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As diversity, equity and inclusion comes under legal attack, companies quietly alter their programs
Sophia Danner-Okotie’s has ambitious plans for her Nigerian-inspired clothing line but a sense of dread has punctured her optimism as she watches a legal battle being waged against a small venture capital firm that has provided funding instrumental to her boutique brand’s growth.
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‘Silence is violence’
Pastor and author Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil talks about racial justice and faith
Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil has been on stages, in classrooms and pulpits, preaching for decades about bridging racial divides. In her new book, “Becoming Brave — Finding the Courage to Pursue Racial Justice Now,” the associate professor of reconciliation at Seattle Pacific University said there is no more time to wait.
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$400,000 severance for former city auditor
Former City Auditor Umesh Dalal seems to have been as adept in negotiating his own exit package as he was in examining the practices of city departments.
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Rep. Cummings remembered as ‘fierce champion’
First African-American lawmaker to lie in state at Capitol
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings was eulogized as a leader with the fiery moral conviction of an Old Testament prophet at a funeral last Friday that brought former presidents and ordinary people alike to the Baltimore church where the congressman worshipped for four decades.
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Michelle Carter uses ‘diva’ touch in shot put
With crimson lipstick, eyeliner, mascara and a beaming smile, Michelle Carter won a stunning Olympic shot put gold last Friday to sprinkle a little glitz on an event often cruelly ridiculed for the shape of its women athletes.
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Funeral traditions changed – maybe permanently – by COVID-19
John E. Thomasson was a hero in his hometown. As a member of the Louisa County Board of Supervisors, he was the first African-American elected to public office in the county. Across 98 years, he built a successful realty company, helped to save mortgages, paid for college scholarships and owned the local funeral home for 53 years, where he oversaw the burials of thousands of Virginians. When he died of an age-related illness on July 22, there was hardly anyone in Louisa County who had not been touched by his life. Other than his wife of more than 65 years, the Rev. Christine Thomasson, there is likely no one who knows his impact better than his successor, D.D. Watson Jr., who was handpicked by Mr. Thomasson to purchase and take over his funeral home business in 2004. And yet upon the death of Mr. Thomasson—a businessman, philanthropist, politician and public servant whose life and work was recognized this year in a proclamation from the Virginia Senate—the largest single gathering in his honor held barely 12 people. That’s because of government-imposed safety restrictions on public gatherings because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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A tribute to Toni Morrison
Columnists
“Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge. Whether it is obscuring state language or the faux-language of mindless media; whether it is the proud but calcified language of the academy or the commodity driven language of science; whether it is the malign language of law-without-ethics, or language designed for the estrangement of minorities, hiding its racist plunder in its literary cheek –it must be rejected, altered and exposed. It is the language that drinks blood, laps vulnerabilities, tucks its fascist boots under crinolines of respectability and patriotism as it moves relentlessly toward the bottom line and the bottomed-out mind.” — Toni Morrison, Nobel Lecture, 1993
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Personality: Diana H. Garland
Spotlight on Richmond ambassador for USA Pickleball Assoc.
One of the fastest growing sports involving a court and a net is not tennis or badminton. It’s pickleball!
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Built out or left out?
‘Just because we’re public housing (residents) does not make us any less’
After 69 years, Marilyn Olds, president of both the Richmond Tenant Organization and the Creighton Court Tenant Council, has bid farewell to her home in Creighton Court.
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Dr. Melissa Viray steers local health departments through changing state COVID-19 policy
In the midst of shifts in Virginia’s COVID-19 policies, Dr. Melissa A. Viray is looking to continue the evolution and expansion of Richmond and Henrico County’s public health response as the new acting director of the Richmond and Henrico health districts.
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Richmond Community High School grad’s vegan cooking satisfies hungry New Yorkers
Middleburg Chef Shenarri Freeman started cooking 10 years ago at the 9:30 Club, a concert hall in Washington, D.C. Then a pre-physical therapy student at Howard university, she took the gig to get free concert tickets.
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Baby Archie is christened
Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, the 2-month-old son of Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, was christened last Saturday in a small, private ceremony at Windsor Castle.
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Black female WWII unit to be recognized with Congressional Gold Medal
The only all-female, Black unit to serve in Europe during World War II will be honored with the Congressional Gold Medal.
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Gravely resigns NAACP post
After three weeks of mulling the decision, Jack Gravely is stepping down as interim executive director of the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP. He delivered his resignation Monday via email to state NAACP President Linda Thomas and other members of the executive board.
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New courts, new spirit
Call it Sharmar “Simba” Hill Jr.’s new house. Last Saturday, a huge, colorful basketball court was dedicated in honor of the 3-year-old who was killed by a stray bullet in February 2020 while playing outside his family’s home in the Hillside Court public housing community in South Side.
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Personality: Natasha Freeman
Personality: Natasha Freeman
Natasha Freeman, president of Project Yoga Richmond’s board of directors, encourages the community to embrace yoga because the practice allows people “to be fully embodied while grounding and mending our body and spirit.”
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Granite Community Foundation unearths lost community legacy in South Side
Bridget Blake and Katrina Clarke are on a mission to preserve their family history and honor their ancestors buried in Green Cemetery located in the Granite community near what is now Stratford Hills in Richmond’s South Side.
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Rally victim a ‘focal point for change’
Heather Heyer, 32, has been called a “focal point for change.” A passionate advocate for the disenfranchised, the paralegal often would cry at her job with the Miller Law Group in Charlottesville when she saw cases of injustice.
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Price puts events out of reach for some area residents
Re: “First African-American police officers to be remembered in April 30 ceremony,” March 31-April 2 edition: I remember very well three of the four policemen who are to be honored. They were officers in my younger days. I would like to come to the ceremony, however, I cannot afford to pay the $50 the event organizers are charging to attend the ceremony. I am a citizen who lives off a very low income each month.
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Black kids face racism before they even start school
To her students who need the most support, India Strother is rarely just “Ms. Strother” — she’s a family figure they call “Mom,” a trusted guide as they negotiate their teenage years.
