Richmond Free Press July 21-23, 2022 edition

Pillars of community remembered B3

Richmond Free Press © 2022 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

VOL. 31 NO. 30

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

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Meet this week’s Personality B1

JULY 21-23, 2022

A more perfect union

City reaches negotiated agreement regarding collective bargaining

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Collective bargaining is coming to City Hall for the first time – though it could take a year or more to have an impact.

Next Monday, July 25, City Council is expected to easily approve a landmark ordinance allowing most city employees who are not in managerial or supervisory positions to participate in unions that would

bargain on their behalf with the city on wages and other issues and represent them in disciplinary actions.

At this point, all nine council members have signed on as supporters of the legislation as has Mayor Levar M. Stoney, who finally dropped his seven-month effort to sharply limit the number of employees allowed to organize.

Passage will be a history-making mo-

ment that a significant number of employees believe will allow them to finally gain, as one put it, “a seat at the table” to negotiate health and safety issues as well as wages.

Public employee unions became possible in Virginia after the General Assembly removed the prohibition on collective bargaining for workers at the local government Ms. Newbille

Please turn to A4

Ms. Larson

Ms. Trammell

NPS grant to help preserve historic elementary school ‘This will allow us to dream … it will allow restoration and interpretation’

By Holly Rodriguez

Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

Muriel Branch, left, is the outgoing president of the AMMD Pine Grove Project, which has received a $290,000 African-American Civil Rights grant stabilize the historic Cumberland County Pine Grove Rosenwald School. Her daughter, Sonja Branch-Wilson, will succeed Mrs. Branch as president of the family organization.

A Cumberland County school that was part of a vibrant African-American community for nearly 50 years is getting help from the National Park Service to preserve its location.

The AMMD Pine Grove Project has received a $290,000 African-American Civil Rights grant from the NPS to stabilize the historic Cumberland County Pine Grove Rosenwald School. Immediate plans are to repair the roof and chimney. Long-term plans include a visitor’s center and green space for a nature park and an outdoor gathering space.

The project is the only one in Virginia, and one of 44 projects in 15 states nationally, to receive the funding. The $16.2 million grant pool is dedicated to supporting “the continued preservation of sites and history related to the African-American struggle for equality” according to the NPS. Pine Grove educated thousands of children from 1917 when it was built, to 1964 when it was closed, said Muriel Branch, former president for the project who recently passed the organization’s leadership torch to her daughter, Sonja Branch-Wilson.

Because the school was the only one for students in the community within a five-mile radius, “my siblings and I walked 3.5 miles one way to get to school

City leader to question silent sheriff about jail attacks

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Richmond Sheriff Antionette V. Irving has been asked to appear before City Council’s Public Safety Committee next week.

Shocked by a Free Press report about a mentally ill male inmate’s vicious assault July 7 on a female deputy, the committee chair, 8th District Councilwoman Reva M. Trammell, wants to hear from the sheriff about the “process for securing mentally ill inmates and the safety of other inmates and Ms. personnel.”

The attack occurred at the Richmond City Justice Center, as the jail located in Shockoe Valley is called.

If the sheriff appears at the committee meeting next Tuesday, July 26, — and she

would be the sole focus of the meeting—this would be her first public statements about the assault, a prime example of the dangers staff and inmates have faced since she took command in 2018.

As has been her practice, the sheriff has issued no statements and has not responded to requests for comment from the Free Press and other media outlets. Nor is it clear that she will appear.

Meanwhile, the inmate alleged to have committed the assault, Sakeem JaIrving mar Bell, reportedly has been transferred to Central State Hospital, while the deputy, who also is keeping mum, has undergone surgery and is home recuperating.

The Free Press has been told the sheriff has advised others,

including police officers, that the assault never took place and was so upset when the newspaper disclosed it in the July 14-16 edition that she temporarily barred distribution of the edition to inmates

and staff.

The assault, however, illustrates the jail’s deterioration of safety and security.

Since she took office, there Please turn to A4

Free COVID-19 testing, vaccines Free community testing for COVID-19 continues.

The Richmond and Henrico County health districts are offering testing at the following location: • Thursday, July 21, 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. — Fulton Neighborhood Resource Center, 1519 Williamsburg Road.

Call the Richmond and Henrico COVID-19 Hotline at (804) 205-3501 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday for more information on testing sites, or go online at vax.rchd.com.

The Virginia Department of Health also has a list of COVID-

Please turn to A4

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Beat the heat Youngsters beat the heat recently at the Blackwell Community Center swimming pool, 300 E. 15th St. Temperatures are expected to continue in the 90s through this weekend.

everyday,” said Mrs. Branch, who lives in Richmond.

“This school did more than just educate us — it was our ancestral home.”

Although the school had been used for various programs since it ceased educating students, it fell into disrepair in recent years.

In late April of 2018, when Mrs. Branch, a retired Richmond Public Schools media librarian, learned the Please turn to A4

RPS approves stipends and hiring bonuses to attract new teachers

By George Copeland Jr.

Richmond Public Schools is taking big steps to find new teachers for the upcoming school year.

In a 6-1 vote Monday night, the Richmond School Board approved new hiring incentives in an effort to address a shortage in school staff across the city.

The incentives include a $6,000 stipend for new teachers willing to relocate from at least 50 miles away from Richmond, a $4,000 signing bonus for teachers in critical areas with two years of experience, and a $2,000 signing bonus for all new teachers.

According to RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras, the school system hopes the incentives will help recruit 176 teachers before the 2022-23 school year. Federal stimulus funds will be used for the incentives, which come with a clawback clause in case any new teacher leaves early.

Mr. Kamras “This is not a problem that is unique to RPS,” said Mr. Kamras, noting similar shortages are happening across Virginia and the country at large. “I would like us to be a leader in solving it.”

Among the teacher vacancies at RPS, 63 are in elementary schools, 65 are in middle schools and 48 are in high schools, with River City Middle School having the most vacancies at 21. There are 222 vacancies for employees on teacher contracts, roughly double the number of vacancies last year.

According to board member Jonathan Young, 4th District, these vacancies account for roughly a fourth of all RPS teachers.

The sole dissenting vote in approving the incentives came from School Board Member Mariah White, 2nd District, who expressed concern that they wouldn’t address the root causes for the vacancies she’s heard from teachers. Some teachers believe the incentives might benefit certain educators over others and leave “hard-to-field” schools unable to bring in more full-time teaching staff.

“It’s not because of compensation — most of them are leaving because they’re being mistreated somehow,” Ms. White said, “and I think as a board or as an administration that should be looked into.”

Other concerns raised by board members included improving Please turn to A4

A2 July 21-23, 2022

Richmond Free Press

Local News

Several organizations to receive child care assistance grants City Hall plans to award grants to six organizations to help them shore up and expand day care operations for pre-school children to provide families with more options.

A total of $609,500 is set to be awarded, according to ordinances that a supportive City Council is to approve at its next meeting, Monday, July 25.

The funds are from the city’s allocation from the federal American Rescue Plan.

According to Eva Colen, manager of the mayor’s Office of Children and Families, the grants are aimed at helping the organizations rebuild their programs and increase the number of children served. Expanding affordable childcare options would allow more women to return to the workforce, Ms. Colen said.

YWCA Richmond is to get the lion’s share, $300,000, to support and enhance its offerings at its Sprout School.

The Friends Association for Children is to receive $100,000 to support its two child care centers, one in Gilpin Court and the other in Church Hill.

The city also plans to award $75,000 to the YMCA of Greater Richmond to support its efforts to launch two new care programs for children under 5 years of age; $64,500 to the Fulton Montessori School to support its work with younger children; $50,000 to the St. James’s Child Care Center in The Fan; and $20,000 to support a preschool Greater Richmond SCAN — Stop Child Abuse Now operates.

Richmond blood pressure center closes The pandemic has claimed another victim – a Richmond-based clinic that treated low-income residents without health insurance for high blood pressure and related health conditions.

After nearly 40 years of operation, the Richmond Area High Blood Pressure Center has closed its operation at 1200 W. Cary St. According to the former office manager, Pamela Moore-Barr, donations that kept the low-budget operation afloat dried up after COVID-19 hit in 2020.

The clinic, which provided medication, heart tests and other services, was unable to find replacement dollars, Ms. MooreBarr said, and quietly closed May 30 after referring patients to other health centers.

“It was a sad day,” said Ms. Moore-Barr, who had been with the center since it opened in the spring of 1983. She was among the three remaining employees who were laid off.

The center saw about 2,500 people a year and essentially was free. Patients were asked for a $10 donation but were treated anyway if they didn’t have it.

Operating on less than $400,000 a year, the center relied heavily on volunteer physicians and nurses from VCU Health and other large health care operations. People who came to the center received checkups, heart tests, medication to control their blood pressure and referrals to specialists, if needed.

Monroe Park’s board still stands The Monroe Park Conservancy is alive and well, according to attorney Thomas A. Lisk, the interim chair of the organization that governs the city’s oldest park.

Mr. Lisk stated in a Tuesday email to the Richmond Free Press that the board has continued to meet and plans to hold elections for officers in September.

Questions arose about the conservancy’s existence after the group’s website was removed from the internet and it was found that the group’s Facebook page had not had any new posts since March 2020.

Cityscape

Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

Real estate developer Capital City Partners, Doorways lodging for families of hospitalized LLC purchased the City’s 71-year-old former patients, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Public Safety Building at 500 N. 10th St., 9th Slices of life and scenes Richmond, a child care center, ground-level retail, Street entrance shown above, for $3.5 million office uses, and more than 1,200 parking spaces, in Richmond in 2021. Capital City officials said the building reports Colliers, an investment management would be demolished on the 3-acre property to make room for a company. The city estimates the completed project will create $325 million, 500,000-square-foot tower development that will $16.8 million in tax revenue over the first 10 years and $60 be anchored by VCU Health. Other planned uses include The million over 25 years to support city services and schools.

Crusade for Voters supports November referendum for casino revenue use

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

If a casino is ever built in Richmond, should all the tax dollars generated from the gambling center go to modernizing Richmond’s decrepit school buildings?

According to the Richmond Crusade for Voters, that question needs to go to the city’s voters.

Tuesday night, the area’s oldest and largest African-American political group issued a call to City Council to put an advisory referendum on the November ballot that would allow city residents an opportunity to decide that question.

The Crusade issued the call in embracing political strategist Paul Goldman’s proposal for a referendum on how to use the money that the casino would generate for city coffers.

The Crusade’s motion urges the council to request that the Richmond Circuit Court order that question to be put before voters in November. A resolution has been drafted and could be considered at the council’s

next meeting on Monday, July 25.

Before the vote, Cathy Hughes, a Crusade member and board chair of the Black media giant Urban One that is the city’s selected developer for a casino-resort in Richmond’s South Side, called Mr. Goldman’s proposal “a brilliant idea” and urged the membership to back it.

Ms. Hughes, who recently moved to Richmond, joined the Crusade last month, according to Jonathan Davis, Crusade president.

As the Free Press first reported in June, Mr. Goldman proposed the referendum as a way to counter opposition at the General Assembly to allowing Richmond to hold a second vote on hosting a casino.

The legislature approved a state budget with language blocking Richmond from holding a second vote on the casino in November, and also barring the state from considering an operating license for a year if Richmond voters approved the casino this time.

The legislature did so to allow time for

a study to determine whether Petersburg should gain an opportunity to have a casino after Richmond voters narrowly rejected the casino in November 2021.

Though the council has been mulling some policy resolutions on how to use casino tax dollars, Mr. Goldman was the first to propose that voters be involved in the decision.

Mr. Goldman said his proposal would change the conversation.

If voters pass the referendum and send it to the General Assembly for approval, he said members of Richmond’s delegation would have to reconsider supporting Petersburg given that the Richmond casino money would be used for renovating or replacing some of the 30 or so schools that average 60 years of age.

With the city unable to afford to modernize most of those buildings, the casino tax dollars would provide a new revenue stream to tackle a long standing, but unaddressed issue, Mr. Goldman said.

VCU to study Covid’s long-term effects in children Researchers and clinicians at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Nursing will study the long-term effects of COVID-19 on the lives and health of infants, youths and young adults.

The project is part of the nationwide Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery, or RECOVER, initiative, funded by the National Institutes of Health to investigate the spread and impact of long COVID on children and young adults and create solutions to the effects of the virus.

“The RECOVER project is going to help us understand long COVID so we might develop treatments for those affected by the pandemic for years to

come,” said Amy Salisbury, professor and associate dean at the VCU School of Nursing and a principal investigator of enrollment sites for the RECOVER initiative.

“It’s also going to give back to the families deciding to participate in the study by understanding important information about their children’s development, health and mental well-being.”

The RECOVER project has been in the planning stages since September 2021, when the NIH announced an expansion of its research into long COVID’s effects.

Researchers are now enrolling participants, with the VCU School of Nursing

leading the efforts of a research consortium made up of VCU, Rhode Island Hospital and NYU Langone Health.

The VCU research team seeks to recruit and study the long-term health and well-being of about 240 Central Virginia families with children, youth or young adults ages 25 or younger who have had any COVID-19 symptoms.

Families will be enrolled through several avenues, including Richmond community events such as National Night Out on Aug. 2. Families interested in participating in the study can sign up at www.rampages.us/virginiakids4covidproject.

City’s plan leaves fewer people with shelter this winter

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

City Hall is ending its decades-old effort to prevent homeless people from freezing to death when temperatures plunge.

Just a few months away from cold weather’s return, Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s administration has notified City Council that it plans to pay one or more nonprofit operations to provide shelter to a total of 100 single individuals a night – leaving anyone else without shelter to fend for themselves.

That could mean 50 to 75 people nightly who could be left out in the cold, based on the numbers sheltered in city-supported operations in the past when nighttime temperatures fell below freezing.

And that doesn’t count families with children, who were never accommodated, at the city’s winter overflow shelter.

The Stoney administration also is dropping a long-standing council policy requiring a shelter to be operational from Oct. 1 through April 15 of each year – and instead plans to delay the start of operations until November.

Sherill Hampton, director of housing and community development, disclosed the changes that have been in the works for more than a year at last week’s meeting of the council’s Education and Human Services Committee.

Fifth District Councilwoman Stephanie A. Lynch, who chairs the committee, labeled the policies “heartless.”

Ms. Lynch pleaded with Ms. Hampton to work with Chesterfield and Henrico counties to see if they would contribute to ensuring adequate winter shelter. She indicated that finding adequate space for a shelter has been difficult.

Despite her concern, Ms. Lynch and others on council already had signaled support for shrinking winter shelter services to the homeless.

