Associated Press
Steven Bernard Nesmith, former HUD official, has known poverty and prosperity, but considers RRHA role his dream job Mr. Nesmith
Left, first-grader Shykeem Bhagat jumped into the arms of Nichole Snyder, his kindergarten teacher from the last school year. Zendaya Falconer, a kindergartener, is ready for breakfast and gets help, above, from nutritionist manager Valencia Christian and Melissa Watkins, nutritionist assistant. Ms. Thompson needed most. The six-time champion at Flushing Meadows will play Friday for a spot in the fourth round. Her opponent will be Ajla Tomljanovic, a 29year-old Australian.
The Associated Press NEW YORK Serena Williams eliminated No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2 in the U.S. Open’s second round Wednesday night to ensure that the 23-time Grand Slam champion will play at least one more singles match at what she’s hinted will be the last tournament of her il lustrious career. The 40-year-old Williams was again buoyed by a loud crowd at a full Arthur Ashe Stadium, just as she was in the first round two days earlier. She hit serves at up to 119 mph, stayed with Kontaveit during lengthy exchanges of big swings from the baselines and conjured up some of her trademark brilliance when it was Serena wins again at U.S. Open, beating No. 2 seed Kontaveit
By Holly Rodriguez When Henrico County native Kiara Thompson began her college career, teaching was not what she had in mind. But on Tuesday, the Thomas C. Boushall Middle School sci ence teacher was thankful she chose the path of education. Ms. Thompson was surprised with the announcement that she was named the Region 1 Teacher of the Year. “I know a lot of times we talk about how students are thank ful for teachers,” she said at a press conference at the school. “But I am so thankful for my students — they have taught me so much over the years and they continue to teach me things every day.” After graduating from Varina High School, Ms. Thompson’s Boushall Middle teacher is
Housing units’ new CEO
Meeting them where they are
memory dates back to 2004 when the General Assembly approved the voter-supported plan to replace the councilmanager government. That is when the current practice of having an indepen dent elected mayor as chief executive with a chief admin istrative officer — essentially a city manager — serving as the No. 2 official at City Hall, though still with full authority to hire and fire top officials and execute policies. In private, council mem bers speak of frustration with this separation of powers that creates an “us vs. them” mentality.SixthDistrict Councilwom an Ellen F. Robertson, who believes there “are changes that need to be made to make our government better,” suc ceeded last November in getting council to approve creation of a commission to recommend changes for the council to con sider and send to the General By Jeremy M. Lazarus Steven Bernard Nesmith is returning to public housing more than 40 years after leaving the Philadelphia projects where he grew up. Since leaving public housing four decades ago, his journey has been filled with undeniable success.Now a lawyer and housing and community development expert with a long list of creden tials that includes a three-year stint as an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Hous ing and Urban Development, the 6-foot-5 former American University basketball star has been tapped to lead Richmond’s public housing operations and spearhead its transformation. Monday afternoon, the board of the Richmond Redevelop ment and Housing Authority voted to install Mr. Nesmith as the chief executive officer, capping a more than two-year search for a permanent succes sor to Damon E. Duncan, who left in “Our2020.board is thrilled to welcome Steven,” current Chair Brett Hardiman, stated in the announcement. “He has a breadth and depth of knowledge that, combined with his passion and experience, will ensure that RRHA strengthens its com mitment to our residents and re-establishes itself as a leader in the creation of affordable housing.”Nowbusy closing up the housing policy company he has operated in Northern Virginia since 2016, Mr. Nesmith will take over from the interim chief executive, Sheila HillChristian, whose company, Fahrenheit Advisors, led the executive recruiting search that brought him to the attention of
Region 1 Teacher of the Year
As a new semester begins at the University of Richmond, there is one familiar face that stu dents, faculty and staff will not see on campus thisAfteryear. 35 years of advocating and helping to support underrepresented students at the institu tion, Dr.Tinina Cade retired from her most recent Longtime educator praised for building an infrastructure of support for students Dr. Tinina Cade retires after 35 years at University of Richmond
Photos by Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press
Richmond Free Press © 2022 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.FRee FRee Please turn to A4 Please turn to A4 VOL. 31 NO. 36 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA www.richmondfreepress.com SEPTEMBER 1-3, 2022 Meet this Personalityweek’s B1 Earlier story on A9
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By Jeremy M. Lazarus Would Richmond be bet ter off returning to a City Council-manager form of government?Orwould the city operate better if the elected mayor were a member of the council as is the case in Norfolk? Should members of the governing body receive higher salaries so they could serve full time rather than juggling full-time jobs along with their government service? Behind the scenes, those questions have been the subject of plenty of debate. Soon, they will on the front burner.After years of talk and months of dawdling over ap pointments, the council is on the verge of “standing up” a commission to review and recommend changes to the charter.The charter has had piece meal changes in recent years, but the largest overhaul in recent
Council poised to launch charter review commission
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The Richmond and Henrico County health districts are offering testing at the following location: • Thursday, Sept. 1 , 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.
By Holly Rodriguez
J.L. Francis Elementary School students, teachers and staff could barely contain their excitement as they reunited for the first day of the 2022-2023 school year Monday, Aug. 29. Despite maintaining masking protocols inside the Richmond Public Schools building, there was an abundance of back-to-school hugs, and Superintendent Jason Kamras was there to encourage everyone on their first day of school.
A new website with more details about the opening day schedule launched this week. Visit www.executivemansion. virginia.gov/
Instead, the city noted that it had com mitted $1.5 million from a federal grant to gun violence prevention, with $1 mil lion earmarked to Nextup RVA and other nonprofits to provide positive programming for city youths. The remaining $500,000 is set aside for gun buybacks and public education, with a stress on public education about gun violence.
City Council to weigh ranked-choice voting
City packs heat with little impact Gun buyback nets 126 broken weapons, 227 handguns, 117 rifles and shotguns
“We continue to view the mansion as one of the most revered historic spaces in the Commonwealth,” CAC Chair man Betsy Beamer said in a news release announcing the reopening.Museums contributing to the exhibit include the Library of Virginia, Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Valentine Museum and other museums in Norfolk, Abingndon and Charlottesville. The museum features work of independent Virginia artists as well. Additional art will be shared online each month.
Danita Rountree Green, left, and Marsha Summers are co-CEOs of Coming Together Virginia, a local nonprofit organization that typically unites people over a meal to have difficult conversations. On Aug. 27, the women led Richmond-area residents on a Unity Walk 2022 to commemorate the 59th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, “I Have a Dream” speech. Dr. King’s iconic speech was delivered during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963. The Richmond walk started from the Virginia Museum of History and Culture on Arthur Ashe Boulevard and proceeded to Monument Avenue before returning to its starting point.
By Holly Rodriguez
In observance of the Labor Day holiday on Monday, Sept. 5, please note the following: By Jeremy M. Lazarus Next week, City Council will likely decide whether to test a simple change in voting that would ensure a majority of voters elects every member of the govern ing body in the 2024 elections. The nine-member council will be meeting as a committee Tuesday, Sept. 6, to consider the change known as rankedchoice voting, which has begun gaining popularity and being used in New York and other major cities. A poll of the members would determine whether the proposal would advance to a formal vote at a regular council session. The process would be used when three or more candidates run for a council seat. At the ballot box, voters would rank the contenders in order of preference on their ballot. If there is no outright winner when the votes are first counted, the candidate with the lowest total would be dropped and the second choice preferences of that person’s voters would be distributed to the remain ingThecandidates.process would continue until one candidate secures more than 50 percent of the total vote and be declared the winner. Second District Councilwoman Kather ine Jordon introduced the proposal in April and has the support of two other members, Andreas D. Addison, 1st District, and Stephanie A. Lynch, 5th District. Others have yet to say how they stand. The Richmond Crusade for Voters and the League of Women Voters are backing the change as well because of the benefits, including increased voter participation and the assurance that the victor has majority backing.Thecouncil postponed action in May and, at Ms. Jordan’s request, put off consideration until this upcoming meet ing of the Organizational Development Committee to allow her colleagues more time to present it to their constituents and receiveAdvocatesfeedback.see the process as creating more support for the winner, given that every voter would have at least listed their preference for the candidate, even if he or she was not their first choice. In the current system, a winner can emerge with far less than a majority. Those who supported a losing candidate often have only disapproval to offer. Virginia Republicans used the system to choose their statewide ticket in the 2021 election, one of the first uses in Virginia, and the party united behind their candidates.In2020, the General Assembly passed and then Gov. Ralph S. Northam signed into law a bill to allow ranked-choice voting to be used, but only in elections for city council and county boards of supervisors. In Richmond, ranked-choice voting could not be used in the 2024 election for the next mayor and for the nine members of the School Board.
A church that has competed to buy the long vacant Oak Grove Elementary School property in South Side has been eliminated from contention — leaving an apartment developer as the only bidder with an offer still under review. City Hall has notified the Redeemer As sembly of Jesus Christ that it has rejected its bid for the building in the 2200 block of Ingram Avenue, Frank Wilson, a church member, disclosed Monday night at com munity meeting the Richmond NAACP organized on the building’s future. Mr. Wilson, also the newly installed vice president of the Oak Grove Civic As sociation, told the 25 people who attended the meeting at Hickory Hill Recreation Center that the church wanted to use the building to provide needed expansion space for the growing day care and Head Start programs that it now hosts at the sanctuary on nearby Fairfax Avenue. Those programs have taken over most of the space and required the church to limit or reduce other programming for working adults and retirees, he said.
Mr. Wilson said that if the community wants more child care services and more space for its events, they must rally to have their voices heard. Though no decisions have been made, City Hall is still reviewing the second bid from Lynx Ventures, a developer that has been involved in South Side for at least twoThedecades.company has proposed to buy the property for $500,000 with the goal of transforming the building into 240 units of affordable or rent-restricted housing that also is in high demand in this part of the Bernardcity. Harkless, a principal in Lynx Ventures, along with father and son Rick and John Gregory and Kelly Roberts, said 15 townhouses also are proposed to be built on the site. John Gregory said the townhomes would potentially be targeted to households whose annual incomes are 40 percent of the annual regional median income, or in the $30,000 to $35,000 range.
An exhibit featuring the work of several Virginia artists will be on display, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin and First Lady Suzanne S. Youngkin will greet visitors at various points of the day. Reservations are not required on the day of the event. The Executive Mansion is a Virginia and National Historic Landmark, and has housed governors and their families since 1813. Designed by architect Alexander Parris, the mansion sits within the gates of Capitol Square where a park area also houses the State Capitol, the Bell Tower, Patrick Henry Building, Old City Hall and several historic Virginia monu ments.Gov. Youngkin and First Lady Youngkin worked with the mansion’s staff and the Citizen Advisory Council on Interpret ing and Furnishing the Executive Mansion (CAC) to prepare for the opening. The CAC was formed during the Linwood Holton administration, and members work with the First Ladies of Virginia to “promote greater understanding and awareness of the history and significance” of the building.
Mr. Wilson acknowledged that Lynx Ventues had offered to provide room in the building for the child care programs, but said the church had to decline the offer because the company’s proposed development would wipe out the outdoor recreational space that the children also wouldBarbaraneed.Starkey-Goode, newly installed president of the civic group, said the as sociation opposes the apartment proposal and believes it would bring unwanted noise and traffic to the surrounding singlefamily neighborhood that is predominantly Black.Still, Mr. Gregory noted that the Lynx proposal is in tune with the city’s goal of boosting the number of rent-restricted units that could enable lower earning households to remain in the city.
After being closed for more than two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Executive Mansion, located in Capitol Square in Downtown, will reopen to the public Sept. 2.
By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Photos by Regina H. Boone / Richmond Free Press Cityscape Slices of life and scenes in Richmond Labor Day holiday closings 2022
The administration, in its statement, acknowledged that “gun violence, includ ing domestic violence, homicides, and suicides, cannot be eradicated with one initiative or program.” There was no suggestion that the ad ministration would try another.
Va. Executive Mansion open to public again Government offices • Local government offices in Richmond and Henrico, Chesterfield and Hanover counties will be closed. • State and federal offices will be closed. Courts • Closed in Richmond and the counties of Henrico, Chesterfield and Hanover. Schools • Closed Friday, Sept. 2, and Monday, Sept. 5, for Rich mond Public Schools and Chesterfield County public schools. In Henrico County, the Labor Day holiday for public schools on Monday, Sept. 5, will include Friday, Sept. 2, as a teacher work day, while Hanover County begins their first day of school on Tuesday, Sept. 6, with Labor Day observed with closed public schools on Monday, Sept. 5, and teacher workdays on Thursday and Friday, Sept. 1 and 2.
Public libraries • Closed. Trash and recycling • No pickups; all collections will be delayed by one day for the week. Banks, credit unions and other financial institu tions • Closed. U.S. Postal Service • Closed. Department of Motor Vehicles customer service centers • Closed. Malls, major retailers and movie theaters • Varies; check with specific locations. ABC stores • All stores will close at 6 p.m. on Labor Day. GRTC • Operating on a Sunday schedule on Labor Day, with no express service. Free Press Office • Closed.
Local News A2 September 1-3, 2022 Richmond Free Press
The church in February offered to buy the building for $275,000, with a plan to invest $1.5 million to renovate and improve the childhood education facilities, while also providing space for a community center with senior programming.
City rejects South Side church bid for abandoned school
By Jeremy M. Lazarus City Hall touted Richmond’s first gun buyback program as an “overwhelming success” despite evidence that the event is unlikely to have any impact on violence or gun ownership. The city paid out the available $67,500 in gift cards to 160 people who turned in 475 firearms and had to turn away others still waiting in line. The buyback program proved “that Richmond residents have a desire to change the city’s gun violence narrative,” Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s administration stated in a post-event release. According to the statement from the Stoney administration, the Aug. 20 ini tiative had three goals: “To reduce the availability of guns in the community, to provide for the safe disposal of firearms and to mobilize residents, raise awareness and shift the culture.” However, research developed from other cities that have held gun buybacks in the past 30 years shows the initiative that originated in Baltimore has no impact. Just as importantly, the event did not even make a ripple in gun ownership in Richmond.Whilethere is no census of gun own ers nor any exact count of the guns in private hands, estimates based on various data sources suggest that one-third of the city’s households own at least one firearm and that the collective total tops 100,000 weapons.Andthat doesn’t count the illegal weapons.Asone observer put it, “It was like scooping a cup of sand from the beach and suggesting that no more sandcastles could be built.” The weapons were collected from those who drove into the huge parking lot of Liberation Church in South Side to turn them over to police. The city reported that the weapons in cluded 126 that were broken and inoperable, representing 26 percent of the total. The other firearms included five assault rifles, 227 handguns and 117 rifles and shotguns. Observers noted most of the guns are not the kind of firearms that show up at crimeAlongscenes.with the church, the city teamed with the Robby Poblete Foundation, named for a 23-year-old who was gunned down in Vallejo, Calif., in 2014. The founda tion, created and led by his mother, Pati Navalta, only has conducted four other gun buybacks since its formation eight years ago, according to the foundation’s website. Before Richmond, the founda tion had collected less than 1,400 guns, with more than 700 coming from a 2018 buyback program in San Francisco.
