Fourth of July closing schedule
In observance of the Fourth of July holiday on Sunday, July 4, please note the following:
Area Independence Day celebrations to feature fireworks
Want fireworks with your Independence Day celebration?
Fulton family receives unexpected blessing of mortgage payoff
It began as a casual conversation. Then it quickly turned into what Travis L. and Latarsha F. Woods can only call “a blessing from God.”
Free COVID-19 testing and vaccines
COVID-19 testing is available at various drug stores, clinics and urgent care centers throughout the area for people with and without health insurance. Several offer tests with no out-of-pocket costs.
14 African-Americans connected to Jackson Ward to be recognized with honorary street signs
Honorary brown street signs soon will go up in Jackson Ward to call attention to 14 deceased Black men and women who made a lasting imprint on Richmond and often on the nation.
VUU to induct 8 people, 1 team into Athletic Hall of Fame
Virginia Union University’s rich athletic tradition will be celebrated Oct. 1 with its Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Church’s tax-exempt status restored
The Community Church of God in Christ is once again being recognized by the city as an active, functioning church, according to 2nd District City Councilwoman Katherine Jordan.
Dr. Thelma Bland Watson, who was dedicated to advancing the needs of the elderly, dies at 70
Dr. Thelma Bland Watson was 9 when she began providing assistance to her maternal grandmother. That experience turned Dr. Watson into a champion for the elderly.
Personality: Ngoma Hill
Spotlight on New Generation Beat Poet Laureate
From Alexandria to Richmond to Vietnam and Harlem, Ngoma Hill has built an impressive artistic career. He is now being recognized for his work on another level.
RPS offers plan to boost student literacy
Nearly half of all Richmond students cannot read proficiently when they enter high school, leading to high dropout rates and a host of other ills, Richmond Public Schools acknowledges.
Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22 ½ years in murder of George Floyd
Not enough. That was the sentiment of the late George Floyd’s family members after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chau- vin was sentenced late last week to 221⁄2 years in prison for the murder of Mr. Floyd in May 2020.
Cosby freed
After spending 3 years behind bars for drugging and assaulting a woman in 2004, entertainer Bill Cosby was released from prison on a legal technicality, drawing mixture of public praise and criticism
Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction and released him from prison Wednesday in a stunning reversal of fortune for the comedian once known as “America’s Dad.”
Free Press honored with top awards in NNPA contest
The Richmond Free Press has received national recognition for its commitment to the local community with the Carl Murphy Award for community service presented by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
RPS career educator and principal Fred A. Cooper dies at 91
Fred Adolphus Cooper sought to inspire students to learn during his nearly 60-year career as an educator that included service as principal of Richmond’s former Armstrong-Kennedy High School complex and later as co-owner of a student tutorial business in Chicago.
Personality: Marquis D. Mapp
Spotlight on board chair of Virginia Pride
Virginia Pride has emerged in the decades since its founding in the 1970s as a major force bringing awareness of the LGBTQIA+ community to Richmond and around the state, as well as promoting diversity and unity among the local LGBTIA+ community.
Hold the Juneteenth celebrations
It took two years after the Emancipation Proclamation for Black people in Texas to find out that they had been proclaimed free. Juneteenth has now, in regards to that history, been validated as a national holiday.
‘A mind is a terrible thing to waste’, by Venson Jordan
As a boy growing up Black in America, I remember that there were a few TV advertisements that spoke directly to me. The most memorable was the United Negro College Fund. The words rang in my head like the bells of truth. The heavy, articulate voice would say, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
3 urgent steps to defend democracy, by Ben Jealous
The far right attack on voting rights is fierce. And the unwillingness of some U.S. Senate Democrats to challenge rules that allow a Republican minority to block voting rights bills is making some question whether we can turn back the tide of voter suppression.
Rebirth of a nation, by Dr. E. Faye Williams
Some of my “vintage” or “experienced” readers may remember or actually saw the movie, “Birth of a Nation.” Not the 2016 Nate Parker version, I refer to the 1915 silent film, originally called “The Clansman” by D.W. Griffith. In short, it glorified the Ku Klux Klan and denigrated civil and human rights for formerly enslaved people using the “Black man, white woman” paradigm.
The NCAA, Justice Kavanaugh and student-athletes
We were quite interested in the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion this week regarding the NCAA and student-athletes and what compensation students can expect for providing their talent to a college or university.
