‘Mother of South Africa’ dies at 81
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who emerged as a combative anti-apartheid campaigner during her former husband Nelson Mandela’s decades in jail but whose reputation was later tarnished by allegations of violence, died on Monday, April 2, 2018, at the age of 81.
Gospel music stars shine at 33rd Stellar Awards ceremony
Gospel singer, composer and choir director James “JJ” Hairston was the top winner last weekend at the 33rd Annual Stellar Gospel Music Awards, winning six awards.
Annie Giles, community activist, dies at 81
As a minister’s daughter, Annie Marie Turner Giles felt driven to help others overcome problems and challenges in the Whitcomb Court public housing community in the city’s East End.
Journalist Les Payne, a founder of NABJ, dies at 76
Les Payne, an intrepid Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who helped pave the way for another generation of African-American journalists as one of the founders and a former president of the National Association of Black Journalists, died on Monday, March 19, 2018. …
‘Rethinking Incarceration’
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 …
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, …
Va. native Floyd Carter Sr., one of the last of the Tuskegee Airmen, dies at 95
Floyd Carter Sr., one of the last of the Tuskegee Airmen, died Thursday, March 8, in New York, where he served with the New York Police Department for 27 years. He was 95.
Rev. Craig A. Matthews, longtime artistic director of the Richmond Boys Choir, dies at 63
The 18-member Richmond Boys Choir is celebrating the life of their caring and talented artistic director, the Rev. Craig Alexander Matthews.
Musician Daryl Davis, who works to convert the KKK, to speak March 17
Blues mus ician Daryl Davis is coming to the Richmond area to talk about his pioneering efforts to use conversation to steer Ku Klux Klan members away from racial hatred.
Black churches across nation host screenings of ‘Black Panther’
Xavier Cooper went straight from his shift as a cook at a fast food restaurant to an early showing of the “Black Panther” — sponsored by his church.
30 members of Congress make pilgrimage to civil rights sites
About a dozen Democrats and Republicans prayed and sang “Amazing Grace” during a solemn ceremony last Friday at the site where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated nearly 50 years ago. The ceremony marked the start of a three-day …
Interfaith film misses Oscar, but raises hope in Kenya
It didn’t bring home an Oscar this week, but a film nominated for an Academy Award is spreading a message that many Africans said is too rarely heard — that people from different religious groups on the continent can be …
Dr. Grace Harris remembered for her ‘spirit of hope’
Dr. Grace E. Harris, whose life and career stretched from the roads of rural Halifax County to the halls of the Virginia State Capitol, was remembered last Saturday as more than 200 people, including family, friends, legislators and educators, assembled …
Allie Ragin Jr., teacher, sports coach, dies at 76
Allie Ragin Jr. used his education and athletic skills to benefit and support youth sports programs in Richmond.