For two years, Ms. Lynch has pressed the Stoney administration to create a one-stop housing center and shelter on a par with Virginia Beach.

Like most on the council, she backed the initial administration plan to provide the funds to enable Commonwealth Catholic Charities (CCC) to add a 75-bed shelter at its Shockoe Valley housing resource center.

As the Free Press reported, that plan collapsed in mid-June, leaving the administration scrambling to find an alternative.

Ms. Hampton told the committee that a notice is being issued seeking nonprofits, churches or others to provide 100-bed space in a winter shelter. She said the hope is that one organization could provide that space, including meal service, or that two or

Homeward. But the hundreds of beds are often full, particularly during the winter.

Since at least the early 1990s, the city has pitched in during the winter by either using space in one of its buildings or paying a church or nonprofit to operate a space for those turned away from private shelters.

After the pandemic hit in 2020, the city, with help from the state and a flood of federal dollars, ramped up the shelter operations it paid for.

At one point, up to 700 Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press people were being housed Below, in this January 2020 photo, weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Ruvondai N. Brown, left, assists Rhonda L. Sneed in laying out supplies for residents of in hotels. Commonwealth “Camp Cathy,” a homeless tent city on Oliver Hill Way. Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney Catholic Charities became a had the camp torn down. Ms. Sneed, founder and executive director of Blessing Warriors, critical component in handling a nonprofit that provides food and clothing to the unsheltered, has been outspoken in operations, particularly for the her criticism of the city’s effort, saying that Richmond treats stray animals better than winter shelter. unsheltered humans. She believes that the best way to ensure sufficient shelter would For the past two years, CCC be for the city to allow her to install a tent city akin to the Camp Cathy. operated the winter overflow shelter in a convention space of a North Side hotel. During the winter, 150 to 175 adults were often crammed into the space to keep warm overnight. A separate shelter for families with children and the medically fragile housed more than 200 people a night.

But with the extra federal funds largely used up, Ms. Hampton made it clear that the days of having a robust city-supported shelter program on top of the network of beds the nonprofits offer are over.

Rhonda Sneed, founder and executive director of Blessing Warriors, a nonprofit that provides food and clothing to the unsheltered, has been outspoken in her criticism of the city’s effort, saying that Richmond treats stray animals better than unsheltered humans.

Jeremy M. Lazarus/Richmond Free Press In her view, the best way to ensure sufficient shelter more organizations could provide space with meals that combined would be for the city to allow her to install a tent city akin to would total 100 beds. the Camp Cathy operation she developed in 2019 across from The work of providing shelter to those without homes is the Richmond City Justice Center. handled by nonprofits who operate under the umbrella of the Her tent program operated for nearly a year before the mayor Greater Richmond Continuum of Care and its executive agency, had it torn down.

Richmond Free Press

July 21-23, 2022 A3

Local News

Photos courtesy of Circles RVA

Sherrell Thompson, middle, shows off her certificate of graduation from Circles RVA last month. Left, leaders and allies participate in a weekly Matched Circle session pre-COVID-19. During the pandemic, Circles RVA moved to virtual sessions, but continued to provide attendees nutritional meals thanks to the generosity of meal donors and delivery teams.

No longer spinning their wheels

Richmond nonprofit uses circles to break cycles of poverty For millions of Americans, living at or near the federal poverty line means barely getting by is a constant struggle. Census Bureau estimates show more than 20 percent of Richmond’s residents are living in poverty — a figure nearly 50 percent higher than the national average. Many of these residents work, and many feel as though they’ll never get ahead.

Such was the case for Sherrell Thompson, 43, a resident of Churc Hill and Richmond native. Two years ago, the single mother and grandmother worked as a certified community health Wworker for Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

Everyday she helped others in her job, but she also knew she needed help herself.

“I really felt stuck where I was financially and I just didn’t know what steps to take next,” Ms. Thompson said by phone recently.

One day, she took a deeper look at Circles RVA — a local organization she’d referred clients looking to better their financial circumstances to before. Ms. Thompson decided to put in her own application and was accepted to the program in August 2020.

In that same cohort was Barbara Yates, 67, a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, who was born in Baltimore but moved to Richmond as a child.

Both were drawn by Circles RVA’s vision “that everyone has enough money, meaning and friends to thrive.”

In a recent phone interview, Circles RVA co-president Valena Dixon and coach Debbie Williams highlighted how the organiza-

tion works alongside program participants — known as leaders — to help them realize that vision of financial stability, purpose and support in their lives.

“Allies and volunteers create a circle of support around leaders and intentionally create relationships,” Ms. Dixon explained.

“These relationships expand their networks and introduce them to resources that can reduce the barriers that hinder their rising out of poverty.”

“You’re building communities by building intentional relationships,” Ms. Williams added. “These relationships make all the difference and give leaders the support they need to move from surviving to thriving.”

Circles RVA began with volunteers who were looking for ways to address Richmond’s poverty issue at the community level.

It became a registered nonprofit in June 2017, modeled after Circles USA which sees circles, or the personal and professional networks each person has, as resources that can be shared.

With Circles RVA, leaders undertake a 12-week educational program during which they are matched with allies and work to create SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) goals for themselves. Over the next 18 months, leaders and allies meet weekly to ensure that leaders continue to progress toward their goals.

As Ms. Dixon puts is, “Plan the work, work the plan.”

And plans are working. Circles RVA graduated its fourth cohort in June, and its latest newsletter highlights the achievements of its 15 leaders who so far have completed the program. Many show average increases of about $1,200 in monthly income and $2,000 in total assets.

Ms. Thompson and Mrs. Yates graduated in the June 2022 cohort and have seen the benefits.

With her allies’ help, Miss Thompson revamped her résumé and secured a new, higher paying job with her employer as a resident services coordinator. She has used the extra income to reduce her debt and boost her credit score by more than 100 points.

“I never thought I’d be able to do that,” Ms. Thompson said.

“Circles RVA helped me so much. I was so happy I just cried through my whole graduation.”

Learning to better manage her budget also helped Mrs. Yates.

“Before I was an Amazon addict, but not anymore,” Mrs. Yates said, noting that she frequently made purchases from the online retailer. “Writing (down) where all of (my) money was going made it easy to see where you could bring your expenses down.”

Mrs. Yates has started saving some of what she used to spend.

She has a “rainy day fund” and is continuing to save toward another goal — travel.

“I really enjoyed the program. You are constantly learning something every week,” Mrs. Yates said. “My allies were very supportive and encouraging. Whenever I was struggling, they helped me think like that little train, ‘I think I can. I think I can.’”

Mrs. Yates and Ms. Thompson plan to stay connected with the friends they made through Circles RVA. Ms. Thompson even wants to apply to rejoin the program — this time as an ally.

“I have benefitted so much that I need to pass that on.”

To learn more about Circles RVA and its next cohort of leaders, visit https://circlesrva.org/

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Richmond Free Press

A4 July 21-23, 2022

News

City reaches agreement regarding collective bargaining Continued from A1

level. The law went into effect in May 2021.

Mayor Stoney announced the agreement on the ordinance with praise for the collaboration between the council and administration that produced a “responsive and responsible collective bargaining ordinance” that would benefit “our workers and our citizens.”

The final wording was approved July 15 after a last-minute negotiating session that lasted two hours.

The council vote is just the first step. Based on the timetables in the ordinance, the first talks between a union and the city are considered unlikely to take place before late spring or early summer next year.

For one, organizations that want to represent a group of employees must wait at least four months to request an election to become the recognized bargaining agent. The request needs to be accompanied by evidence that at least 30 percent of employees eligible to vote in that bargaining unit want that particular organization to negotiate for them.

Before any vote can take place, the city also must hire a neutral labor relations administrator (LRA) to write the policies and procedures, including those involved in holding an election.

The city has four months to hire an LRA or must work with unions to hire a temporary administrator to handle that work until a permanent administrator is hired.

Once rules are in place, it could then take 45 to 60 days for the administrator to organize and hold a mail-in election and certify the results – meaning, at the earliest, February or March 2023, or smack-dab in the middle of the development with the council of the 2023-24 budget.

Whether the administration would start holding contract talks immediately or wait until June when the budget process would be complete remains to be seen, but that is anticipated.

Development of the first contract would need to be completed by Dec. 1 for any proposals with a budget impact to be incorporated into the mayor’s proposed budget 2024-25 budget, the ordinance states. The ordinance also sets out a process for settling disagreements.

However, any tentative agreement between a union and the mayor’s administration would not go into effect until City Council voted to accept the terms, particularly those with a budget impact.

Council also could reject the tentative agreement.

The ordinance, though, only applies to employees of departments that report to the chief administrative officer and the mayor.

Despite the whole-hearted council support, members of the governing body made sure that neither its appointees nor any employees who work for the auditor, city assessor, city attorney,

Free COVID-19 vaccines Continued from A1

19 testing locations around the state at www.vdh.virginia. gov/coronavirus/covid-19-testing/covid-19-testing-sites.

Want a COVID-19 vaccine or booster shot?

The Richmond and Henrico health districts are offering free walk-up COVID-19 vaccines at the following locations: • Thursday, July 21 and July 28, noon to 4 p.m. Richmond Henrico Health District, 400 E. Cary St., Pfizer for ages six months and older, Moderna for ages six months to five years old and ages 12 years and older, appointment only.

• Tuesday, July 26, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. - Henrico East Health Department, 1400 N. Laburnum Ave., Pfizer for ages six months and older, Moderna for ages six months to five years old and ages 18 years and older, appointment only.

• Wednesday, July 27, 9 a.m. to noon - Henrico Health Department West Clinic, 8600 Dixon Powers Drive, Pfizer for ages six months and older, Moderna for ages six months to five years old and ages 18 years and older, appointment only.

People can schedule an appointment online at vase. vdh.virginia.gov, vaccinate.virginia.gov or vax.rchd.com, or by calling (804) 205-3501 or (877) VAX-IN-VA (1-877829-4682).

VaccineFinder.org and vaccines.gov also allow people to find nearby pharmacies and clinics that offer the COVID-19 vaccine and booster.

Those who are getting a booster shot should bring their vaccine card to confirm the date and type of vaccine received.

RHHD also offers at-home vaccinations by calling (804) 205-3501 to schedule appointments.

New COVID-19 cases in Virginia increased by 15 percent last week, according to the Virginia Department of Health, while hospitalization data from the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association increased by six percent.

As with last week, the city of Richmond and counties of Chesterfield and Henrico are still at high levels of community COVID-19 levels, while Hanover County remains at a medium level of community COVID-19.

A total of 3,106 new cases of COVID-19 were reported statewide Wednesday for the 24-hour period, contributing to an overall state total of 1,925,915 cases in Virginia since the pandemic’s outbreak. As of Wednesday, there have been 452,530 hospitalizations and 20,839 deaths statewide. The state’s seven-day positivity rate rose to 22.7 percent on Wednesday. Last week, the positivity rate was 23.1 percent.

On Wednesday, state health officials reported that 71.8 percent of the state’s population has been fully vaccinated, while 81.9 percent have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

State data also showed that over 3.56 million people in Virginia have received booster shots or third doses of the vaccine.

Among those ages 5 to 11 in Virginia, 326,002 have received their first shots as of Wednesday, accounting for 45 percent of the age group in the state, while 283,339 children, or 39.1 percent, are fully vaccinated and 32,065 children have received a third vaccine dose or booster, making up 4.4 percent of that age group.

On Wednesday, 24,414 children from the ages of zero to four have received the first doses, making up 5.4 percent of the population in Virginia, while 92 are fully vaccinated. As of Wednesday, fewer than 159,000 cases, 942 hospitalizations and 13 deaths have been recorded among children in the state.

State data also shows that African-Americans comprised 22.1 percent of cases statewide and 23.1 percent of deaths for which ethnic and racial data is available, while Latinos made up 11.4 percent of cases and five percent of deaths.

Reported COVID-19 data as of Tuesday, July 19, 2022 Cases Hospitalizations Deaths 51,803 1,160 520 Richmond Henrico County 75,963 1,544 964 Chesterfield County 84,285 1,543 784 Hanover County 24,562 730 294 Compiled by George Copeland Jr.

inspector general, city clerk, council chief of staff or other appointees could organize.

Employees of the sheriff and other constitutional officers as well as the courts, all state employees, also would be barred from participating in a city union. The new ordinance also would block employees in the Human Resources and Budget departments from securing union representation.

Still, the Virginia AFL-CIO is gleeful that Richmond is on its way to becoming a union bastion after a seven-decade fight to make it possible.

“We are proud to see a collective bargaining ordinance come out of our capital city,” stated Doris Crouse-Mays, president of the state’s largest union organization. “This will be a great step in improving the lives of city employees and the people they serve.”

The ordinance is modeled after ones that several Northern Virginia localities approved last year, which are still in various stages of implementation.

The city also is following in the footsteps of the Richmond School Board, which last year became the first school district in Virginia to authorize employee unions.

Three members of council are credited with spearheading the ordinance, Kristen M. Nye, 4th District, Reva M. Trammell, 8th District, and Stephanie A. Lynch, 5th District.

People close to the talks said that it would not have happened without Ms. Nye. “This compromise creates a solid foundation for city employees to advocate for competitive pay and benefits and continue their service to our residents,” Ms. Nye, chair of council’s Governmental Operations Committee that led the effort, stated.

“This agreement marks a significant step forward for the City of Richmond and its employees,” added Ms. Trammell, who also is credited with ensuring emergency dispatchers could be part of a union representing fire employees.

“I have championed our employees for years,” Ms. Lynch stated. Several people who were involved said Ms. Lynch played a critical role in bringing the parties together and in securing compromise language on key items that produced legislation in time to vote on the final meeting in July. “I am ecstatic to have my colleagues reach an agreement that benefits employees.”

While union advocates gained most of the wording they sought, Local 512 of the Service Employees International Union lost its bid to have just three bargaining units, one for police officers, one for firefighters and one for other city employees.

At Ms. Trammell’s insistence, those involved say, the ordinance authorizes five bargaining units, one for police, one for fire, one for labor and trades workers, one for professionals, and one for administrative and technical employees, all of which could be represented by different unions.

The city’s chief administrative officer, Lincoln Saunders, previously unenthusiastic about having multiple bargaining units, waxed enthusiastic in the mayor’s statement.

“This ordinance signals to our employees that we hear them,” Mr. Saunders stated, “as we strive to make the city government a workplace of choice.”

To Council President Cynthia I. Newbille, the ordinance had to move forward.

