3 honorees to speak March 31
Two educators and a historian from the Richmond area will speak at a panel titled “Honoring Women Who Tell Our Stories.”
National Geographic acknowledges racism in coverage
National Geographic acknowledged last week that it covered the world through a racist lens for generations, with its magazine portrayals of bare-breasted women and naive brown-skinned tribesmen as savage, unsophisticated and unintelligent.
U.Va. makes NCAA history it would like to rewrite
The University of Virginia basketball team seemed ticketed for a magic carpet ride to the NCAA Final Four in San Antonio, Texas.
1963 NCAA game went down in the record books for different reasons
On March 15, 1963, an NCAA Tournament basketball game was played in which both schools could claim victory of sorts.
Coach Tubby Smith gets the boot at Memphis
Memo to colleges in search of a new basketball coach: One of the very best, Tubby Smith, is available again. With Richmond roots, Smith is among college basketball’s most successful coaches. He is also among the most traveled.
Maye to leave VCU Rams
Tyler Maye becomes the latest player with the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams to come down with “transfer-itis.”
VSU’s Aaron Harris becoming a heavy hitter
Aaron Harris has compiled some batting statistics even the great Hank Aaron would be proud of. Baseball fans are familiar with Hall of Famer Hank Aaron, who set numerous slugging records — most notably with a former record 755 homers — largely with the Atlanta Braves.
‘Rethinking Incarceration’
Author on justice, race and Jesus as a prisoner
The problems in the United States’ criminal justice system go all the way back to slavery, according to Dominique DuBois Gilliard, who directs racial reconciliation work for the Evangelical Covenant Church. Both slavery and incarceration are means of racial and social control, said Mr. Gilliard, who sees these controls working together throughout American history — from Jim Crow to lynchings to the war on drugs to the privatization of prisons.
Dr. Marshall Banks, retired urologist and Roman Catholic deacon, dies at 78
Dr. Marshall D. “Billy” Banks devoted his life to ministering to people as a physician and as a deacon at Cathedral of the Sacred Heart near Virginia Commonwealth University.
Former rapper Craig Mack dies at 47
Former rapper Craig Mack, best known for the platinum 1994 hit “Flava in Ya Ear” has died in South Carolina. Colleton County Coroner Richard Harvey says the 47-year-old Mr. Mack died at his home in Walterboro around 9 p.m. Monday, March 12, 2018. Dr. Harvey said it appeared Mr. Mack died of natural causes.
Personality: Alex Mejias
Spotlight on president of nonprofit Business Coalition for Justice
Alex Mejias, president of the Business Coalition for Justice, believes Richmond and the nation face new challenges requiring new ideas, new coalitions and new leadership.
School Board approves Kamras’ smaller, better-paid cabinet
A divided Richmond School Board voted 5-4 on Monday night to approve the hiring of four members of Superintendent Jason Kamras’ new cabinet, overruling members who objected to the enlarged salaries they are to be paid.
China’s new policy threatening recycling in U.S.
At least half the cans, bottles, plastics and paper collected for recycling used to end up in one place — China. Now China has decided to stop accepting most of the recycled materials that it once purchased. And that decision is having huge ripple effects on recycling programs in Richmond, as well as other communities in this country and overseas.
March for Our Lives rally Saturday
Richmond will host its own student-led protest against gun violence in schools and communities on Saturday, March 24, to lend support to a national rally being held in Washington that day.
Annual VCU Wellness Block Party March 24 at MLK Middle School
The annual VCU Wellness Block Party offering health screenings, blood pressure checks and other services to the public will be held Saturday, March 24, it has been announced.
City Democratic Committee election overturned
The Richmond City Democratic Committee has been temporarily shut down and its current officers, including its politically connected chairman, James E. “J.J.” Minor III, removed after an arm of the state Democratic Party nullified the recent election, the Free Press has learned.
Wilder sues VCU president, dean of school named for him
He may be 86, but former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder is showing Virginia Commonwealth University he is not to be trifled with.
‘Immortal’ Henrietta Lacks to be honored with cancer center
The year was 1951. The place: Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where Henrietta Lacks, a native of Halifax County, Va., sought treatment for cervical cancer.
Play it forward
Richmond Flying Squirrels go to bat for the community
As the Richmond Flying Squirrels prepare for the spring season and the opening home game on April 13 at The Diamond, the baseball team continues stepping up to the plate in the Richmond community — on and off the field. “Our philosophy, and what the team hinges on, is three things,” said Todd “Parney” Parnell, the Squirrels’ vice president and chief operating officer who has been with the team since its Richmond debut in 2009.
Henry L. Marsh III to introduce his memoir
He had his sights set on making his living as a truck driver. Then Henry L. Marsh III went with a group of high school buddies to hear a school desegregation case in Richmond, and that experience changed his life.