All
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post as associate vice president for student development and director of the Student Center for Equity and Inclusion (SCEI) in February. “When I first got here, during the day, I was visiting schools to recruit Black students, and in the evening, I was meeting with students individually to support them,” she said. “There were so few people of color backToday,then.”the university rec ognizes the importance of di verse perspectives from Black, Latinx, Asian and LGBTQ students, and students with disabilities. But those voices have not always been present or heard on the campus. As she worked to diversify University of Richmond’s stu dent body through recruitment, Dr. Cade built an infrastructure of support to help students once they arrived on campus. She established the Academic Skills Center to keep students on track academically; the Oliver Hill Scholars program to provide mentorship; and the University of Richmond Black Alumni Net work (URBAN) to build a com munity for students once they graduated, and other programs. But Dr. Cade’s commitment to students extended beyond the appointments on her calendar or just workday hours. Kimberly Bowers Rollins, a 2005 graduate of the university now working as a fundraising consultant in Northern Virginia, said Dr. Cade was always acces sible and a woman she wanted to emulate.“Dr.Cade poured so much into my own personal college journey,” the married mother of two said. “She was there for us through relationships, made sure we had our hair done — whatever we needed to make it through our college journey.”Dr.Steve Bisese, vice president of student activities at University of Richmond and Dr. Cade’s supervisor, said she was a combination of caring and real-world practicality. “She felt it was her re sponsibility to teach students what it was going to be like when they left UR,” he said. “A phrase I often heard her say to students facing a challenge was, ‘Sweetie, come see me.’” Dr. Cade, herself the mother of three children, said the nur turing aspect of her personality extends to everyone around her. Perhaps the most profound act of love and nurturing came in 2005 when she decided to carry and deliver triplets as a surrogate to her daughter and son-in-law, Drs. Camille and Jason Hammond. She success fully carried and gave birth to her three grandchildren, and the Hammonds started the Tinina Q. Cade Foundation the same year the triplets were born. The foundation offers information, support and grants to help couples who are struggling with infertility. Mrs. Rollins joined the board of directors of the foundation at age 22, and kept in touch with the family over the years. When Dr. Cade’s retirement was announced in November 2021, Mrs. Rollins worked with Dr. Hammond to establish a scholarship fund at Univer sity of Richmond to honor Dr. Cade’sWhenlegacy.thecampaign began in January, the organizers had six weeks to raise funds before Dr. Cade retired. University and other donors delivered, raising more than $80,000 in time for her retirement. Dr. Cade is proud and grateful for the success of the fundraising effort, and also proud of how well the university’s students do once they leave UR. “I’m so im pressed when I see people giving back,” she said. Although she is retired, Dr. Cade said she has made it clear to students that she remains accessible to them. “I told them that I won’t be at UR, but I’m still invested in them and their success,” she said. “I’ve told them, ‘If you find yourself go ing through a difficult time, the email is the same.’” While it has been months since Dr. Cade left UR’s 192year-old campus, Dr. Bisese said he will forever miss his colleague and friend. “If you needed advice or an opinion on anything, she always had her door open,” he said. “I miss walking across the hall and seeking her wise counsel and I will miss that until the day that I retire.”
“When you step into my classroom, you are loved, you are appreciated and you matter,” she said. “I give them praise and let me know how important they are and that they can accomplish anything.”
News A4 September 1-3, 2022 Richmond Free Press
• Fabiana B. Parker, English as a second language teacher, at Thornburg Middle, Region 3 (Spotsylvania County)
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The Virginia Department of Health also has a list of COVID19 testing locations around the state at coronavirus/covid-19-testing/covid-19-testing-sites.www.vdh.virginia.gov/
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 location: • Thursday, Sept. 1, 1 to 4 p.m. - Richmond Henrico Health District, 400 E. Cary St., Pfizer for ages 6 months and older, Moderna for ages 6 months to 5 years old and ages 18 years and older, appointments 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. In addition, CrossOver Healthcare Ministry will provide an immunization opportunity ahead of the new school year, through its Evening Vaccine Clinic on Thursday, Sept. 1, at its Henrico clinic at 8600 Quioccasin Rd.. Appointments are required, and those interested should call them at (804) 655-2794 and select option six. Orders for free at-home COVID-19 tests through COVID. gov will be suspended on Friday, Sept. 2 after first starting in January, due to a lack of congressional funding, according to the COVID.gov website. New COVID-19 cases in Virginia increased by one percent, according to the Virginia Department of Health, while data from the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association showed hospitalizations statewide fell by 4.5 percent. For the last two weeks, the counties of Chesterfield, Henrico and Hanover have dropped to medium levels of community COVID-19, while the city of Richmond remains at high community COVID-19 levels. A total of 2,700 new cases of COVID-19 were reported statewide Wednesday for the 24-hour period, contributing to an overall state total of 2,040,106 cases in Virginia since the pandemic’s outbreak. As of Wednesday, there have been 454,209 hospitalizations and 21,416 deaths statewide. The state’s seven-day positivity rate dropped to 21.1 percent on Wednesday. Last week, the positivity rate was 21.5 percent. On Tuesday, state health officials reported that 72.2 percent of the state’s population has been fully vaccinated, while 82.5 percent have received at least one dose of the vaccine. State data also showed that nearly 3.7 million people in Virginia have received booster shots or third doses of the vaccine.Among ages 5 to 11 in Virginia, 334,326 have received their first shots as of Tuesday, accounting for 46.1 percent of the age group in the state, while 290,158 children, or 40 percent, are fully vaccinated and 47,454 children have received a third vaccine dose or booster, making up 6.5 percent of that age group. On Tuesday, 40,796 children from the ages of zero to four have received the first doses, making up nine percent of the population in Virginia, while 9,769 are fully vaccinated, or 2.1 percent of the population. As of Wednesday, fewer than 169,000 cases, 1,018 hospitalizations and 15 deaths have been recorded among children in the state. State data also shows that African-Americans comprised 22.1 percent of cases statewide and 22.9 percent of deaths for which ethnic and racial data is available, while Latinos made up 11.2 percent of cases and 4.9 percent of deaths.
As recommended by council’s Govern ment Operations Committee, the first six members who are slated for appointment, by district, are: 1st District, Kyle Elliott, general counsel for the Virginia Community HealthcareAssociation; 3rd District, Rachael Deane, Education Law Center’s director of Legal State Policy Support; and 4th District, William E. Echelberger Jr., a retired budget and financial analyst for City Council and the state Senate; 5th District, Dr. Thad Williamson, a University of Richmond as sistant professor and former director of the city Office of Community Wealth Building; 6th District, Dr. Bre’Auna K. Beasley, staff member at the state Supreme Court; and 7th District, Travis C. Gunn, an appellate attorney with McGuireWoods. Still missing are appointees from the 2nd, 8th and 9th Districts. the board. He is to take the RRHA helm on Oct. 1, where he will oversee an agency with a $90 million annual budget and 233 em ployees. The agency’s portfolio also includes more than 3,100 apartments, primarily located in six major complexes. A board member said he will start with a $250,000 a year salary, high for the authority, but a pay cut for him. Still, Mr. Nesmith, who has known poverty and prosperity, considers the RRHA post a dreamReachedjob. at his company’s office in Fairfax County, he described his new role as an opportunity to use his experi ence and knowledge to impact the lives of the people and children who look like him and live in the same circumstances he once did. He told a U.S. Senate com mittee considering his confirma tion for assistant HUD secretary that he had been “a so-called ‘at risk child’ in the ghetto of Philadelphia, Pa., who I am sure many could never imagine that I might sit here.” Mr. Nesmith said his goal also is to restore RRHA as a primary force in housing and economic development. He said it is not enough to just develop housing.Hesaid the whole package needs to include economic development so that residents can have the jobs they need to afford to rent or buy. Mr. Nesmith said he is al ready getting calls from people who want to join the executive team he plans to assemble to help carry out his vision for RRHA, one of the largest public housing operations in the MidAtlantic region. And, although he said he has had previous opportunities to lead a public housing author ity, until now “the timing was neverNowright.”with his son at Cornell University and his daughter at Virginia Tech and with the sup port of his wife, Christelle, he said he is finally at age 60 ready to make the career change. A former partner in several prestigious corporate law firms where he specialized in housing and development issues, Mr. Nesmith has spent the past six years leading Capital Mortgage and Financial Services LLC. That is a boutique lobbying firm he founded to provide policy, legal and governmental relations services to mortgage companies, title firms, banks, home builders, trade associa tions and housing nonprofits such as the Center for Respon sibleCityLending.Council Vice President Ellen F. Robertson, a former leader of a Richmond housing nonprofit that helped rebuild Highland Park, called Mr. Nesmith’s resume “impressive” and noted his “great connections with HUD.” Basketball and academics were his tickets to a better life. Awarded a full athletic scholarship to American, he played for four years before graduating, rising to captain of the team and earning a recognition award in 1985 for love of science led her to earn a bachelor’s degree in biology from Old Dominion University. Volunteering with students while pursuing a master’s in public ad ministration from ODU awakened her passion for “Interactingteaching.withstudents as a volunteer, when I got to see them reach that ‘Aha!’ moment as a tutor because of what I’d taught them was super important to me,” she said. “I could see the difference I was making as a tutor.” After receiving a certificate in educa tional leadership from Virginia Common wealth University, she landed her role at Boushall Middle School. She said she wanted to teach in Rich mond because she hadn’t had a lot of Black teachers in her K-12 learning experience. “I wanted my students to see someone who looks like them, who can relate to them, who can understand what they may be going through,” Ms. Thompson said. As a student, her very best teachers were the ones who were able to break down content into understandable doses, she said, in a fun and engaging atmosphere. “When I walked into those teachers’ classrooms, I felt important, like they heard me, and I knew they wanted me to succeed.”
Ms. Thompson said she wants to provide the same encouraging environment for her students, guiding them toward success in science, but also in life. She said she attempts to instill in them that education is power and is important. And like the best teachers she had as a middle and high school student, she works to let them know they are important and deserving of whatever they want in the world.
• Lori C. Peltonen, library and media specialist at Staunton High, Region 5 (Staunton)
• Megan G. Graves, special education teacher at Appomattox High, Region 8 (Appomattox County)
Boushall Middle teacher is Region 1 Teacher of the Year Continued from A1 his play from the Washington Metropolitan Basketball Hall of Fame. After playing professional ball overseas for several sea sons, he returned to enroll in the Georgetown University School of Law, where he served a term as president of the student bar before graduating. He clerked for a judge, then joined the Philadelphia city government. He captured the attention of then-President Bill Clinton’s administration after he led the restructuring of the city’s Em powerment Zone agency, and was tapped in 1999 to serve as a deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Commerce Department where he oversaw the Economic Development Administration’s and its $1.5 billion development portfolio. After George W. Bush was elected president, Mr. Nesmith, who had won kudos for his ability work with diverse groups and cross political lines, was named to his HUD post to serve as the agency’s liaison to Congress as well as other federal agencies, state and local governments, housing develop ers and nonprofits. He said he got his schooling then on the risks and rewards of developing affordable housing. After leaving the govern ment, he spent the next few years with law firms and financial services companies. At one firm, he helped corporate clients gain government support to recover from the Great Recession. At another, he was tasked with turn ing around a title company that had fallen on hard times. He also was involved in building a financial services practice at an international law firm and aiding another finan cial services company grow its mortgage portfolio before founding Capital Mortgage. The depth and breadth of his experience in housing, policy and development appear to eclipse that of any previous CEO in the past 30 years. “I think we have picked a real winner,” said RRHA board member William E. Johnson Jr. “I am hopeful that Richmond will welcome him and work withMr.him.”Nesmith, himself, ad mires Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s vision for boosting affordable housing. His remarks to the Republi can-led Senate committee that would support his confirmation spelled out his interest in a col laborative and inclusive approach and to ensuring involvement all of those with a stake. “I recognize that there will be challenges ahead for us,” he said then, “whether they are a specific program at HUD or issues facing the broader hous ing community. Nevertheless, I believe that we must address these issues in a bipartisan man ner in order to find long-term solutions.”
Reported COVID-19 data as of Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022 Cases Hospitalizations Deaths Richmond 55,426 1,187 532 Henrico County 80,285 1,592 998 Chesterfield County 89,078 1,619 803 Hanover County 25,710 760 313 Compiled by George Copeland Jr.
Photo courtesy of Dr. Tinina Cade Dr. Tinina Cade (third from right) is shown with members of her family from left, Simone Hammond, Kai Hammond, Dr. Jason Hammond, Dr. Camille Hammond, Dr. Ronald Cade, and Aaron Hammond.
Steven Bernard Nesmith, former HUD official, has known poverty and prosperity, but considers RRHA role his dream job
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• Dawn Poe, kindergarten teacher at Fairview Elementary, Region 7 (Grayson County)
• Angela D. Myers, librarian at Red Mountain Middle, Region 6 (Botetourt County)
Dr. Tinina Cade bio Born and and raised in Washington, D.C. Academic degrees: Bachelor’s degree, international affairs, University of Cincinnati; master’s degree, student personnel, Ohio State University; Ph.D., higher education administration, University of Pittsburgh.
For Ms. Thompson, teaching is more than a career — it is a calling. “What I love most about teaching and the reason I became a teacher is the impact I am able to have on my students,” she said standing at the podium during the announcement Tuesday morning. “If you were ever in my class, you will always be in my class.”
Continued from A1 Free COVID-19 vaccines
Council poised to launch charter review commission Assembly for approval. The first six members of the City Charter Review Commission are to be appointed at the first scheduled council meeting this month, Monday, Sept. 12. That is a sufficient number to launch the commission, although three vacancies still exist.
Dr. Tinina Cade retires after 35 years
The Virginia Department of Education selected eight teachers, including Ms. Thompson, from across the state to be in the final running for the state’s Teacher of the Year distinction. VDOE will select the state’s Teacher of the Year, who will compete with teachers throughout the country to be named Teacher of the Year for the United States. The other seven teachers are: • Jason D. Bartholomew, business infor mation and technology teacher at Nanse mond River High, Region 2 (Suffolk)
• Jordan M. Markwood, music teacher at Rock Ridge High, Region 4 (Loudoun County)
Virginia Commonwealth University plans to aid the academic path of underrepre sented undergraduates, courtesy of a $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education and the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program.
VCU is one of three Virginia universities to receive the McNair grant, named for the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University graduate and the second African-American to fly in space.
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“Participation in McNair gives our students the support, inspiration and access they need to seek an advanced degree. The McNair Program is one way we’re showing our commitment to the success of all of our students.”
$1.3M federal grant assists first-generation students, students with disabilities
By Charlene TriceEdneyWire.comCrowell
The Century report also notes that decades later, 1965’s Higher Education Act created Pell Grants as a key form of financial assistance that could cover the costs of non-tuition items, thereby lessening the need to borrow heavily to finance higher education. But as college education costs began a stillcontinuing increase, Pell Grant appropriations did not have a comparable increase. That funding failure heavily contributed to the onset of racial disparities in accruing student loan debt. An estimated 70 percent of all HBCU students are financially eligible for this funding.
