UR trailblazing player Weldon Edwards honored
Someone has to lead the way in anything, and Weldon Edwards was the leader of the pack at the University of Richmond.
VUU hopes to repeat 1952 Baltimore CIAA glory
The last time Virginia Union University traveled to Baltimore for the CIAA Tournament, the Panthers returned to Richmond hoisting the championship trophy.
Minor shifts expected in city redistricting
The majority of Richmond residents, as anticipated, will not experience any impact from the boundary changes made once every 10 years to City Council and School Board districts.
Bon Secours breaks ground on new $11M medical office building in East End
Coming soon: A new Bon Secours Mercy Health medical office building in the East End that will house up to 100 doctors, nurses and other staff and include space to provide group therapy for mentally ill addicts.
8,000 potential gravesites identified at East End Cemetery using drone and hydrology mapping software
Finding unmarked graves in neglected cemeteries has always been a challenge.
School Board rejects Kamras budget plan; misses deadline set by mayor
The Richmond School Board is still trying to come up with a finished spending plan to send to City Hall so it can be included in the proposed 2022-23 budget that Mayor Levar M. Stoney will present to City Council on Friday, March 4.
Jordan Pendleton, 10, roars to lead role as young Simba in national tour of ‘The Lion King’
Richmond’s Jordan Pendleton has been selected to play young Simba in a national touring troupe of Disney’s “The Lion King.”
George Wythe’s Deshawn Goodwyn has star power on and off court
During these toughest of times, Deshawn Goodwyn has been a beacon of light for George Wythe High School basketball.
Carol Swann-Daniels, a trailblazer integrating Richmond schools in 1960, dies at 73
Sixty-one years have passed since Carol Irene Swann, 12, and her friend, Gloria Jean Mead, 13, blasted an opening in the racially segregated schools of Richmond.
Personality: Dr. Arcelia ‘CC’ Jackson
Spotlight on board president of Mental Health America of Virginia
Dr. Arcelia “CC” Jackson is bringing a caring, thoughtful approach to the issues and stigmas surrounding mental health in the Richmond community across her multiple disciplines and roles.
Mayor: She said ‘yes’
Mayor Levar M. Stoney, one of Richmond’s most eligible bachelors, is about to hear wedding bells.
RPS plans for Fox Elementary to rise from ashes
A virtually identical Fox Elementary School building can rise from the ashes, without additional cost to Richmond Public Schools.
Cancel student loan debt, by Charlene Crowell
One of President Biden’s first executive actions exercised his authority granted in the Higher Education Act.
Who would have believed it?, by E. Faye Williams
From the silly to the sublime, to the serious, faster than the mind can cogitate, our societal norms are being manipulated from the “as expected” to the “never in a million years.” Re- flecting on what is presented to the masses daily, I can recall a time when a television se- ries like “The Real House- wives...” could never have been shown, and pimple-pop- ping would have been done in the privacy of one’s own bathroom, but no longer. Frivolity is often the trade- mark of a “who would have believed” event, but now, more often than not, rather than leaving us amused, they leave us shocked and in dismay and disbelief. The current trend in these events has us questioning how we might provide for increased security and safety for our families and ourselves. Who would have believed a time during which the serious- ness of a public health crisis in theformofaglobalpandemic would be denied? Can anyone explain when, in the face of such a pandemic, personal interests and comfort became paramount over the interests of the general state of health? Most assuredly, few people could have anticipated this “denial” state of mind among such large numbers of cases or that the disease would take the lives of more than 900,000 Americans. My bet is that even fewer people could have guessed the massive rejection of life- saving vaccines. In stark contrast to the cur- rent pandemic, the 1950s battle against polio was a lesson in Dr. E. Faye Williams cooperative discipline. With the exception of general mask- ing, Americans practiced ex- treme social distancing. In his book, “Paralyzed with Fear: The Story of Polio,” Gareth Wil- liams wrote, “Fearful of the spread of the contagious virus, (San Angelo, Texas) closed pools, swimming holes, movie theaters, schools and churches, forcing priests to reach out to their congregations on local radio. Some motorists who had to stop for gas in San Angelo would not fill up their deflated tires, afraid they’d bring home air containing the infectious virus. And one of the town’s best physicians diagnosed his patients based on his ‘clinical impression’ratherthantaking the chance of getting infected during the administration of the proper diagnostic test.” When Jonas Salk released his vaccine in 1955, he im- mediately was described as a “miracle worker” and, because he did not patent his vaccine, it was universally welcomed and produced in the United States and the world. Acceptance of his vaccine was so widespread that by1980, polio had been elimi- nated in the United States. One also must ask who would have believed a time in which the history of Black Americans is being openly erased from the curriculum of America’s public schools and from the conscience of the nation? Although barely taught, the instruction of Black history is under assault. It is er- roneously labeled as critical race theory and the new threshold of general acceptance is that it is presented in a manner which does not cause “guilt” or “discomfort” to the listener. Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the father of Black History, said, “Those who have no record of what their forebears have ac- complished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.” He added, “If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.” For now, the vigilant see psychologicaleradicationasthe goal. Will the physical follow? I guess nothing should sur- prise us now as people now flock to certain gas stations for dinner! The writer is national presi- dent of the National Congress of Black Women Inc.
