Former Virginia First Lady Maureen McDonnell broke a two-year silence on her role in the federal corruption case that rocked Virginia and sent shockwaves across the nation. Fighting back tears, she read from a prepared statement during her sentencing hearing …

Ninety-five members of Congress will make a civil rights pilgrimage to Alabama next week. The delegation of House members and senators will spend Friday, March 6, through Sunday, March 8, in Birmingham, Montgomery, Selma and Marion for the 50th anniversary …

For the first time in the 185-year history of the University of Richmond, the new head of the private liberal arts college that borders Richmond and Henrico County will be an African-American. Dr. Ronald Andrew Crutcher has been named as …

WASHINGTON The Justice Department says George Zimmerman will not face federal civil rights charges in the 2012 shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The department announced its decision Tuesday, saying there was not enough evidence to bring federal civil rights …

Also to be interviewed Monday, Judge Hairston has the backing of the Richmond delegation and is expected to have no trouble winning General Assembly votes to gain the seat that Circuit Court Judge Melvin R. Hughes is vacating after reaching …

Following some career setbacks, Jarvis Threatt is on basketball’s comeback trail. Last Sunday, that travel itinerary led him to Brooklyn, N.Y., site of the NBA’s Developmental League (D- League) Slam-Dunk Contest and All- Star Game. Showing there’s plenty of bounce …

Elizabeth “Beth” Walker Mickens Randolph loved spending time with her trailblazing grandmother, Maggie L. Walker, the first black female founder and president of a bank in America. Mrs. Walker chartered the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in Jackson Ward in …

The 1951 and 1952 All-Star games were all white, although the league had admitted four African-Americans in 1950 — Chuck Cooper, Earl Lloyd, Sweetwater Clifton and Hank DeZone. Another Barksdale “first:” He was the first African-American to play basketball against …

Three Virginia Union University luminaries will be inducted into the CIAA John B. McLen- don Jr. Hall of Fame. They are Dr. Allix B. James, president emeritus of VUU; James Battle, former VUU athletic director; and former Panthers basketball star …

Will Maureen G. McDonnell be the first former first lady of Virginia to be sentenced to prison? U.S. District Court Judge James R. Spencer will determine that Friday, Feb. 20, when Mrs. McDonnell appears before him for sentencing in the …

When officials at the Earl Gregg Swem Library at The College of William & Mary purchased a 1902 diary from an unknown author in 2009 for their special collections unit, they had no idea they had made an historical connection. …

Hundreds of African-American students are becoming doctors, nurses, dentists and medical researchers, thanks to university alliances Dr. Louis W. Sullivan created in Richmond and elsewhere. That is just one of the achievements of the pioneering 81-year-old physician, educator and health …

The Birmingham Pledge to end racism is painted on the wall of the city’s police headquarters in Birmingham, Ala. “I will discourage racial prejudice by others at every opportunity ...” the pledge on the wall reads. A painting of four …

ATLANTA The daughter of late pop star Whitney Houston and singer Bobby Brown was placed in a coma to stop brain swelling after she was found facedown and unresponsive in a bathtub in her Georgia home last weekend, family friend …

Wendell Scott, the Danville native who got his start in auto racing by running moonshine in the 1940s, has been inducted posthumously into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The trailblazing stock car racer was the first African-American to break into …