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R&B icon Percy Sledge dies at 74
Percy Sledge, the R&B legend whose song “When a Man Loves a Woman,” has become a “first-dance” anthem for newlyweds at wedding receptions, has died at his home in Baton Rouge, La. He was 74. William “Beau” Clark, coroner for East Baton Rouge Parish, confirmed that Mr. Sledge died about an hour after midnight on Tuesday, April 14, 2015, of natural causes in hospice care.
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Personality: Arlette J. Teele
Spotlight on Queen of Purple Pumps Chapter of The Red Hat Society
Arlette J. Teele founded the Purple Pumps Chapter of the Red Hat Society with the goal of bringing women in the Richmond area together “to greet middle age with verve, humor and élan.” At chapter gatherings, members are colorfully attired in red hats and wear purple shoes, whether they are cowgirl boots, purple heels or purple flip flops as the occasion dictates.
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VUU expects to name coaches next week
Virginia Union University is continuing its search for women’s and men’s basketball coaches. Panthers Athletic Director Joe Taylor said he hopes to announce the women’s coach by Tuesday, April 21, when VUU holds its Athletic Awards Banquet at 6 p.m. at the Henderson Center on campus.
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Spring football shows off offenses at VUU and VSU
Offense and optimism are the key words following Virginia Union and Virginia State universities’ spring football games. Under second-year Coach Mark James, VUU’s offense routed the defense 80-36 in the annual Maroon and White intrasquad game April 11 at Hovey Field. VUU’s Shawheem Dowdy, a 6-foot-4 sophomore transfer from Grambling State University, tossed six touchdowns passes. Kenneth Graham, VUU’s quarterback most of last season, is still rehabilitating from knee surgery and was held out of the game.
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Oklahoma deputy charged with manslaughter
A white reserve sheriff’s deputy in Oklahoma was charged with manslaughter Monday in the death of a black man who he fatally shot as he lay on the ground. Tulsa County, Okla., prosecutors filed a second-degree manslaughter charge against 73-year-old Robert Bates, a reserve deputy with the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office.
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$1.1M needed for new voting equipment
Richmond is hoping to borrow voting machines to use in the upcoming June 9 Democratic primaries. At the same time, the city voter registrar is seeking more than $1.1 million from the city government to buy new voting equipment to use in the November general election. The city is one of 30 localities facing an emergency situation involving voting machines. The upheaval is the result of Tuesday’s action by the state Board of Elections decertifying the WINVote touch-screen machines that the 30 localities have used in their elections for 10 years. The board’s action essentially bans the use of the WINVote machines in any future elections, including the June 9 primaries that will be held in Richmond and nine other localities.
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Teachers, police make impassioned plea for more $
Put more money into public education. Provide better pay for police officers. Advocates for both gave Richmond City Council members an earful at a public hearing Monday night as the governing body considers amendments to Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ two-year budget. Whether their appeals are successful remains to be seen, but the council may have little wiggle room. The budget plan council members are reviewing provides virtually no new revenue over the current year’s spending, limiting the governing body.
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Jack Gravely new NAACP interim executive director
Jack Gravely last led the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP as executive director more than three decades ago. This week, Mr. Gravely began a second stint with the organization, this time as interim executive director. “I know this is a different era, but we still face some of the same issues along with some new ones, and I have the same passion to lead this organization to address them,” Mr. Gravely said Wednesday. He takes over from King Salim Khalfani, who was pushed out by the board in early 2014 after serving in the post for 15 years.
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Natural gas price down again in city
Natural gas customers in Richmond are enjoying another plunge in the price of the fuel they use to heat their homes, cook and generate hot water. For the third time in eight months, the city is passing along savings to residents for the price it is paying to buy and bring the fuel to Richmond.