Like Black families, HBCUs are financially short-changed
“Smaller endowments mean less money for faculty salaries, scholarships, research, program expansions and, perhaps most important, day-to-day operations,” the report states. “This dis parity has a domino effect on other spending.”
Summer internships key to jump-starting careers
With all these stated issues, the UNCF report also offers a number of key data points worth noting: • HBCUs provide an average of 6,385 jobs in each state and territory and generate an average of $704.7 million a year in total economic impact; • HBCUs have a 34 percent mobility rate of moving their students from the bottom 40 percent in household income into the top 60 percent. — a figure double that of the national aver age and five times more than Ivy institutions; and • HBCUs graduate 80 percent of Black judges, 50 percent of Black doctors, and 50 percent of Black lawyers.
Dr. McNair Mr. Lyons
Another recent report by the Frederick D. Patterson Institute, the research arm of the United Negro College Fund, sought to better understand institutional needs and priorities, and how federal funding and philanthropic donations currently fall short of long-standing needs. Despite a two-year uptick in federal funds that delivered $6.5 billion to 101 HBCUs under the Biden Administration, these institutions remain severely underfunded.
A rising VSU senior and computer engineering major, Jeremey Johnson was noticed by multiple Fortune 500 companies that were seeking summer interns, including Honda North America. Honda selected Mr. Johnson for a paid 2022 summer co-op position at one of the company’s South Carolina locations.
The report also notes that HBCU endowments, which many institutions of higher learning dedicate to capital projects like construction/ renovation and permanent scholarships, are un derfunded as well. Citing a report by the Government Account ability Office, the report found that HBCUs have an average of $15,000 in endowment per student, compared with $410,000 at comparable non-HBCUs.
As college students settle into campus life, many Black Americans remember the multigenerational sacrifices that have established higher education as a bridge to a better life. Despite the continuing pandemic, the rise of inflation, or the nation’s $1.7 trillion in student debt, parents, grandparents and others urge their students to “get that degree.” And once again, an estimated 300,000 Black students are expected to enroll at one of the nation’s 101 Historically Black Colleges andButUniversities.unlikeprevious years, a new educational challenge has swept across these campuses: Finding affordable housing. The unfortunate situation for many HBCUs is that dormitories do not always have the capacity to house all of its own students. In these cases, students and their families are forced to find rental housing near campuses or those located near transit systems to access campus life. Achieving Financial Equity & Justice for HBCUs, a research report by the Century Foundation, chronicles historical underfunding of HBCUs as early as 1871 to Reconstruction, to postWorld War II, and beyond. For example, the enactment of the GI bill in 1944 spurred college enrollment of thousands of veterans returning to civil life. Yet Black America’s experience with the nationwide higher educational expansion was distinctly different. “HBCUs were cut off from state and federal resources pro vided to predominantly White-serving institutions,” states the report. “Without adequate state or private support, HBCUs were not able to expand the campus infrastructure and housing and hire faculty and staff to serve increased demand. As a result, an estimated 20,000 Black veterans seeking a college education were turned away from Southern Black colleges, a denial rate double the rate at other colleges.”
And just like Black consumers frequently find access to capital comes at a high cost, so do HBCUs, according to the report.
Just imagine how much more HBCUs could accomplish if better funding were obtained and sustained: more dormitories with the capacity to house all students desiring to live on campus; less deferred maintenance; more and larger need-based scholar ships that would lighten the need for student loans.
Photos courtesy of Jeremey Johnson
VUU President Hakim J. Lucas said the donation allows students to continue their college education with less worry about the costs or other economic barriers. “VUU is committed to providing greater access to an affordable and quality education while eliminating or reducing student debt,” he said in a published statement.
Mr. McNair was recruited by actress Nichelle Nichols in 1978 as part of a NASA initiative to increase the number of minority and female astronauts. He died in 1986 during a mission as a member of the tragic Challenger Space Shuttle crew. The McNair program is intended to help low-wealth or first-generation college students, in addition to students with disabilities earning doctoral degrees. “We couldn’t be more excited to initiate the Ronald McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program at VCU,” said Tomikia LeGrande, vice president for strategy, enrollment management, and student success for VCU.
VUU and MBL receive Sports Illustrated funds
By Donald J. Adams Jr.
Internships for college students can be pivotal in steering and developing a young person’sOprah’scareer.career was launched after she worked as a summer intern at a television station in Nashville. Mindy Kaling wrote her way into an in ternship in the writer’s room at “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” And Donald Glover was an intern as part of Comedy Central’s Sum mer School program. As valuable as in ternships can be, such opportunities are not always easy to find. That’s where experts such as Joseph Lyons can support college students who are seeking internships to jump-start their professional careers. After serving as Virginia State Univer sity’s associate director of career services for more than 35 years, Mr. Lyons has helped thousands of students find internships, witnessing first-hand how these programs shape a student’s career path.
Charlene Crowell is a senior fellow with the Center for Responsible Lending.
Virginia Union University Hampton University $50,000
Throughout HBCUs’ history, there is also an important intan gible quality that is seldom mentioned: A nurturing environment that welcomes students to pursue their heartfelt dreams. Even now, 39 percent of HBCU students are first-generation college students.Itistime for federal and state governments that take a bite out of each worker’s paycheck, to return a better proportion of those dollars to HBCUs. Investing in HBCUs pays large and lasting dividends for all of us.
“The fiscal challenges HBCUs face have developed over decades and will require additional funding over a sustained period to properly address them,” states the report. “The influx from the past two years is not enough. The federal govern ment has consistently fallen short of mandated funding levels for HBCUs… One result of recurring budget shortfalls is that institutions have been forced to delay spending on infrastruc ture, such as student dorms, recreation buildings and research facilities. Many HBCUs face a large and growing backlog of deferred maintenance projects.”
The ChamberTheBusinessMetropolitanLeagueVirginiaHispanicChamberTheVirginiaAsianofCommerce
Virginia Union University, Hampton University and the Metropolitan Business League are among several Virginia-based minority organizations to receive $175,000 from Sports Illustrated Sportsbook. The funds are part of an agreement with Virtual Entertainment Partners in exchange for a partnership and access into Virginia’s sports betting market. The following universities and organizations received: $25,000
“A number of students who have served in an internship capacity will be offered a full-time job as they enter the senior year before they graduate,” said Mr. Lyons. “I have observed supervisors and mentors, as signed to student interns, coach the intern into identifying and achieving career goals.” Virginia State currently has more than 300 students serving as interns in various industries.Jeremey Johnson is one of those students Mr. Lyons has helped. Mr. Johnson brought a strong academic record to his internship in career services, which is where he met Mr.ALyons.rising VSU senior and computer engi neering major, Mr. Johnson was noticed by multiple Fortune 500 companies, including Honda North America. The company, with operations in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, was impressed by his background and academic performance. Honda selected Mr. Johnson for a paid 2022 summer co-op position. He worked onsite at one of the company’s South Carolina locations for 10 weeks. At Honda, Mr. Johnson was immediately thrown into the fire on his first day when asked to reconfigure Honda’s scanners for its manufacturing processors. He had no ex perience completing such a task, but quickly embraced the process and got to work. His main objective was to finish the project during the two-month internship program. Not only did Mr. Johnson complete the task, he performed so well he was nominated and named as Honda’s runner-up for its 2022 summerJohnsonco-op.was the only intern from each coast to be nominated. Being integrated into Honda’s daily work processes increased Mr. Johnson’s confidence to the extent that he believes he will be ready to work for the company full time when he graduates. “I would enjoy it, because I know a lot about the scanners now, I know a lot about the processors, and I pretty much understand what somebody wants when they are talking to me,” he said. “As far as my knowledge base and willingness to learn and excel in that field, no doubt about it, I wouldn’t mind doing it.” Mr. Johnson’s ability to learn and grow in a real-world work environment shows the importance and benefits these oppor tunities can have for college students and graduates.Manystudent internships also present opportunities for travel or living in new locations.Patrick Powe, a rising senior at Jackson State University, traveled more than 900 miles from Jackson, Miss., to Petersburg to work for the Greening Youth Foundation this summer. The 21-year-old industrial technology major said he is not sure what path his career will follow. However, Mr. Powe said he believes his experience interacting with and serving youths, while also developing youth-oriented programs was worth the travel and time away from home. “This is a career path I didn’t even know about before but I believe this will definitely help me if I decide to go this route,” he Althoughsaid.learning and working in new environments can sometimes be intimidat ing, it often leads to important connections with new people. For many students, such connections can be vital in opening doors and learning lessons not only for future employment, but also for the classroom this fall. Donald J. Adams Jr. was a Richmond Free Press intern this summer. He has returned to St. Joseph’s University for his junior year. Holly Rodriguez contributed to this article.
“[I]t costs Black minority-serving institutions more to borrow money compared with white institutions. According to a 2018 research paper, a Black minority-serving institution would have to pay underwriters $35,000 more for a $30 million bond than a white university. This tendency is three times greater in the Deep South due to a historical pattern of racism.”
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Americans.millionspossibilityawillsoaness,inganeed.desperatelyBuyinghome,foundabusistartingfamily,andmuchmorenowbefinancialformoreBut
In other words, this is not your grandfather’s student debt. Last week President Biden offered much-needed relief to millions of federal student loan borrowers. With the stroke of a pen, he is forgiving $10,000 in federal student loan debt for those earning under $125,000 a year. One in four Black borrow ers would see their debt cleared entirely under the President’s plan. Pell Grant recipients, who are twice as likely to be Black, are eligible for an additional $10,000 in relief.
Biden’s student loan plan needs more reforms
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The extra relief for Pell Grants recipients is responsive to the National Urban League’s call for an approach that recognizes these borrowers often owe more and for longer periods. According to a Brookings Institution report, Black college graduates owe an average $7,400 more than their white peers upon graduation. Four years after graduation, they owe an average $52,726, compared with $28,006 for the average white college graduate, according to the report, which included nonborrowers in the average. About two-thirds of Black borrowers owe more than they originally borrowed 12 years after starting college. President Biden’s plan also extends the moratorium on federal loan repayment until the end of the year and takes other long-term steps to ameliorate the college debt crisis for all. Student debt stands in the way of entrepreneurship, hom eownership, and even the dayto-day purchase of necessities. But it’s not just bad news for the borrowers. It’s bad news for all Americans. A surprising one out of every five recipients of food stamps (SNAP) holds a postsecondary degree. An even higher percentage of Medicare enrollees — nearly one in four — hold postsecondary degrees. While only a first step, the President’s actions will put borrowers one step closer to the financial freedom needed to purchase a home, save for retirement, and build wealth for themselves and their families. But we can do better. Canceling $50,000 in stu dent debt for households with incomes below $100,000 would increase Black borrowers’ wealth from 5 percent of white borrowers’ wealth to 33 percent, while increasing forgiveness to $75,000 in forgiveness would raise it to 42 percent. Congress must work on a long-term strategy for student loan debt relief for existing borrowers and reducing the cost of college for current and futureThestudents.National Urban League stands ready to work with Con gress and the White House to make college more accessible and affordable for all. The writer is the president and CEO of the National Urban League.
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Staff Writers Fred Jeter, Frances Crutchfield Hazel Trice Edney
Teacher shortage is a symptom
The teacher shortage is a symptom of a greater chal lengeThese days you can’t turn on a television or open a newspaper without reading or hearing about the teacher shortage. And it is clear that current shortages are being highly publicized and thetheCOVID,satisfaction,teacherburnout,tofromagesforwithpoliticized,reasonsshortranginglowpayteachertodistoandagingofteacherworkforce.Someteacherstalk about classroom conditions, a de cline in respect for teachers, or the challenges of dealing with unruly students with little administrative support. Others are frustrated by the presence of so-called “law enforcement” officers in schools and the ways these officers treat Black and Brown students differently thanTheothers.classroom has become increasingly tense when legis lators attempt to influence the curriculum. Some have banned the teaching of “critical race theory,” a legal concept rarely injected into K-12 education but feared by those who also fear the truth about the flawed foundations of our nation. Other states have forbidden teaching about race or concepts that make students “uncomfortable.” In Colleyville, Texas, a Black principal of a majority white high school was forced to resign because of disputes about critical race theory. Education has become so politicized that some school boards ban books because the content is consid ered “objectionable” by some.
Richmond Free Press Editorial Page September 1-3, 2022 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.
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“By forgiving up to $20,000 in burdensome student loan debt, President Biden is giving work ing and middle class families the financial breathing room the we cannot stop there. The Congressional Black Caucus remains committed to achieving additional reforms to ensure current, and future borrowers are not subjected to this cycle of burdensome debt.” – Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Joyce Beatty In the 1970s, the maximum federal Pell Grant covered nearly 80 percent of the cost of a four-year public college degree. Today, it covers only a third. In the 1970s, a student could earn an entire year’s tuition at a public university by work ing just five hours a week at a minimum wage job. Today, a student would have to work 28 hours a week. From 1978 to 2012, college tuition rose four times faster than inflation and has risen three times faster in the last decade. Since 1970, the average student loan debt at graduation has increased 317 percent when adjusted for inflation.
According to PEN America, there were at least 1,560 book bans in Many2021-2022.ofthesebooks featured characters who were people of color. The Washington Post reports that books were also removed from libraries because they had LGBTQ+ themes or directly addressed race and racism.Who wants to teach in an environment taken over by conservative truth-deniers who don’t want to have students learn about enslavement, the unequal treatment of women, or the invisibility of LGBTQ+ folks? Addressing these issues is not political; it’s factual, but the conservative presence on school boards has made the classroom increasingly uncomfortable for manyThisteachers.contributes to the teacher shortage, which The Economist magazine describes as “neither new nor national.” Indeed, for the past several years, each fall has seen widely publicized scarcity in some areas. There has always been a shortage of teachers in inner-city schools and many are forced to use substitute teachers when they can’t find permanent staff. In Maryland, 5,500 teachers left the profession. Nevada schools opened on Aug. 8 short fourteen hundred teach ers. The federal Department of Education has issued a fact sheet ( suspensionswhichtialAmerican.wheremanyshortageBlackdiscussionsupportinnovativetheshortagcoronavirus/factsheets/teacher-https://www.ed.gov/e)detailingresponsestoteachershortage,includingwaystorecruitandteachers.AbsentfrommuchofthisistheattackonteachersandtheextremeofBlackteachersininnercityschooldistrictsmoststudentsareAfrican-DataonthedifferendisciplineforBlackstudents,includesdisproportionateandexpulsions, reflect the cultural biases that too many white teachers bring to the Theclassroom.educational achievement gap is partly a function of how academic hierarchies discrimi nate against Black students and teachers.Inaddressing the so-called teacher shortage, it is essential to consider the purpose of education and the fact that, too often, students are being taught to go along with a structure that oppresses them. Educa tion is often a political tool to force assimilation. Consider how Indian boarding schools were often violently forced to abandon their Indian and indigenous identities to access education.Thereis a crisis in education, and the teacher shortage is one manifestation of the many ways that teachers and students are de valued as “educators” to pursue a false and degrading narrative. If education were more reflective of reality, people would flock to classrooms instead of fleeing from the frustration of being forced to embrace a curriculum that distorts the truth. The writer is an economist, author, and dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at Cal State -Los Angeles.
