All results / Stories / Free Press staff report
J.C. Poma to lead Chesterfield’s sports tourism expansion efforts
J.C. Poma will become Chesterfield County’s first-ever executive director of sports, visitation and entertainment. His appointment was effective May 1.
Richmond fireman Rodney Jermaine Coles, 49, dies
The Richmond Fire Department has announced the death of a 15-year veteran, Rodney Jermaine “Cup” Coles.
Virginia’s Center for the Book names new director
Writer, educator and arts collaborator Kalela Williams is returning to Virginia as the new director of the Virginia Center for the Book.
Statue of teen civil rights advocate set to represent Virginia in U.S. Capitol
Teenage rebel Barbara Rose Johns, who led a student strike in Farmville that ultimately helped eradicate government-enforced racial segregation in the United States, is recommended to be Virginia’s new statue in the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall.
Steadfast devotion
Faith Community’s Patricia Gould-Champ steps down from pulpit
After 28 years, Dr. Patricia A. Gould-Champ last January handed off the pastoral leadership of the church she founded, Faith Community Baptist Church in the East End.
Honoring a civil rights pioneer
More than 100 people were present last Saturday for the dedication of a state historical marker in Gloucester County’s Hayes community honoring the late Irene A. Morgan and her actions to battle racial segregation.
Calls grow to save site of oldest U.S. Black women’s benevolent society
Social justice and community advocates are calling for no taxes to be levied on a mansion that has served as the headquarters for the oldest Black women’s benevolent society in America for decades.
Educator, counselor Susie Banian succumbs at 82
Susie Ann Banian, a veteran Richmond teacher and guidance counselor who also sang in multiple church and community choirs, has died.
Tragedy in Vegas
Sunday’s bloody mass shooting outside casino is the worst massacre in recent U.S. history
The mystery and motive behind mass killer Stephen Paddock — gambler, accountant, auditor and real estate investor — continues to baffle federal authorities and law enforcement officials in Las Vegas who were working on Wednesday to discover what drove the 64-year-old to commit the worst mass murder in modern U.S. history.
Hampton president to step down after more than 40 years
After more than four decades at the helm, Hampton University President William R. Harvey announced Monday that he will step down in June 2022.
Sterling K. Brown makes history with Golden Globe Award
Actor Sterling K. Brown made history Sunday night when he won the Golden Globe trophy for best actor in a dramatic television series, “This Is Us.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, lion of anti-apartheid movement, dies at 90
Mourners held a candlelight prayer ceremony outside the Soweto home of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Wednesday, weeping over the memory not only of a world-renowned lion of the anti-apartheid movement but of a kind and loyal neighbor.
NAACP Image Award has Richmond connection
Hundreds of African-American students are becoming doctors, nurses, dentists and medical researchers, thanks to university alliances Dr. Louis W. Sullivan created in Richmond and elsewhere. That is just one of the achievements of the pioneering 81-year-old physician, educator and health advocate whose autobiography, “Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine,” was just named the winner of the 2015 NAACP Image Award for nonfiction.
She’s a winner!
Tranelle Pollard is the 2024 RPS Teacher of the Year
Tranelle Pollard, lead school counselor at Dogwood Middle School, has been selected as the Richmond Public Schools 2024 Teacher of the Year.
Clem Daniels, AFL’s leading rusher, dies at 83
Clem C. Daniels Jr., the leading rusher in American Football League history, died Saturday, March 23, in Oakland, Calif. He was 83. Mr. Daniels rushed for 5,138 yards — the most ever by an AFL back — while also catching passes for 3,314 yards and scoring 54 touchdowns.
Study: Teachers quicker to label black students as ‘troublemakers’
A new study suggests that racial stereotyping by teachers could be a root cause for harsher discipline imposed on black students. Two Stanford University psychologists, Dr. Jennifer L. Eberhardt and doctoral candidate Jason Okonofua, conducted the study to determine if hidden bias could explain government data showing that misbehaving black students are three times more likely to be suspended or expelled from public schools than their misbehaving white peers. The psychologists’ research found that teachers are quicker to label black students as troublemakers and to consider more severe penalties for them, compared with white students who misbehave.
Rep. McClellan addresses climate crisis during museum roundtable
Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan, a member of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, was joined by National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy on Monday to tour the Science Museum of Virginia’s exhibit, “Space: An Out-of-Gravity Experience.”
Sidney Poitier suffered from multiple health problems
Academy Award-winning actor Sidney Poitier, who died Jan. 6 at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., at age 94, suffered from several health issues, according to information listed in his death certificate that was obtained Tuesday by TMZ and several other media outlets.
Coming Together Virginia presents ‘Education Not Incarceration’
The school-to-prison pipeline is the focus of an upcoming discussion, “Education Not Incarceration: Stopping the Prison Pipeline,” that will be hosted by Coming Together Virginia on Thursday, July 20,rom 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Branch Museum on 2501 Monument Ave.
City officials unveil ‘The Shockoe Project’
10-acre site to tell ‘a more complete story of Richmond’s history’
Mayor Levar M. Stoney, Delegate Delores L. McQuinn, members of the Richmond City Council and representatives from the Shockoe Institute yesterday unveiled “The Shockoe Project,” a 10-acre site in Shockoe Valley that they say is “dedicated to telling the full history of the Richmond slave trade and its national and global significance to the growth of our country.”
