Monument Avenue Commission Sept. 13 meeting postponed
The Monument Avenue Commission’s much-anticipated Sept. 13 public hearing on the Confederate statues in Richmond has been postponed until sometime in October.
Attorney general opinion says Richmond statues may be moved
Richmond apparently could remove four of the five Confederate statues on Monument Avenue without violating a state law protecting them, according to an opinion from Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring.
Back-to-school events during Labor Day holiday
Thousands of Richmond children will fitted be for new shoes for free on Labor Day before heading to class next Tuesday, Sept. 5.
Hurricane Harvey devastates Texas; blasts into Louisiana
More than 10,000 people — an overflow of evacuees — have sought refuge in the Houston Convention Center in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, which struck the Texas Gulf Coast last Friday, leaving the nation’s fourth largest city and its surrounding communities in a flood of devastation.
Independent review slated of Charlottesville events
More than 200 clergy, activists and citizens began a 10-day march this week from Emancipation Park in Charlottesville to Washington in a public show of resistance to the white supremacists who brought violence and death to the city earlier this month.
State auditor: City may be on brink of financial distress
Richmond is usually portrayed as being in good financial health despite having one in four residents living in poverty. Coupled with a building boom, the city reports a balanced budget, $114 million in savings that it does not need to tap to pay its bills and budget surpluses in each of the past two fiscal years.
Bike sharing rolls into Richmond
By Jeremy M. LazarusNext week, Mayor Levar M. Stoney will launch the RVA Bike Share program that promotes cycling by allowing people to rent bikes for a few hours to a week or more.
City starts tax amnesty program
Have you failed to pay city taxes? Good news. The city is now offering a two-month amnesty program to allow residents and businesses to pay what they owe without the interest and penalties that boost the expense.
Richmond Christian Center gets 4-month reprieve from sale
The Richmond Christian Center has been given a four-month reprieve from the forced sale of its South Side sanctuary in the 200 block of Cowardin Avenue and other holdings.
Use revenue from statues to ‘ease some of the disparity in this city’
As the son of a Black Panther, I may be the most pro-black person you’ll meet. That being said, the statues on Monument Avenue should remain in place.
‘We never assumed a back seat’
African-American people did not lose the Civil War. And, as opposed to man’s historical traditions, we did not rob or pillage or rape. The fact of the matter is that rather than throw this in their faces, we took to the higher ground, attempting to assimilate into a society whose lofty goals of freedom and equality for all came with the blatant exclusion of black people and the subtle exclusion of some white people who, to this day, don’t even realize it.
‘This is the moment’ to address domestic terrorism in state law
The groups and individuals who unabashedly proclaim themselves to be aligned with white supremacy in all of its organizational iterations for the promotion of violence and intimidation are indeed domestic terrorists.
Confederate statue has no place in Surry County
I write as one of many concerned citizens who believe it is time for the Confederate monuments to come down, particularly the one outside the Surry County Courthouse.
Charlottesville a wake-up call
The incidents in Charlottesville have served as even more of a wake-up call than Donald Trump in the White House. Racism is alive and running rampant in the United States. Even worse, it’s not being condemned by the highest leadership in this country.
‘Racism and hatred are not good for business’
In 2015, CNN reported that 49 percent of Americans thought that racism was a big problem in the United States. Not surprisingly, people of color and white people had significantly differing views regarding the subject. Sixty-six percent of black people and 64 percent of Hispanics thought that racism was a big problem, while only 43 percent of white people saw it that way.
Healing or hate?
Since 1994, I have been leading Slave Trail Walks (the Trail of Enslaved Africans) in Richmond. I have led those walks with groups from around the world and have witnessed the impact the experience has had on many of them.
Dispelling the darkness
The darkness of the tragic events in Charlottesville — and President Trump’s continued blessing of the racist, anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi, white supremacist elements seeking to tear apart this nation — have cast a pall over our state and country. We have been emotionally drained by the displays of hatred and violence by these groups, now unleashed because our president has no moral compass.
10th Annual Latin Jazz & Salsa Festival Saturday
The Latin Jazz & Salsa Festival returns this weekend, but at a new, bigger location in South Side. The upbeat show featuring Afro-Cuban and Caribbean beats will be 2 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, at Broad Rock Industrial Park, located at Broad Rock Boulevard and Warwick Road, it has been announced.
Comedian, activist Dick Gregory dies at 84
Comedian, civil rights activist and healthy living advocate Dick Gregory, who used his humor to spread messages of social justice and good nutrition, died late Saturday, Aug. 19, 2017, in Washington.He was 84.