“Collective bargaining was something that our employees not only want but need,” she stated. “Strengthening our employees strengthens our city.”

NPS grant to help preserve historic elementary school Continued from A1

school was scheduled to be auctioned off due to delinquent taxes, she said she could not let it happen.

Mrs. Branch and her family gathered the funds among them to pay off the $2,000 balance and got the deed for the property.

Her family’s organization, Agee Miller Mayo Dungy Family Foundation, decided to start a project to save the school. Prior to this, the organization primarily existed for genealogical research and organizing reunions for the family.

Pine Grove Elementary School was one of 5,000 “Rosenwald schools” built in rural communities between 1913 and 1932.

A collaboration between Black educator Booker T. Washington and former Sears and Roebuck president Julius Rosenwald, led to the “Rosenwald schools” being built in 15 states, mostly rural Southern communities.

The Rosenwald Foundation provided some initial funding for the schools, requiring the communities surrounding the school to provide the additional funds needed.

Goochland, Rustburg, Gloucester, Buckingham and Cape Charles are other Virginia counties that had Rosenwald Schools, Mrs. Branch said.

For Pine Grove, Rosenwald’s foundation donated $50 toward the $1,550 price tag for the school’s construction. Mrs. Branch said the community hosted events to raise an additional $500 — not a small feat for Black people in 1916. For the remainder, the citizens of the community requested funding from the Cumberland County school board.

AAMD calls the school a “Tuskegee Rosenwald school” to acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Washington and the Black architects who designed the first schools, created as a part of a pilot program near Tuskegee, Ala.

Regina H. Boone / Richmond Free Press

Muriel Branch and Sonja Branch-Wilson own a cherished copy of “You Need a Schoolhouse: Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald, and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South” by Stephanie Deutsch. The book explains the evolution of Cumberland County’s Pine Grove School, which is being restored

by Mrs. Branch’s family.

Pine Grove Elementary School has been recognized by the Virginia List of Historic Places, is on the National Register of Historic Places and has been placed on the Preservation List of Most Endangered Historic Places by the National Park Service.

Mrs. Branch and her organization have been successful in securing partnerships and other funding besides the NPS funds.

A $25,000 grant from Virginia Outdoors Foundation will help with the building’s security, lighting, restoring the well, and

creating a park and nature trail around the school, she said.

But the journey has not been without challenges. A developer has submitted plans to build The Green Ridge Recycling and Disposal Facility adjacent to the Pine Grove Elementary School site. The University of Virginia Environmental Law and Community Engagement Clinic has represented Mrs. Branch and her organization since 2020 in an effort to halt the landfill’s construction.

The permit for the landfill is under review with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Beginning Sunday, July 31, Mrs. Branch said the organization will host community events and “visioning and empowerment” meetings to raise awareness about the project and hear what the community believes the school’s renovation should look like. The first meeting will take place at the Cumberland Community Center in Cumberland. Mrs. Branch’s cousin, Rev. Stephanie Hicks Willett, also will conduct focus groups to empower the community on how to advocate for themselves.

While the NPS grant funds are to be used specifically to stabilize Pine Grove, it also “will allow us to dream,” Mrs. Branch said, adding that her organization will sponsor “something in the community every month that combines events and fundraising.”

Mrs. Branch also said the organization is now working on a fundraising strategy to raise money for a survey of nearly 80 homes, paths, waterways, churches and more for the entire area to be named a rural historic district.

“There are about 25 of us who are still here and remember the school,” she said.

“And we want to educate our community on the importance of preserving the past because this is our history, our community.”

City leader to question silent sheriff about jail attacks Continued from A1

have been reports of deputies being knocked unconscious, being punched in the face, being spit on and having human waste thrown at them. According to sources, Sheriff Irving has not allowed deputies to file charges for the assaults.

But it is dangerous for inmates as well, according to federal court filings and information provided from families.

There are reports of at least one mentally ill inmate being sexually abused

and of deputies making sexual advances on inmates.

The most serious case involves the stabbing of an inmate, Rashid H.W. Holman, who had to be rushed to a nearby hospital on Feb. 18 of this year.

In his complaint in U.S. District Court, Mr. Holman stated that the inmate who stabbed him had previously stabbed three or four other inmates.

He stated that when he sought to bring charges against the inmate after being returned to the jail, he was blocked and

instead was himself charged with “having a sharp weapon, which I did not possess.”

Mr. Holman filed his civil rights complaint on April 20 after the sheriff and other top officials at the jail failed to respond to his complaint.

So far as he is aware, the sheriff never sought prosecution of his attacker.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette W. McEachin said Wednesday that no information involving the stabbing of Mr. Holman has been referred to her office.

RPS approves stipends and hiring bonuses to attract new teachers Continued from A1

how RPS investigates and resolves teacher retention issues, the steep competition for qualified employees, and addressing the gap in institutional knowledge created by the vacancies.

In other business, the Board voted 6-1 to approve a new 2022-2023 school calendar, with only Mr. Young dissenting. The RPS academic year will now end on June 9, two weeks earlier than previously scheduled. As part of the approval, school closures have been reverted back to learning days and the district will reopen on Jan. 2, 2023.

In addition, there were unanimous votes

to establish a flexible arts curriculum for George Wythe High School and to begin securing historic tax credits for Fox Elementary School.

The School Board also unanimously voted to approve a new garage lease for district buses in a facility at 326 East 6th Street, after the bus garage on Chamberlayne Avenue caught fire in June. This facility would be a short-term use, with plans for a more permanent site still under development. RPS School Board Vice Chair Kenya Gibson, 3rd District, and School Board Member Dawn Page, 8th District, were not present for the meeting.

Mr. Kamras said that if RPS can’t find

all the necessary teachers within the next six weeks, it will use substitute teachers, combine classrooms and employ other options to ensure the school year moves forward. He also acknowledged that the incentives alone wouldn’t fully address the structural problems RPS is facing, but stressed that they would be an important benefit to potential employees, and could generate enough attention to attract teachers who might not otherwise seek employment with RPS. “I do want us to be bold,” Mr. Kamras said. “I do want us to try to put everything we possibly can on the table to fill these vacancies.”

Richmond Free Press

July 21-23, 2022 A5

Local News

Mr. Watkins

Ms. Doxey

Ms. Smith

Mr. Davis

Ms. Johnson-Hicks

RPS names several interim school principals

By Donald J. Adams Jr.

Interim principals have been tapped by Richmond Public Schools for the 2022-2023 school year. They will serve at Chimborazo Elementary School, J.B. Fisher Elementary School, Mary Scott Preschool, Oak Grove-Bellmeade Elementary School, and Summer Hill Preschool.

“In each one of these candidates we saw great leaders who we know will lead with love and inspire our students to greatness,” said RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras.

It has not been stated how long the administrators will serve as interims.

The new interim principals are: Cordell Watkins, who was assistant principal at J.L. Francis Elementary for five years, will become interim principal of Chimborazo Elementary. Mr. Watkins also taught at eight schools within the division since he joined Richmond Public Schools in 2001. He earned a master’s in educational leadership and policy

studies from Virginia Tech University and a bachelor’s of science in education from Old Dominion University.

Lee A. Doxey will become the interim principal of Summer Hill Preschool, after spending numerous years with RPS as Early Head — Head Start coordinator of Student Support and Intervention. Previously, Ms. Doxey taught for PACT Head Start in Honolulu, was a private preschool director and teacher in Virginia Beach, and taught grades 1 through 3 for RPS. Ms. Doxey earned her bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, and a master’s in Educational Administration from Grand Canyon University.

Mark Davis II is the interim principal of J.B. Fisher Elementary School. He previously worked for the Knowledge Is Power Program and the Oklahoma Public Charter School System as a manager and network administrator. Dr. Davis has more than 15 years of experience working with young people, including tenure as a teacher, assistant principal, principal and division

VSU graduate students offered free tuition in exchange for teaching in local schools Virginia State University will offer a new grant-funded program to offer free tuition to graduate students who become full-time substitute teachers in the Richmond and Petersburg school systems.

In the new residency program, students will earn a master’s degree in education within one year, while gaining real-world experience in a classroom under the supervision of a master teacher, according to the university. Once the student earns the degree, they must commit to a full-time teaching position with their residency school division for an additional three years.

The initiative is funded through the Virginia Department of Education’s new “I Too Teach” grant for HBCUs. The primary goal of the program is to increase the number of highly qualified

teachers of color—particularly males. In addition to addressing the critical teacher shortage in Richmond and Petersburg, the program will provide pre-K-12 classrooms with culturally and linguistically diverse teachers.

During the residency, VSU students will work nights and weekends on their master’s degree in elementary education or in general curriculum for special education.

Teacher residency candidates must hold a current bachelor’s degree and have a desire to teach in schools with a more than 30 percent poverty rate.

VSU is accepting applications for the VSU College of Education’s no-cost “I Too Teach” Master of Education Program. For more information, please call (804) 539-1068.

Councilwoman hints ‘criminal’ acts may explain Enrichmond’s missing funds

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Where’s the money?

That’s the question that dozens of organizations are asking as a result of the shutdown of the Enrichmond Foundation, which held their money.

An estimated $121,000 that Enrichmond held for groups like the Friends of the Pump House and Richmond Community Gardens appears to be lost, according to Reginald E. Gordon, Richmond’s deputy chief administrative officer for human services.

Fifth District City Councilwoman Stephanie A. Lynch, chair of the Education and Human Services Committee, said “there may very well be criminal activity” involved in the disappearance

of the funds.

Instead of just seeking an audit, she now plans to meet Friday, July 22, with several officials to determine the next step. The officials are to include City Ms. Lynch Auditor Louis Lassiter, City Inspector General James Osuna and Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette W. McEachin, Ms. Lynch indicated.

Ms. Lynch set up the meeting following a request from Mr. Lassiter and 4th District Councilwoman Kristen M. Nye. The Free Press first reported the collapse of the foundation on June 30; an attorney

for the foundation then publicly disclosed that the foundation’s board voted to dissolve the 32-year-old organization because the bank account was depleted.

The organization, which is independent of the city, was established to provide nonprofit status for community groups that seek to support parks and recreation by serving as a recipient for any grants or donations.

Enrichmond, in recent years, also acquired two historic Black cemeteries, East End and Evergreen.

Under the Enrichmond corporation articles, the foundation’s dissolution means any remaining assets, including the cemeteries, are to be turned over to the city’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities.

administrator. He earned a bachelor’s in agricultural sciences from Langston University, a master’s of business administration in finance from Webster University, and a doctor of education degree in educational leadership from Saint Louis University.

Fatima Smith will serve as the interim principal of Oak Grove-Bellemeade. She previously was principal at Patrick Henry School of Science & Arts and in the New York City Public Schools. Under her leadership, PHSSA was recognized as a 2022 National Green Ribbon School, and PHSSA fourth graders won the White House Historical Association Prize at the 2022 Virginia History Day competition. Ms. Smith earned a bachelor’s in English, journalism and communication from Old Dominion University, and a master’s in curriculum and instruction from St. John’s University.

Lisa Johnson-Hicks, a longtime RPS employee who has served in numerous roles, including Head Start teacher and Virginia Preschool Initiative Plus coach, will lead Mary Scott Preschool as interim principal. Ms. Johnson-Hicks earned a bachelor’s in early childhood education from Norfolk State University, and a master’s from Central Michigan University.

NIH awards $3M to VCU to develop researchers in women’s health The Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health has awarded a $3.2 million grant to Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women’s Health.

The grant supports VCU’s junior faculty who will develop as researchers in women’s health.

Over a five-year period, the Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) grant will support eight to 10 junior faculty at VCU whose research focuses on five areas of women’s health: cancer, maternal child health, mental health and addiction, obesity and cardiovascular health, and neuro-musculoskeletal health.

“Understanding sex and gender influences on health and disease is critical to improving Ms. Kornstein the health and well-being of both women and men,” said Susan G. Kornstein, principal investigator for the BIRCWH program and executive director of the VCU Institute for Women’s Health.

“The VCU BIRCWH Program will train and develop independent investigators with a commitment to collaborative, interdisciplinary research in women’s health and sex and gender influences on health.”

The BIRCWH grant comes years after a $3 million grant was awarded to VCU Health in 2018 from the National Science Foundation for its ADVANCE-VCU project, which is focused on supporting the success of diverse women faculty in the university’s STEM departments.

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July 21-23, 2022

City’s bargaining agreement deserves applause Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

An end to a long-fought battle appears imminent with the announcement that the City of Richmond is poised to approve a collective bargaining ordinance that will allow city employees to unionize.

As reported by Richmond Free Press reporter, Jeremy M. Lazarus, who has covered the city’s collective bargaining process, the newly framed ordinance will be approved at the Monday, July 25, City Council meeting.

All nine members have signed on as supporters of this landmark legislation that also has the endorsement of Mayor Levar M. Stoney. In other words, all of the city’s decision-makers are supporting this history-making legislation that is anticipated to give rank-and-file city workers more clout.

We commend City Council members and the mayor and his administration for their determination, diligence, patience and hard work to fulfill the hopes and dreams of city workers who believe that their ability to organize and bargain with their bosses will improve their wages and working conditions and make them better able to provide services to residents.

“I appreciate the collaboration between council and administration to reach an agreement on a responsive and responsible collective bargaining paper that will support both our workers and our citizens,” Mayor Stoney said.

Well stated, despite the mayor’s months-long lobbying effort to limit unions to only labor and trades employees in the Department of Public Works and the Department of Public Utilities.

As noted in Mr. Lazarus’ article, the new ordinance would allow separate unions for police officers, firefighters, labor and trades workers, professionals, and administrative and technical employees. And each group could have their own union to bargain for them.

Our applause grows louder in learning that three women were instrumental in crafting this ordinance.

“Three members of council are credited with spearheading the ordinance, Kristen M. Nye, 4th District, Reva M. Trammell, 8th District, and Stephanie A. Lynch, 5th District,” Mr. Lazarus writes, adding “People close to the talks said that it would not have happened without Ms. Nye.” Ms. Nye, whose 4th District has just under 25,000 residents, is in the middle of the city’s other eight districts in terms of population. That to us indicates she fully understands the importance of being a bridge, or middle woman, if you please, representing not only the interests of her Huguenot Road, Westover Hills, Bon Air constituents (workers), but also those residents in Richmond’s more urban centers.

“This compromise creates a solid foundation for city employees to advocate for competitive pay and benefits and continue their service to our residents,” Ms. Nye, chair of council’s Governmental Operations Committee that led the effort, stated.

