After 25-year hiatus, VUU Panthers to meet HU Pirates on the gridiron this Saturday
Virginia Union University and Hampton University are about to dust off one of the HBCU’s oldest gridiron rivalries.
‘A heavy lift’: Religious black voters weigh Buttigieg’s bid
The Rev. Joe Darby, a South Carolina pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, pondered a sensitive question that he knew was on the mind of his congregation. Would black voters be able to reconcile their conservative religious doctrine with voting for a gay candidate for president?
In Mississippi Delta, Catholic clergy abuse cases settle on the cheap
A famed Catholic religious order settled sex abuse cases in recent months by secretly paying two African-American Mississippi men $15,000 each and requiring them to keep silent about their claims, the Associated Press has found.
Personality: Dr. Milondra B. Coleman
Spotlight on Richmond Education Association president
The new school year brings increased responsibilities for everyone connected to the Richmond Public Schools system, but only one person is both managing her curriculum and plans to improve the lives of an entire city of schools employees. That person is Dr. Milondra B. Coleman, who balances teaching modern world history and AP government at John Marshall High School with her duties as president of the Richmond Education Association.
Israeli company introduces recycling bins for CVWMA made from recycled waste
Plastic made from banana peels, dirty diapers, discarded vegetables, mixed paper and other household waste? That’s right.
Visitation policy change for state prison inmates
Inmates in state prisons will be able change a visitation list only twice a year instead of anytime they wish, the Virginia Department of Corrections has announced.
Clarification
Richmond City Councilman Michael J. Jones, 9th District, said Monday that he would abstain if he had to vote today on the $1.5 billion Coliseum replacement plan.
Community colleges to host driver training for CDLs
Community colleges in Richmond and across the state are moving to become hubs for obtaining a commercial driver’s license, or CDL. Under a program announced Aug. 27 by Gov. Ralph S. Northam, community colleges are to be a one-stop shop where students can get required classroom training and hands-on vehicle experience and take the tests to obtain learner’s permits and CDL licenses.
Free small business course to start Sept. 19
“Mine Your Business,” a nine-week course on creating and running a small business, launches Thursday, Sept. 19, and aims to bring business fundamentals, coaching by mentors and the chance to win money to pump into a new venture.
City council candidates to meet in back-to-back forums
The eight candidates running to replace 5th District City Councilman Parker C. Agelasto will have two chances next week to impress voters at candidate forums where they will respond to questions.
Hearing on Coliseum referendum petitions still up in the air
Richmond Circuit Court Chief Judge Joi Jeter Taylor so far has not set a new hearing to consider whether city Voter Registrar Kirk Showalter wrongly threw out more than 2,000 petition signatures and keeping a nonbinding advisory referendum on the Richmond Coliseum replacement project off the Nov. 5 ballot.
Saving the past
Bradford family descendants, supporters work to protect old Sons and Daughters of Ham Cemetery
Dense woods fill much of a largely uncelebrated and essentially abandoned African-American burial ground in Henrico County that had been best known in recent years as a practice area for University of Richmond runners.
Opening Bell
Richmond Public Schools students, parents, teachers and officials were up bright and early and full of optimism Tuesday morning for the beginning of the new school year.
Activist to head U.N. AIDS Office
The United Nations Office on AIDS has named a longtime activist on women’s issues to head the global health agency.
Reframing the history of slavery in Angola and U.S.
If the United States has 35,000 museums, a writer asked in 2014, why is only one about slavery? And if the wealth of this country was built on the backs of enslaved people from Africa, why has that story been vastly under-reported in our media, in our schools and in our political discourse?
Changing Hanover school names ‘won’t change a thing’
Letters to the Editor
Re “Hanover County NAACP files federal lawsuit over schools’ Confederate names,” Free Press Aug. 22-24 edition: The Hanover County Branch NAACP’s federal lawsuit over Hanover schools with Confederate names is on specious grounds.
Cityscape:Slices of life and scenes in Richmond
A line of people marches along a portion of the Richmond Slave Trail beside the James River on their way from the Old Manchester docks to Downtown.
Free Press SOL article 'does a tremendous disservice' to RPS students
Letters to the Editor
Re “Down again: Student achievement drops again for Richmond Public Schools, according to 2018-19 SOL test results,” Free Press Aug.15-17 edition: The article published in the Free Press will likely lead many readers to believe that Richmond Public Schools’ Standards of Learning test scores decreased across the board last year.
Jay-Z buys in — sells out
“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Recovering from Ferguson
“The city’s personal-responsibility refrain ... reflects many of the same racial stereotypes found in the emails between police and court supervisors. This evidence of bias and stereotyping, together with evidence that Ferguson has long recognized but failed to correct the consistent racial disparities caused by its police and court practices, demonstrates that the discriminatory effects of Ferguson’s conduct are driven at least in part by discriminatory intent in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.” – U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department, March 2015
