July 4 holiday closings
In observance of the Fourth of July holiday on Monday, July 4, please note the following:
Henrico homeowner disturbed by N.C. firm’s shoddy work on her property
Brenda F. Peters was certain that she owned every bit of the property on which the brick bungalow she bought 10 years ago stands in Eastern Henrico County.
Enrichmond Foundation’s status is unclear
The nonprofit has been an umbrella for some 85 volunteer organizations
A 32-year-old foundation that was created to support the city Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities and that is now the owner of two historic Black cemeteries may have collapsed.
City’s Legendary Ingramettes earn NEA award
The Legendary Ingramettes, a gospel group that has performed more than 60 years, has received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. They are the first group from Richmond to earn the distinction, and one of 10 recipients in 2022 who will receive a $25,000 monetary award, according to the NEA. The NEA started the award in 1982 to recognize “recipients’artistic excellence and support their continuing contributions to our nation’s traditional arts heritage.” The world-famous group performed at the unveiling of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington and in 2019, trav- eled to Bulgaria and Serbia to perform. Maggie Ingram started the group to sup- port herself and her five children when her husband abandoned them — she played music and her children sang. She drove the family from Florida to Richmond in 1961, arriving on Christmas Eve. Once in Richmond, she started work- ing for civil rights icon Oliver Hill Sr. and later owned a child care business. Maggie Ingram and The Ingramettes debuted in Richmond at the Hood Temple AME Zion Church. Ms. Ingram died in 2015. Today, Rev. Almeta Ingram-Miller, Maggie Ingram’s daughter, is the only original member of the group, but the singers are related to one another. “Take A Look In The Book” is the group’s first album without the family matriarch and was recorded in Richmond over three days. Rev. Ingram-Miller now leads the group. Produced by Jon Lohman, the recordings are part of the Virginia Folklife Program at Virginia Humanities and include traditional spirituals and “new Appalachian sources like Ola Belle Reed and Bill Withers.” The group will perform a virtual concert Sept. 22. Information about the upcoming performance and the group can be found on their website: https://legendaryingramettes.com/.
Collective bargaining vote delayed again
There will be a City Council vote to settle whether to allow city workers to engage in collective bargaining. The only mystery is when it will happen.
More than 3 dozen groups nominated for city’s health equity partners
The City of Richmond’s latest COVID-19 relief effort is underway, with three local groups working to help neighborhoods that face the biggest health disparities as part of the city’s new Health Equity Fund.
‘No one handed out medals’
Retired Richmond fireman recalls heroic work saving elderly residents in fire 44 years ago
As the firetrucks roared up, an elderly woman was screaming for help out of a half-open window as smoke billowed around her. She would be the first person that firefighter William“Junie” Bullock would rescue that day from the ninth floor of the Boxwood Building at Imperial Plaza, a five-building complex for retirees located on Bellevue Avenue in North Side that had opened 11 years earlier.
If it’s June, it must be Black Music Month
While Juneteenth has been a primary focus for many Black Americans throughout June, another observance — Black Music Month — has also captured their attention.
Pastor Dorothy L. Hughes, a business owner and gospel musician, dies
Pastor Dorothy Lee Lynch Hughes, founder and leader of Victory Christian Center RVA in Richmond and owner of two residential homes for the disabled, has died. Pastor Hughes, who, according to her family, also won acclaim for her gospel musical “How I Got Over,” passed away Monday, June 20, 2022. She was 83.
Sixth Mount Zion honors Rev. Jasper
Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church in Richmond has installed an interpretative sign at the gravesite of its founding pastor, the Rev. John Jasper, in celebration of his 210th birthday.
Williams makes ‘con-Vince-ing’ case to Memphis
Vince Williams is on a roll. Already he has one of his long sneakers in the NBA door. Now he hopes to continue his luck in Las Vegas. There’s no time for the former VCU standout to let his foot off the gas.
Personality: Taylor Thornley Keeney
Spotlight on founder and executive director of Little Hands Virginia
In December 2018, inspiration led Taylor Thornley Keeney to reshape community child care in the Richmond region.
Collective bargaining outcome remains unclear
Could City Council vote on authorizing collective bargaining at its upcoming meeting on Monday, June 27?
Kudos to the Free Press and to Bonnie Newman Davis
As someone who has known Bonnie Newman Davis through membership in the Virginia Professional Chapter, Society of Professional Journalists, since — I think — the early 1980s, I know the Free Press will go onward and upward with her editorial leadership.
Historic Black cemeteries need substance, not symbolism, by Brian Palmer
Across the South on any given day, volunteers of all ages, races and backgrounds gather with hand tools and weed whackers to help restore historic Black burial grounds, many of which have been subject to the structural neglect and active violence that Jim Crow visited on African-American individuals, communities and institutions for generations. groups such as Richmond’s Friends of East End Cemetery (I’m a founding member) and Woodland Cemetery Volunteers, along with Durham, N.C.’s Friends of Geer Cemetery, have devoted years to clearing these sites of invasive overgrowth and illegally dumped garbage. They have revealed thousands of grave markers and stones, each standing for a person, that had been obscured for decades.
Jan. 6 was more than a ‘dustup’, by Dr. E. Faye Williams
Jack Del Rio is not necessarily a stupid man. He was a three-sport athlete who received an athletic scholarship to the University of Southern California. After a successful collegiate career he was drafted into the NFL by the New Orleans Saints. In addition to the Saints, during his non-stellar playing career, he played for the Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings, and the Miami Dolphins. While playing for Kansas City in 1990, he even earned his undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Kansas. He began an NFL coaching career in 1997, which he continues in its latest iteration as defensive coordinator for the Washington Commanders.
Juneteenth doesn’t mark the end of slavery; ratification of the 13th amendment does, by DeWayne Wickham
The day after the federal government announced that slavery in the United States had been officially ended, The New York Times published a front- page story that trumpeted this hard-won victory.
Black excellence
We often hear the expression “Black excellence,” particularly when Black people, individually or collectively, achieve the seemingly impossible.
Professional sports messaging to end gun violence, by Donald J. Adams
America’s struggle with gun violence is not going un-noticed by many professional sports teams.