Longtime Councilwoman Reva Trammell, 8th District, who has survived numerous battles while serving the city, officially or unofficially, has shown nothing but grit and resilience during this process.

If anyone were to ever question her allegiance to her constituents, our advice is to think twice.

“This agreement marks a significant step forward for the City of Richmond and its employees,” added Ms. Trammell, who also is credited with ensuring emergency dispatchers could be part of a union representing fire employees.

And while Ms. Lynch may be a relative newcomer to Richmond’s political waters, she has quickly adapted to its sink or swim mentality.

“I have championed our employees for years,” Ms. Lynch stated. Several people who were involved said Ms. Lynch played a critical role in bringing the parties together and in securing compromise language on key items that produced legislation in time to vote on the final meeting in July. “I am ecstatic to have my colleagues reach an agreement that benefits employees.”

We agree with the sentiments that Council President Cynthia I. Newbille, 7th District, expressed in the announcement of the agreement.

“Collective bargaining was something that our employees not only want but need,” Dr. Newbille stated. “Strengthening our employees strengthens our city.”

Internet privacy, like abortion rights, under siege Having witnessed how much the world seemed to change after the Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion nationwide, it has been stunning—although not too surprising—to see how much the world has tried to change back.

Written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, the conservative 6-3 majority opinion maintained that the right to an abortion was a part of the right to privacy—neither of which is explicitly included in the Constitution, although the right is inferred by the landmark 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut, on which Roe v. Wade was largely grounded.

You thought you had a right to privacy? Guess again.

Kicking the legs out from under the right to privacy has big and ominous implications, particularly at a time when police and other crime fighters turn increasingly to internet search engines like Google for help.

For example, in the new post-Roe world, privacy advocates reasonably ask, is Google doing enough to safeguard your data from falling into the wrong hands—or popping up on the wrong screens?

In response to complaints, Google announced on July 1 that it will delete abortion clinic visits, as well as trips to fertility clinics, domestic violence shelters and ad-

diction treatment facilities among other sensitive locations.

Shades of Big Brother. I’m not talking about the network TV reality show. I’m talking about the ominous and omnipresent overlord in George Orwell’s 1949 novel “1984,” symbol of a totalitarian state in which every citizen is under constant surveillance and propaganda by

Clarence Page ever-present “telescreens.”

We’re not there yet but the growing number of requests from law enforcement agencies turning to Google to access information on users raises big questions about what may happen in states where abortion, or helping someone to obtain one, is once again a serious crime.

In the first half of last year, Google received more than 50,000 subpoenas, search warrants and other legal requests for data Google retains, according to the company’s transparency report.

Outside conventional law enforcement, some states are considering the bounty-hunter approach embedded in Texas’notorious anti-abortion law Senate Bill 8, which offers cash rewards to would-be plaintiffs for successfully finding and suing anyone who aids a woman’s access to abortion—even, as it often has been said, her Uber driver.

All of which reminds me of the bad old days before Roe v.

Wade, when women seldom

had the right to choose abortion unless they had a lot of money and other resources.

Those days came back to me as I watched “The Janes,” a new documentary streaming on HBO and HBO Max about Chicago’s old Jane Collective, or “Jane” for short. Volunteers, mostly women, ran the underground service from 1969 to 1973 to help pregnant women in need to obtain abortions, which still were illegal in Illinois, as in most states.

They didn’t have Google location services to worry about back then, although they constantly had to dodge police even as they advertised their services through word of mouth and ads in the underground Chicago Seed saying simply, “Pregnant? Don’t want to be? Call Jane,” a name chosen for its easy-to-remember simplicity.

Ironically, as Jane founder Heather Booth says in the documentary, “We always thought the police knew about it.”

She relates a story about one woman who was married to a police officer and brought their pregnant daughter to Jane. “Although I didn’t ask, I had every reason to believe that it was the policeman who directed his wife about where to go,” Ms. Booth says. “So we think that it actually was a service that was useful in the society.

“Abortion had not been politicized yet,” she said, referring to how ferociously the issue has become a battle cry for the political right.

Jane ended after one of their

Absurdities rooted in right-wing Years ago, I stated that the damage of a Donald Trump presidency wouldn’t be in his initial term(s), but in the future evil that he would sanction. It now appears that “crazies,” especially in the political arena, are crawling from under rocks throughout the nation.

I will not claim that absurdities only come from one side, but the majority of the absurd statements I process daily come from Republicans, racists, Christian fundamentalists, or right-wing extremists.

Pastor Mark Burns, who notoriously lied about his membership in Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity during the 2016 campaign, is a Republican candidate for Congress in South Carolina’s 4th District.

In addition to his past lies, he now spews hate and advocates execution for political opponents. His campaign website features photos of him either with Mr. Trump or talking into microphones in front of Trump Tower.

Also on his website: •“Well-funded police and the protection of the Rule of Law are imperative to civil society.”

•“Critical Race Theory is Communist, anti-white racism.”

•“Vaccine and mask mandates are medical tyranny, and have no place in America.”

I only question what he

will say after the Republican primary.

Jacky Eubanks, a Republican endorsed by Donald Trump, is a candidate for the Michigan House of Representatives. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Ms. Eubanks states, “You cannot have a successful society outside

Faye Williams of the Christian moral order … things like abortion and things like gay marriage are outside the Christian moral order. They lead to chaos and destruction and a culture of death; we’ve abandoned the Christian moral order as a nation and we are reaping that destruction.”

She also advocates a total birth control ban and abstinence until marriage.

Ms. Eubanks has obviously forgotten that the first European invaders came to North America seeking religious freedom and the freedom of religion enshrined in the Constitution provides for the freedom OF religion and FROM religion. Ms. Eubanks seems focused on the imposition of her religious beliefs on everyone.

Instead of a fundamentalist fervor, Georgia citizens are challenged to consider ignorance as a reasonable choice. Herschel Walker, who has been labeled as unprepared as a candidate for the U.S. Senate, also has been plagued with challenges to his character and ethics.

The old saying “it’s better to be thought a fool than to open

your mouth and proven a fool” applies to Mr. Walker. The following statement, given at a recent campaign rally, provides his justification for opposition against clean air initiatives: “We in America have some of the cleanest air and cleanest water of anybody in the world. So what we do, we’re gonna put, from the Green New Deal, millions of billions of dollars cleaning our good air up. So all of a sudden China and India ain’t putting nothing in cleaning that situation up. All their bad air is still there. But since we don’t control the air, our good air decided to float over to China’s bad air. So when China gets our good air, their bad air got to move. So it moves over to our good air space.

Then now we got to clean that back up.”

Hand-picked by Mr. Trump, Walker is obviously a candidate because of his football fame at the University of Georgia and as a Negro-counter to Sen. Raphael Warnock.

The absurdity of these characters is obvious to those who recognize the importance of personal character and understand the divergence of ideas in a democratic society.The greater danger for our nation is that they are not the only threat.

They and those they represent are a clear and present danger to the freedoms we will enjoy in the future.

The writer is a minister, United Nations Peace Peace Ambassador and president of the Dick Gregory Society.

The Free Press welcomes letters The Richmond Free Press respects the opinions of its readers. We want to hear from you.

We invite you to write the editor. All letters will be considered for publication. Concise, typewritten letters related to public matters are preferred. Also include your telephone number(s). Letters should be addressed to: Letters to the Editor, Richmond Free Press, P.O. Box 27709, 422 East Franklin Street, Richmond, VA 23261, or faxed to: (804) 643-7519 or e-mail: letters@richmondfreepress.com.

apartments was raided by Chicago police in 1972 and seven of its members were arrested and charged with enough abortion counts to send them to prison for as much as 110 years.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision was handed down in 1973 and the charges against the Jane women were dropped.

Will those days return? In some ways, they already have as various anti-abortion politicians and activists push for even tougher laws and regulations, including efforts to seek and prosecute abortion providers as we might chase domestic terrorists.

Sanity must prevail if justice is to survive. We still need to protect everyone’s reasonable right to privacy, including, I hope, the right of women to have power over their own bodies.

The writer is a syndicated columnist and senior member of the Chicago Tribune editorial board.

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Richmond Free Press

July 21-23, 2022 A7

News

Medical examiner: Jayland Walker was shot dozens of times

By Mark Gillispie The Associated Press

Akron, Ohio Jayland Walker, the 25year-old Black man who died last month at the hands of police in Akron, Ohio, was shot dozens of times on June 27, with 26 bullets recovered from his body, according to a preliminary autopsy report released July 15.

Dr. Lisa Kohler, the Summit County medical examiner, said it was impossible for her office to say which bullet killed Mr. Walker or the number of shots that were fired.

Mr. Walker “had several very devastating injuries that would cause death,” including injuries to his heart, lungs and arteries, Dr. Kohler said. She tallied 41 entry wounds and five wounds from bullets that grazed Walker.

Preliminary findings released earlier indicated Mr. Walker’s body had more than 60 wounds. Greta Johnson, Summit County communications director, said on July 15 it was “very possible” that one bullet could cause multiple

entrance wounds, such as by passing through Walker’s arm and into his torso.

Mr. Walker had five wounds in his back, but it’s impossible to say whether those came as he ran away or turned as he was being shot, Dr. Kohler said.

The medical examiner gave a summary of the report on Walker’s death at a news conference. The report was finalized Thursday.

The June 27 pursuit began when officers tried to pull him over for equipment violations.

Authorities say Mr. Walker fired a gunshot from his car 40 seconds into the chase.

Dr. Kohler said no illegal drugs or alcohol were detected in Walker’s body.

Ken Abbarno, a lawyer representing Mr. Walker’s family, said the medical examiner’s findings confirm that Walker — unarmed — “came to a brutal, senseless death.”

Mr. Walker was remembered as a shy, kind, thoughtful man with a quiet sense of humor at his funeral Wednesday.

He had been grieving his fiancée’s recent death but his

Phil Masturzo/Akron Beacon Journal via Associated Press

Lynnette Williams holds a sign during a July 2 gathering at Second Baptist Church in Akron, Ohio, calling for justice for Jayland Walker. Mr. Walker, a 25-year-old Black man killed in a hail of police gunfire in Akron last month, was shot or grazed 46 times, according to a preliminary autopsy report released July 15 by the Medical Examiner’s Office in Summit County.

family had no indication of concern beyond that, another lawyer for his family previously said.

A message seeking comment

on the autopsy findings was sent July 15 to a police department spokesperson.

The update comes a day after the NAACP made a direct plea

to Attorney General Merrick Garland to have the Justice Department open a federal civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting.

Akron has seen daily protests since July 3, when city officials released body camera footage from the eight officers involved.

Demonstrators marched peacefully through the city on the day the footage was made public, but late that night, police in full riot gear fired a dozen tear gas canisters to disperse a handful of protesters outside the justice center.

Downtown Akron has since been under a curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Police said Mr. Walker fled an attempted traffic stop for minor equipment violations and fired a shot from his car during the vehicle chase, but he wasn’t armed when officers shot him.

The officers involved are on paid leave while the state investigates the shooting. Seven of those officers are white, and one is Black. None of them has a record of discipline, substantiated complaints or fatal shootings, according to the police department.

Associated Press writer Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus contributed to this report.

Emmett Till’s house, Black sites to get landmark funds

By Don Babwin The Associated Press

Chicago Emmett Till left his mother’s house on Chicago’s South Side in 1955 to visit relatives in Mississippi, where the Black teenager was abducted and brutally slain for reportedly whistling at a white woman.

A cultural preservation organization announced Tuesday that the house will receive a share of $3 million in grants being distributed to 33 sites and organizations nationwide that are important pieces of AfricanAmerican history.

Some of the grant money from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund will go to rehabilitate buildings, such as a bank in Mississippi founded by a man described

by Booker T. Washington as the “most influential business man in the United States,” the first Black masonic lodge in North Carolina, and a school in rural Oklahoma for the children of Black farm workers and laborers.

The money also will help restore the Virginia home where a tennis coach helped turn Black athletes such as Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson into champions, rehabilitate the Blue Bird Inn in Detroit that is considered the birthplace of bebop jazz, and protect and preserve African-American cemeteries in Pennsylvania and a tiny island off the coast of South Carolina.

Brent Leggs, executive director of the organization that is in its fifth year of awarding the grants, said the effort is intended to fill “some gaps in the nation’s understanding of the Civil Rights Movement.”

Mr. Till’s brutal slaying helped galvanize the Civil Rights Movement. The Chicago

Anthony Vazquez/Chicago Sun-Times via The Associated Press

seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus to a white man about three months later remains one of the pivotal acts of defiance in American history.

“It was a catalytic moment in the Civil Rights Movement and through this we lift and honor Black women in civil rights,” Mr. Leggs said.

And the news follows a recent revelation about the discovery of an unserved arrest warrant for the woman whose accusation put in motion the chain of events that led to the teen’s lynching.

The house and the story of the casket highlight the risks that the remnants of such history can vanish if not protected.

As recently as 2019 when it was sold to a developer, the red brick Victorian house built more than a century earlier was falling into disrepair before it was granted landmark status

In this Aug. 26, 2020, file photo shows the former home of Emmett and Mamie Till at 6427 S. St. Lawrence Ave. in the West Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago.At right, Emmett Till is shown with his mother, Mamie Till Mobley.

home where Mamie Till Mobley and her son lived will receive funding for a project director to oversee restoration efforts, including renovating the second floor to what it looked like when the Tills lived there.

“This house is a sacred treasure from our perspective and our goal is to restore it and reinvent it as an international heritage pilgrimage destination,” said Naomi Davis, executive director of Blacks in Green, a local nonprofit

by the city of Chicago. And the glass-topped casket that held Till’s remains was only donated to the Smithsonian Institution because it was discovered in 2009 rusting in a shed at a suburban Chicago cemetery where it was discarded after the teen’s body was exhumed years earlier.

That discovery of the casket, which only happened because of a scandal at the cemetery, underscores how easily significant pieces of history can simply vanish, said Annie Wright, whose late husband, Simeon, was sleeping with his cousin, Emmett, the night he was abducted.

“We got to remember what happened and if we don’t tell it, if people don’t see (the house) they’ll forget and we don’t want to forget tragedy in these United States,” said Mrs. Wright, 76.

group that bought the house in 2020. She said the plan is to time the 2025 opening with that of the Obama Presidential Library a few miles away.

Mr. Leggs said it is particularly important to do something that shines a light on Mamie Till Mobley. After her 14-yearold son’s lynching, Mrs. Till Mobley insisted that his body

be displayed in an open casket as it looked when it was pulled from a river, to show the world what racism looked like.