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Fulton oral histories to be accessible on the Internet
Stone Brewery is unwittingly giving a helping hand to people who want to call attention to historic Fulton. The brewery’s decision to locate its East Coast home in Fulton is focusing public attention on the area and potentially raising interest in the once African-American community that was bulldozed into oblivion nearly 45 years ago in the name of urban renewal. That’s good news for those who are now engaged in posting on the Internet interviews with people who knew the area before the community was razed. The interviews with former residents are being digitized and soon will go online with help from the Valentine Richmond History Center and Virginia Commonwealth University’s library system, according to Spencer E. Jones III, chair of the Legacy Committee of Greater Fulton’s Future.
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11% tuition hike
NSU and U.Va. among state’s highest
Once again, the price tag to attend Virginia’s 15 state-supported colleges and universities is going up faster than inflation. In-state students can expect to pay at least 3 to 5 percent more in the fall, with a few schools going even higher. For example, Norfolk State University and the University of Virginia are posting a tuition-and-fees increase of 11 percent for incoming freshmen — among the largest tuition hikes in Virginia. U.Va. is imposing a $1,470 increase for new freshmen with the aim of raising money to reduce borrowing for students from lower-income families. The increase means new freshmen will pay $14,468 for the fall and spring semesters, not including room and board. Tuition for current students will rise only 3.9 percent from the current charge of $12,998.
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The U.S. flag flies once again over the city of Richmond on April 3, 1865, proclaiming Union victory over Confederate forces in the city and …
Published on April 10, 2015
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James McGee and his sister, Jazlyn, check out Christopher the Clown, who towered over the crowd as he entertained them.
Published on April 9, 2015
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When Freedom Came, Part 3
The Free Press presents a series chronicling the black experience during the liberation of Richmond in April 1865 and the end of the Civil War.
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Flying Squirrels start season with fireworks at The Diamond
Play Ball!
“And the rocket’s red glare; the bombs bursting in air ...” Those are lyrics in “The Star Spangled Banner,” played before every Richmond Flying Squirrels game. The words also describe the postgame fireworks planned at The Diamond this season. The Flying Squirrels’ home opener Thursday, April 9, against the Bowie Baysox will conclude with “dueling fireworks,” pyrotechnics launched from two locations.
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Rev. Graham ignores racism
Easter was last Sunday, but the Rev. Franklin Graham is still wiping egg off his face. In an unintentionally insensitive Facebook post on March 12, the hugely influential white evangelist ignored the existence of racial bias by law enforcement in the United States by suggesting the easy solution to police shootings is to teach our children to obey authority.
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The game
We congratulate and offer wishes for much success to Coach Shaka Smart and his family, who have relocated to Austin, Texas, where he just became the new basketball coach for the University of Texas Longhorns. In the six years Coach Smart led the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams, he showed his players, the Richmond community and the entire nation that discipline and hard work, coupled with genuine caring, can bring great rewards.
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Smart trades Rams horns for Texas Longhorns
When Shaka Smart was hired as Virginia Commonwealth University’s basketball coach in 2009, he was a little known, much traveled assistant, with a name that puzzled people. Since then, his name and fame — and that of his signature game style, “Havoc” — spread. Last week, Smart traded his Rams horns for the Texas Longhorns. He leaves Richmond as one of the hottest commodities in the sport, practically a household name among hoops enthusiasts.
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‘Havoc’ to continue under Will Wade
Among Shaka Smart’s first duties upon becoming Virginia Commonwealth University’s basketball coach in 2009 was to hire Will Wade as an assistant. Smart referred to Wade as “my first hire.” After Smart’s resignation for the head coaching job at the University of Texas last week, among the first moves the VCU administration made was to hire Wade as head coach for the Rams.
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Dean of nation’s black preachers dies
Dr. Gardner C. Taylor, widely considered the dean of the nation’s black preachers and “the poet laureate of American Protestantism,” died Sunday, April 5, 2015, after a ministerial career that spanned more than six decades. He was 96. “Dr. Taylor was a theological giant who will be greatly missed,” the Rev. Carroll Baltimore, past president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, said of the minister who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000.
