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Stroman’s and Settle’s path to pros entwined
Few NFL players are more closely entwined than Greg Stroman and Tim Settle. Improbable as it may seem, they’ve been together now on three consecutive levels of gridiron action.
Sister power making a difference
I cannot count the times I have heard that black women don’t support each other. ... Black women know that all anybody has to do is tell us what we can’t do and the game is on!
Petersburg schools superintendent retiring June 30
Dr. Marcus J. Newsome is retiring as superintendent of Petersburg Public Schools at the end June with his school improvement plan only half completed.
City Council to seek election to replace Agelasto
Richmond City Council set the stage this week for a special election on Nov. 5 to replace Councilman Parker C. Agelasto as the 5th District representative. The council voted Monday to petition Richmond Circuit Court to set the election to coincide with the November general election in which voters will select representatives to the General Assembly.
Stars continue to align for VUU
Virginia Union University is headed to Bowie State with a four-game winning streak, the wind at its back and yet another overnight sensation in its evolving rotation.
REAL LIFE Community Center extends jail program into the city
Amid his preparations to leave office, Richmond Sheriff C.T. Woody Jr. opened a new nonprofit center in Downtown this week aimed at helping people address addiction, anger and other challenges to enable them to stay out of jail.
What to look for this session
Even with Republicans still in control of both chambers, November’s election results are expected to dramatically reshape the General Assembly’s culture.
Alabama rolls to national championship in overtime victory
The University of Alabama’s football team is made up almost entirely of players from the South, but there’s always room for a talented newcomer from far away.
Salacious FBI file on Dr. King shows extent to which agency tried to discredit him
A newly released secret FBI dossier on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. alleges that the noted civil rights leader was “a slow thinker” who had ties to the Community Party, used the Southern Christian Leadership Council as “a tax dodge,” and engaged in a string of extramarital affairs and sex orgies that produced a love child.
Quarterback showdown gearing up for Super Bowl LII
“Fly, Eagles, Fly,” the Philadelphia Eagles fight song, is unofficially No. 1 on the pop charts these days in the City of Brotherly Love.
Actor bridges divides
Academy Award-winning actor Mahershala Ali’s journey has been one of bridging divides. Between the crime and poverty of 1970s and 1980s Oakland, where he lived with his mother and stepfather, and the musical theater scene of Manhattan, where he spent summers with his Broadway dancer father. Between basketball, which earned him a college scholarship, and theater, which captured his heart.
Leonard and George may boost Clippers to first NBA crown
If the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers are looking for a catch phrase for next season, “Home Sweet Home” might do.
Daily Planet marks 50 years of vital service to the community
In 1969, concern about an epidemic of runaway and disaffected teens led to the creation of an organization offering a caring place with shelter, meals, health clinics and counseling without judgment.
Veterans Administration revises policy on religious displays
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision permitting a cross to remain on a public highway, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has revised its policies on religious symbols in displays at VA facilities.
Huguenot senior hurdles to state champion
Huguenot High School senior Shaunté Harris has a passion for fashion. But if there’s one thing she relishes more than a sporty, chic look, it’s running the high hurdles — an event famous for its thrills — and also its spills. Therefore, don’t be surprised to see Harris wearing distressed denims to school, rather than a trendy shirtdress. “My legs aren’t the nicest,” she says with a wide smile. “I’ve taken plenty of spills, lots of hard falls. My legs have cuts and scratches. It kind of never stops.”
Baltimore hosts 2023 CIAA Men's & Women's Basketball Tournament
Whether you’re a basketball fanatic or not, this is an ideal week to be in Baltimore.
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.
Minority-owned companies waited months for federal COVID-19 relief loans
Thousands of minority-owned small businesses were at the end of the line in the government’s coronavirus relief program as many struggled to find banks that would accept their applications or were disadvantaged by the terms of the program.
Making an impact
Dr. Lillie R. Bennett has been caring for Richmond children in her medical practice for nearly 50 years
Joyce Carter happily drives 40 miles from Caroline County to Richmond so her three adopted children can see one doctor.