It was a display that influenced thousands of mourners who filed by the casket and the millions more who saw the photographs in Jet magazine — one of whom was Rosa Parks whose refusal to give up her

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Richmond Free Press

A8 July 21-23, 2022

Sports Stories by Fred Jeter

3 for 3

Americans sweep top 3 places at the World championships for 3rd time Men wearing the red, white and blue have harvested gold, silver and bronze at the World Athletics Championships.

Americans Fred Kerley, Marvin Bracy-Williams and Trayvon Bromell finished first, second and third in a breath-taking 100-meter final July 16 in Eugene, Ore. Kerley was timed in 9.86 while runner-up Bracy-Williams and thirdplace Bromell both stopped the clock in 9.88. Bracy-Williams led after 95 meters before Kerley’s power prevailed at the finish.

“I didn’t know (I’d won) until I looked at the scoreboard,” said Kerley, “It said Fred Kerley, No. 1.”

Usually a man of few words, Kerley added: “This means the world to me.”

It is the third time in history that Americans have swept the top three places at the World Championships.

Previously, Carl Lewis, Leroy Bur-

rell and Dennis Mitched turned the trick in 1991 in Tokyo, and in 1983 Lewis, Calvin Smith and Emmit King went 1-2-3 in Helsinki.

Kerley, a 27-year-old Texan, converted from the 400 to the 100 and 200 two years ago. He was the 100 Olympic silver medalist at Tokyo last year behind Italian Marcell Jacobs.

Jacobs was scratched from the 100 final in Eugene due to leg injuries.

Kerley, coached by Grenadian Alleyne Francique, is now one of only three men to ever post times of under 44 seconds for 400, under 20 seconds for 200 and under 10 seconds for 100.

The others were South African Wayde Van Niekert and American Michael Norman.

Kerley’s first cousin, Jeremy Kerley, is a former NFL receiver and kick returner, with 13 career touchdowns.

At 6-foot-3, Kerley towered over fellow Americans Bracy-Williams and Bromell, who are both about

Fred Kerley, center, Marvin Bracy-Williams, right, and Trayvon Bromell, finish first, second and third place respectively July 16 in the U.S. World Athletic Championships, in Eugene, Ore.

5-foot-9.

Bracy-Williams, 28 and from Orlando, Fla., may be better known as a former NFL receiver with Indianapolis and Seattle and college star at Florida State.

The 27-year-old Bromell, from St.

Petersburg, Fla., has been a world-class sprinter since high school. He was the first to ever break 10 seconds (9.97) in the U-19 Junior division.

The only meet bigger than the World is the Olympics. American sprinters figure to be among the top contenders

VUU Alumni Football Foundation to host Celebrity Golf Classic Virginia Union University’s annual golf fundraiser will take place July 23 at The Crossings in Glen Allen, 800 Virginia Center Parkway.

Burning Sands Alumni Football Foundation’s 9th Annual Celebrity Golf Classic, an 18-hole golf tournament, will raise funds to support Virginia Union University athletics. Dave Robbins, VUU’s legendary former basketball coach, is this year’s special honoree. Other special guests

include Cornell Gordon, a Norfolk native and former all-pro defensive back who played on the New York Jets’ 1969 Superbowl championship team; and Stan Lewter, producer/host at Urban Sports & ESPN, who also is the “voice” of CIAA basketball.

For more information, contact Angriess Scott at (804) 840-4819, or email sco04@henrico.us To register online, please visit www.vuu.edu.

Dave Robbins

‘It was just another game for us’ Cornell Gordon recalls Jets iconic Super Bowl win against Colts On Jan. 12, 1969, Cornell Gordon was on the team that shocked the football world.

As a New York Jets defensive back, Gordon contributed to arguably the greatest upset in gridiron history.

As 19.5-point underdogs to the unbeaten Baltimore Colts, the Jets (with swashbuckling quarterback Joe Namath) prevailed 16-7 in Super Bowl III at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

In so doing they disproved the general assumption that old-school NFC teams were clearly superior to the upstart AFC. The leagues merged in 1966.

Green Bay of the NFC had trounced AFC Oakland and Kansas City in the first two Super Bowls, and Baltimore appeared invincible.

Looking back, Gordon reveals the Jets’ “secret weapon” in putting a lid on the Colts’ explosive attack.

Defensive back Johnny Sample (from Cape Charles) had played with the Colts before joining the Jets and had the Baltimore playbook memorized.

“Johnny knew pretty much what they were going to do, what to look for. He helped us set up our defensive game plan,” said Gordon.

“Then we just went out and played a ball game. It was just another game for us.”

Colts’ quarterback Earl Morrall and Johnny Unitas were a dysfunctional 17 for 41 and suffered four interceptions.

Morrall had been NFL MVP that season

and Unitas ranks with the greatest QB’s of all time.

Namath obviously knew something.

Three days prior to the Super Bowl, he boldly “guaranteed” a Jets win; then he backed it up, with plenty of help from his defense.

Gordon will be in Richmond July 23 as a celebrity guest for Virginia Union University’s Burning Sands golf tournament at The Crossings.

It’s an annual fundraiser for Panthers athletics.

Now 82 and living in Tidewater, Gordon isn’t a prolific golfer but says “I’m very well known” at the Bide-A-Wee Golf Cornell Gordon Course in Portsmouth.

Gordon’s connection to VUU is his good friend Willie Spence, who set numerous Panthers passing records in the 1960s.

“We grew up together in Norfolk on Bolton Street,” said Gordon. “I played at Booker T. (Washington High) right before Willie.”

From Booker T., Gordon went to North Carolina A&T and was a two-time, AllCIAA quarterback for the Aggies.

His backup at A&T was someone who became very famous for something other than football Jesse Jackson. He had

transferred to the Greensboro school from Illinois.

“They tried Jesse at several positions, but mostly he relieved me (at QB) when we got ahead,” said Gordon.

“One game Jesse actually threw a touchdown pass to me, after I’d gone to halfback.”

Gordon was also Jackson’s “teammate” at one of the famous Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-Ins in the 1960s.

Since retiring from the NFL with a career total of 14 interceptions, Gordon has served as an assistant coach at Norfolk State University, helping the Spartans earn three CIAA titles.

He also coached football and girls’ softball and basketball at Manor High School in Portsmouth.

While with the Jets, Gordon played with numerous athletes from HBCUs. The group includes Sample, Earl Christy and Emerson Boozer from MarylandEastern Shore, Winston Hill from Texas Southern and Verlon Biggs from Jackson State.

In 1968, leading up to the 1969 Super Bowl, Gordon (wearing No. 48) started 11 games, alternating between left and right cornerback, free and strong safety.

The Jets upset of all upsets is best remembered for “Broadway Joe” (Namath) predicting the outcome.

But don’t forget a Jets defense (with some inside information) that never rested.

MLB’s recent draft includes players of color The complexion of Major League Baseball may be changing.

Four of the first five picks in Sunday’s annual college/high school draft in Los Angeles were African-Americans.

• Outfielder Druw Jones, second overall pick by Arizona; • Pitcher Kumar Rocker, third pick by Texas; • Infielder Temarr Johnson, fourth pick by Pittsburgh; • Outfielder Elijah Green, fifth pick by Washington.

Only about 10 percent of all big-leaguers are African-American, although there are many more players of color from the Caribbean and South America.

From the Atlanta suburbs, Jones is the 6-foot-4, 180-pound son of former major-league star Andruw Jones.

Rocker, a former Vanderbilt standout, is the son of former NFL lineman Tracy Rocker. The 6-foot-5 right-hander was drafted last year by the New York Mets but didn’t sign.

Johnson is a 5-foot-8 left-handed hitting middle infielder from Mays High School near Atlanta.

Green is a power-laden athlete from the IMG Academy in Florida. He is son of former NFL All-Pro tight end Eric

Druw Jones

Kumar Rocker

Temarr Johnson

Green.

The baseball draft differs from the NFL and NBA draft in that it includes both high school and college players.

It does not include the many talented players from the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Venezuela who became free agents as teenagers.

There is an effort underway for a special international draft to select the young Caribbean players in a more organized manner.

MJBL finishes strong in Bahamas The Richmond-based Metropolitan Junior Baseball League (MJBL) has made an international statement.

Representing the USA, the MJBL posted a 4-3 record and finished second in the U-16 Babe Ruth Caribbean World Series in The Bahamas.

MJBL lost to the host Bahamians in the final. Other nations

competing were Aruba, Sint Maarten, Puerto Rico and The Netherlands/Curacao.

Assisting with the MJBL’s efforts was Dusty Baker, who sponsored a promotional video. Baker played for the Richmond Braves in the late 1960s and is currently the manager of the Houston Astros.

at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.

The 100-meter world record of 9.58 was set by Jamaican Usain Bolt in 1986 in Berlin.

Tyson Gay set the U.S. record for 100 meters with a 9.69 clocking in China in 2009.

Former ballers create a league of their own Think you still got game? Here’s how you can find out.

You don’t have to have a fancy resume to play in the Mature Man Bball League, just an ID saying you’re at least 35 years old.

Under co-directors Ted Berry and Tovian Smith, the 35and-over league debuted this year on Wednesday nights at the Southside Community Center at 6225 Old Warwick Road. Smith was a standout at Monacan High.

Teams played eight regular games leading into a three-round playoffs.

The team known as First Family won the playoffs with a roster of Levi Osby, Kenny Mickens, Eddie Freeman, Johnny Bradley, Clarence Lewis, Kraig Jackson, JaNard Fleming and Jalani Lawrence.

The opportunity attracted some big-name ballers such as college standouts Kendrick Warren and Bo Jones (VCU), Robert Johnson and Luqman Jaaber (Virginia Union), Berry (Christopher Newport), Tyree Evans (Kent State), Jonathan Hargett (West Virginia), and former NBA standout Reggie Williams.

Before his distinguished pro career, Williams starred at Prince George High and VMI. The league MVP, former Varina High guard Che’von Davenport, was a relative unknown of the tournament’s runner-up, a team known as 2up/2down.

In addition to Family First and 2 up/2down, other team names included: Tri-City, HOV, Go-Getters, United Disciples and DaTropics.

There was a unique awards celebration. Winners received the traditional trophies, plus cigars and a bottle of Hennessy.

Reggie Mac was behind the mike for the finals but Mack Anderson handled announcements much of the season.

In case you’re wondering, there is no connection between the “Mac/Mack’s” even though both share a flamboyant style.

Mack Anderson is former football coach at Armstrong. Reggie Mac is a longtime hoops coach for travel ball.

Mature Man is for former stars and wishful stars hoping their best days are ahead of them.

It’s not too late for “old-timers” to dust off their jump shots.

New individuals and teams are encouraged to participate.

The next session starts in August. For details, please contact Berry at (804) 281-6288 or Smith at (804) 833-6328.

Squirrels playoff tickets available

Get ’em before they’re gone.

Tickets are on sale for the Richmond Flying Squirrels Eastern League playoff games starting Sept. 22 at The Diamond. There may also be games Sept. 23 and 25.

Fans may purchase tickets online, in person or by calling (804)359-3866.

Richmond qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 2014 by winning the EL’s Southwest Division first-half pennant.

It’s always wise to have advance tickets when attending Squirrels’ games. The team has some of the best attendance in all of minor league baseball with an average turnout of 6,142 through the first 41 dates. u Southpaw pitcher Kyle Harrison suffered a rough outing at the MLB All-Star Futures game held July 16 in Los Angeles.

Harrison allowed two home runs in just two-thirds of an inning and picked up the loss in an American League 6-4 win over the National League.

Spartans find new baseball home Norfolk State University will have a new baseball conference affiliation starting in spring 2023.

The Spartans, along with three other MEAC programs, are joining the Northeast Conference as an associate member for baseball and golf.

Also making the move from the MEAC to the NEC are Delaware State, Maryland-Eastern Shore and Coppin State.

The MEAC lost its automatic bid to the NCAA Division I baseball tournament due to lack of membership. The NEC champion is an automatic qualifier for NCAAs. The Spartans won their only MEAC baseball crown in 2021, and advanced to the NCAAs. That was the last season the MEAC had enough teams to qualify for the postseason.

NEC baseball members are Fairleigh Dickinson, N.J., Wagner, N.Y., Long Island, N.Y., Merrimack, Mass., Central Connecticut, Sacred Heart, Mass., and Stonehill Mass.

Norfolk State and three additional MEAC affiliates will continue to play their other sports in the MEAC.

July 21-23, 2022 B1

Section

B

Richmond Free Press

Happenings Personality: Reginald E. Gordon

Spotlight on Richmond Memorial Health Foundation board chairman Inside and outside the walls of City Hall, Reginald E. (for Equilla) Gordon is working to build a more equitable, racially inclusive Richmond.

As Richmond’s deputy chief administrative officer for human services since 2018, it is the most recent of Mr. Gordon’s roles in city government. He first joined the city in 2016 as the director of the Office of Community Wealth Building.

Mr. Gordon also is months into his final year as chairman of the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation’s Board of Trustees, which provides funds to nonprofits whose missions align with their vision of a better city. Mr. Gordon’s decades of experience in human services has given him a unique perspective on the impact of groups seeking to assist the community and the work needed to improve the city.

“I see the connections daily,” Mr. Gordon says. “Richmond has a lot of strong partners and nonprofits that should be working together for the health and wealth of the citizens of Richmond.”

Elected to a two-year term in January 2021, Mr. Gordon’s chairmanship is the culmination of 10 years of work with RMHF, first spurred when he learned about the group’s tireless commitment to the community.

As board chairman, Mr. Gordon seeks to ensure RMHF’s board of trustees’actions reflect their stated beliefs about health and racial equity. He does so at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated already persistent inequalities in the community, leading some to face unexpected needs for the first time in their lives or further impacting marginalized groups.

“Our community is at a critical inflection point,” Mr. Gordon says. “The pandemic has shone a harsh spotlight on the significant racial inequities that negatively impact the health and wealth of many Black and Brown people that we must address as a community and nation.”

Mr. Gordon hopes that lessons learned from the pandemic have created a greater awareness about the need to address the daily disparities faced

by Richmond’s less fortunate residents.

Mr. Gordon’s term ends this December, after which he will serve as chair emeritus for a year before leaving the board and RMHF entirely. While he hasn’t decided whether he will join an organization similar to RMHF, his commitment to human services remains steadfast.

“Working together in earnest to reach equity with health and wealth for all is a moral imperative,” Mr. Gordon says.

“It will take years, but we are making progress.”

Meet a tireless contributor to human services in Richmond, Reginald E. Gordon: Volunteer position: Chair, Richmond Memorial Health Foundation Board of Trustees.

