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Virginia Folklife event presents Afro-Puerto Rican band Kadencia
Kadencia, a play on the word “cadence” in Spanish, is an 11-member band led by father-son duo Maurice Sanabria-Ortiz and Maurice “Tito” Sanabria, 43.
Black support for Deion Sanders and Colorado is just as much about representation as it is wins
One of Trevon Hamlet’s core memories from attending the University of Colorado is living on campus his freshman year and being able to count on one hand how many Black people he’d see in a day.
Mo’ne Davis to play Saturday in Henrico
Mo’ne Davis, the 14-year-old female pitching sensation selected as the Associated Press 2014 Female Athlete of the Year, will be testing her fastball Saturday against a team of Richmond area standouts.
How did Hillary Clinton win popular vote, but lose election?
In last week’s presidential election, Republican Donald Trump won 289 Electoral College votes, more than the 270 needed for him to become the nation’s 45th president.
Tree axed
Committee votes to remove oak from Walker statue site
The live oak tree will be axed from the site where the Maggie L. Walker statue will stand in Downtown. The tree’s fate was sealed Saturday when sculptor Antonio T. “Toby” Mendez met with the Richmond Public Art Commission’s Site Selection Team, led by architect Sarah Driggs.
A piece of Cuba
I remember a line from Gil Scott-Heron in “The Bicentennial Blues,” where he was discussing the Nixon administration and this nation’s penchant for getting in on the economic action of other nations. He called Henry Kissinger the “International Godfather of Peace, a ‘piece’ of Viet Nam, a ‘piece’ of Laos, a ‘piece’ of Angola, a ‘piece’ of Cuba.” That line is fitting 40 years later as President Obama returns from Cuba accompanied by a dozen business executives.
Confederate statues in Memphis given to Confederate group, descendants
A Tennessee nonprofit group has handed over statues of Confederate leaders Nathan Bedford Forrest and Jefferson Davis to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, two years after they were removed from public parks in Memphis.
Dr. Wesley B. Carter, child and adolescent psychiatrist, dies at 77
For more than 50 years, Dr. Wesley Byrd Carter specialized in helping children and teens deal with mental health challenges.
'Architect of rock 'n' roll,' Little Richard, dies at 87
Little Richard, the self-proclaimed “architect of rock ‘n’ roll” who built his groundbreaking sound with a boiling blend of boogie woogie, rhythm and blues and gospel, died Saturday, May 9, 2020, at the age of 87.
Personality: Lamont Bagby
Spotlight on chair of Virginia Legislative Black Caucus
Delegate Lamont Bagby takes his work seriously.
Huguenot hoping to regain lost glory
For right now, Huguenot ranks among the most difficult coaching jobs in Virginia, while construction crews put finishing touches on the new Huguenot next door.
How high can they go? NBA salaries skyrocketing
Someone needs to knock a hole in the ceiling. NBA salaries keep going up, up, up.
Personality: Glen Besa
Spotlight on retiring director of Sierra Club’s Virginia chapter
For the last 14 years, Glen Besa has been working to protect the environment as director of the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club. Issue after issue, he has led the club’s more than 15,000 Virginia members and supporters in protecting and improving air and water quality, advancing clean and renewable energy sources, understanding climate change and holding politicians accountable on decisions impacting the environment.
NFL’s race problem and Robert F. Smith, by Benjamin Chavis Jr.
