The people’s champion
Ditch the memories of Muhammad Ali showing up uninvited at Sonny Liston’s training camp, announcing that he was going bear hunting. Put aside his boasts of being the greatest of alllll-timmmme. Scratch the images of the “Ali Shuffle” and his patented rope-a-dope.
4th Congressional District primaries
On Tuesday, voters in Richmond and portions of several nearby cities and counties will go to the polls to make their choices for Democratic and Republican nominees to run for the 4th Congressional District seat.
‘Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic’ opens Saturday at VMFA
Special to the Free Press Asked what “A New Republic” means, visual artist Kehinde Wiley replies rapid-fire. “It’s a space-clearing gesture.”
Richmond’s Plunky Branch releases autobiography at June 23 event
James “Plunky” Branch’s music consistently contains elements of jazz, funk and soul linked with African concepts of “Juju” and “oneness.”
Prince autopsy report hints at puzzling painkiller mystery
The report from the medical examiner who conducted Prince’s autopsy is tantalizing for what it doesn’t say. The single-page document released last week lists a fentanyl overdose as the cause of death, but it offers few clues to indicate whether the musician was a chronic pain patient desperately seeking relief, a longtime opioid user whose habit became an addiction or a combination of both.
Ali was golden starting in 1960 Olympics
The 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome were held during the height of the bitter Cold War. Helping to ease world tension was 18-year-old Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., just two months after his graduation from Central High School in Louisville, Ky., where he was a bit of a class clown.
Highland Springs junior vaulting toward championship
As a younger athlete, Chris St. Helen tried his luck at basketball, football and long-distance running, and he was average. Then he discovered the pole vault and he was average no more. From then on, it has been up, up and away.
VUU coach, player on ballot for College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame has taken notice of Virginia Union University’s rich football history. Former Panthers Coach Joe Taylor and defensive stalwart William Dillon are on the ballot as candidates for the Hall of Fame Class of 2017.
VSU extends Blow’s contract
Virginia State University officials like what they see in basketball Coach Lonnie Blow Jr. so much so they have extended his contract through 2021.
Brothers awaiting Olympic trials after injuries
Noah Lyles has bigger fish to fry than Virginia’s 6A Track and Field Championships.
Serena screams to a halt in French Open
The real Serena Williams finally turned up at the French Open last Saturday in pursuit of a 22nd grand slam singles title. But it was to no avail.
Ali remembered in Muslim world as a voice of change
Of all Muhammad Ali’s travels in the Muslim world, his 1964 trip to Egypt was perhaps the most symbolic, a visit remembered mostly by an iconic photo of the boxing great happily shaking hands with a smiling Gamal Abdel-Nasser, Egypt’s nationalist and popular president.
President Carter pushes for interracial Baptist cooperation
Pastors Frederick Haynes and George Mason both lead Baptist churches in Dallas, but they had never met until the not-guilty verdict in the death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin brought them together in 2013.
Personality: Dr. Addie J. Briggs
Spotlight on honorary chair of ‘Jazz Inside Out’ Virginia Higher Education Fund benefit
Dr. Addie J. Briggs is accustomed to raising funds for educational causes that benefit Richmond area youth. Patients at Dr. Briggs’ Eastern Henrico pediatric practice are familiar with her passion for promoting reading among her patients. She is known as the doctor who gives each patient a book during checkups. She also has lobbied congressional representatives to provide federal funding to purchase books for thousands of Virginia children up to age 5.
VSU grad crowned Miss USA
Deshauna Barber has brains and beauty, and she’s a commander in the Army Reserve to boot. The 2011 Virginia State University graduate now adds another title: Miss USA 2016. Miss Barber, 26, who represented the District of Columbia in Sunday’s pageant at the T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas strip, beat contestants from 50 states to win the crown.
Polls open Tuesday for 4th District primaries
Who will represent Richmond in Congress? Next week, voters will take the first step toward choosing a new representative to Washington. They will do so by selecting standard-bearers for the Democratic and Republican parties in a state-run primary election. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 14.
Dr. Jones drops out
Dr. Derik E. Jones is not going to seek four more years on the Richmond School Board — opening the door to other candidates.
Customers left hanging after dry cleaner shuts down
Lonnie McLaurin took two jackets, two shirts and two pair of pants to a dry cleaner in Highland Park at the end of April. When he returned a week later to pay his bill and pick up his clothes, he hit a surprising roadblock — a padlock on the front door of the shop. He could see his clothes covered by plastic hanging on a rack in the front of the store, but no one was there to let him in.
VCU receives recommendations for remains in well
Bury them with an appropriate West African ceremony in the African Burial Ground in Downtown. That’s one of the major recommendations on what to do with the bones of 53 adults, teens and children — apparently slaves — found discarded in a capped well on the medical campus of Virginia Commonwealth University. The recommendation, along with a host of other ideas, was presented to VCU representatives Saturday during the latest session of the East Marshall Street Well Project.
Clinton primary wins assure Dem nomination
Eight years after conceding the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination to then-rival Barack Obama, the first African-American to be the standard-bearer for a major political party, Hillary Clinton is poised to make history of her own. Tuesday night, the former U.S. senator and secretary of state took her place as the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee after claiming victory over persistent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