Occupation: Deputy chief administrative officer for human services, City of Richmond.

Date and place of birth: Sept.

19 in Farmville.

Education: Duke University, bachelor’s; Howard University School of Law, J.D. Family: Wife, Dr. Rashida Gray; son, Kobie Foxx, daughter, Kya Foxx.

Richmond Memorial Health Foundation (RMHF) is: A Richmond-based entity working to foster an equitable and healthy Richmond region by engaging communities and partners to reduce health disparities. This requires collectively removing obstacles to health such as poverty, discrimination and their consequences.

When and why founded: RMHF traces its roots to the founding of Richmond Memorial Hospital. The hospital opened in 1957 as a memorial to the Richmond men and women who died in World War II. The hospital opened its doors to people of all races and backgrounds, regardless of their ability to pay.

In 1977, the hospital board of directors created the Richmond Memorial Hospital Foundation to hold reserve funds aimed at ensuring financial stability during a period of high inflation.

When the hospital outgrew its original location in Richmond’s Northside, it eventually became Bon Secours Richmond Memorial Regional Medical Center in Hanover County in 1998.

The assets of the hospital were merged into the foundation. The organization was renamed the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation to emphasize its focus on community health and redefined its mission as a grant maker to foster an equitable and healthy Richmond region.

Values: Equity, learning, stewardship, respect, inclusion, impact and transparency.

RMHF is important in our community because: Our community is at a critical inflection point. The pandemic has shone a harsh spotlight on the significant racial inequities that negatively impact the health and wealth of many Black and Brown people. RMHF invests in partners working to address

health and racial equity in the Richmond region.

When elected chairman of board: January 2021.

Why I accepted position: I fully embrace the mission, vision and values of RMHF. During my time on the board, I have had the privilege to work with insightful and talented staff and trustees who are committed and dedicated to an equitable and healthy Richmond region.

I was honored to have been elected chair.

Number one goal or project as chairman: Making sure that the actions we take as a board reflect our stated beliefs about racial and health equity.

Strategy for achieving goals: First, make sure that the goal has been informed by the targeted audience, recipients or community. Then, do the research and learn from the expertise of others. Create the strategy. Finally, take action, executing the strategy, realizing that mistakes could be made. Allow yourself the grace to stop, refocus or start over if the original strategy is not working.

No. 1 challenge: Maintaining clarity of purpose when presented with credible requests for support for a wide range of needs.

Who benefits from RMHF:

We invest in missionaligned nonprofit partners so that our community may benefit from their great work.

How RMHF defines health equity: Trustees and staff define health equity: Everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy and well as possible. This requires engaging communities and partners to reduce health disparities by removing obstacles to health such as poverty, discrimination and their consequences.

How RMHF defines racial equity: We are still thinking through our organizational definition of racial equity, but we are informed and inspired by these words from our partner, Race Forward: “… we achieve racial equity when race no longer determines one’s socioeconomic outcomes; when everyone has what they need to thrive, no matter where they live.”

How RMHF understands health disparities of our community: Inequities are deeply ingrained within the Richmond region, but few residents understand their full impact. For example, the life expectancy of an individual living in an economically struggling neighborhood can be as much as 20 years shorter than a resident of a high-income area.

Anti-racism and RMHF: We denounce structural racism that serves to devalue and imperil the lives, health and well-being of Black and Brown people. We are committed to: • Continuing to support our partners in their efforts to apply a racial equity lens to their work • Building the capacity of grassroots organizations and organizations led by people

of color • Investing in strategies that make the connection between civic engagement and policy and advocacy efforts.

We also continue our internal process of learning and critical self-reflection as trustees and staff of RMHF. We recognize racism is pervasive in every system of our society, and we commit to unpacking the practices and culture at the Foundation in our journey toward anti-racism.

RMHF partners with: Mission-aligned nonprofit partners, as well as other funders.

What we fund: Our new grantmaking framework — the ways we choose to invest in our partners — is made up of five main funding strategies which, based on our equity journey, we believe will be most impactful for our mission-aligned partners. Learn more by reading our strategic framework: https:// rmhfoundation.org/grants/strategic-framework/.

Examples of organizations or projects RMHF has assisted: • Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Racial Equity Initiative • Market Value Analysis • CDC Foundation initiative • Laughing Gull Foundation collaboration How to access RMHF: https:// rmhfoundation.org/contact/, or (804) 282-6282 How I look at Richmond and its health and equity journey: Working together in earnest to reach equity with health and wealth for all is a moral imperative.

A perfect day for me is: An unscripted day of adventure and discovery with my family.

What I continue to learn about myself during the pandemic: Working from home does not work for me. I get more ac-

complished in the office, even if I am the only one there.

Something I love to do that most people would never imagine: I would love to master the Argentine Tango. My wife and I have considered taking lessons.

A quote that inspires me: “Keep your head level” This idiom has been passed down from generation to generation in my family. My mother, Mary Gordon West, shares this advice about how to face life’s challenges at least once a week.

My friends describe me as: Open minded.

At the top of my “to-do” list is: Collaborate with other foundations, agencies and nonprofits to create an integrated service delivery system in Richmond.

Best late-night snack: I’m not a snacker, unless there is a chunky chocolate chip cookie around the house.

The best thing my parents ever taught me: Treat everyone with respect and compassion.

The person who influenced me the most: My dad, the late Rev. David E. Gordon.

Book that influenced me the most: “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” by Frederick Douglass.

What I’m reading now: “Radical Help: How We Can Remake the Relationships Between Us and Revolutionise the Welfare State” by Hilary Cottam.

Next goal: I want to write a story about growing up in Richmond in the 1970s. Young people thrived because of the consistent love, nurturing, support and affirmation from relatives, teachers, coaches, church families and neighbors.

I would like to do what I can to replicate that energy in Richmond.

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Richmond Free Press

B2 July 21-23, 2022

Happenings Simon & Schuster’s first black woman publisher is leaving The Associated Press

Regina H. Boone / Richmond Free Press

Community cleanup celebrates Maggie Walker’s birthday Liza Walker Mickens, the great-great-granddaughter of Maggie Lena Walker, left center, walks with other volunteers during a National Park Service and City of Richmond cleanup project on July 16 in honor of Mrs. Walker’s 158th birthday, which was on July 15.

The project helped highlight Mrs. Walker’s commitment to the Jackson Ward neighborhood and surrounding communities, shown by her leadership of the Independent Order of St. Luke, a fraternal insurance group. In 1899, Mrs. Walker was elected grand secretary of the group that was unsteady at the time. She rebuilt the membership and led the order into developing a four-story headquarters at Baker and St. James streets in Gilpin Court in 1901. In 1902, she launched the order’s first newspaper and a year later established a bank.

Volunteer organizations during the cleanup event included members of the Midlothian Girl Scout Troupe 1234, above left, and the Upsilon Nu Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, above. The fraternity is shown in a group photo in front of a mural that shows Mrs. Walker peeking over their shoulders in the courtyard of the National Historic Site. Mrs. Walker’s youngest son, Melvin, became a member of the Zeta Chapter of Omega Psi Phi in 1918.

NEW YORK The publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship imprint, Dana Canedy, is stepping down to concentrate on a sequel to a book Denzel Washington adapted last year for a film of the same name, “A Journal for Jordan.”

Ms. Canedy, a former New York Times editor and writer and the first Black woman to be hired as publisher at Simon & Schuster, will step down July 27. Her next book has been acquired by Simon & Schuster and she will continue there as an adviser and to work on some projects she brought to the company, including former Vice President Mike Pence’s memoir.

Her sequel to “A Journal for Jordan,” currently untitled, is scheduled for 2024. “A Journal for Jordan” is the story of Ms. Canedy’s late partner, First Sgt. Charles M. King, and the journal he wrote for their son while he was serving in the Iraq War. Sgt. King was killed in combat in 2006.

The movie was directed by Mr. Washington and starred Michael B. Jordan as Sgt. King and Chanté Adams as Ms. Canedy.

Q&A: Jordan Peele on the dreams and nightmares of ‘Nope’ The Associated Press

NEW YORK There’s little in contemporary movies quite like the arrival of a new Jordan Peele film. They tend to descend ominously and mysteriously, a little like an unknown object from above that casts an expanding, darkening shadow the closer it comes.

“Nope,” the writer-director’s third film, is nearly here. After Mr. Peele’s singular debut, “Get Out,” about the possession of Black bodies and the fallacy of post-racial America, and his follow-up, “Us,” a monstrous tale of doppelgangers and societal mirrors, the closely-kept-under-wraps “Nope” brings a new set of horrors and unsettling metaphors. For Mr. Peele, who writes through shooting and considers the conversation generated by a movie one of its main ingredients, “Nope” is far from a finished project.

“Movie’s done,” Mr. Peele said in a recent interview. “I’m still writing it.”

It’s Mr. Peele’s most ambitious film yet, a flying saucer horror that digs into the nature of spectacle and the desire to document it — a multithreaded theme that encompasses Hollywood history and “Nope,” itself. Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer star as a brother and sister in a family horse wrangling business for film productions. Their California ranch is visited by a strange and violent force in the clouds that they strive to capture on film.

“Nope,” which opens in theaters Friday, also extends Mr. Peele’s own self-conjured mythology. His movies are very loosely tethered together (some fictional establishments appear in several of them), and now even encompass a “Nope” theme park attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood. Peele’s dark world is increasingly ours.

For Mr. Peele, as he said speaking recently via Zoom from Los Angeles, “Nope” is about reaching for a kind of Hollywood movie once unattainable. He pointedly opens the film with Eadweard Muybridge’s 1887 photographic study showing a Black rider on a horse. It was one of the first moving pictures. But while the name of the horse and its owner was recorded, the name of the Black jockey is unknown.

“I feel like this is the first moment that anyone would ever allow me or anyone to make this movie. And so I had to take advantage. I had to go as big as possible,” Mr. Peele said. “I was like: ‘Let’s go.’”

AP: The Eadweard Muybridge loop looms over “Nope”; your characters are said to be descendants from its unnamed rider.

To you, what does it mean that the erasure of Black men was there at the foundation of cinema?

Mr. Peele: It’s a sad part of this industry. It was something I was learning at a good point for myself in this story. I felt like five, 10 years ago, I would never have been able to sell this movie to anyone. So I’m juxtaposing this origin story of film at the same time I’m trying to make a story that’s scary and joyous and adventurous and everything I love about film. It just felt very fitting for that starting point to be acknowledged and have ancestral implications for our main characters.

AP: Do you think of your movie as like an antidote to that film?

Mr. Peele: Yes. I’ve been trying to put that together. It’s a sequel, it’s an antidote, it’s a reboot, it’s an answer to the way films began and have continued.

AP: When the U.S. government declassified video of Navy pilots encountering unexplained aircraft — something your movie references — how did you react?

Were you affected by those images?

Mr. Peele: I was. It made it very real, very much in the moment. It’s one of the reasons, I guess, I can proudly say this movie is based on a true story. But what was most nerve-wracking or scary to me about the whole thing is that you’d like to think that when actual video proof of UFOs comes out that something would change in our lifestyle, not it’s really business as usual.

AP: You seem to be referring to movies as spectacles but were there also political dimensions to that? You developed this film through some very tumultuous times in American life, including Glen Wilson/Universal Pictures via Associated Press the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Writer/director Jordan Peele on the set of “Nope,” his highly anticipated film that opens Mr. Peele: Attention can be this weekend. Critics say the film, which follows Mr. Peele’s “Get Out” and “Us,” is filled a violent thing and our addiction with “a new set of horrors and unsettling metaphors.” to spectacle can have negative AP: Kaluuya and Ms. Palmer’s characters work on movie consequences. I think sometimes if we give the wrong spectacle sets and “Nope” centers on their attempts to capture something too much attention, it can give it too much power. If we are on film. To you, is “Nope” about the movie industry? obsessed with the wrong spectacle, it can distract us from what’s Mr. Peele: It became very meta very quick. Making a movie really going on. There’s really a human need to see the unseeable is basically like chasing the impossible, trying to bottle something that our entire society is based around. And in so many ways we that doesn’t exist. I was inspired by films like “King Kong” see it. The last five years, it feels like we’ve gone from seeking and “Jurassic Park” that really deal with the human addiction spectacle to being inundated with it. And that’s the environment to spectacle and the presentation and monetization of that. The I wrote the film in. meta part is you’re commenting on this notion at the same time you’re trying to utilize it and trying to create something that people can’t look away from.

AP: Why do you think in writing “Nope” your thoughts went back to the beginning of film?

Mr. Peele: Part of the world of “Nope” is flirting with real Hollywood and the Hollywood that takes place in my liminal dreams and nightmares. In real life, of the prominent Hollywood horse trainers, there’s not an African-American one I’m representing. The Haywoods are a very made-up family and notion. It was fun to weave the Hollywood fiction with reality and try and make a seamless immersion into what’s real and what’s not.

AP: A poster of Sidney Poitier’s 1972 Western “Buck and 2007 VENABLE STREET ~ UNION HILL ~ RVA the Preacher” is seen in the background of several shots. Was CALEXANDERSCLEANERS.COM that an important film to you?

Mr. Peele: It’s the first film that I know of that had Black 804.658.4466 cowboys represented in it. The myth that cowboys were just TUES & THURS 10-4 SAT 10-2 APPTS WELCOMED FOR OTHER TIMES white guys running around, it’s just not true, but we don’t know Dry Cleaning ~ Laundering ~ Alterations ~ Embroidery that because of Hollywood and the romanticized view of a very brutalized era. The film, it shares a spirit.

W E I N S T E I N AU T HOR S E R I E S

RITA DOVE PLAYLIST FOR THE APOCALYPSE

Thursday, July 28, 2022 6:00–7:30 PM Lecture Hall | FREE

T

he Carole Weinstein Author Series supports the literary arts by bringing both new and well-known authors to the Library of Virginia. Free and open to the public, the series focuses on Virginia authors and Virginia subjects across all genres. Most events will include light refreshments, a question-and-answer session with the author, and book signings. For more information, contact

S P R I N G 2 019

Emma Ito at 804.692.3726 or emma.ito@lva.virginia.gov.

ZACHARY WOOD

Z

UNCENSORED

at the Wall Street Journal, will discuss

Tuesday, March 5, 2019 | Noon–1:00

PM

achary R. Wood, a columnist and assistant opinion editor at The

Guardian and a Robert L. Bartley Fellow

Registration required: www.lva.virginia.gov/public/weinstein

Join us in person at the Library for a special evening of poetry with Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove, who will read from her latest book, Playlist for the Apocalypse.