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Labor Day has mostly marked the end of summer in Richmond, a day off for most best known for pool parties and retail shopping sales. But this year, the national holiday celebrating worker contributions to American progress will have new meaning, particularly among City Hall and School Board employees, when it arrives Monday, Sept. 5. In this area, there still will be no parades or gatherings with speeches honoring those who toil in obscurity but are crucial to the operation of public and private organizations. Even so, the union movement in the state’s capital city is suddenly gaining strength now that the city’s major governmental units have authorized workers to band together and collectively bargain with the school and city management over wages and work ingRichmondconditions.Public Schools has led the way in this region and Virginia on unions. Last December, the board voted 8-1 to make RPS the first school division in the state to allow teachers and other employees to organize. In voting in April, employees ratified the Richmond Education Association (REA) as their bargaining agent. Nine months later, as RPS begins preparing its next budget, the bargaining is about to begin between the administration and REA, which represents each of the four bargaining units – one for teachers and other licensed employees, one for instructional assistants, one for cafeteria employees and one for bus drivers, custodians, safety personnel, office staff and others engaged in care and security services.
Superintendent Jason Kamras has notified the board that the first talks are scheduled for Monday, Sept. 12, with the REA’s teacher unit. RPS will follow with the instructional assistance unit on Monday, Sept. 19; with the care and safety unit on Tuesday, Sept. 20; and with the food and nutrition unit on Tuesday, Sept. 27. As the result of preliminary meetings in July, the REA and unit representatives agreed to limit bargain ing to compensation for regular work and to crafting definitions of and payment for additional work. Meanwhile, unions are still a work in progress for city employees after City Hall authorized collective bargaining last month. So far, only the the Richmond Coalition of Police (RCOP) and Local 995 of the International Associa tion of Fire Fighters have cleared the first hurdle, getting at least 30 percent of the members of the bargaining group to agree to be represented by those organizations.Neithergroup has faced competition from another labor organization, and both have submitted paper work to City EverythingHall.isnow on hold awaiting Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s selection of a neutral labor administrator to create the rules and begin the process of hold ing elections for members to choose a bargaining representative.Thecityhas four months to hire. That could leave the process in limbo until after Thanksgiving and push the first elections for police and firefighters to separately vote for their bargaining agent. The first talks could take place by late spring or early sum mer, with the first impact being felt in the 2023-24 cityThreebudget.other bargaining units are authorized—one for labor and trade workers, one for administrative and technical staff and one for professional workers. Currently, two unions are competing to represent those employees, who represent the bulk of the city’s more than 3,000 employees – Service Employees International Union Local 512 and Teamsters Lo calIt522.isunclear whether either organization has gained the nod from 30 percent of workers in any of those units to be their exclusive representative. Still, the unionizing process is underway. How it will affect wages and working conditions remains to be Theseen.union movement in local governments gained a big boost when Democrats in the General Assembly lifted the ban on unionizing, effective May 2021. Whether government employee unions become vigor ous could depend on control of the legislature. Republican lawmakers generally opposed the re vival of the union movement. Should party members regain control of both the state House and the Senate, it is unclear whether local government authority to authorize unions would survive that change.
Start with as little as $100 Rudolph C. McCollum, Jr., Esq. McCollum At Law, P.C. Mail to: P.O. Box 4595, Richmond, VA 23220 422 E. Franklin St., Suite 301, Richmond, VA 23219 (Franklin & 5th Sts.) We are a federally designated Debt Relief Agency under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and we help people file for bankruptcy. Web Address: McCollumatLaw.com E-mail: rudy@mccollumatlaw.com 24-7. Talk to an attorney for free and get legal restrictions, fees, costs and payment terms. Call Rudy McCollum at (804)218-3614 Parking in front of a massive stone clubhouse, I was ready to enjoy an evening visit with a book club in the suburbs. You may know the drill — sip wine, nibble cheese, and, after 20 minutes or so, finally start discussing the book of theDon’tmonth.get me wrong. I love book clubs and the good people who take the time to read — and really ponder — new works. Since the Thieves”“Thepublication2020ofOrgan—my in-depth his tory of Virginia’s literarybibliophilespreciatetransplantracially-chargedcontroversial,firstheartthattookplace1968I’vecometomorefullyaptheinvaluablerolethatplayinAmerica’slife.
Jones
VIRGINIA ELECTRIC AND
I read the start of the article on the front page regarding House Minority Leader Don L. Scott Jr. in the July 14-16 issue of the Richmond Free Press. Turning the page, I expected to find a few more words about him, but saw half a page. I thought that was too much to read, but I started anyway. As I read each paragraph, I became more and more fascinated by the life and experience of Mr. Scott. Upon completing the article, I exclaimed aloud, “At last, I have found the ideal statesman.” I know that we are going to hear much more regarding his leadership. He is an inspired and inspiring man.
Only $21M tobases?militaryrename
VCU’s 2022 ‘Common Book’ further exposes Richmond’s racist past prior consent or his family’s knowledge.Hewas a factory worker named Bruce Tucker. “I didn’t sleep for two nights after I read about Bruce Tucker!” she“Oh,“I’msaid.sorry.”don’tbe sorry!” she reas sured me. “No one should sleep well after reading your book.” Other readers expressed their own degrees of outrage and disgust over what had happened to Mr. Tucker and his family at the hands of the white medical and legal establishment in the former Capital of the Confed eracy. Most agreed that the transplant surgeons acted too quickly in their quest to perform what was then a highly experi mental procedure on someone in aOnecoma.book club attendee, a former nurse, offered a tenta tive defense for the transplant surgeons who raced to be first back in the “Competitionday. helps us make medical advances,” she said. It was a fair point – although I didn’t necessarily agree that it applied in this case. But I kept my thoughts to myself. It was their turn to talk and I was theirAsguest.anycounselor or therapist can attest, listening – really listening – can be exhausting. It may even disturb your sleep. Chip Jones is the author of “The Organ Thieves: The Shocking Story of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South” winner of the 2021 Library of Virginia Literary Award for Nonfiction.
RICk HenricokNIGHTCounty
Commentary / Letters to the Editor Richmond Free Press September 1-3, 2022 A7
My nonfiction account of the long, troubling history of the mistreatment of Black Richmonders (and their burial grounds) by the old Medical College of Virginia (now VCU Health) has been selected by Virginia Commonwealth Uni versity as its 2022 “Common Book.” That means a copy of the book is given to each firstyear student to read and to the faculty to use in their course work as they see fit. “The Organ Thieves” probes and exposes the systemic racism in Richmond in the 1960s and 1970s — especially in health care, law and politics. Perhaps that’s why it has drawn wide spread interest from RVA area bookAsclubs.awriter, I am an inveter ate observer in these book club settings. I enjoy discovering each club’s DNA, so to speak. For example, folks who meet in churches, synagogues and I’m glad that no one saw my stunned deer-in-headlight face after I recently read an editorial regarding the quoted stickerprice of $21M for renaming our military bases, but believe it or not, I do have a suggestion! Our governmental leaders should try and appeal to the advocacy of celebrities by estab lishing a ‘GOFUNDME’ (cam paign) to pose as an eye-catching, modern-dayUltimatelymovement.persuading them to pony-up the $21M price tag as financial philanthropists on behalf of all taxpayers, since white supremacist hypocrisy is condemnedHowever,nowadays.aspenurious are normally the sacrificial lambs, I am almost certain that my recommendation would not pass muster with the affluent, opulent and wealthy celebs.
DR. WILLIAM BLAkE JR Richmond
Chip
Don L. Scott Jr. is ‘an inspired and inspiring man’ libraries tend to hold more serious discussions than those who start their meetings with drinks and appetizers. I think of this latter group as a kind social hybrid – a bit of the English drawing room (hello, Jane Austen) and “Cheers,” where everyone knows your name and what you’re read ing. But whether drinks are served or not, the clubs’ readers often share a common theme by serving up new insights to authors.When it was time to start the Chesterfield clubhouse meeting, the host motioned for me to sit in front of the fireplace. After nearly two years of discussing my book in virtual settings, it felt good to re-gather with people in a a real, live book club — at least at first. People didn’t appear in boxes like guests on the “Hol lywood Squares.” They were mostly women, with a few male partners in tow. As the room hushed and the host introduced me, I realized there was another advantage to meeting in person: I didn’t have to peer into my MacBook’s camera to make eyeOnlycontact.now, all eyes turned toward me. Gulp! I wonder if there was cheese hanging from my mouth … and would I be up to answering their questions? Still, taking a sip of red wine, I settled back to enjoy myself.The next morning, I awoke feeling mentally drained. But why? It wasn’t because I drank too much. The queries came too fast and furious for that. Important questions such as, “Is racism still ingrained in our health care system?” (Yes). “Was the family of the man who gave up his heart ever financially compensated for the unauthorized transplant opera tion?”“Has(No).VCU issued a public apology?” (Not yet). Great questions all – so great, in fact, that they led to a sleep less night. Meeting in person may have erased the distance of a Zoom call, but there would be an emotional price to pay: I had to be more present. The first spark of emotion was lit by a gregarious woman who said her father was a prominent judge here in the 1960s. As a teenager, she was an avid newspaper reader, she said. So, after reading my book, she was surprised to learn how little she knew about Virginia’s first heart transplant – and the Black man who had his heart taken from him without any
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“We’re going to defy all the naysayers and take our state all the way back,” Ms. Abrams told delegates to the Democratic state conven tion on Aug. 27. “Georgia Democrats, we’ve got unfinished business to take care of.” Yet Democratic leaders acknowledge that 2022 is not a simple replay of the last two cycles. Ms. Abrams, in her governor’s race rematch with Brian Kemp, is not running against a littleknown Republican secretary of state but a wellpositioned incumbent. Sen. Warnock, no longer a political newcomer, is trying to distinguish himself from a relatively unpopular president who once campaigned for him. That’s a point that challenger Herschel Walker relentlessly seeks to make by criticizing Sen. Warnock as a rubber-stamp for the White House. The rest of the Democratic ticket must run under the banner of a national party that controls Washington at a time of sustained inflation and an uncertain economy. And Democrats must retool their voter turnout operation to comply with tighter voting restrictions that Mr. Kemp and the Republican-led legislature enacted after Democrats’ 2020 victories. The response, Democrats say, isn’t to run from their record but to embrace it, while portraying Republicans as an “extremist” party that advances an out-of-step cultural agenda and remains in thrall to former President Trump. “The party of Trump is a party of extremism, a party of election deniers, a party of authoritarian ism,” Charlie Bailey, the nominee for lieutenant governor, said ahead of the convention. On stage Saturday, Mr. Bailey reminded delegates that his GOP opponent, Burt Jones, is among the fake electors who signed certificates falsely stating that the former president, not President Biden, had won their states. “If you seek to overthrow the United States government, you are not fit, you are not qualified to hold any office in this country,” Mr. Bailey said. “Make no mistake, this November democracy is on the ballot.”
• The climate emergency means hotter summers, more destructive tornadoes, stronger hurricanes. Who bears the brunt of this crisis? Black and brown communities living in neighbor hoods devastated by environmental racism. As our communities choke on toxic air and dirty water, drown in Southern floods, and are forced into displacement because of increasingly hostile and extreme weather patterns, our lawmakers are happy to fill their pockets with donations from the same harmful corporations who are facilitat ing this catastrophe. The NCBCP and the BWR, both nonpartisan organizations, have traditionally led the national push for Black voter activism, including through its annual meetings during the Congressional Black Caucus An nual Legislative Conference. With the possibility of conservative politicians about to take over the U.S. House of Representatives, this could mean even more roll backs on voting rights and other significant issues in the Black community. Despite the significance of mid-term elections, voters often stay home and wait to vote in presidential elections every four years. But this moment is too urgent to stay home, says Ms. Camp bell, stressing the fact that conservative lawmakers, who already have control of the U. S. Senate, could place even more conservative judges on the U. S. Supreme Court if the opportunity arises. With hundreds of thousands of Black voters still qualified, but un registered to vote, Black organizations have their work cut out. The key will be to inspire prospective voters with issues that hit home and let them know the power is in their hands.
Sen. Warnock cites a pandemic relief bill and its child tax credit as critical aid to Georgia families. He cites benefits from a long-sought infrastructure package.
Bee Nguyen, a legislator challenging Raffen sperger, hammers the secretary of state for his By Hazel Trice TriceEdneyWire.comEdney
Ms. Campbell
‘Everything we love is on the line’
Columbus, Ga. Four years ago, Georgia Democrats had a contested primary for governor because the party’s old guard didn’t believe in Stacey Abrams. She routed their alternative and, in a close general election loss, established herself as de facto party boss in a newfound battleground state. That previewed 2020, when Joe Biden put Georgia in Democrats’ presidential column for the first time in 28 years, and Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff captured Senate seats soon after to give Democrats control on Capitol Hill. Now Ms. Abrams and Sen. Warnock top the Democratic ticket together for the first time as the party tries to replicate its success in a tough midterm election landscape. The outcome will again help determine the balance of power in Washington and whether Republicans retain their dominance in state government.
“All the while, conservative lawmakers are preparing to further dismantle our democracy by elevating states’ rights over federally protected individual rights and enshrine these disastrous decisions into law. Make no mistake: This represents only the beginning for this increasingly conservative court and the rightwing machine that installed it — and the clock keeps ticking to change the course set for our country. With under 90 days until the Nov. 8 midterm elections, the stakes could not be any higher.” Ms. Campbell concludes, “For all our movements, everything that we love is on the line. We are in a state of emergency that requires the civil rights, women’s rights, labor, environ mental and social justice communities to work together during a summer of activism. So, where there’s life there’s hope — but only if we fight for a future worth hoping for.” Ms. Camp bell’s declaration, distributed to media across the country breaks down the significance of some of the nation’s most important issues to the Black community.
• Nearly 40 percent of all abortions in America since Roe vs. Wade have been by Black women. Who pays the price when abortions are outlawed? Poor women, women of color, and the millions of women who already face limited access to high quality healthcare.
