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Personality: Christopher J. Woody Sr.
Spotlight on founder of The Woody Foundation
Christopher J. Woody Sr. is a very happy man with an enormous giving heart.
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Personality: Stephen M. Levinson
Spotlight on board president of the ACLU of Virginia
Stephen M. Levinson has worked for civil rights and social justice for almost a half century. And like many in his field, he has endured death threats in writing and in person.
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7 honored in 2019 Strong Men & Women in Virginia History program
Seven outstanding African-American leaders were celebrated during the seventh annual “Strong Men & Women in Virginia History” awards program Feb. 7 at a Downtown hotel.
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Faces of COVID-19
Virginians of all walks of life have been impacted by thecoronavirus,theairbornerespiratoryillnessthathas stricken more than 3,600 people in the Commonwealth and resulted in 75 deaths as of Wednesday. Their passing impacts their families and the larger communities in which they worked, volunteered, worshipped and lived. Here are some of their stories.
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Grieving with Pittsburgh
Families of the 11 people killed in the synagogue massacre Saturday begin to bury the dead amid a national outpouring of support
Pittsburgh’s Jewish community began burying its dead following Saturday’s synagogue massacre. Funeral services were held Tuesday for a beloved family doctor, a pillar of the congregation, and two middle-aged brothers known as the Rosenthal “boys.”
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Judge Damon J. Keith, civil rights and judicial icon, dies at 96
U.S. Appeals Court Judge Damon J. Keith, who decided many of the nation’s most important school desegregation, employment discrimination and government surveillance cases during his more than 50 years on the federal bench, died Sunday, April 28, 2019, at his home in Detroit surrounded by family.
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Dr. Roy A. West, former Richmond mayor, educator, dies at 89
Dr. Roy A. West, a decisive and outspoken man known for his strong opinions and who exercised power at City Hall as mayor while playing an influential role in public education in Richmond, has died.
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Personality: Dr. Emanuel C. Harris
Spotlight on president of the Baptist Ministers’ Conference of Richmond and Vicinity
A new outspoken, politically aware and socially conscious president has been installed to lead the Baptist Ministers’ Conference of Richmond and Vicinity.
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’Intertwined history’
Descendants of the enslaved and their owners on a noted Caroline County plantation are working together to preserve remnants of their shared history that remain on the land
For years, Mike Mines has been fiercely determined to ensure that his two children know what he had not known much of his life — his family’s history.
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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: Raven Bates
Spotlight on Art on Wheels board president
Raven Bates, the board president of the Richmond-based nonprofit Art on Wheels, says the best thing her parents Robert and Tracey Wilkinson ever taught her was not to fear being different or independent.
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Personality: Mitchell Haddon
Spotlight on Richmond SPCA’s outgoing board chairman
About a decade ago, Mitchell Haddon met Robin Robertson Starr, who then was CEO of the Richmond SPCA. Because of Mr. Haddon’s experience in construction, Ms. Starr had questions about a veterinary hospital that the nonprofit SPCA was considering building. Their conversation soon segued into the mission of SPCA and its journey.
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Personality: Kristin DuMont
Spotlight on co-leader of Richmond Moms Demand Action
Kristin DuMont became involved with Richmond Moms Demand Action, a local volunteer group committed to ending gun violence in the community, in 2017. She says the work of reaching out to local and state officials did not come naturally to her.
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Personality: Marquis D. Mapp
Spotlight on board chair of Virginia Pride
Virginia Pride has emerged in the decades since its founding in the 1970s as a major force bringing awareness of the LGBTQIA+ community to Richmond and around the state, as well as promoting diversity and unity among the local LGBTIA+ community.
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Personality: Gregory I. Darrisaw
Spotlight on leader of Hobson Lodge No. 23 Prince Hall Masons at 150th anniversary
Gregory Ian Darrisaw feels surrounded by history as the presiding officer of Hobson Lodge No. 23 F&A Prince Hall Masons, the largest Prince Hall Masonic lodge in the city’s South Side.
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Personality: Kisha Beaner Howcott
Spotlight on founder and CEO of Clothed by Love Mentoring
The new school year brings all kinds of concerns for students, even without the threat of an ongoing pandemic. And while some concerns require specific solutions, the need for clothing is being met thanks to a mobile boutique, courtesy of Kisha Beaner How- cott and her group, Clothed by Love Mentoring.
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Personality: Charlene J. Whitfield
Spotlight on Greater Richmond Partnership board chair
In 2017 Charlene Whitfield became part of a group that brings business to the Richmond area in an effort to ensure economic opportunity for workers. Ms. Whitfield, who then was employed at Dominion Energy, was selected to represent the company at the Greater Richmond Partnership, which provides resources for new businesses in the region, creates quality jobs and increases the tax base for community services.
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Personality: Darryl A. Stuckey Sr.
Spotlight on Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity’s Beta Gamma Lambda Education Foundation vice chair
When a young boy sought to escape the bullying he routinely endured in school, Darryl A. Stuckey Sr. stepped in to help the youth gain not only a sense of purpose, but a stronger sense of self.
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Personality: Rhonda Keyes Pleasants
Spotlight on chair of Family Representative Council of East Marshall Street Well Project
Rhonda Keyes Pleasants entered the funeral industry in 1996 and became a fully licensed funeral director and embalmer in December 2000.