800 East Broad Street | Richmond, VA 23219 www.lva.virginia.gov | 804.692.3999

Richmond Free Press

July 21-23, 2022 B3

Obituaries/Faith Directory

Construction leader Langston R. Davis Sr. dies

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Langston Randolph Davis Sr., president and chief executive officer of Richmond-based Davis Brothers Construction Co. Inc., has died.

Mr. Davis, who built the family-owned and operated firm into one of the region’s largest Black-owned commercial contractors, passed away Sunday, July 17, 2022, at his residence. He was 80.

His life will be celebrated with the family receiving friends from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, July 24, at Scott’s Funeral Home Chapel, 115 E. Brookland Park Blvd.

Mr. Davis, who had been battling health challenges in recent years, “was a leader in the field,” said Bernice Travers, former executive director of the Central Virginia Business and Construction Association and of the Northside Business Association.

Ms. Travers said Mr. Davis always looked stern and serious, “but I knew him to be a kind and compassionate man.”

Mr. Davis, who was involved with the company all his life and had been the top executive for more than 45 years, left his fingerprints on hundreds of largely commercial projects through the years, ranging from banks to the Greater Richmond Convention Center, airport projects in Richmond and Atlanta, the VCU Health Children’s Hospital and the campus of the University Mr. Davis of Virginia.

Davis Brothers also was involved in developments for Virginia Union University and built and renovated more than 100 area churches. The company renovated the Imperial Building at 5th and Franklin streets that is now home to the Richmond Free Press and was involved in redoing the Mosque, now the Altria Theater,

and the State Capitol.

During his tenure, the company prided itself in bringing in jobs on time and on schedule.

Mr. Davis was born into a family long involved in the building trades. His grandfather, Thornton Davis, for example, was operating a building company as far back as 1908.

Mr. Davis essentially learned the business from his late father, Melvin D. Davis Sr., who operated a series of companies before starting the current Davis Brothers with his brother, Leonard, in 1968, according to a General Assembly resolution honoring Melvin Davis after his death in 2006.

Melvin Davis later turned the company over to his son, who positioned the company to focus more on commercial projects.

Mr. Davis is survived by his wife, Beverly B. Davis, a longtime vice president of the company, son Langston R. Davis Jr., two daughters, Lindsey Davis Godfrey and Ashley Davis Scott, a stepson Thomas Davis, five sisters, two brothers, and six grandchildren.

The Rev. Robert W. Oliver Sr. remembered as a ‘force for good’

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

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Faith, family and hard work shaped the Rev. Robert Wade “Bobby” Oliver Sr.’s life.

Rev. Oliver never pastored a church, but he preached the virtues he lived through a radio program and on the job.

Always dressed in a suit and tie, the Richmond native and U.S. Air Force veteran mentored dozens, if not hundreds of young men and women, during the more than 40 years he operated a cleaning service with his wife, Evelyn James Oliver.

“He was a force for good.

NNIVE He was always positive, always RSA seeing the good and always helping others strive to be their

46th Anniversary of

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Rev. Oliver

best selves,” said his daughter, Tracey Lee Oliver, vice president of administration for the Richmond Free Press.

“I knew early on that we had to share him with the community. He was not just our dad, he was the community’s dad,” Ms. Oliver said. “He promoted compassion, sought to instill in others the work ethic that propelled him and encouraged people to start their own businesses.”

Rev. Oliver’s personality and

Moore THEME:Street Missionary African Americans Baptist Church

and The Vote!

1408 W. Leigh Street · Richmond, Va. 23220 (804) 358—6403 February 22, 2020

Dr. Alonza L. Lawrence, Pastor

11:00 am — 1:00 pm

Rev. Robert L. Dortch, Jr.

Color: Shades of Blue

1922-2022

Virtual join us on facebook @ ubcsouthrichmond

spend down time preparing his Sunday School lessons for a class at First African Baptist Church, of which he was a lifelong member.

Later, Rev. Oliver became a salesman for Fuller Products, a Black-owned cosmetics company, after his mother, Georgia Wade Oliver Barron, became a manager for the Richmond area.

He always showed up in a suit and tie with his briefcase full of samples and catalogs in his hand. He maintained this same look throughout his life, though he later changed to wearing a bow tie, Ms. Oliver noted.

In the early 1960s, he married Evelyn James, and when their three children were old enough for school, he became actively involved, including serving as a PTA president, speaking at school assemblies and workshops and attending their band performances and extracurricular activities.

By the late 1970s, after their children were older, Ms. Oliver said her father and mother launched their cleaning business for homes and offices.

With their slogan, “Honesty is our policy,” the business thrived for four decades, only winding down when they were

Sharon Baptist Church

Sunday School - 9:30 A.M. Morning Services - 11 A.M.

Rev. Dr. Paul A. Coles, Pastor

“Your Home In God’s Kingdom”

Good Shepherd Baptist Church

Sunday July 24 2022

Senior Recognition Sunday Morning Worship 10 A.M. Theme: “Growing in Grace and Wisdom” Message: Rev. John Franklin

1127 North 28th St., Richmond, VA 23223 s Office: (804) 644-1402 Dr. Sylvester T. Smith, Pastor “There’s A Place for You”

+PJO VT BU ". FBDI TU BOE SE 4VOEBZ GPS JO QFSTPO XPSTIJQ TFSWJDF <RX PD\ FRQWLQXH WR OLYH VWUHDP RQ <RX7XEH *RRG 6KHSKHUG %DSWLVW &KXUFK 59$ “BACK IN SERVICE” https://youtu.be/qqzhnIEQyQc Our doors are open again for inspirational messages from Pastor Smith every Sunday @ 11:00 am.

Live Streaming Every Sunday At: BRBConline.org or YouTube (Broad Rock Baptist Church)

“MAKE IT HAPPEN”

show on WFTH-AM in which he offered positive messages, took calls from listeners and read their letters.

He also became known for his word of the day, “enthusiasm,” which he would spell out and have listeners recite three times with him.

Rev. Oliver also annually played Santa when the Junior League of Richmond’s Early Childhood Program Committee brought holiday cheer to children at the Robert L. Taylor Childcare Center in Church Hill.

He enjoyed reading, listening to opera broadcasts, writing poetry and making bread, becoming known for his “holy rolls.”

Besides his wife and daughter, Ms. Oliver, survivors also include his son, Robert W. Oliver Jr., and daughter Robin Renee Hill, his sister, the Rev. C. Delores O. Booker, and four grandchildren.

The family requests that memorial donations be made in Rev. Oliver’s name to Oakwood Arts, 3511 P St., Richmond, Va. 23223, or to Virginia Union University’s Dr. Ruth Coles Harris Leadership Institute, 1500 N. Lombardy St., Richmond, Va., 23222.

Sunday, July 24, 2022

500 E. Laburnum Avenue, Richmond, VA 23222 www.sharonbaptistchurchrichmond.org (804) 643-3825

Union Baptist Church

in their 80s.

Mrs. Oliver handled the inside while Rev. Oliver would wash the windows and clean the outside. He also would cut lawns and do anything else their clients needed outside. Always dressed up, he was well known for the station wagons he drove with ladders, lawn mowers and cleaning supplies stuffed in or tied down on the outside.

About eight years ago, after his children convinced him to give up climbing ladders and driving, he began working as a maintenance assistant for the American Civil War Center at Tredegar on the riverfront and at the White House of the Confederacy in his former Navy Hill neighborhood.

He continued until 2020 when the pandemic forced the closure of the museum’s sites.

Outside of work, he was active at First African Baptist, where, along with teaching Sunday School, he sang in the Male Chorus and served briefly as the church sexton.

After he was ordained a minister through the church, though he remained a member, he started his own ministry he called, “I’ll Listen.”

For years, Rev. Oliver could be heard on a weekday morning

Riverview Baptist Church

“The Church With A Welcome”

100

years

1813 Everett Street Richmond, Virginia 23224 804-231-5884 Reverend Robert C. Davis, Pastor

outlook are being remembered following his death Sunday, July 10, 2022. He was 88.

A memorial service will be held 2 p.m. Saturday, July 30, at Scott’s Funeraal Home Chapel, 115 E. Brookland Park Blvd.

Born in 1934 during the Great Depression in the Navy Hill section of Downtown, Rev. Oliver came from a family of working people, which led to him working and operating his own businesses at an early age.

By the time Rev. Oliver was 11, he was earning money by installing wallpaper in people’s homes, his daughter said. He also worked at various times at a market on Sixth Street, at a life insurance company located on 10th Street and at a jewelry company, she said.

Meanwhile, he learned the shoe repair trade at Maggie L. Walker High School before graduating.

Rather than wait for the draft, he enlisted in the Air Force and served as a medic in the Korean War. After his discharge and return to his hometown, Rev. Oliver worked at Fleming’s Trucking where he was known as the “preacher man” because he always had his Bible and would

Back Inside!

Broad Rock Baptist Church

Via Conference Call (202) 926-1127 Pin 572890# In Person Sunday Service also on FACEBOOK and YouTube 2604 Idlewood Avenue, Richmond, Va. 23220 (804) 353-6135 • www.riverviewbaptistch.org

Worship With Us This Week!

Morning Worship On Site & Virtual July 24, 2022 @ 10:00 A.M.

5106 Walmsley Blvd., Richmond, VA 23224 804-276-2740 • 804-276-6535 (fax) www.BRBCONLINE.org

“BACK IN SERVICE” Our doors are open again Mask required • Must provide vaccination card Every Sunday @ 11:00 am.

Sermon by: Rev. Dr. LaVerne J. Briggs

Looking for a welcoming place to worship this week?

Stop by & see what God is up to at MMBC.

Live Streaming Every Sunday At: BRBConline.org or YouTube(Broad Rock Baptist Church)

Additional Opportunities to Engage with Us: *Faith Formation/ Church School (Sat. @ 9:00 AM) Zoom Meeting ID: 952 9164 9805 /Passcode: 2901 *Give Via: http://mmbcrva.org/give Or through Givelify

“MAKE IT HAPPEN” Pastor Kevin Cook

7M\XL &ETXMWX 'LYVGL 8LIQI 1SFMPM^MRK *SV 1MRMWXV] 6IJVIWLMRK 8LI 3PH ERH )QIVKMRK 8LI 2I[ A 21st Century Church With Ministry For Everyone

We Embrace Diversity — Love For All! Come worship with us!

2901 Mechanicsville Turnpike, Richmond, VA 23223 (804) 648-2472 ~ www.mmbcrva.org Dr. Price London Davis, Senior Pastor

Back Inside Sundays Join us for 10:00 AM Worship Service *Faith Formation/ Church School (Sat. @ 9:00 AM)

Zoom Meeting ID: 952 9164 9805 /Passcode: 2901

Thirty-first Street Baptist Church

C

e with Reverence elevanc R g in Rev. Dr. Joshua Mitchell, Senior Pastor bin ❖ om

Live on Facebook @sixthbaptistrva *Bible Study (Wed. @ 7:00 PM) Live on Youtube @sixthbaptistrva Zoom Meeting ID: 854 8862 2296 Or by visiting our website *Give Via: http://mmbcrva.org/give Or through Givelify www.sixthbaptistchurch.org 400 South Addison Street Richmond, Va. 23220

Worship With U

Special Days on The Horizon ~June 26, 2022 (10:00 A.M.)- Deaconess Consecration (near Byrd Park)

Rev. Dr. Yvonne Jones Bibbs, Pastor

(804) 359-1691 or 359-3498 Facebook Fax (804) 359-3798 sixthbaptistrva www.sixthbaptistchurch.org

The doors of the church are open for worship!

No registration required.

Join us in person or online on Facebook or YouTube

10:30 a.m. Sundays

Thursday Facebook Live Check in With Pastor 8:00 P.M. Via http://Facebook.com/mmbcrva

Sunday Morning Virtual Worship

10:30 A.M. Via http://Facebook.com/mmbcrva Or http://mmbcrva.org/live

823 North 31st Street Richmond, VA 23223 (804) 226-0150 Office

C

Richmond Free Press

B4 July 21-23, 2022

Legal Notices/Employment Opportunities Continued from previous column

City of Richmond, Virginia CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC NOTICE

Divorce

Notice is hereby given that the Council of the City of Richmond has scheduled a public hearing, open to all interested citizens, on Monday, July 25, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber on the Second Floor of City Hall, located at 900 East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia, to consider the following ordinances: Ordinance No. 2022-220 To amend ch. 2, art.

VI of the City Code by adding therein a new div. 6, consisting of §§ 2-1301.1—2-1301.20, concerning collective bargaining, for the purpose of providing for collective bargaining with certain City employees.

Ordinance No. 2022-221 To amend ch. 2, art.

VI of the City Code by adding therein a new div. 6, consisting of §§ 2-1301.1—2-1301.20, concerning collective bargaining, for the purpose of providing for collective bargaining with certain City employees.

Interested citizens who wish to speak will be given an opportunity to do so by following the instructions referenced in the July 25, 2022 Richmond City Council Formal meeting agenda. Copies of the full text of all ordinances are available by visiting the City Clerk’s page on the City’s Website at https:// www.rva.gov/office-cityclerk, and in the Office of the City Clerk, City Hall, 900 East Broad Street, Suite 200, Richmond, VA 23219, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Candice D. Reid City Clerk City of Richmond, Virginia CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given that the Council of the City of Richmond has scheduled a public hearing, open to all interested citizens, on Monday, September 12, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber on the Second Floor of City Hall, located at 900 East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia, to consider the following ordinance: Ordinance No. 2022-219 To repeal City Code §§ 11-19—11-50, concerning sound control, to repeal City Code § 26-929, concerning advertising and vehicles carrying sound devices on streets, and to amend ch. 11, art. II of the City Code by adding therein new §§ 11-32—11-38 for the purpose of modifying the City’s sound control program. (COMMITTEE: Governmental Operations, Wednesday, July 27, 2022, 2:00 p.m.)

custodY VIRGINIA: IN THE JUVENILE AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS DISTRICT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND Commonwealth of Virginia, in re EN’NAJA MYBLESSYN LEE RDSS v.