The senator acknowledges that gas prices and general inflation have spiked but notes that he called for a suspension of the federal gas tax and then won passage of a provision in the Democrats’ big climate and health care bill that caps the price of insulin for Medicare patients. Republicans blocked his effort to extend the cap to all consumers. “Today we stand on this mountaintop together,” Sen. Warnock told Democratic delegates at their convention. “Tomorrow we go down in the valley until we cap the cost of insulin for everybody, until we lower the costs for all Georgians.” In 2018, Mr. Kemp topped Ms. Abrams by 55,000 votes out of about 4 million cast. Presi dent Biden outpaced Trump by less than 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast. In concurrent Sen ate runoffs two months later, about 4.5 million Georgians voted; Senators Warnock and Ossoff won by 2 percentage points and 1.2 percentage points,Democratsrespectively.hope the November electorate is at least as large as that on Jan. 5, 2021. Georgia requires a majority vote to win statewide office, and Libertarian candidates can draw enough to force a runoff. With that in mind, Ms. Abrams, a Black woman from Atlanta, has spent a noticeable amount of time in rural, mostly white Georgia, where she lost ground in 2018 compared with Democrats’ performances in previous midterms. Ms. Jordan, who is white, notes that she grew up in small-town south Georgia but now represents a suburban Atlanta state Senate district that had been a Republican lock. Abrams sometimes cam paigns alongside Mr. Bailey, a white man with a pronounced Southern accent and small-town Georgia roots. Ms. Nguyen tells of her parents fleeing Vietnam as political refugees. “Standing with me is the most extraordinary ticket Georgia has ever produced,” Ms. Abrams said before she addressed the convention. “It looks like Georgia; it sounds like Georgia; it knows Georgia.”
Jeff Amy/The Associated Press Democratic U.S. Sen Raphael Warnock, above left, speaks to the Democratic Party of Georgia state convention on Aug. 27 in Columbus, Ga. Sen. Warnock is seeking a full sixyear term in November, with Republican Herschel Walker as his top opponent. Delegates to the Democratic Party of Georgia’s state convention, left, cheer for Sen. Warnock. Georgia Democratic candidate for governor Stacey Abrams, above, spoke July 28 during a rally in Clayton, Ga. Four years ago, Georgia Democrats had a contested primary for governor because the party old guard didn’t believe in Stacey Abrams. She blew away the elders’ alternative and, in a close general election loss, established herself as de facto party boss in a newfound battleground.
A White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in late September will address why millions of Americans are afflicted with food insecurity and diet-related diseases — including heart disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes — which are among the leading causes of death and disability in the U.S.
“We will announce a national strategy at the conference that identifies actions the government will take to catalyze the public and private sectors to drive transformative change and address the intersections between food, hunger, nutrition, and health,” Jean-Pierre said. The first White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health occurred in 1969. Many considered it a pivotal event that influenced the nation’s food policy agenda for the next half-century.
• From Charleston, S.C. to El Paso, Texas to Buffalo, N.Y., the past decade reveals that racially motivated shootings and domestic terrorism is on the rise — with Black and brown communities in the direct line of fire. Who pays the price when common sense gun legislation is held up and rolled back while white nationalists are emboldened to emerge from their hiding places? Black, Latino, AsianPacific Islander, Jewish and Muslim people.
White House conference to explore hunger diet-related disease among U.S. population Jean-Pierre
The White House said President Biden’s goal is to do the same with this year’s conference. “Hunger, diet-related disease, and the disparities surrounding them impact millions of Americans, and the COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on the urgency of addressing these issues,” said Ambassador Susan Rice, the Biden Administration’s Domestic Policy Advisor. “No one should have to wonder where their next meal will come from,” Ms. Rice continued. “We must take bold steps now —with government, the private sector, non-profits, and communities working together — to build a healthier future for every American.”
part in overhauling state voting procedures. Ms. Nguyen notes that Raffensperger, as a state law maker, compiled a staunchly conservative record on abortion and guns, among other matters. “We can build a Georgia where we believe in democracy,” Ms. Nguyen told convention delegates Saturday. “You can’t gerrymander the statewide seats.” Georgia Democrats say the Supreme Court’s decision eliminating a constitutional right to access abortion, combined with Georgia’s near ban, is a critical enough issue to overcome swing voters’ worries about the economy. “I’ll tell you that people are much more concerned about protecting their rights and their access to health care than anything else,” said attorney general nominee Jen Jordan, a state senator who has made her support of abortion rights a centerpiece of her bid. Mr. Kemp blasts Ms. Abrams as a liberal who wants to “defund the police.” Ms. Abrams coun ters with proposals that would increase salaries for many law enforcement and criminal justice personnel. “Brian Kemp wants you to be afraid of me,” she says in one of her advertisements. Mr. Jordan talks openly of crime increases but dismisses Republicans’ effort to cast it as “an Atlanta problem” — GOP framing aimed at white voters beyond the demographically diverse and heavily Democratic city.
Ms.
Richmond Free Press e People’s Paper We stand for FreedomOpportunityJusticeEquality and we fearlessly ght for FreedomOpportunityJusticeEquality
Organizations call for Black people to fight in midterm elections
By Bill Barrow and Jeff Amy The Associated Press
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
Abrams, Georgia Dems call midterms ‘unfinished business’
Billed by the Biden-Harris administration as the first of its kind in more than 50 years, the Sept. 28 conference also will examine how a lack of access to healthy and affordable foods is one of many factors impacting hunger and diet-related dis eases, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wrote in a statement. “The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these challenges further,” Ms. Jean-Pierre stated, adding that the conference will bring government leaders, academics, activists, and Americans from all walks of life together to achieve the goal of ending hunger and reducing diet-related diseases in the U.S. by 2030 – all while reducing disparities among the communities who are impacted the most by these issues.
As the summer vacation season winds down and the fall political season is about to heat up, the na tion’s premier national Black voter organization is calling on Black America to start fighting now to elect the candidates that positively impact the Black community during midterm elections Nov. 8. “This summer, our nation has witnessed a series of disturbing milestones. From the rollback of gun safety measures amidst backto-back massacres, to the historic repeal of Roe v. Wade, to the strip ping of EPA powers to protect our planet despite the existential threat of climate change, one reality stands out: our freedoms are under attack,” said Melanie L. Campbell, president/ CEO, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP) and convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable (BWR).
The approach aligns with the national pitch that President Biden made Thursday at a cam paign rally in Maryland, where he framed voters’ choice in November as being between Democrats and the Trump “MAGA movement,” a dominant strain of the GOP that Mr. Biden said resembles “semi-fascism.” Mr. Kemp and Georgia’s secretary of state, Republican Brad Raffensperger, have garnered plaudits from moderate voters for bucking the Trump bid to overturn the 2020 election. But Ms. Abrams and others challenge the “moderate” label for either man. Ms. Abrams criticizes Mr. Kemp as an “extrem ist” who signed a concealed carry law to loosen gun restrictions and a near-total abortion ban that bars the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they’re pregnant.
“It’s not an urban problem or a suburban problem. It’s a Georgia problem, and the people who have been in charge have a lot to answer for,” Mr. Jordan said. In the Senate campaign, Sen. Warnock has largely steered clear of President Biden, even as he embraces Democrats’ legislative victories.
Sept. 3 Virginia State University at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, N.C., 6 p.m.
isoffensiveVUU’slinereadytoroll
Sports Richmond Free Press September 1-3, 2022 A9
J.J. Davis
Left tackle: graduate student Darian Bryant, No. 76, 6-foot-6, 320 pounds, curriculum & instruction, Philadelphia. A transfer from Temple University, Bryant is the lone newcomer to the quintet. These are big men from big cities, except for Jones, who hails from the tiny town of Onley (516 population and less than one square mile). Meade, the only local member of the “Van,” took the scenic route from Tucker, located on Parham Road, to VUU’s Lombardy Street campus.Before VUU, Meade played at the University of Virginia-Wise, some 362 miles from Rich mond. He transferred to VUU to be closer to family and friends. “Justin is an overall a good player … he’s extremely athletic, smart and aggressive … sometimes we have to pull him off the pile,” said Coach Parker. VUU covered a lot of land a year ago enroute to a 6-4 overall record and second place (behind Bowie State) in the CIAA North. The Panthers averaged 28 points and 362 yards per game, with 208 coming through the air and 154 overland. A major beneficiary of all that blocking was then-freshman tailback JadaEarningByers. All-CIAA and CIAA Offensive Rookie of Year awards, Byers zig-zagged and powered for 978 rushing yards and 12 touch downs.There will be a new quarterback this goround. Two-year starter Khalid Morris has moved on. Transfers Christian Reid (from Charleston Southern) and Jahkari Grant (Rhode Island) are vying to be No. 1. So, all aboard for VUU football 2022. “The Movin’ Van” is loaded and ready to roll. Virginia State University got off on the wrong foot in 2021 and never fully found its stride. Under new Coach Henry Fra zier III, the Trojans are hopeful of a more uplifting start this season — but it won’t come easy. The Men of Troy open Sept. 3 at Lenoir-Rhyne University. That’s the same Lenoir-Rhyne Bears that pounded VSU, 48-7, to open the 2021 season in Ettrick. It was 31-7 at halftime and Lenoir-Rhyne wound up outgaining the Trojans, 532 yards to 138.Lenoir-Rhyne quarterback Grayson Willingham, who threw for three touchdowns, has departed but running back Dwayne McGee, who ran for 175 yards, is back. A member of the NCAA Divi sion II South Atlantic Conference, Lenoir-Rhyne went on to post an 8-3 record a year ago. The Bears reached the NCAA playoffs before bowing to CIAA champ Bowie State. VSU finished last season at 3-6 overall and 3-4 in the CIAA in Coach Reggie Barlow’s fare wellBarlow,season. who had a 34-16 overall mark at VSU, resigned to become head coach with the DC Defenders, the professional XFL.Under Coach Frazier, the Tro jans have some proven bell ringers in running back Darius Hagans and linebacker Zion Johnson, a preseason All-CIAA pick. There are question marks elsewhere.In2021, Barlow juggled four quarterbacks without ever finding a true No. 1. Jordan Davis is the lone re turning QB. From Woodbridge, Davis played in four games a yearOtherago. QBs (all freshmen) on the current roster are Meziah Scott from nearby Petersburg High, Jabari Blake from Lynchburg and Jakari Joyce from Upper Marlboro, Md. The Trojans’ first home game at Rogers Stadium will be Sept. 10 against Bluefield State, W.Va. It will mark the first game on a new artificial grass surface. Following the challenging trip to Hickory, VSU figures to be at least “even money” in its next four games against Bluefield St. Augustine’s, Livingstone and Shaw.
The “Post Juwan Carter Era” of Norfolk State football begins Saturday at Marshall University in the mountain air of Hun tington, W.Va. Out of Highland Springs High, Carter rewrote the Spartans record book in four illustrious seasons at quarterback. Moving on, second-year NSU Coach Dawson Odums has several QB candidates, including transfers Otto Kuhns (from Eastern Illinois) and Jaylan Adams (The Citadel). NSU’s J.J. Davis is among one of the top running backs in all of HBCU and FCS football. He is a transfer from the University of Cincinnati. Earning All-MEAC honors, Davis raced for 911 yards and seven touchdowns a year ago, averaging a whopping 7.7 yards per
Her daughter, Olympia, who turns 5 on Thursday, wore white beads in her hair while sitting with her father and grandmother in the stands on Monday, a nod to her mom’s hairstyle when she won her first U.S. Open in 1999 at age 17. “Once Serena announced she would play the U.S. Open, we sold out in a nanosecond for Monday night and Tuesday night. You can see on the secondary market, the get-in price is $230. I saw $5,800 for a courtside seat this evening. Look, this is a historic moment for the Williams family, for Serena and our sport,” said Stacey Allaster, the tournament director of the American Grand Slam event. “It is so difficult to really capture what Serena and Venus have done for the sport of tennis. They have transformed our sport. They’ve made us more inclusive. And they’ve transcended sports.”
Brian Gibson Willard Bailey Classic Thursday, Sept. 1, 7 p.m. Virginia University of Lynchburg at Virginia Union University, Lanier Field/Hovey Stadium; Honoring former VUU Coach Willard Bailey VS. Hampton takes on Howard in season opener
Sept. 3 Howard University at Hampton University, 6 p.m. Armstrong Stadium VS. A fresh start Sept. 3 - Norfolk State University at Marshall University, W.Va., 3:30 p.m. VS.
Darlan BryantLarry JonesMark LawtonJustin Meade
Serena Williams not done yet; wins 1st match at U.S. Open
if it will be. Spike Lee participated in the pre-match coin toss. Former President Bill Clinton was in the stands. So were Mike Tyson and Martina Navratilova, sitting next to each other. When Williams made the short walk to the practice courts beside Ashe Stadium for a half-hour hitting session to warm up before Monday’s match, people packing the bleachers above the practice area greeted her with shrieks of “Serenaaaaa!” on her way in, and again yelled on her way out, receiving a wave of her racket as acknowledgment before Williams strode, lips pursed, back into the stadium. She means a lot to a lot of people. As a tennis player. As a woman. As an African-American. As a mother. As a business woman.
Serena Williams
The Associated Press NEW YORK Serena Williams is not ready to say goodbye just yet. Nor, clearly, are her fans. In her first match at what is expected to be the last U.S. Open — and last tournament — of her remarkable playing career, Wil liams overcame a shaky start to overwhelm Danka Kovinic 6-3, 6-3 on Monday night in a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium with an atmosphere more akin to a festival than a farewell. Looking ahead to a future without tennis competition, Wil liams told the crowd: “There’s other chapters in life.” Early, Williams was not at her best. Maybe it was the signifi cance of the moment. There were double-faults. Other missed strokes, missed opportunities. She went up 2-0, but then quickly trailed 3-2. Then, suddenly, Williams, less than a month from turning 41, looked a lot more like someone with six champion ships at Flushing Meadows and 23 Grand Slam titles in all — numbers never exceeded by anyone in the professional era of tennis, which began in 1968. She rolled through the end of that opening set, capping it with a service winner she reacted to with clenched fists and her trademark cry of “Come on!” The more than 23,000 in the stands (thousands of others watched on a video screen outside Ashe) rose for a raucous standing ovation — and did so again when the 1 hour, 40-minute contest was over, celebrating as if another trophy had been earned. Instead, there is plenty more work to be done. Williams played in the second round of singles on Wednesday against No. 2 seed Anett Kontveit of Estonia. And there’s also doubles to come, too: Williams and her sister, Venus, are entered together in that competition, with their initial match slated for Wednesday or Thursday.“Justkeep supporting me,” Williams said, “as long as I’m here.”There can be no doubt, the folks so enthusiastically backing Williams on Monday will come again to the U.S. Open from far and wide for Serena — no last name required, befitting someone as much an icon as superstar athlete — eager to see her play or, if not lucky enough to hold the right ticket, hoping for an autograph, a glance at her practicing or merely the chance to breathe the same Flushing Meadows air as her. They were there to honor her and show appreciation for what she’s done on the court and off. After watching the victory over Kovinic, spectators held up blue, white or red placards that were distributed at their seats to spell out “We (Heart) Serena.” While Williams did not exactly declare that the U.S. Open definitively would be her last hurrah, she has made it sound as The most essential football players just might be the ones that fans rarely talk about and hardly notice. Furthermore, their names are almost never announced on the public ad dressYet,system.noteam is traveling anywhere near the end zone without them. In assessing Virginia Union University’s upcoming season, the offensive line – aka “The Movin’ Van” – may hold the keys to the engine and the GPS to the end zone. “You always like to be strong up front, and we’ve assembled an impressive group … four starters back; plus, we go deep,” said Panthers Coach Alvin Parker. Meet “The Movin’ Van”: Right tackle: graduate student Brian Gibson, No. 57, 6-foot-4, 300 pounds, criminal justice major, from Baltimore.. Right guard: junior Justin Meade, No. 58, 6-foot-2, 265 pounds, business management; J.R. Tucker High in Henrico County. Center: sophomore Mark Lawton, No. 59, 6-foot-2, 280 pounds, criminal justice; Wash ington D.C. Left guard: Sophomore Larry Jones Jr., No. 63, 6-foot-1, 250 pounds, accounting, Nandua High on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
VSU opens season with new coach When Norfolk State meets Marshall
By Howard Fendrich
Stories by Fred Jeter
carry.Averaging 33.2 points per game, the explosive Spartans finished 6-5 last sea son in Coach Odums’ first year on the side lines. NSU was in contention for the MEAC crown and a berth in the Celebration Bowl before running out of gas and dropping its final threeThisgames.looms as a tough opener. Marshall, of the FBS Sun Belt Conference, was 7-6 a year ago, losing to Louisiana-Monroe in the New Orleans Bowl. There are tears on the pages in Marshall’s historyReturningbook. from a game at East Caro lina in 1970, the Thundering Herds’ plane crashed and 75 people (37 players) were killed. The tragedy inspired the 2006 film “We Are Marshall.”