NFL’s race problem and Robert F. Smith, by Benjamin Chavis Jr.
Even before former Miami Dolphins Coach Brian Flores filed a class action lawsuit against the NFL claiming the league discriminated against Black coaches in their hiring practices, it was pretty clear that professional football has a race issue. The Insti- tute for Diver- sity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Flor- ida recently found that, in 2021, around 71 percent of the players in the NFL were people of color, while only a quarter were white. Yet of the league’s 32 teams, only three head coaches are people of color. And only two team own- ers are non-white—Jacksonville Jaguars’ owner Shahid Kahn is a Pakistani-American, and Kim Pegula, a Korean American, is a co-owner of the Buffalo Bills. In a league whose players are overwhelmingly Black, there needs to be more representation in the front office of people who look like the athletes that take the gridiron each Sunday. With the Denver Broncos expected to hit the market sometime this offseason, now is probably the best time in the 101-year history of the NFL for the league to have its first Black team owner and to begin to change the plantation mentality that has plagued professional football for decades. When considering potential buyers of the team, one name continually rises above the rest— Robert F. Smith. Mr. Smith is the 59-year-old founder of private equity firm Vista Equity Partners whose net worth is estimated to be around $6.7 billion. He may not have the star power that other potential buyers do, i.e., former Broncos quarterbacks Peyton Manning and John Elway or Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. But what he does have Benjamin Chavis Jr. is a long track record of success in the largely white world of investment. The Broncos could certainly use some of Mr. Smith’s magic given that the team hasn’t had a winning record since the 2015-16 season when they won the Super Bowl. Putting aside Mr. Smith’s investing acumen and ability to grow emerging businesses, his up-from-the-bootstraps story and expansive philanthropic work in the Black community would go a long way in changing the make-up of a NFL ownership from its traditional purview of stodgy, old white men. For one, Mr. Smith is a Denver native whose curiosity, intelligence and drive led him to a job with Bell Laboratories when he was just in high school. From there, he went on to Cornell and Columbia universities and jobs with Goodyear, Kraft and Goldman Sachs before founding Vista Equity in 2000. What his resume shows is that Mr. Smith is not afraid of break- ing down walls and inserting himself into traditional bastions of whiteness like the Ivy Leagues and private equity. If there is any Black man in America who could take on the lily-white structure of NFL ownership, it’s Robert F. Smith. If the NFL is serious about changing not just its image, but its relationships with its players and fan base, then Mr. Smith also would be an ideal partner for the league. He not only talks a big game about racial equity, but he backs it up by putting money where his mouth is. In 2019, Mr. Smith spent $34 million of his own money to settle the loan debt for the nearly 400 students who graduated that spring from Morehouse College. He also donated $20 million to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington—the largest by an individual donor to the museum at the time—and he helped found and donated $50 million to the Student Freedom Initiative, which aims to relieve the financial burdens on minority college students. Through Vista, Mr. Smith also has spearheaded the Southern Communities Initiative, a con- sortium of companies working to address problems facing communities of color in the South, where almost 60 per- cent of all Black Americans live. Through the SCI, he hopes to tackle pressing issues like substandard education and work- force development opportunities, housing and healthcare inequali- ties, the digital divide, limited access to capital and physical infrastructure failures in these communities. In an argument about integrat- ing professional football, Black athlete, activist and journalist Halley Harding wrote in the Los Angeles Tribune in 1941 that “most persons, corporations or businesses almost always forget the people or incidents that made them big.” Mr. Harding added: “This story is about a great American sport (football) that took all the aid the colored American could give and then as soon as it became ‘big league,’ promptly put a bar up against the very backbone of its existence.” These words could just as aptly be applied to the NFL today as they did in the 1940s. But now, as America once again re-examines its turbulent past when it comes to race, the NFL probably has its best chance in years to right a glaring gap in its leadership when it comes to the Broncos. And if there is anyone who can fill that gap, it’s Robert F. Smith. The writer is president and chief executive officer of the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
CRT – Critical race truth
As Black History Month 2022 wraps up, we again call our readers’ attention to the growing national assaults on teaching and learning about America’s past and the racist policies and practices that have brought our city, state and nation to where it is today – with gaps in education, health, wealth, employment, homeownership and justice that disproportionately impact Black people and people of color.
Romance fraud: Looking for love in wrong place proves costly
For the victim, a 78-year-old man from Annandale, it started with an effort to find some companionship.
HOME of Virginia to host series of conversations on fair housing issues
Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia, a nonprofit fair housing enforce- ment, research, advocacy and policy organization working for equal access to housing for all people, is hosting a series of conversations about press- ing housing issues in the state featuring experts in discussion with HOME directors. The series kicks off at 12:15 p.m. Thursday, March 3, with “Combating Segregated Housing Patterns,” and Monica Jefferson, HOME’s interim president and chief executive officer; Bryan Moorefield, HOME’s director of policy and research; and attorney Thomas Wolf, who worked on the landmark case HOME v. Nationwide. During the hour-
Piece of the pie: Joyebells gives back to community
Joye B. Moore’s recipe for supporting the community is just as sweet and as her now famous Joyebells Sweet Potato Pies.
