’s dream lives, but we need more soldiers in the fight, by Dr. E. Faye Williams
For those who rejoiced when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, they must be disappointed to know that we still celebrate the work Dr. King did to make this a better world.
To save lives, lawmakers must seek common ground on gun legislation, by Roger Chesley
Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly, now in charge in both chambers in the session that opened last week, hope to pass several gun-control bills. The wish list includes legislation to ban the sale of new assault weapons and large-capacity ...