Jadakis Bonds
Hampton Coach Robert Prunty will be relying on his “Killer Bees” to sting the op position this season. Receiver Jadakis Bonds and running back Elijah Burris have been named to the Black College Football Hall of Fame Watch List. In the past two seasons Bonds has caught 124 passes for 1,716 yards and 21 touchdowns. Burris ran for 640 yards (4.8 per carry) and had six TDs a season ago as aHU’sfreshman.returning quarterback is Jett Duf fey, a transfer from Texas Tech where Coach Prunty previously served as an assistant. Duffey threw for 15 TDs last year. Entering his fourth season at HU, Coach Prunty is 17-16, including 5-6 a yearWell-traveledago. HU begins play in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) after previous stops in the CIAA, MEAC and Big South. Hampton will play host to new rival University of Richmond on Oct. 22 at Armstrong for homecoming. Hampton is looking for a second straight win over MEAC Howard. The Pirates de feated the Bison, 48-32, last September in Washington. Howard finished 3-8.
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Volunteer position: Board president of Girls For A Change. Date and place of birth: May 19 in Brooklyn, N.Y. Where I live now: Northern Virginia. Education: Bachelor’s in electrical engineering, Univer sity of North Florida, master’s in information systems tech nology, George Washington University. Occupation: Divisional CIO and managing vice president of People Tech, Capital One.
When and why Girls For A Change was founded: We expect to change the trajectory of Black girls’ lives and increase the contribution of Black girls in the 21st century. We want every girl to be seen, heard and celebrated. They should have the emotional, social and practi cal skills necessary to overcome obstacles to their advancement. Girls should be able to succeed in school, college, workplaces and their communities, and build the skills that will help them reach economic prosper ity and dignity as adults.
Founder: Founded in 2002 Girls For A Change (GFAC) was led by Whitney H. Smith. In 2013, GFAC merged with Camp Diva, led by founder Angela Patton, CEO of GFAC. Girls For A Change is im portant in our community because: We stand in the gap for Black girls with our tier approaches that allow us to focus on the unmet needs of Black girls through investing
Strategy for achieving goals: Having the right board members and board committee— as well as funding structure—are critical to expanding our programming and reach as well as serve the girls. Another exciting piece of our future involves pur chasing our current build ing and adding a second level to the structure, so we can reach even more girls in our community. In order to grow, we need the additional space. We are raising funds to add an addition to our building secure funds to maintain it. Reason for my involvement: I am one of the girls. I was raised in Brooklyn and inner city Miami (Liberty City). I know what it’s like not to have the resources, access and support as well as to not always feel safe within my own community due to crime or disparity. I also know what it’s like to have someone (or “angels”) cham pion and believe you, but also the opposite feeling of knowing someone doesn’t think you’re worthy or underestimate you. I’m haunted by the thought that there’s a Black girl or a person of color who doesn’t feel seen or doesn’t think the world wants them.
Happenings Richmond Free Press September 1-3, 2022 B1
Girls For A Change, a nonprofit youth development organization, empowers Black girls ages 9 to 18 in Central Virginia with experiences and resources that help shape their future.Maureen Jules-Perez be came board president of the 20-year-old organization in the spring of 2021. “We start with our young girls early in Camp Diva Leadership Academy, which gives young girls the foun dational skills of culture, life skills, new resources and activities” as they grow with us in other programs,” said Mrs. Jules-Perez. A Leadership Academy, Girls Who Code, the Girl Ambassador Program, and Immersion Labs are other available programs. Noting that one of her fa vorite programs is the Immer sion Lab, which guides girls into entrepreneurship, Mrs. Jules-Perez also is enthusiastic about Girls Who Code, which exposes the girls to careers in the STEM fields, and the Girl Ambassador Program, which offers hands-on job experience and“Girlscertification.cannavigate through different interests they might have by actually trying them,” said Mrs. Jules-Perez. “Learn ing new skills and applying them provides a lot of hands-on engagement, which is why it’s my Tofavorite.”further its mission to “prepare Black girls for the world and the world for Black girls,” the organization plans to raise more than $1 million to help purchase and renovate its current building, a former retail establishment, in North Chesterfield County. An up dated facility will give Girls For A Change the physical space to serve more girls. The board and other GFAC supporters are seeking grants and private donations to reach theirMrs.goal.Jules-Perez
Personality: Maureen Jules-Perez
in growing experiences as well as uplifting and empowering our girls in ways that are of ten overlooked or unavailable to them. Why I accepted the position: I am one of these girls and they are part of every corner of society. They are amazing, powerful, brilliant and can succeed (life, work, and communities) but often they are misunderstood, misjudged or underestimated – like I was growing up. More specifically: I am passionate about uplifting and supporting Black girls as well as the digital divide and diversity and representation in the tech industry.
COVID-19 and Girls For A Change: I’m very proud that Angela Patton and the staff maintained GFAC programs, like Camp Diva, when most other programs closed during a very difficult pandemic period where underrepresented fami lies are still recovering from economic and personal losses. We recognized the critical need and rose to the moment. Angela and her team were innovative, creative and scrappy to make sure we stayed open – for the girls. In some cases, that meant putting a tent up outside and wearing masks, and add ing in virtual capabilities and programming. Capital One also helped support us. Girls For A Change has partnered with Capital One since 2017 to “go into the community” and connect with the girls with career, technology and life opportunities for which they otherwise may not have access or insight.
Girls For A Change partners with: An array of corporations like Capital One, and schools. We love our partnerships with Richmond City Public Schools and Henrico Public Schools. We are open to continuing to grow and flourish our partner ships with whoever can support filling the gaps that Black girls face in our city.
Ways for girls to get involved: Registration for our fall pro grams begin in October, and all of our programs are listed on our website, which allows you to register. All of our programs require registration before attending. We encour age families and participants to join our newsletter and follow us on social media to keep up with our programming. https:// girlsforachange.org/ One of my favorite programs is the Immer sion Lab where we address the digital divide and teach the girls critical digital skills including coding, entrepreneurship and career/professional growth.
Angela Patton is one of my sheroes and has an actionoriented vision to help realize the unmet needs of all girls in Central Virginia. Her focus is particularly on what she calls “at-promise” youths who have natural gifts and innate potential where their circumstances don’t define their identities. Beyond tech, we want to en sure that Black girls have the opportunity and options to be whatever they want to be. I’m honored to help grow and strengthen the GFAC organi zation!
With my corporate executive experience, I can help lead us toward strategic scale and higher yields and also fortify support for GFAC programs. To scale and transform opera tions in key areas across the U.S. this means redesigning our board, operating structure and strategic committees, and trans forming via modern processes, tools and technology.
Black Girl Magic is: When a Black girl confidently sees that she is amazing and powerful. Then, she is able to claim her place and space in the world and define her own future, now knowing that she’s em powered (and should be) part of the world. She understands her value and what she has to offer to society.
from policy changes in schools to prepar ing Black girls for the world as investors,gists,professionals,entrepreneurs,technoloinventors,activists,etc.
Ways to volunteer: We post all of our volunteer opportu nities on Hands On Greater Richmond to sign up. A few upcoming events we have like maintaining our garden, joining a committee, Black Girl Rally and mentorship opportunities with our Girl Action Team train ing. You can visit our website to learn more about volunteer opportunities and follow us on social media.
Family: Husband, Juan Carlos Perez, and son Zen, 12. Girls For A Change is: A 501(c)(3) nonprofit youth de velopment organization aimed at empowering Black girls in Central Virginia to visualize their bright futures and potential through discovery, develop ment, innovation and social change in their communities.
Spotlight on Girls For A Change board president
Number one goal or project: Buy and renovate our current building. We need to raise more than $1 million to own and renovate our space to better accommodate the needs of our girls. Supporters may donate at https://bit.ly/3jG4Hy9. Over all, we need to execute newly established strategic priorities, enabling the continued success of GFAC on a variety of fronts:
Mrs. Jules-Perez often thinks about the Girls For A Change participants, and said, “I am one of these girls and they are part of every corner of society. They are amazing, powerful, brilliant and can succeed but often they are misunderstood, misjudged or underestimated – like I was growing up.” Meet a passionate ally helping black girls recognize their greatness, Girls For A Change board president and this week’s Personality Mau reen Jules-Perez.
Upcoming events/programs: We are most excited to start our fall programs such as our Black Girl Rally on Oct. 14 at Virginia Union University, which will be a celebration and collaboration of community and partnerships who are allies of Black girls. Three words that best de scribe me: Authentic, creative and inspiring. Best late-night snack: Choc olate-covered cashews or tiramisu. How I unwind: I love great storytelling, so films, books or human “library” connections, or loved-one conversations. What I’m continuing to learn about myself during the pan demic: I am loved and loving, strong, patient, creative, kind, empathetic, experienced and brilliant. Something I love to do that most people would never imagine: I am ambidextrous and can write backward very well. At the top of my “to-do” list is: Anything involving my family, especially my son, Zen. The best thing my parents ever taught me: That I was loved and always have uncon ditional love to give. There’s always an opportunity to turn adversity into a great story –with love! The person who influenced me the most: My shero and mother, Paula Fils-Aime Jules, a single mom of five children and immigrant from Haiti. She reminded us we were already beautiful and brilliant and affirmed the power of education and op timism in all of us. Book that influenced me the most: “The Greatness Guide” by Robin Sharma. Next goal: Always relates to both taking care of my fam ily and continuing to improve social, environmental and economic outcomes.
Mission: “Prepare Black girls for the world and the world for Black girls.” Our impact is: A nonprofit that helps underrepresented girls find their footing in the world and for the world to recognize their genius, potential and brilliance.
sees her role as helping to remove bar riers so the organization and its girls can reach their goals. “Girls For A Change recog nizes that there’s a talent pool whose genius is not defined by their zIP codes and they need to be given a fair shot – they need the same resources and op portunities given to children in more affluent neighborhoods,” she“Anothersaid. barrier is that sometimes people think they know what’s best for the girls,” she added. “Actually, it’s the girls who know what’s best for themselves. We need to let young people tell us what they need and want to explore. They have their own internal compass and we need to honor that. My role is to both remove barriers and champion them onto their own paths to thrive.”Partof what she says drives her is something she learned from her mother, Paula FilsAime Jules, by word and ex ample — the firm belief that “one can always change the story for the better.” After her parents divorced, Mrs. Jules-Perez moved from New York with her mother and four older siblings to inner city Miami, where they faced dif ferent financial circumstances from what she’d previously known.“In a way, I’m grateful for that because it opened my eyes to a whole other world,” Mrs. Jules-Perez said. Being in a community struggling financially and other adversi ties, she credits one of her teachers, Mr. Joseph Maley, at Miami Edison Middle School for encouraging her to pursue engineering.“Iwasgoing to do hair and become a beautician,” Mrs. Jules-Perez recalled. “Mr. Maley said I had a gift for math and science.” Today Mrs. Jules-Perez, who earned an undergraduate de gree in electrical engineering, is a managing vice president for Capital One.
The 57th Annual Former Segregated Fellow ship Day Reunion marked the latest return to Dorey Park for the event, which in 1985 served as the location for the 20th anniversary reunion of the Maggie Walker Class of 1965, and has been used for reunion events for several years. While rain led many alumni to skip this year’s six-hour event and caused a slight delay, those in attendance said the event, which included a worship service and other programs, nonetheless was a treat and welcome chance to meet up with old friends. “I had a great time. It was good to see every body,” said Edwina McCreary Richmond, a retired math professor who moved back to Richmond in 1995 after teaching college freshmen in New York for 22 years. “Having this relationship with my classmates has really been a blessing for me.” This year’s reunion featured a number of special Maggie Walker alumni and faculty in attendance, including Marjorie Wilson Saunders, a 102-year-old former business teacher at the school, and Weldon Edwards, the first black foot ball player at the University of Richmond. “Whenever Maggie Walker classmates get to gether it’s as always a joyous affair,” Mr. Edwards said. “Maggie Walker’s just like one big family.”
By George Copeland Jr.
The Aug. 25 panel discussion begins 6 p.m. at the Branch Museum, 2501 Monument Ave. Gary Flowers, who hosts “The Gary Flowers Show” on Rich mond radio, will moderate the panel, which also will include Richmond Free Press Publisher Jean Patterson Boone, Managing Editor Bonnie Newman Davis, and Vice President of Production April Coleman. For more information, please call (804) 655-6055.
Photos by Clem Britt J. Maurice Hopkins, a 1965 graduate of Maggie Walker High School, speaks to Marjorie Saunders, a 102-year-old retired Maggie Walker business teacher during the Maggie Walker High School Mass Classes Reunion at Henrico’s Dorey Park on Aug. 2. Below, Armstrong High School graduates Dr. Loretta H. Dennis: ’75, Pamela Johnson: ’77, Shelia Anderson: ’74, and Karen Milon: ’76 (left to right) recall old times. Above right, Maggie Walker High School 1973 graduate Larry Reid, left, and Bettie and Norman Jackson greet one another at the reunion at Dorey Park. Bettie graduated in 1967 and Norman graduated in 1968.
