Photo
VCU homecoming royalty // Lawrence Cooper and Amy Chong are all smiles after they were presented as the Virginia Commonwealth University 2015 Homecoming King and …
Published on November 20, 2015
Story
Hope for the ‘Cotton Curtain’
We won the Voting Rights Act of 1965 at Selma, combining the power of a principled mass movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a compassionate president who did the right thing despite the heavy political price. What was that cost? President Lyndon B. Johnson said it best at the time when he told his aides that we’d “just lost the South for a generation.”
Story
Beyond T-shirts and hoodies
Recollections of my 1995 article on the business of college athletics danced in my head when I heard the news about the University of Missouri football team’s refusal to play until the president of that university, Tim Wolfe, resigned or was dismissed.
Story
Think globally
The terrorist attacks in Paris last week that resulted in the deaths of 129 people and the wounding of several hundred more are the latest tragedy in a world becoming all too familiar with violence of this type and magnitude. Somehow, we divorce ourselves from the fatal incidents and suicide bombings occurring across the globe until they happen to people we connect with.
Story
VUU heads to first round of NCAA playoffs
Virginia Union University has been given the chance to scratch a 24-year football itch. But before the Panthers say can “ahh,” there is much work to be done.
Story
VCU Rams take on Duke Blue Devils in NY
Here comes the rubber match. Virginia Commonwealth University and Duke University have met twice before in basketball, in 2007 and 2012, with each school winning once.
Story
First Baptist Chesterfield project lacks black participation
First Baptist Church of South Richmond has poured nearly $6 million into buying land and developing its long-planned satellite sanctuary in Chesterfield County.
Story
World religious leaders condemn Paris carnage
Pope Francis raised the specter of a World War III “in pieces,” Muslims issued statements of condemnation, while evangelical Christians in America debated whether to speak of a “war with Islam.” These were some of the responses last week by religious leaders around the world to the series of attacks Nov. 13 in Paris that left more than 120 people dead and hundreds of others wounded.
Story
Locked out
Report: Fewer mortgages approved in predominately African-American, Latino areas
The greater the number of African-Americans and Latinos living in a Richmond neighborhood, the tougher it is for home buyers in the neighborhood to get a mortgage approved or for existing owners to get their home loans refinanced. That’s the rule of thumb that prevails among banks and online mortgage lenders, according to a new report from the Richmond-based fair housing watchdog group, Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia.
Story
Coalition to City Council: Slow your roll on rapid transit
Slow down the rush to install bus rapid transit (BRT) in Richmond and take the time to ensure that the service will not become an expensive boondoggle.
Story
Budget deal better than default
The House and Senate passed a bipartisan budget deal recently that addresses spending caps, the debt limit, Medicare premiums, Social Security Disability Insurance and many other items important to Virginians. This budget addressed issues that Congress desperately needed to tackle, and I’m happy to have voted in favor of the deal.
Story
Testing failing our students
Across the country, parents have been in revolt against high-stakes standardized testing, with kids tested over and over again while creativ ity is cut out of classroom curricula. Parents — particularly in targeted urban schools from Chicago to Boston — also are marching against the forced closing of neighborhood schools, displacing kids and shutting down needed neighborhood centers. Now there is more and more evidence that the parents have it right — and the deep-pocket “reformers” are simply wrong.
Story
N.C. Moral Monday leader urges local NAACP to mobilize
“This is no time for foolishness,” said the Rev. William J. Barber II in an energizing message at the Richmond Branch NAACP’s Freedom Fund Awards Gala last Saturday.
Story
Student protests bring down Mizzou president, chancellor
The University of Missouri’s president stepped down Monday, and its chancellor moved aside, after protests by the school’s students and football team over alleged inaction against racial abuse on campus.
Story
Photo
Virginia State University quarterback Tarian Ayres is upended by a Virginia Union University defender during Saturday’s 28-27 win by the Panthers over the host Trojans …
Published on November 13, 2015
Story
Panthers win 28-27 over Trojans; now looking for NCAA bid
Virginia Union University has rested its case — a powerful case for sure — in its effort to win a NCAA football playoff invitation.
Story
New play highlights renowned Richmond actor Charles Gilpin
The name of renowned actor Charles S. Gilpin has long faded in Richmond and elsewhere. Here in his birthplace, the only recognition for the 1920s Broadway star is the public housing community that is named for him — Gilpin Court, located just north of Downtown.
Story
Petersburg cemetery gets historical marker
A state historical marker now commemorates the People’s Memorial Cemetery in Petersburg. The marker was unveiled last Sunday at the entrance of the 175-year-old African-American burial ground at 334 S. Crater Road.
Story
Jackson Ward church hosts Social Justice Weekend
Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church in Jackson Ward is hosting a “Social Justice Weekend” Saturday, Nov. 14, and Sunday, Nov. 15.

