
Cooking up skills, dollars for RPS culinary program
Call it an eye-opening experience for Nicholas Pollard, Jaquan Wash- ington, TéAnna Warren and six other high school seniors in Richmond Public Schools’ culinary program at the Richmond Technical Center.

General Assembly green-lights preference for Pamunkey tribe in local casino
The General Assembly, eager for a flood of green from casino gambling, gave a Virginia Indian tribe with a well-documented history and continuing practice of racial bigotry, a leg up in two cities — Richmond and Norfolk.

Foul: Racial epithet aimed at Armstrong basketball team sparks investigations
Officials from Richmond Public Schools and the Richmond Branch NAACP are investigating allegations that the Armstrong High School boys basketball team, cheerleaders and fans were taunted with racial epithets during the state playoffs in Northern Virginia in late February.

COVID-19
Coronavirus hits Virginia, impacting people, events
With the coronavirus sweeping the globe, efforts to mitigate its surge and impact are being felt across the state. From elected officials to private company executives, small business operators, schools and universities, hospitals and clinics and individuals, people are bracing for what the World Health Organization officially declared a pandemic on Wednesday.

Lady Panthers to play CIAA nemesis in NCAA 1st round
Virginia Union and Bowie State universities continue on a collision course.

VUU Lady Panthers 1983 team inducted into CIAA Hall of Fame
Some stories are so compelling that they need be told and re-told, over and over, so as not to be forgotten. The 1983 Virginia Union University women’s basketball team made news that still prompts goose bumps on Lombardy Street.

Beyonce Mass draws crowd, criticism
The worship service began with the voice of Beyoncé singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the Black National Anthem. Over the next hour, a choir-backed quintet of African-American women singers belted out other songs in the pop star’s repertoire. Beyoncé’s music filled the air between prayers, a sermon and a Communion-like time when congregants dropped rocks labeled “homophobia,” “body shaming” and “racism” into white plastic buckets that were placed before an onstage altar.

Jazz master pianist ‘McCoy’ Tyner dies at 81
“McCoy” Tyner, the ground- breaking and influential jazz pianist and the last surviving member of the John Coltrane Quartet, has died. He was 81.

John Merchant, who broke barriers at U.Va. law school and in golf, dies at 87
John F. Merchant broke racial barriers in the legal profession and in the game of golf.

NASA pioneer Katherine Johnson takes her place among the stars
Three African-American astronauts joined hundreds of other mourners Saturday, March 7, at a funeral service for trailblazing mathematician and NASA pioneer Katherine G. Johnson.

Personality: Patrice A. Beard
Spotlight on board chair of the National Alliance on Mental Illness – Central Virginia
There are millions of people managing mental illness in America, with 25 percent of adults and 20 percent of children diagnosed with a mental health condition. For the thousands in Central Virginia currently living with a condition, they have a helping hand in the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Central Virginia and Patrice A. Beard.

Think about bus operators on Transit Driver Appreciation Day
Do you know what Wednesday, March 18, is? National Bus Driver Appreciation Day. It is also known as Transit Driver Appreciation Day.

Cathy’s Camp to be shut down by March 31, displacing homeless
Complete closure and removal. That’s what’s ahead for Cathy’s Camp, the tent community that sprang up in recent months adjacent to the city’s winter overflow shelter and across the street from the Richmond Justice Center.

Confederate monuments are ‘artifacts of collective pain’
Re Letter to the Editor “Confederate monuments speak truth to power,” Free Press Feb. 27-29 edition:

Women in STEM fields continue to make history by Julianne Malveaux
Few in these United States had heard of Katherine G. Johnson, the gifted mathematician who finished high school and college at 18.

Honoring mothers during Women's History Month by Dr. E. Faye Williams
Just like Black History Month, Women’s History Month started out only as a week.Along the way, we were ultimately honored with an International Women’s Day. Women around the world are celebrated that day.

Dr. Fania Davis to speak on education and justice March 12
Dr. Fania Davis, co-founder of the Restorative Justice of Oakland Youth in California, will be the keynote speaker at a community forum on equity in education 6 p.m. Thursday, March 12, at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, 1000 Mosby St.

RPS Fine Arts Festival March 14 at Huguenot High
The artistic creativity of Richmond Public Schools students will be on display from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 14, at Huguenot High School, host of the annual RPS Fine Arts Festival of visual arts, music, dance and theater.

15th Annual Richmond History Makers recognized
The Valentine, the museum of Richmond history, presented its 15th Annual Richmond History Makers awards to individuals and organizations that are making a difference in the capital city Tuesday during a ceremony at Virginia Union University.