Acclaimed writer Paule Marshall, professor emeritus at VCU, dies at 90
Writer Paule Marshall, an exuberant and sharpened storyteller who in books such as “Daughters” and “Brown Girl, Brownstones” drew upon classic and vernacular literature and her mother’s kitchen conversations to narrate the divides between African-Americans and Caucasians, men and women, and modern and traditional cultures, died Monday, Aug. 20, 2019, in Richmond.
Personality: Vilma T. Seymour
Spotlight on president of Richmond Region League of United Latin American Citizens
Strength is the key to Vilma Seymour’s life.
Carver Elementary gets new laundry center
Homelessness has been a continuous problem in Richmond, and it also impacts city school students.
City Council shoots down advisory referendum on $1.5B Coliseum project
One week after the Richmond City Council voted to kill a proposed advisory referendum asking Richmond voters whether they support using tax dollars to pay for a new Richmond Coliseum, the referendum’s chief proponent is still tense over the decision.
Goldman has until Aug. 30 to show signatures on Coliseum referendum were wrongly rejected
Paul Goldman is refusing to give up on his effort to allow Richmond voters to weigh in on the huge and costly plan to replace the Richmond Coliseum.
School Board votes to demolish school building
A historic Richmond elementary school building that dates to the 1880s and was the first built to serve African-American children in Church Hill appears to be headed for demolition.
2 area apartment complexes being revitalized
Two major apartment complexes, one in Richmond and one in Henrico County that largely house lower-income families, are being revitalized.
8 candidates vying for Agelasto’s City Council seat
And the race is on. Eight people successfully qualified to compete for the 5th District seat on Richmond City Council from which Councilman Parker C. Agelasto plans to resign on Nov. 30.
Hanover County NAACP files federal lawsuit over schools’ Confederate names
In a novel approach, the Hanover County Branch NAACP is alleging that the county and its School Board are violating the constitutional rights of African-American residents by having schools named for military and political leaders of the slavery-defending Confederate States.
HBCU president ousted after accusations of plagiarism, nepotism
Officials at an historically black college in Tennessee have voted out the school’s president, who has been accused of plagiarism, nepotism and not handling mold or rodent issues in residence halls.
Obama’s old high school basketball jersey sells for $120,000
A basketball jersey believed to have been worn by former President Barack Obama while he was at an elite Honolulu prep school has sold at auction for $120,000.
‘Rey’ of hope
Cristo Rey Richmond High School opens to high expectations by students, officials
When the bell rang at 7:45 a.m. Monday, 96 ninth-grade students began the inaugural school year at Cristo Rey Richmond High School, a private school that promises opportunities for some of the area’s poorest youths through a rigorous, college preparatory curriculum combined with an unconventional work component that seeks to give them a boost in the job market.
State NAACP president dismissed, listening tour stopped in shake-up
The president of the Virginia State Conference NAACP was abruptly dismissed and the civil rights group’s statewide “Listening Tour” has been halted in changes announced last weekend by the state administrator.
Muslim initiative raises thousands to release detained migrant parents
Led by two of the country’s most prominent imams, hundreds of U.S. Muslims have raised more than $81,000 to bail out detained migrant parents.
Cityscape: Slice of life and scenes in Richmond
Slices of life and scenes in Richmond
A sign posted in Richmond’s Byrd Park offers motorists a friendly reminder: “Love It? Then Lock It! Or Lose It!”
Why I visited the border
Letter to the Editor
As I ventured to the southern border near Laredo, Texas, I could not help but think about the tragic shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, which are stark reminders of the dangers that plague our communities under the resurgence of white nationalism, domestic terrorism, intolerance and racial hatred germinating from the White House.
A tribute to Toni Morrison
Columnists
“Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge. Whether it is obscuring state language or the faux-language of mindless media; whether it is the proud but calcified language of the academy or the commodity driven language of science; whether it is the malign language of law-without-ethics, or language designed for the estrangement of minorities, hiding its racist plunder in its literary cheek –it must be rejected, altered and exposed. It is the language that drinks blood, laps vulnerabilities, tucks its fascist boots under crinolines of respectability and patriotism as it moves relentlessly toward the bottom line and the bottomed-out mind.” — Toni Morrison, Nobel Lecture, 1993
Calling for a groundswell
Columnists
How, in a span of only 24 hours, could two cities in different states and regions suffer mass shootings — one in El Paso, Texas, a city only a few miles from the nation’s southern border, and the other in Dayton, Ohio, a former midwestern manufacturing hub?
A clearer vision needed
Editorials
We are not convinced of the need or the benefits of the costly plan to replace the Richmond Coliseum and divert millions of tax dollars that ordinarily would go to the city’s general fund to pay for the project.
Down Home Family Reunion this Saturday
Richmond native Jerome “Bigfoot” Brailey’s Funk Allstars is headlining the 29th Annual Down Home Family Reunion this weekend. The free event, hosted by the Elegba Folklore Society, will run from 4 to 11 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 17, at Abner Clay Park, Leigh Street and Brook Road in Jackson Ward.