Fellowship day for Richmond area schools brings back classmates and memories
Photos by Regina H. Boone / Richmond Free Press
World premiere musical ‘Gabriel’ portrays the statewide insurrection led by a slave
Ron Klipp Alvan Bolling Sydnee Graves J. Ron FlemingJerold Solomon Known as the “Dragon Master” and “head cheerleader” to his fellow classmates, Mr. Hop kins has led the MLWHS Alumni Mighty Green Dragons organization for 15 years. Mr. Hopkins and others work to organize, fund and promote the event each year, as well as keep alumni connected and informed outside the reunion through various means and gatherings. The reunion, however, remains a priority for the organization, and the response of alumni and faculty present for the event is a testament to how important it and the school is for them, many decades later. “Serving as a business teacher at Maggie L. Walker High School was one of the most dy namic and expensive years of my career,” Ms. Saunders said in a statement presented by her daughter Marjory. “God willing, upon reaching the age of 103, I shall be honored to share and fellowship again with the alumni friends and family of Maggie L Walker.”
Happenings
Members of the Richmond Free Press staff will provide insight into the art and de sign behind the newspaper’s coverage of social justice protests movement two years ago following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. In the former capital of the Confederacy, Regina H. Boone and Sandra Sellars, both photojournalists for more than 20 years, were on the ground for 65 days capturing the historical mo ments that unfolded for the Richmond Free Press. The result of their work is the exhibition, “(Re)Framing Protest: Design + Hope,” at the Branch Museum of Architecture and Design in collaboration with the Richmond Free Press. “The show represents the communities that were created there, and we were sensitive to that,” Ms. Boone said shortly before the exhibition’s opening in June. “There is still work to be done and we are a part of that work as photojournalists.”
Finally, the long-awaited world premiere of a musical focusing on Gabriel and the slave rebellion he almost pulled off in Richmond 222 years ago is set to go at the Firehouse Theatre next Postponedweek.twice in the past 20 months, “Gabriel — The Musical “is scheduled to open Thursday, Sept. 8, in the cozy con fines of the former fire station at 1609 W. BroadVeteranSt. actor Jerold Solomon, who helped write the lyrics, will play the title role in the production that is scheduled for a three-week run through Sunday, Oct. 2. Mr. Solomon of Chesterfield County teamed with a cousin, actor/director Foster Solomon of Goochland County, and writer/ composer Ron Klipp to create the words, with Mr. Klipp writing the music for what the trio describes as a “true story of freedom.” Their purpose: To raise awareness of Vir ginia’s Spartacus, the ancient Roman who led a wide-ranging uprising against slavery. Along with Mr. Solomon, the cast includes Alvan Bolling II, Lyndsey Brown, Mikaela Craft, Keydron Dunn, J. Ron Fleming Jr., PJ Freebourn, Sydnee Graves and Mark Persinger.FosterSolomon is directing, Billy Dye is the music director for a six-piece ensemble, Leslie Owens-Harrington is the choreogra pher, Dasia Gregg is the scenic designer, Ann Bialdowski is the costume designer and Todd Labelle is the lighting designer. The musical is set in 1800 when the 24year-old enslaved Gabriel, then hired out as a blacksmith by his owner Thomas Prosser, began organizing the rebellion with the goal of seizing the State Capitol in Richmond and proclaiming freedom for others in bondage while giving workers of all kind greater authority in political affairs. Ultimately undone by a heavy rains and betrayal, the charismatic and well-read leader began organizing the uprising dur ing a volatile period when religious fervor was sweeping the Old Dominion and Black rebels in Haiti were fighting a successful war for freedom against France, which also had outlawed slavery. His action came in a city where leading white men had been at the forefront of push ing independence from Great Britain with speeches promoting freedom from tyranny andTheyoppression.include Patrick Henry, whose rally ing cry, “Give me liberty or give me death,” was well known even among the enslaved, and Thomas Jefferson, a slaveholder who had written that “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence and who had proposed abolition of slavery in the General Assembly near the end of the Revolutionary War. Gabriel said before his death that the rebellion’s flag would have featured the words “Death or Liberty.” The uprising set for Aug. 30 came undone when massive storms hit the area, wiping out roads and bridges, destroying lines of communication and preventing supporters from setting diversionary fires that were a key element of the plan. Forced to postpone, Gabriel did not gain a second chance after two enslaved men revealed the plan, leading then-Gov. James Monroe to call out the militia to capture the ringleaders. Gabriel escaped for three weeks but was betrayed by two crew members when he took a boat to Norfolk. Captured, he was tried and hanged with 25 other members, with others sold off or returned to their owners. One member of his conspiracy, a boatmen named Sancho, tried and failed to resurrect the uprising in the 1802 Easter plot. Also betrayed, he and four others were hanged Historian Douglas R. Egerton, wrote in his authoritative “Gabriel’s Rebellion: Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802” that most of Gabriel’s “contemporaries, white as well as black, believed that his plan stood a good chance of succeeding. “Had it done so,” Dr. Egerton continued, “it might have changed not only the course of American race relations but also the course of American political history.” Tickets are $38 for general admission and $25 for students, the theater noted. The theater also will require patrons to be fully vaccinated and to wear masks. Further details: (804) 355-2001 or fire housetheatre.org/Gabriel.
Branch Museum panel highlights news media’s ‘design and hope’
B2 September 1-3, 2022 Richmond Free Press
Photos by Regina H. Boone / Richmond Free Press
Brown’s Island goes Caribbean on Sept. 3
Approximatley 500 to 600 alumni and faculty from Maggie Walker High School, Armstrong High, Carver Elementary and other historic Richmond schools gathered Aug. 21 in Henrico County’s Dorey Park to reconnect and celebrate decades of academic history and change.
Dance like no one’s watching Hundreds attend the 15th Annual Latin Jazz & Salsa Festival at Dogwood Dell on Saturday, Aug. 27, closing out the amphitheater’s summer 2022 events. Hasta luego!
By Jeremy M. Lazarus
It’s all natural Ana Edwards, right, of Richmond samples culinary delights from Minty’s Catering during the 19th annual Happily Natural Festival + Garden EXPO on Richmond’s South Side on Aug. 27. Another Happily Natural Day attendee, below left, sports her colorful natural hair during the annual festival founded in 2003 by Duron Chavis. The idea for Happily Natural Day was simple, according to HND’s website. The festival would focus on natural hair, holistic health, and black awareness. It also would feature lectures and workshops on those themes, have a vendor marketplace and performances from spoken word & hip-hop artists. The mission is to raise consciousness in the African American community, while breaking down inferiority complexes by promoting natural hair.
Brown’s Island will be filled with the sounds and food of Jamaica this Saturday, Sept. 3. The RVA Reggae Festival, rescheduled from July, will take over the 7-acre riverfront island located at the south end of 5th Street in ReggaeDowntown.artistsKenyatta Culture Hill, Koolant Brown, Sista Nickey and Randy Star will be among the featured performers at the event that also will feature the Caribbean island’s food and beverages. Tickets: $15 to $20.
The event has grown over the decades to encom pass other schools and alumni, and typically attracts around 2,500 to 3,000 alumni eager to meet and greet old friends and classmates and reflect on the changes in education they’ve lived through. “It is not everything that we expected it to be,” said J. Maurice Hopkins, a Maggie Walker High graduate and primary organizer for the event, in terms of how alumni see the impact integration has had for the Black community and education. “But yet and still, we fall back on those folks that made great strides to achieve unity. “It’s camaraderie, a core community,” he said. “Those things will never go away and they will always exist.”
Community High School grad’s vegan cooking satisfies hungry New Yorkers
By Bonnie Newman Davis Middleburg Chef Shenarri Freeman started cooking 10 years ago at the 9:30 Club, a concert hall in Washington, d.C. Then a pre-physical therapy student at Howard university, she took the gig to get free concert tickets. Simple entrees were prepared and served: olive tapenade, hummus, vegan chili, sandwiches. At the time, Ms. Freeman, who grew up in richmond surrounded by a family of talented cooks who prepared heavy, traditional Southern meals, had no real interest in developing her own culinary skills. Today she prepares mouth-watering meals as executive chef at Cadence, a James beardnominated vegan restaurant in New York’s east Village that has been described as “a breakout vegan hit.” in the past year alone, Ms. Free man’s work has repeatedly been reviewed or mentioned in The New York Times, Vogue and otherMs.publications.Freeman’s arrival in New York came a few years after illness led her to try a vegan lifestyle in 2016. Ninety days after she started eliminating animal products from her diet, she felt better and never looked back. A 2011 graduate of richmond’s Community High School, Ms. Freeman didn’t give much thought to cooking even after working at the 9:30 Club for several years. but as she continued to work in different restaurants, including a stint as a floor manager at Restaurant Marvin, Jack rose, Songbyrd and Momofuku CCdC, she sharpened her cooking skills. “i didn’t really care about it, but it was something to learn about,” she said during an Aug. 20 panel discussion, “building a legacy, Then and Now,” at the Salamander Hotels and resorts in Middleburg. She was joined by Angel barreto, Preston Clark and Mashama bailey, each of whom have their own fascinating back stories. The three-day “Family reunion” event was hosted by chef and cookbook author Kwame Onwuachi, along with Shelia C. Johnson, founder and CeO of Salamander. being vegan prompted Ms. Freeman to cook more of her own food. She decided to incorporate family recipes into her vegan recipes, and pop-up food events followed. “Vegan lasagna, chickpea cous cous salad with green goddess dressing. i’d play around with sea moss and make blackberry sea moss smoothies, she said. As her interest in cooking grew, Ms. Free man, who’d left Howard for financial reasons, began searching for cooking programs. She moved to New York in 2019 to develop her culinary skills at the i nstitute of Culinary education’s Health Supportive Culinary Arts program. When graduating from her program, where she focused on plant-based nutritional cooking, she was the commencement speaker for her 2021 class, according to her website, https://shenarrigreens.com/determinedandcommitted to stay on top of her craft, she has served as the head chef at greedi Vegan, volunteered at the James beard Foundation House and served as sous chef to numerous chefs for private events and dinner parties in New York. She discounts notions that vegan food is bland and boring, and believes her vegan soul food menu, which includes vegan fried lasagna and green collard wraps will convince any naysayer.Firmbeliefs in holistic health and healing also guide her. “i think about it daily and in the beginning (of her vegan journey) the messaging was louder,” she said. “i try to keep that messaging because my ultimate goal is to share information about incorporating small changes to anyone’s lifestyle …that’s a win for me because we have a lot of health issues in our community.” Ms. Freeman, 29, said she loves living in New York because of its diversity, fast pace and the food scene. “There are 25,000 restaurants here and i can go to a different restaurant and get a different meal” and never run out of places to eat,” she said during a phone call two days after the Salamander panel discussion. When she is in richmond visiting her mom, Vernice Freeman, she finds inspiration simply from “being around the table,” surrounded by aunts, uncles and dozens of cousins. “The food my family makes today…i’ve eaten my entire life,” she said. “What excites me is being around my family. i’m the baby of the Familyfamily.”andshowcasing black cooking tradi tions are the ideas behind Salamander’s “Family reunion” in Virginia’s picturesque wine and horse country on 340 acres near the blue ridge Mountains. Carla Hall, dr. Jessica b. Harris, Alexander bernard Smalls, and Melba Wilson were among the celebrity chefs who attended this year’s event that attracted 750 people in its second year.
Salamander founder and CEO Sheila C. Johnson, center, enjoys after-lunch conversation with Alexander Bernard Smalls, the James Beard award-winning chef, restaurateur and author, and with Virginia Ali, chef and founder of Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington. Mrs. Ali, who started her business in 1958 with her late husband, Ben, grew up in Tappahannock and attended Virginia Union University.
Photos by Bonnie Newman Davis/Richmond Free Press Community High School graduate Shenarri Freeman, second from right, is executive chef at Cadence restaurant in New York’s East Village. During an Aug. 20 panel discussion, “Building a Legacy, Then and Now,” at the Salamander Hotels and Resorts in Middleburg, Ms. Freeman said family meals in Richmond most inspire her. Other panelists included (from left) Mashama Bailey, Angel Barreto and Preston Clark.
Happenings Richmond Free Press September 1-3, 2022 B3
As a young chef who rapidly is approaching the celebrity status of other culinary experts, Ms. Freeman said she was “still trying to let the experience marinate. i’m just blown away. it made me emotional to even be there sur rounded by people i’ve known or looked up to for 10 years.”
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Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Exhibition
Mechanicsville
Dr. Florence Saunders Farley, a trailblazing psychologist who also served as Petersburg’s first Black female mayor, has died. Known for being spunky and independent, Dr. Farley is being remembered for molding new psychologists for more than 40 years at Virginia State University and for her political leadership of the Cockade City. In recent years, Dr. Farley won attention as a textile artist whose needlework was exhibited in libraries and museums across Virginia. Dr. Farley succumbed to illness Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022, according to reports. She wasArrangements94. for a memorial service have not been announced. Those who knew her well described her as a role model for women and community engagement.BorninRoanoke in 1928, Dr. Farley came to the Petersburg area in 1946 to study at Virginia State and essentially never left. Twelve years after graduating, she would return to the campus as a faculty member after breaking new ground for Black women. After enlisting in the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps in 1951, she became the first Black female training officer at Fort Lee. After adding a master’s degree from Virginia State in 1954, Dr. Farley became the first Black woman to be licensed as a clini cal psychologist in Virginia, and also the first to serve as chief psychologist at Central State Hospital, then the hospital for the Black mentally ill. But after seven years, she became fed up with the crowd ing of 4,000 patients into an increasingly decrepit facility built for 400 and her inability to affect conditions. And amid the ferment over civil rights, she also bridled as a state employee at the restrictions that blocked her from being openly involved in battling segregation, leading her to jump to the teaching position at Virginia State in 1962 where her engagement in demonstrations was supported. While burnishing her professional credentials, she earned a reputation for fearlessness and com munity concern in protesting racial segregation in parks, libraries, restaurants and other public places in her adopted city. In building political connections, she also became a founder of the National Association of Black Psycholo gists in 1968. She went on to earn her doctorate from Kent State University in 1977 and became a leader in the VSU Faculty Senate. That led to her promotion to chair of the Psychology Depart ment, a post she held until she reluctantly retired in 2003 at ageOutside75. the campus, she prepared herself to run for a City Council seat. In 1973, she was swept into office as a member of Petersburg’s first Blackmajority City Council and joined in electing Hermanze E. Fauntleroy Jr. as the first Black mayor in the state. Re-elected four more times, she became vice chair in 1982 and moved up to mayor in 1984 after R. Wilson Cheely resigned. She held that post until she lost her council seat in 1990. She presided over a city that faced diminish ing prospects.
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Dr. Farley pioneering educator and mayor, Dr. Florence Saunders Farley, dies at 94 A.M. A.M. to Road • Glen Allen, Virginia 23060 Office 804-262-0230 • Fax 804-262-4651 • www.stpeterbaptist.net
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First, the city’s largest employer, Brown and Williamson Tobacco Co., left in 1986, eliminating 4,000 jobs and sending the city’s economy into a downward spiral that only began to turn around in the past four years.