ERNEST LEE, UNKNOWN FATHER & SHANIKA CHANTEL NICHOLS File No. J-99663-10-11-12 ORDER OF PUBLICATION The object of this suit is to: terminate the residual parental rights (“RPR”) of Ernest Lee (Father), Unknown Father (Father), Shanika Chantel Nichols (Mother) of 16En’Naja Myblessyn Lee, child DOB: 4/16/2021, “RPR” means all rights and responsibilities remaining with Parent after transfer of legal custody or guardianship of the person, including but not limited to rights of: Visitation; adoption consent; determination of religious affiliation; and responsibility for support and that: It is ORDERED that the defendants, Ernest Lee (Father), Unknown Father (Father), Shanika Chantel Nichols (Mother) to appear at the above-named Court and protect his/her interest on or before 9/20/2022, at 9:00 A.M., Courtroom #2 MCG.

RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING CITY OF RICHMOND, Plaintiff, v.

CASSANDRA CALENDERRAY, et al, Defendants.

Case No.: CL22-2280 ORDER OF PUBLICATION The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as 801 North 38th Street, Tax Map Number E000-1552/001, Richmond, Virginia, to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owner of record, name Cassandra CalenderRay. An Affidavit having been filed that said owners, CASSANDRA CALENDERRAY, who has been served by posting and by mailing a copy of the complaint to her last known address, has not been personally located and has not filed a response to this action, and that any heirs, devisees, assignees, successors in interest, successors in title and/or any creditors with a current or future interest in said property, have not been identified and/or served despite diligent efforts to do so and are defendants to this suit by the general description of “Parties Unknown.”

IT IS ORDERED that CASSANDRA CALENDERRAY, and Parties Unknown, come forward to appear on or before SEPTEMBER 15, 2022 and do what is necessary to protect their interests in this matter.

An Extract, Teste: Edward F. Jewett, Clerk Gregory A. Lukanuski, Esq. City of Richmond, Office of the City Attorney 900 E. Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219 804-646-7949 VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING CITY OF RICHMOND, Plaintiff, v.

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF

LEON W. HAYES, et al, Defendants.

Case No.: CL22-2494 ORDER OF PUBLICATION The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as 3210 Utah Place, Tax Map Number N000-1074/019, Richmond, Virginia, to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owner of record, Leon W. Hayes, Marynia L. Hayes, George Cecil Hayes and Annie V. Hamilton.

An Affidavit having been filed that said owner, LEON W. HAYES, upon information and belief deceased, or his heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in interest, have not been located and have not filed a response to this action; that said owner, MARYNIA L. HAYES, upon information and belief deceased, or her heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in interest, have not been located and have not filed a response to this action; that said owner, GEORGE CECIL HAYES, upon information and belief deceased, his heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in interest, have not been located and have not filed a response to this action; that said owner, ANNIE V. HAMILTON, upon information and belief deceased, or her heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in interest, have not been located and have not filed a response to this action; and that any heirs, devisees, assignees, successors in interest, successors in title and/or any creditors with a current or future interest in said property, have not been identified and/or served despite diligent efforts to do so and are defendants to this suit by the general description of “Parties Unknown.”

Continued on next column

Continued on next column

PROPERTY

Interested citizens who wish to speak will be given an opportunity to do so by following the instructions referenced in the September 12, 2022 Richmond City Council Formal meeting agenda.

Copies of the full text of all ordinances are available by visiting the City Clerk’s page on the City’s Website at https:// www.rva.gov/office-cityclerk, and in the Office of the City Clerk, City Hall, 900 East Broad Street, Suite 200, Richmond, VA 23219, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Candice D. Reid City Clerk

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE CITY OF RICHMOND REINA ZULMA RIVERA ALVARADO, Plaintiff v.

RONAL WALDEMAR PEREZ DE LA CRUZ, Defendant.

Case No.: CL22-2753-2 ORDER OF PUBLICATION The object of this suit is to obtain a divorce a vinculo matrimonii from the bond of matrimony from the Defendant on the ground of having lived separate and apart for a period of more than a year, pursuant to §20-91(A) (9) of the Code of Virginia; and It appearing to the court that the Defendant Ronal Waldemar Perez De La Cruz, cannot be found, and that diligence has been used with effect to ascertain the location of the party to be served; it is, therefore.

ORDERED that the D e f e n d a n t , R onal Waldemar Perez De La Cruz, appear at the abovenamed court and protect his interests on or before the 7th day of September, 2022.

I ask for this: Taylor R. Fisher (VSB #96130) Evolution Divorce & Family Law, PLLC 1500 Forest Avenue, Suite 117 Richmond, Virginia 23229 (804) 793-8200 (main) Counsel for Plaintiff

Continued from previous column

VIRGINIA: IN THE GENERAL DISTRICT COURT-CIVIL OF HENRICO Commonwealth of Virginia, in re WHITES TOWING INC v.

GREGORY STEWART Case No. GV22004008-00 ORDER OF PUBLICATION The object of this suit is to: Petition this Court to order the sale of 2020 Ford Escape valued at $22,950 located in Henrico County.

It is ORDERED that the defendant appear at the above-named Court and protect his or her interests on or before 9/12/2022, at 10:00 A.M.

Continued from previous column

Continued from previous column

IT IS ORDERED that LEON W. HAYES, upon information and belief deceased, or his heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in interest, MARYNIA L. HAYES, upon information and belief deceased, or her heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in interest, GEORGE CECIL HAYES, upon information and belief deceased, his heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in interest, ANNIE V. HAMILTON, upon information and belief deceased, or her heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in interest, and Parties Unknown, come forward to appear on or before SEPTEMBER 15, 2022 and do what is necessary to protect their interests in this matter.

An Extract, Teste: Edward F. Jewett, Clerk Gregory A. Lukanuski, Esq. City of Richmond, Office of the City Attorney 900 E. Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219 804-646-7949 VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING CITY OF RICHMOND, Plaintiff, v.

Carla Burno, et al, Defendants.

Case No.: CL22-1941 ORDER OF PUBLICATION The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as 5506 Jahnke Road, Tax Map Number C005-0618/032, Richmond, Virginia, to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owner of record, Carla Burno.

An Affidavit having been filed that said owner, CARLA BURNO, who has been served by posting and by mailing a copy of the complaint to her last known address, has not been personally located and has not filed a response to this action, and that any heirs, devisees, assignees, successors in interest, successors in title and/or any creditors with a current or future interest in said property, have not been identified and/or served despite diligent efforts to do so and are defendants to this suit by the general description of “Parties Unknown.”

IT IS ORDERED that CARLA BURNO, and Parties Unknown, come forward to appear on or before SEPTEMBER 15, 2022 and do what is necessary to protect their interests in this matter.

An Extract, Teste: Edward F. Jewett, Clerk Gregory A. Lukanuski, Esq. City of Richmond, Office of the City Attorney 900 E. Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219 804-646-7949

SANDRA JACKSON, and ERICA BRATTON, who have been served by posting and by mailing a copy of the complaint to their last known address, have not been personally located and have not filed a response to this action; that said owner, DAVID BERKLEY, has not been located and has not filed a response to this action; that said owner, OLIVIA CORBETT, owner of record of said property, who is not a resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia, has not been located and has not filed a response to this action; that THE PACESETTER CORPORATION, an entity not listed in the records o f t h e Vi r g i n i a S t a t e Corporation Commission, BENEFICIARY of a Deed of Trust filed in the records of the Richmond Circuit Court at Deed Book 427 page 1788 on January 24, 1995, has not been located and has not filed a response to this action; that ZACHARIAS BROTHERS REALTY, an entity listed as inactive in the records of the Virginia State Corporation Commission, which may be a creditor with an interest in said property, has not been located and has not filed a response to this action, and that any heirs, devisees, assignees, successors in interest, successors in title and/or any creditors with a current or future interest in said property, have not been identified and/or served despite diligent efforts to do so and are defendants to this suit by the general description of “Parties Unknown.”

IT IS ORDERED that LORRAINE FORD, L AS TAR ZA H O WA R D , S A N D R A JACKSON, ERICA B R AT TO N , D AV I D B E R K L E Y, OLIVIA C O R B E T T, THE P A C E S E T T E R CORPORATION, an entity not listed in the records o f t h e Vi r g i n i a S t a t e Corporation Commission, BENEFICIARY of a Deed of Trust filed in the records of the Richmond Circuit Court at Deed Book 427 page 1788 on January 24, 1995, ZACHARIAS BROTHERS REALTY, an entity listed as inactive in the records of the Virginia State Corporation Commission, which may be a creditor with an interest in said property, and Parties Unknown, come forward to appear on or before SEPTEMBER 15, 2022 and do what is necessary to protect their interests in this matter.

An Extract, Teste: Edward F. Jewett, Clerk Gregory A. Lukanuski, Esq. City of Richmond, Office of the City Attorney 900 E. Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219 804-646-7949

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING CITY OF RICHMOND, Plaintiff, v.

LORRAINE FORD, et al, Defendants.

Case No.: CL21-3901 ORDER OF PUBLICATION The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as 3135 Griffin Avenue, Tax Map Number N000-1036/043, Richmond, Virginia, to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owners of record, Lorraine Ford, Lastarza Howard, Sandra Jackson, Erica Bratton, David Berkley, Olivia Corbett and Paul Bratton.

An Affidavit having been filed that said owners, LORRAINE FORD, L A S TA R Z A H O WA R D ,

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING CITY OF RICHMOND, Plaintiff, v.

MARY JANE B. ANDERSON, et al, Defendants.

Case No.: CL22-1899 ORDER OF PUBLICATION The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as 3308 Gloucester Road, Tax Map Number N000-1225/012, Richmond, Virginia, to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owner of record, Mary Jane B. Anderson.

An Affidavit having been filed that said owner, MARY JANE B. ANDERSON, who has been served by posting and by mailing a copy of the complaint to her last known address, has not been personally located and has not filed a response to this action, and that any heirs, devisees,

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assignees, successors in interest, successors in title and/or any creditors with a current or future interest in said property, have not been identified and/or served despite diligent efforts to do so and are defendants to this suit by the general description of “Parties Unknown.”

IT IS ORDERED that MARY JANE B. ANDERSON, and Parties Unknown, come forward to appear on or before SEPTEMBER 15, 2022 and do what is necessary to protect their interests in this matter.

An Extract, Teste: Edward F. Jewett, Clerk Gregory A. Lukanuski, Esq. City of Richmond, Office of the City Attorney 900 E. Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219 804-646-7949 Trustees’ Sale of 1305 Bainbridge Street Richmond, VA In execution of that certain deed of trust dated August 15, 2018 securing payment in the original principal amount of $292,750.00 recorded in the Clerk’s Office of the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond, VA as Instrument Number 180017063 at page 0201, (the “Deed of Trust”), default having occurred in payment of the indebtedness secured by the Deed of Trust, the undersigned Substitute Trustee, at the direction of the secured party will offer for sale at public auction at the main entrance to the building housing the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond, VA at The John Marshall Courts Building, 400 N. 9th Street, Richmond, VA on AUGUST 10, 2022 at 12:00 Noon. the property described in the referenced Deed of Trust located at the above address and more particularly described as follows: ALL that certain Lot, piece or parcel of land, lying and being in the City of Richmond, Virginia, with the improvements thereon, designated as No. 1305 Bainbridge Street, and being more particularly bounded and described as follows: COMMENCING at a point on the north line of Bainbridge Street distant 44.19 feet from the intersection of the said North line of Bainbridge street with the west line of Thirteenth Street thence running and fronting on the said north line of Bainbridge Street·21.81 feet; thence back at right angles with Bainbridge Street 155 feet to an alley ten (10’) feet wide; thence along the line of said alley toward Thirteenth Street 21.81 feet, thence at right angles and parallel with Thirteenth Street 101.5 feet thence at right angles towards Thirteenth Street 4 inches; thence at right angles and parallel with Thirteenth Street 35 feet; thence at right angles toward Fourteenth Street 4 inches; thence at right angles and parallel with Thirteenth Street 18.5 feet to the point of beginning.

TERMS OF SALE: CASH. A bidder’s deposit of $25,000.00 or 10% of the sale price, whichever is lower, in the form of cash or certified funds (payable to the Substitute Trustee) must be presented at the time of sale. The balance of the purchase price is due within fifteen (15) days of the date of sale, otherwise Purchaser’s deposit may be forfeited to the Substitute Trustee(s) to be disbursed in accordance with VA law. The Property and appurtenances thereto, if any, will be sold “as is” without warranty of any kind and subject to any and all judgments, liens, covenants, conditions, restrictions, easements or other matters of record or not of record which may take priority over the referenced Deed of Trust.

Time is of the essence. The sale is subject to post-sale confirmation by the secured party or the Substitute Trustee of the terms and acceptability of the sale, at the sole Continued on next column

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discretion of the secured party or Substitute Trustee. If the sale is set aside for any reason, the Purchaser’s sole remedy will be the return of the deposit paid without interest and the Purchaser will have no further recourse against the Substitute Trustee, the Mortgagee or the Trustee’s attorney. Additional Terms of Sale will be announced at the time of sale and will be set forth in the Trustee’s Memorandum of Foreclosure Sale to be executed by the

successful bidder at the time of the sale. This is a communication from a debt collector and any information obtained will be used for that purpose. Sale is subject to seller confirmation. Substitute Trustee: RVA Recovery, LLC,.

Contact Stephen B. Wood at The Wood Law Firm, 6720 Patterson Ave., Suite D. Counsel for Trustee. For information contact: Stephen B. Wood TEL: (804) 8730088 or (804) 335-0888. File #GF2021191. Ad. Dates: July 14 & 21, 2022

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EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Thank you for your interest in applying for opportunities with The City of Richmond.

To see what opportunities are available, please refer to our website at www.richmondgov.com.

EOE M/F/D/V

VCDC is currently seeking VCDC is currently a full-time Asset Manager seeking a full-time to join our team.

Portfolio For moreManager details to join to our team. and how apply visit: For more details www.vibrantcommunities.us and how to apply visit:

www.vibrantcommunities.us

Data Scientist II, Henrico, VA. Use data analysis, data mining, optimization tools & machine learning techniques to build models to analyze large scale data. Mail resume to J. Fleming, VCU Health System Authority, 830 E. Main St., Suite 200, Richmond, VA 23219.

Great Hope Baptist Church is seeking an experienced Minister of Music to lead and direct its Music Ministry. Individual must be competent to teach various forms of gospel music to inspire the congregation through musical ministry; direct choirs; play by ear; capable of playing the keyboard, organ, and piano; possess strong work ethics; demonstrate strong leadership, organizational, and communications skills by effectively collaborating with church staff, administrators, and choir members; and, have a spiritual background. Compensation: $30,000.00 annually.

If interested, please send your resume to: ghbcsec1@outlook.com 3RVLWLRQ RSHQHG XQWLO VXFFHVVIXOO\ ¿OOHG

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