Even before former Miami Dolphins Coach Brian Flores filed a class action lawsuit against the NFL claiming the league discriminated against Black coaches in their hiring practices, it was pretty clear that professional football has a race issue. The Insti- tute for Diver- sity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Flor- ida recently found that, in 2021, around 71 percent of the players in the NFL were people of color, while only a quarter were white. Yet of the league’s 32 teams, only three head coaches are people of color. And only two team own- ers are non-white—Jacksonville Jaguars’ owner Shahid Kahn is a Pakistani-American, and Kim Pegula, a Korean American, is a co-owner of the Buffalo Bills. In a league whose players are overwhelmingly Black, there needs to be more representation in the front office of people who look like the athletes that take the gridiron each Sunday. With the Denver Broncos expected to hit the market sometime this offseason, now is probably the best time in the 101-year history of the NFL for the league to have its first Black team owner and to begin to change the plantation mentality that has plagued professional football for decades. When considering potential buyers of the team, one name continually rises above the rest— Robert F. Smith. Mr. Smith is the 59-year-old founder of private equity firm Vista Equity Partners whose net worth is estimated to be around $6.7 billion. He may not have the star power that other potential buyers do, i.e., former Broncos quarterbacks Peyton Manning and John Elway or Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. But what he does have Benjamin Chavis Jr. is a long track record of success in the largely white world of investment. The Broncos could certainly use some of Mr. Smith’s magic given that the team hasn’t had a winning record since the 2015-16 season when they won the Super Bowl. Putting aside Mr. Smith’s investing acumen and ability to grow emerging businesses, his up-from-the-bootstraps story and expansive philanthropic work in the Black community would go a long way in changing the make-up of a NFL ownership from its traditional purview of stodgy, old white men. For one, Mr. Smith is a Denver native whose curiosity, intelligence and drive led him to a job with Bell Laboratories when he was just in high school. From there, he went on to Cornell and Columbia universities and jobs with Goodyear, Kraft and Goldman Sachs before founding Vista Equity in 2000. What his resume shows is that Mr. Smith is not afraid of break- ing down walls and inserting himself into traditional bastions of whiteness like the Ivy Leagues and private equity. If there is any Black man in America who could take on the lily-white structure of NFL ownership, it’s Robert F. Smith. If the NFL is serious about changing not just its image, but its relationships with its players and fan base, then Mr. Smith also would be an ideal partner for the league. He not only talks a big game about racial equity, but he backs it up by putting money where his mouth is. In 2019, Mr. Smith spent $34 million of his own money to settle the loan debt for the nearly 400 students who graduated that spring from Morehouse College. He also donated $20 million to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington—the largest by an individual donor to the museum at the time—and he helped found and donated $50 million to the Student Freedom Initiative, which aims to relieve the financial burdens on minority college students. Through Vista, Mr. Smith also has spearheaded the Southern Communities Initiative, a con- sortium of companies working to address problems facing communities of color in the South, where almost 60 per- cent of all Black Americans live. Through the SCI, he hopes to tackle pressing issues like substandard education and work- force development opportunities, housing and healthcare inequali- ties, the digital divide, limited access to capital and physical infrastructure failures in these communities. In an argument about integrat- ing professional football, Black athlete, activist and journalist Halley Harding wrote in the Los Angeles Tribune in 1941 that “most persons, corporations or businesses almost always forget the people or incidents that made them big.” Mr. Harding added: “This story is about a great American sport (football) that took all the aid the colored American could give and then as soon as it became ‘big league,’ promptly put a bar up against the very backbone of its existence.” These words could just as aptly be applied to the NFL today as they did in the 1940s. But now, as America once again re-examines its turbulent past when it comes to race, the NFL probably has its best chance in years to right a glaring gap in its leadership when it comes to the Broncos. And if there is anyone who can fill that gap, it’s Robert F. Smith. The writer is president and chief executive officer of the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
Longtime educator and community volunteer Dr. Vasti DeLoatch dies at 87
Dr. Vasti DeLoatch touched the lives of thousands of children and adults through her work as an educator and in her various roles in the community.
Dr. William R. ‘Randy’ Johnson Jr., retired research chemist and public servant, succumbs at 87
Dr. William Randolph “Randy” Johnson Jr. was a pioneering research chemist for Philip Morris who was better known outside the laboratory. He was involved in securing 10 patents for the cigarette manufacturing firm for filters and other related items and co-authored 15 technical papers. He also was a popular figure who was committed to public service and teaching.
Gonzaga in pursuit of perfect record
The Gonzaga Bulldogs, aka the “Zags,” are seeking admission into one of college basketball’s most revered fraternities—The Undefeated Club.
Black-on-black and white-on-white crime facts
I have written about Bill O’Reilly, aka “Bill O’Racist,” and his proclivity to distort the facts when discussing African-Americans. Well, he’s at it again.
Senate passes major criminal justice reform package
The U.S. Senate voted 87-12 Tuesday to usher in the most substantial change to the 1990s tough-on-crime sentencing laws that have ballooned the federal prison population and created a criminal justice system that is seen as costly and unfair.
Denied their chance
Racism and segregation wouldn’t allow young African-Americans in Richmond to use whites-only pool for life-saving swimming merit badge in quest to become Eagle Scouts
J. Maurice Hopkins never wanted this story written.
