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LaVerne Byrd Smith, 89, longtime educator, church historian, dies
Dr. LaVerne Charmayne Byrd Smith had a passion for education and writing. On the education front, she touched thousands of students and educators as a schoolteacher, university professor and reading specialist for the state Department of Education in a career that spanned 47 years.
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Author reaches back to family roots for children’s book
The Great Migration was an exodus of 6 million African-Americans from the rural South to the North and the West between 1910 and 1970. Desiree Cooper’s parents were children of the Great Depression, and her family was among those who relocated to leave the trauma of the Jim Crow South.
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Personality: David Mickens
Spotlight on president of local chapter of Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club
Richmond’s Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club rides for a reason and a cause — to make a difference in Richmond and across the country. David Mickens, the club’s president until 2019, says “their mission is to carry on the legacy and honor of two United States African American regiments known as the Buffalo Soldiers.”
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’We need this to get back to normal’
It has been months since Annette Johnson has seen her grandmother in person.
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Personality: Dr. Karen A. Faison
Spotlight on Virginia Nurses Association Nancy Vance Award winner
Dr. Karen Faison says she gains deep satisfaction as a professor in the Virginia State University Department of Nursing when “the light comes on” for her students “when information is mastered for patient-centered care.”
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Dauntless
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson deflects Republican attacks
Republicans on Wednesday pressed their attacks on a range of issues against Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Biden’s nominee to become the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, as she inched closer to the end of an intense two days of questioning with Democrats coming to her defense.
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Bishop Tutu’s daughter quits priesthood after gay marriage
The daughter of Nobel laureate Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of South Africa has given up her clergy credentials after marrying a Dutch woman. Mpho Tutu told South African media that because her church did not recognize her wedding, she could no longer serve in the country.
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Jeffrey Osborne keeps holding on, flying high
Blessed with one of the most distinctive voices in modern R&B, it didn’t take Jeffrey Osborne long to establish a solo career after departing the funk band L.T.D. (Love, Togetherness and Devotion) in the early 1980s. After years of playing drums in the group known for the hits “Holding On (When Love Is Gone)” and “(Every Time I Turn Around) Back in Love Again, he stepped out front with his self-titled debut in 1982, produced by George Duke.
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Black parents seek schools affirming their history amid bans
Every decision Assata Salim makes for her young son is important. Amid a spike in mass killings, questions of safety were at the top of her mind when choosing a school. Next on her checklist was the school’s culture.
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Personality: Timika Cousins
Spotlight on founder of The Faces Behind The Purpose For You
Personal tragedy led Timika Cousins to become an advocate against domestic violence after her beloved cousin was murdered by an abusive husband in 2014.
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Personality: Nichole L. Gross
Spotlight on Henrico County Public Schools’ Gilman Teacher of the Year
Being an educator can be physically and emotionally draining, says Nichole L. Gross, a Henrico County Public Schools teacher.
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Personality: Samantha Thompson
Spotlight on founder and president of Esteem Teens
Samantha Thompson tries to pass along to youngsters one of the most valuable lessons she learned growing up in the Fairfield Court public housing community in Richmond’s East End. That lesson: “It doesn’t matter where you come from. Anyone can overcome those obstacles to succeed.” She founded Esteem Teens, a nonprofit mentoring group, in 2008 to impart that uplifting message to youths living in disadvantaged communities in the city. “We share our stories with the kids to do and be more than their physical address,” says Ms. Thompson, who serves as president of the organization.
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Farrakhan calls on Trump to repent
Minister Louis Farrakhan called on President Trump to repent for what the Nation of Islam leader called America’s mistreatment of black people over the centuries.
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Richmond woman rattled by incident with Henrico police
Qunita Jones knows how actor Ving Rhames felt when he was confronted at his California home by police investigating a neighbor’s call that a “large black man” was breaking in.
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Serena claims another title in Singapore
When Serena Williams is healthy, she is still far and away the world’s top tennis player.
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In April, honor memories and seek reforms, by Thomas P. Kapsidelis
Spring ought to be a time of relief and promise. The days are longer and seemingly a bit sunnier, and the end of the school year is around the corner — and with it, the hopes of graduation days ahead.
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Bobbi Kristina’s autopsy shows mixture of drugs, alcohol
Bobbi Kristina Brown’s autopsy report contained evidence of recent cocaine use by the daughter of Bobby Brown and the late Whitney Houston before she was found unresponsive in a bathtub in her home last year. But a medical examiner’s office said last Friday it could not establish whether her death after months in a coma was accidental or intentional. Ms. Brown suffered brain damage and died of pneumonia resulting from drug intoxication and her face being immersed in water, the Fulton County Medical Examiner said.
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Sha’Carri Richardson blazes new trail to Tokyo Olympics
Whether watching from Jamaica, Japan or the United States, it was hard to miss that shock of flowing, orange hair that came streaking across the finish line first in Eugene, Ore., last Saturday night.
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The Muslim world isn’t silent
I received a call a few days after the Paris terrorist attacks from a relative. She was, quite understandably, deeply unsettled by the attack. She asked me why it was that the Muslim community was so silent about jihadist attacks. I told her that they were — and are — not silent at all. In fact, there were — immediate — statements of condemnation of these attacks from a wide range of organizations and religious leaders in the Arab and Muslim worlds, ranging from the Free Syrian Army to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, that denounced the heinous attacks. My relative then asked me why she and so many other people had not heard word one about this?