Sistine Chapel frescoes come to Richmond
By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Most people know about the remarkable paint ings that Michelangelo created on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, even if they have never been to Rome. Now Richmond area residents can get a closeup view of his famous frescoes that still fill the ceiling of the chapel that is located within the Apostolic Palace, the pope’s official residence in Vatican City, the independent Catholic enclave inside Italy’s capital city. A traveling, ground-level exhibition of this artwork is scheduled to open 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 2, at the Stony Point Fashion Park in South Side. Included are the artist’s work that went up between 1508 and 1512, and his final work, “The Last Judgement,” that he added 20 years later to complete a work consid ered among the greatest artist expressions in the world. Except for Mondays, the show will be open daily through Sunday, Oct. 9, next to Pandora Jewelry in the mall located at 9200 Stony Point Parkway.Tickets are $22.50 for those ages 13 to 64, $15.50 for children 4 to 12 ,and $18.50 for those 65 and older and military members and students with valid IDs.
Communion On Site September 2022 @ 10:00 A.M. 2901 Turnpike, Richmond, VA 23223 (804)648 2472 ~ www.mmbcrva.org Price Sunday September 11, 2022 @ 10:00 A.M. Preacher for Day: Rev. Caprichia Spellman Faith, and Galatians 6:10 *Faith (Sat. @ 9:00 AM) Zoom Meeting ID: 952 9164 9805 /Passcode: 2901 *Give Via: http://mmbcrva.org/give Or through Givelify
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Adding insult to injury, she was mayor when Southpark Mall opened in Colonial Heights in 1989 and took much of Petersburg’s retail business. “I don’t socialize with my execution ers,” she tartly responded when asked if she would represent Petersburg at the mall’s grand opening.During her tenure, she helped bring a public defender’s office to Petersburg. Ousted in the 1990 elections, Dr. Farley stayed engaged in civic affairs. She later served one term on the School Board from 2002 to 2006. She also organized marches to City Hall to raise concerns and posted her acerbic views on city leaders and current affairs on Facebook.Behind the scenes, Dr. Farley also served as a mentor to others, including Petersburg Coun cilwoman Treska Wilson-Smith, who represents Ward I as Dr. Farley once did. “I grew up looking up to her and doing my best to emulate her,” Ms. Wilson-Smith told a local news outlet. “When I decided to run for office it was her that I spoke to most of the time. She guided me before the election and after being on council.” The Library of Virginia honored Dr. Farley as an African-American Trailblazer in 2010. Dr. Farley has no immediate survivors.
Dr. Sylvester T. Smith, Pastor “There’s A Place for You” Good Shepherd Baptist Church 1127 North 28th St., Richmond, VA 23223 Office: (804) 644-1402 https://youtu.be/qqzhnIEQyQc for inspirational messages from Pastor Smith 823 North 31st Street Richmond, VA 23223 (804) 226-0150 Office Combining Relevance with Reverence Thirty-first Street Baptist Church Rev. Dr. Joshua Mitchell, Senior Pastor ❖ 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 BaptistTriumphantChurch 2003 Lamb Avenue Richmond, VA 23222 Dr. Arthur M. Jones, Sr., Pastor (804) 321-7622 OPEN FOR IN PERSON WORSHIP Morning Worship - 11 am Conference Calls are still available at: ( 503) 300-6860 PIN: Facebook@:triumphantbaptist273149 Moore BaptistMissionaryStreetChurch 1408 W. Leigh Street · Richmond, Va. 23220 (804) 358 6403 Dr. Alonza L. Lawrence, Pastor “Your Home In God’s Kingdom” Church) “MAKE IT HAPPEN” Pastor Kevin Cook Broad Rock Baptist Church 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. Live Streaming Every Sunday At: BRBConline.org or YouTube(Broad Rock Baptist Church) 500 E. Laburnum Avenue, Richmond, VA 23222 www.sharonbaptistchurchrichmond.org(804)643-3825 Rev. Dr. Paul A. Coles, Pastor Sharon Baptist Church “ e Church With A Welcome” MorningSundaysWorship10:00A.M. Back Inside 400 South Addison Street Richmond, Va. 23220 (near Byrd Park) (804) 359-1691 or 359-3498 Fax (804) www.sixthbaptistchurch.org359-3798 We Embrace Diversity — Love For All!A 21st Century Church With Ministry For Everyone Come worship with us! Facebook sixthbaptistrva Rev. Dr. Yvonne Jones Bibbs Pastor Back Inside Sundays Join us for 10:00 AM Worship Service Live on Facebook @sixthbaptistrva Live on Youtube @sixthbaptistrva Or by visiting our www.sixthbaptistchurch.orgwebsite St. Peter Baptist Church Dr. Kirkland R. Walton, Pastor Worship Opportunities Sunday, September 4th at 10 A.M.We will celebrate our unity in diversity by observing“JESUS, JEANS & JERSEYS’ SUNDAY.”By wearing apparel that displays our favoritesports teams, school/university, or sorority/fraternity,we represent our diversity. As we worshipas one body in Christ, we display our unity. Sundays: Church School 8:30
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The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as 3005 Clarendon Drive, Tax Map Number C0011053022 , Richmond, Virginia, to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owner of record, The Kayvandokht Hadavand Trust An Affidavit having been filed that FATIMA AL KHIRSAN, TRUSTEE OF THE HADAVANDKAYVANDOKHTTRUST, which is the owner of said parcel 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 FATIMA AL KHIRSAN, TRUSTEE OF HADAVANDKAYVANDOKHTTHETRUST, and Parties Unknown , come forward to appear on or before OCTOBER 13, 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 Commonwealth University is soliciting proposals for: Travel Management Services Pre-proposal Conference: N/A Proposals for this project will be received via submission instructions on the RFP cover page until: September 27, 2022, 2:00 PM Copies of RFP # 159601521CK may be downloaded from eVA at www.eva.virginia.gov/
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Lender: none on file Address: none on file Date: Description:1972 1 handbill, Facts and Figures about Woman Suffrage n(L.72.147)oticeofIntent
Notice of Intent to Acquire Property: The Valentine Museum hereby notifies intent to acquire title to the objects listed below. The last known lender or depositor on record is listed below & these objects will become the property of the museum after 65 days if no person can prove ownership of the property, pursuant to Code of VA § Depositor:55.1-2606.
By Fred Jeter Curacao’s magic carpet ride to the Little League World Series ended with a frustrating finish. Having run out of front-line pitching, the all-Black team from the tiny island off the coast of Venezuela lost to Honolulu, Hawaii, 12-1, in Williamsport, Pa. The Aug. 27 game was telecast live on CBS. Curacao could not use any of its top pitchers in the championship game due to pitch-count restrictions. Hawaii teed off with the first two players in its lineup socking home runs. Still, the 11- and 12-years old’s from Curacao’s capital city, Willemstad, were crowned international champs for elimi nation wins over Italy, Canada, Nicaragua and Chinese Taipei. The Sunday final was their fifth game in seven days. Hawaii, a team comprised of Pacific Islanders, went undefeated in the 20-team event, outscoring its opponents, 60-5. It was perhaps the most dominant run in League annals dating to 1947. Curacao in 2004 became the first and still only all-Black team to win the Series. The ’04 squad included current Major Leaguers Jurickson Profar and Jonathan Schoop. Curacao finished second in 2005 and 2019. In 2014, the all-Black Jackie Robinson Little League of Chicago won the U.S. division and lost to South Korea for the overall title. Later, the Chicagoans were stripped of their honors for roster violations.Thefirst all-Black team to ever reach Williamsport was Gary, Ind., in 1971. That team featured Lloyd McClendon, who famously hit home runs in five straight at bats. McClendon later played in the Major Leagues.
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BID COUNTY OF visit:ForDue:SidewalkCONSTRUCTIONVIRGINIAHENRICO,BIDITB#22-2410-8EARThreeChoptRoadImprovementsSeptember22,2022at3:00p.m.additionalinformation solicitationsfinance/divisions/purchasing/https://henrico.us//
Lender: Mrs. Robert Claiborne Address: none on file Date: Description:1972 1 teaspoon and 1 demitasse spoon (L.72.07.01-.02)
On this day the Plaintiff appeared by counsel upon an Affidavit for Service by Publication pursuant to §§ 8.01-316, 20-104 of the Virginia Code. It is ORDERED that Fredy Gonzalez appear at the above-named court and protect their interests on or before the 16th day of September, 2022. A Copy, EDWARDTeste:F.JEWETT, Clerk I ask for this: Brittany Mountjoy, Esq. (VSB# Friedman,97134)Framme & Thrush 6800 Paragon Pl, Suite 233 Richmond, VA 23230 Phone: (804) 377-0061 Fax: (410) bmountjoy@fftlaw.com559-9009
Charlene Alicia Bullard Address: 17617 Thornwood Ln, South Chesterfield, VA 23803 Deposit Date: november 8, 2011 Description: 2 women’s dresses Lender: Anne Kincaid
to Acquire Property: The Valentine Museum hereby notifies intent to acquire title to the object listed below. There is no last known owner on record & this object will become the property of the museum after 65 days if no person can prove ownership of the property, pursuant to Code of VA § X.2019.1455.1-2606.–Case
Please visit website or contact museum for information on how to make a claim: The Valentine Museum Meg hughes, Director of Collection/ Chief 804-649-0711Curator ext. collections/undocumented-propertyhttp://www.thevalentine.org/mhughes@thevalentine.org308
Andrea Chavez Address: 4412 Fieldstone Ct north Chesterfield, VA 23234 Deposit Date: June 9, 2018 Description: 2 plaques: Awards of excellence to Juan and Andrea Chavez, 22 photographic prints related to AhAR, 3 frames Depositor: Mary Flinn Address: 532 S Laurel St Richmond, VA 23220 Deposit Date: July 8, 2016 Description: 3 child’s dresses, 3 trousseau lingerie, 3 suits, 1 child’s snow suit, 1 evening dress and 1 Depositor:sampler Mitzi Welton Address: 1724 hanover Ave Richmond, VA 23220 Deposit Date: August 14, 2018 Description: Collection of wooden blocks and crate, Collection of photographs, ephemera and scrapbooks, 3 pair of adorned shorts, 1 prayer shawl, 1 plastic Depositor:handbag
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The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as 4020 Piney Road, Richmond, Virginia, Tax Map Number N0180502061 to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owner of record, Franklin Ewing An Affidavit having been filed that said owner, FRANKLIN E w ING, who has been served by posting and by mailing a copy of the complaint to his 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 F RANKLIN Ew ING , and Parties Unknown , come forward to appear on or before OCTOBER 13, 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
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Mrs. George D. Mayo Address: Box 163, Charlottesville, VA Date: June 28, 1954 Description: 3 ambrotypes and 3 daguerreotypes (L.54.03.01-.06)
Date: Description:1972 2 ladles (L.72.03.02-.03)
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Counsel for Plaintiff ABC LICENSE Charles Kitchen, LLC Trading as: Charles Kitchen 10835 west Broad Street Glen Allen, VA 23060 The above establishment is applying to the V IRGI n IA A LCO h OLIC B EVERAGE C O n TROL (ABC) AUT h ORITY for a Beer and Wine license to sell or manufacture alcoholic Dateowner/Claudiusbeverages.Charles,headChefnoticeposted at establishment: August 16, n2022OTE: Objections to the issuance of this license must be submitted to ABC no later than 30 days from the publishing date of the first of two required newspaper legal notices. Objections should be registered at www. abc.virginia.gov or (800) 552-3200.
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The City of Richmond announces the following project(s) available for services relating to: RFP No. 220013884: Real Time Decision Support System and Sensor Installation Pre-ProposalMaintenanceConferenceCall Meeting: September 15, 2022 at 10:00 A.M. For all information pertaining to this RFP conference call, please logon to the Richmond website (www.RVA.GOV). Proposal Due Date: Wednesday, October 5, 2022/Time: 3:00 P.M. Information or copies of the above solicitations are available by contacting Procurement Services, at the City of Richmond website (www.RVA. GOV), or faxed (804) 646-5989. The City of Richmond encourages all contractors to participate in the procurement process.
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The County of Henrico is proposing to construct approximately 1,680 feet of 12-footwide paved multi-use trail from Dumbarton Road to the Lakeside Recreation Area. This work will be a part of the Fall Line Trail, a 43mile north-south paved trail that will connect Ashland to Petersburg. Construction is anticipated to begin in April of 2024. Information related to this project includes the proposed trail addition, project schedule, and funding information which can be reviewed at the County of Henrico, Department of Public Works, 4305 E. Parham Road, Administration Annex Building, 3rd Floor, Henrico, Virginia 23228, Telephone: (804) 501-4616. County is willing to hold a public hearing. You may request a public hearing by sending a written request to Sarah Briggs, P. O. Box 90775, Henrico, VA 23273-0775, on or before September 15th, 2022. If a request for a public hearing is received, a notice of the date, time, and place of the public hearing will be provided.
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Continued on next column Continued from previous columnContinued from previous columnContinued from previous page THE ORDERHADAVANDKAYVANDOKHTTRUST,etal,Defendants.CaseNo.:CL22-2878OFPUBLICATION
VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY CITYCOURTSJOHNRICHMONDOFMARSHALLBUILDINGOFRICHMOND,Plaintiff,v. FRANKLIN EwING, et al, ORDERCaseDefendants.No.:CL22-2490OFPUBLICATION
VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE CITY OF ORDERCaseDBAGUSTAVOFREDYFRESHRICHMONDSTARTLLC,Plaintiffv.GONZALEZ,JIMENEZGODINEZ,7TOOLSPAINTING,Defendants.No.:CL21003041-00-2OFPUBLICATION
hawaii defeats Curacao in Little League final
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The County ensures nondiscrimination and equal employment in all programs and activities in accordance with Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. If you need more information or special assistance for persons with disabilities Sarah Briggs at the above address, phone number, or at VDOTbri114@henrico.usUPC#:118091
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Fall Line Trail - Lakeside Trail, Phase 2 Henrico County, Virginia Notice of Willingness to Hold a Public Hearing
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Address: 1808 Turner Rd, Richmond, VA 23225 Loan Date: September 5, 1991 Description: Items related to Pat Robertson: 1 cap with pin, 2 brochures, 1 videotape, 1 bumper sticker, 2 pins, 1 audiotape, 1 poster Lender: Elizabeth F. Watkins Address: 215 Ampthill Rd Richmond, VA 23226 Loan Date: February 16, 1944 Description: Collection of prints and engraving related to George Washington (558.1, X.2020.02.182.185, Address:Lender:Description:Date:Address:Lender:Description:Date:Address:Lender:garmentDescription:LoanChestnutAddress:Lender:nDescription:LoanRichmond,Address:Lender:Description:LoanLynchburg,Address:Lender:X.2020.02.187-.189)nellieGregory621FederalSt,VA24504Date:July30,19521comb(L.52.5.2)L.howardhollomon6900W.GraceStVA23226Date:October22,19482tickets(uncut),StateavigationLottery(V.48.120)RobertP.Bainbridge68FairgreenPlace,hill,MADate:19751handbagand1uncut(L.72.03.02-.03)WilliamA.hogeMt.holly,VAOctober19501typewriter(L.50.11.2)EstateofKateMeadenoneonfileFebruary23,19661fruitbowl(L.66.1)noneonfilenoneonfile
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