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Richmond Free Press
VOL. 29 NO. 10
© 2020 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
www.richmondfreepress.com
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A10, B8
MARCH 5-7, 2020
Biden wins Virginia
1.3M state voters turn out for Super Tuesday presidential primary By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Vying to become the Democratic challenger to President Trump, Joseph R. “Joe” Biden Jr. swept to primary victories in Virginia and eight other states on Super Tuesday, thanks to a huge surge of support from African-American voters. On a day when the turnout hit record levels for primary elections, exit polls suggest the former vice president, who served with former President Obama, won 63 percent of the crucial African-American vote in Virginia and similar levels in Alabama, North Carolina and Tennessee. The huge vote for Mr. Biden mirrored the support he received from African-American voters in South Carolina. That support, which followed the endorsement of U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, a key political leader in that state, enabled Mr. Biden to win that state’s primary on Saturday and gain momentum heading into Tuesday’s primary extravaganza when voting took place in 14 states and American
Randy Singleton
Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden, center, raises his arms in victory at a Norfolk rally just three days before he scored a big victory in Virginia’s presidential primary on Super Tuesday. Joining him at the rally on Saturday before a cheering crowd in the Booker T. Washington High School gymnasium are, from left, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, U.S. Reps. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, A. Donald McEachin and Elaine Luria and Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney.
General Assembly elects 2 to area judgeships
Please turn to A4
State officials: Va. ready to handle coronavirus By George Copeland Jr. and Ronald E. Carrington
Free Press staff report
A veteran Richmond General District Court judge has been tapped to fill a seat on the city’s Circuit Court, and the daughter of the late Richmond attorney Leonard W. Lambert Sr. is headed to the bench in Henrico County. Judge D. Eugene Cheek Sr., who has presided over criminal cases in the city’s lower court for more than 20 years, won election from the House of Delegates and state Senate to move up to Richmond Circuit Court to replace retiring Judge Gregory L. Rupe. Judge Cheek is to begin his first eight-year term on the circuit court on July 1. The legislature, however, has not filled his seat on the Richmond General District Court. Separately, attorney Linda Y. Lambert was elected as a judge to the Henrico Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court. She is to begin her first six-year term on May 1. Ms. Lambert has served as a substitute judge in the Henrico County court.
Samoa. The bottom line: Mr. Biden, 77, has regained front-runner status in a race that essentially has become a head-to-head contest between him and U.S. Sen. Bernard “Bernie” Sanders, 78, of Vermont to become the party’s champion in the upcoming contest with the 73-year-old president. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts remains in the race, but few regard her as a contender who can win the party’s nomination, particularly after she came in third in her home state’s primary that Mr. Biden won narrowly over Sen. Sanders. Along with Virginia and Massachusetts, Mr. Biden won Tuesday’s Democratic contests in Alabama, Arkansas, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. Mr. Biden appeared to be aided by the decisions of Pete Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, Ind., and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota
Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press
Virginia First Lady Pam Northam, laden with a bag full of show-and-tell items, settles in to read “When Spring Comes” to kindergartners at Overby-Sheppard Elementary School in Highland Park on Monday during the annual Read Across America Day. She is helped by Jahmir Johnson, who dons bumble bee wings and antennae to illustrate signs of the coming spring.
Virginia officials stressed the state’s readiness to confront any cases of COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus, during a news conference Wednesday morning at a state office building in Downtown. “My top priority is to keep Virginians safe,” said Gov. Ralph S. Northam. “There have been no positive cases of the coronavirus in Virginia.” Gov. Northam, who is a physician, was flanked by about 10 state officials, including state Health Commissioner Dr. M. Norman Oliver and State Epidemiologist Dr. Lilian Peake, who is leading the state’s incident management team, as they offered information to bolster public confidence and quell any fears about the state’s ability to deal with the global health threat. The United States is on high alert as the death toll nationally reached 11 on Wednesday, with more than 130 confirmed cases of coronavirus in about 15 states, including North Carolina. All but one of the deaths occurred in the state of Washington. Please turn to A4
On Dr. Seuss’ birthday, Overby-Sheppard students learn the fun of reading By Ronald E. Carrington
At Overby-Sheppard Elementary School, Read Across America Day on Monday was filled with inspiring stories read to youngsters featuring characters reflecting their ethnic backgrounds. As the school lobby buzzed with excitement and anticipation, an assembly of community members arrived to read to kindergarten and first grade students.
Read Across America, established by the National Education Association in 1997 as an initiative to help youngsters get excited about reading, is also known as Dr. Seuss Day because it typically comes on March 2, the birthday of the noted late children’s author, Theodor Seuss “Ted” Geisel. Often, at Read Across America events, Dr. Seuss’ books are among those read to students. Please turn to A4
Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press
Gov. Ralph S. Northam, center, explains the state’s preparations for the coronavirus during a news conference Wednesday at the Patrick Henry Building in Downtown with several state officials. There have been no confirmed cases of the virus in Virginia so far.
One woman’s crusade brings attention to long-forgotten black cemetery By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press
Lenora C. McQueen stands in the forgotten Grave Yard for Free People of Colour and For Slaves during a visit to Richmond. Behind her is the vacant, graffiti-marked mechanic’s shop at 1305 N. 5th St. In the background is the Hebrew Cemetery and the former white Richmond Alms House that now holds apartments for seniors.
A long closed mechanic’s shop sits on a hilltop at 5th and Hospital streets north of Downtown — just a stone’s thrown from the handsome, historic and well-tended private Hebrew and public Shockoe Hill cemeteries. Hundreds of motorists and city buses pass the intersection daily, but few, if any, know that the once-thriving shop and car wash sit atop one of the largest public cemeteries for African-Americans — both free and enslaved — that the city established more than 200 years ago. Long forgotten and off city maps, the Grave Yard for Free People of Colour and For Slaves opened in 1816 and became the burial ground
for at least 22,000 people. The Grave Yard replaced the original public burial site for AfricanAmericans at 15th and Broad streets, which also was forgotten until its rediscovery in the 1990s. The city government initially set aside 1 acre for the burial of slaves and 1 acre for free African-
Related story on B2 Americans, many of whom preferred the private cemetery that a burial society established in Barton Heights a year earlier. Over time, the Grave Yard was expanded to nestle two nearby creeks, Bacon Quarter Branch and Shockoe, both of which have run invisibly through underground pipes since World War I.
The Grave Yard also expanded west into land that 5th Street covers and to a section of property behind the white Richmond Alms House on Hospital Street, now senior apartments. The Colored Alms House, long ago demolished, sat on 5th Street beside Shockoe Hill Cemetery, and some residents also were buried on its grounds. While it operated, there is evidence the Grave Yard became a favorite place for thieves to secure bodies needed by the Medical College of Virginia to train physicians before the state ban on human dissection was lifted. The majority of people buried there were poor. The burial ground, renamed Potters Field after the Civil War, Please turn to A4
