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Personality: Deborah D. Jackson
Spotlight on treasurer of Sisters Network Central Virginia
In 2008, Deborah D. Jackson was part of a door-to-door campaign to help educate women in the city’s underserved neighborhoods about breast health. That was part of the annual Gift for Life Block Walk conducted by the Sisters Network Central Virginia, a breast cancer survivorship organization of African-American women.
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Personality: Sharon Parham Blount
Spotlight on Shalom Farms board chair
Sharon Parham Blount is bringing a new kind of peace to Richmond’s hungriest residents.
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No wrongdoing
Mayor Levar M. Stoney cleared in special prosecutor’s probe of the city’s awarding of $1.8 million contract to remove Confederate statues
No bribes. No kickbacks. No evidence of corruption in the use of taxpayers’ dollars. That’s the conclusion of a six-month probe to determine if Mayor Levar M. Stoney engaged in any wrongdoing in the award of a $1.8 million contract to a contractor to take down the city’s Confederate statues in July 2020.
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’I have lived through the massacre every day’
She was just 7 years old when the white mob stormed through her neighborhood, killing every man they could find, raping defenseless women and burning to the ground virtually every building in a 35-block area.
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‘It’s been a long time coming’
VSU hopes its All-Steinway School designation will attract ‘high caliber’ piano players
After 20 years, more than $1 million, and nearly 40 pianos, Virginia State University has elevated its approach to music education. The university has replaced many of its old pianos with new instruments from the Steinway & Sons piano company.
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A historic HBCU first
Virginia State University lands presidential debate
When the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees enter the Multi-Purpose Center on the campus of Virginia State University on Oct. 1, history will be made. VSU will become the first HBCU to host a U.S. presidential debate.
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School Board votes 4-2 to back Bedden’s ‘leveling’ plan
Are arts and music programs and foreign language classes now an endangered species in some Richmond Public Schools? That’s what some School Board members, students, parents and supporters fear in the wake of Monday night’s 4-2 vote by the board to back Superintendent Dana T. Bedden’s “leveling” plan.
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Slavery museum in Liverpool aims to confront painful legacy
carlet shackles sit peacefully on display in front of a sad, gray backdrop. The now rusted leg irons once locked human ankles during 18th century voyages from Africa to some European port, then to the Americas. Who the shackles held remains a mystery. But as a citizen of the United States, I’ve likely broken bread with a descendant of the woman forced to wear this instrument. Maybe my uncle fought alongside her kin in a war. Or it’s possible one of her distant relatives is now my relative. These are the thoughts I entertain while recently walking through the reflective International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, England.
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Beyoncé shows out
Jay Z, Blue Ivy present her with award
The leading ladies of pop music, notably Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus, dominated the MTV Video Music Awards.
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Armstrong Wildcats pounce on Varina
The metamorphosis is complete. Armstrong High School football has gone from powder puff to powerhouse.
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Kansans reject anti-choice proposal, by Ben Jealous
Red flags are flying for democracy and democratic values. We need to pay attention to the threats—and also to signs that we can work together to preserve our freedoms.
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Excavation of graves begins at site of Colonial Black church
Archaeologists in Virginia began excavating three suspected graves at the original site of one of the nation’s oldest Black churches on July 18, 2022, commencing a month's long effort to learn who was buried there and how they lived.
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‘The Woman King’ is a crowning achievement
The mighty women of the Agojie were warriors. From the 1600s to1800s in the West African Kingdom of Dahomey this all-female military regiment gallantly fought their empire’s enemies.
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Summer up
Summer 2023 arrived Wednesday, and although the purported longest day of the year was accompanied by rain, cheer up. The wetness won’t last long! After all, this is Richmond.
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Sports respite
Good for tennis star Naomi Osaka, 23, who put her mental health needs above the demands of Grand Slam organizers, media and spectators this week.
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Petersburg jury awards $300,000 to woman injured by officer
A Petersburg jury has awarded $300,000 in damages to a Black woman who sued a police officer for excessive force and false arrest after she was forced face-down onto the pavement during a traffic stop.
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Reparations movement rising, by Julianne Malveaux
The late Congressman John Conyers Jr., who represented Detroit in Congress from 1965 until 2017, introduced HR 40 — The Commission to Student and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act—
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Activists demand greater public accountability from Richmond Federal Reserve Bank
The streets of Richmond’s financial district echoed with calls for accountability last week as activists gathered outside the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond to call for better transparency and representation following a series of scandals among the nation’s banking leadership.
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‘Bones’ Hyland wants to be 22nd VCU Ram drafted by NBA
If someone were to update Virginia Commonwealth University’s history in the NBA draft, an apt title might be “From Bodine to Bones.”