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Rebirth of a nation, by Dr. E. Faye Williams
Some of my “vintage” or “experienced” readers may remember or actually saw the movie, “Birth of a Nation.” Not the 2016 Nate Parker version, I refer to the 1915 silent film, originally called “The Clansman” by D.W. Griffith. In short, it glorified the Ku Klux Klan and denigrated civil and human rights for formerly enslaved people using the “Black man, white woman” paradigm.
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City Council gives greenlight to casino project
Richmond easily leaped the first hurdle in its quest to become a casino city — City Council approval.
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VCU opens COVID-19 clinic for ‘long haulers’
The spread of COVID-19 has slowed significantly. But plenty of people who contracted the virus are still dealing with the effects.
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Richmond’s banking desert grows
Outside of Downtown, the eastern half of Richmond – which tends to be largely African-American and Latino—has increasingly become a banking desert, bereft of branch banks that are more commonplace in the Downtown and western half of the city.
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Plans proceed to put federal money toward homeless services, affordable housing
City Council is recommending that the administration pour $5.6 million in new federal dollars into homeless services and pump $7.1 million into a city fund to boost assistance to developers creating apartments and homes with reduced rents and price tags.
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Hundreds join ‘Moral March on Manchin’ as he blocks voting rights legislation
CHARLESTON, W.Va. Hundreds of demonstrators outraged with U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s opposition to a sweeping overhaul of U.S. election law marched through West Virginia’s capital city Monday evening.
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Race, racial issues major topics for Pulitzer Prize winners for the arts
NEW YORK Stories of race, racism and colonialism in the United States swept the Pulitzer Prizes for the arts, from Louise Erdrich’s novel “The Night Watchman” to a Malcolm X biography co-written by the late Les Payne to Katori Hall’s play “The Hot Wing King.”
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‘In the Heights’ opens to low numbers
NEW YORK Just when a party was poised to break out in movie theaters, the below-expectation debut of “In the Heights” last weekend dampened Hollywood’s hopes of a swift or smooth recovery at the summer box office.
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Juneteenth and confronting hard history by Marc H. Morial
“Slavery is hard history. It is hard to comprehend the inhumanity that defined it. It is hard to discuss the violence that sustained it. It is hard to teach the ideology of white supremacy that justified it. And it is hard to learn about those who abided it.
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Fair and equal representation needed among food vendors at NFL team training camp
Letters to the Editor
Re “Washington Football playing again at Richmond camp in July,” Free Press June 10-12 edition: It was announced that the Washington Football Team will open training camp from July 27 through 31 here in Richmond.
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Kamras: New George Wythe won’t be completed until 2027
Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras is insisting that it will take six years to produce a replacement for George Wythe High School, or three years longer than City Hall has insisted it would take if its personnel led the construction.
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Personality: Keya D. Wingfield
Spotlight on winner of the Food Network’s 2021 Spring Baking Championship
From the confines of her home to the heights of national television, Keya Desai Wingfield is making waves in the world of cooking.
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Bethlehem Baptist Church leaving East End for the suburbs
Bethlehem Baptist Church, which bills itself as “The church in the heart of the city with the city in our hearts,” is moving from Fairmount Avenue in the East End to the suburbs, according to Carolyn Demery, chair of the church’s Deacon Board.
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Possible NBA title for Brooklyn Nets?
If the Brooklyn Nets are to ever win an elusive NBA title, this might be the year.
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Pressure mounts on UNC in Nikole Hannah-Jones tenure dispute
The pressure on trustees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to grant tenure to investigative journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones continued to mount last week as a major funding partner joined the call to change her status and a sought-after chemistry professor decided not to join the faculty over the dispute.
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Officials confirm new regional discussions to address homelessness using federal money
Richmond and its two biggest neighbors, Chesterfield and Henrico counties, have begun talks on a regional approach to the needs of the hundreds of people who are homeless in the area, including the potential for creating a year-round emergency shelter with support services.
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Primary victories put several Black candidates in position to win
Black influence in Virginia politics appears to be growing.
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Colette W. McEachin wins decisive victory over primary challenger for commonwealth’s attorney
The race for Richmond’s next commonwealth’s attorney ended late Tuesday evening, as incumbent Colette W. McEachin emerged victorious against a Democratic primary challenge from attorney Thomas P. Barbour Jr.