Community bands together to renovate Charles City’s historic Mt. Zion School
A tarp covers part of the roof of an abandoned building on Route 623 in Charles City County. Underneath the tarp, clear plastic drapes a weathered window, perhaps to further shield the decaying wood structure from elements endured nearly 110 years.
Housing and feeding brethen in need
Homelessness affects hundreds of people in the Greater Richmond area.
Schools are trying to get more students therapy. Not all parents are on board
Derry Oliver was in fifth grade when she first talked to her mom about seeing a therapist.
VUU, VSU stars heading to New Orleans
The football season isn’t quite over for Virginia State and Virginia Union universities.
Panthers have wind at their back
It’s not how you start that counts most. It’s how you finish. And with Baltimore beckoning, Virginia Union is putting on a finishing kick.
Nelson leads Rams’ ‘Bench Bunch’
Basketball championships run in the Nelson family and there is room for more. Jason Nelson Jr. has become a ringleader of VCU’s talented “Bench Bunch” that has spurred the Rams to the threshold of the Atlantic 10’s top perch.
Family and friends celebrate Constance Delores Brown
For more than 38 years, Constance Delores Brown was a nurturing and welcome presence for students at Richmond’s Armstrong High School, where she helped further their education and served as the Senior Class Sponsor and “Miss Armstrong” Pageant Sponsor until she retired.
Judge Onzlee Ware dies at age 70
Roanoke Judge Onzlee Ware, who rose from drug charges and a gunshot wound that cost him a leg to become a Virginia legislator and the first Black judge in the city’s Circuit Court, died Saturday, Feb.10, 2024, the Roanoke Bar Association reported.
Review: Usher shines at star-studded 2024 Super Bowl halftime show
Wedding bells ring after
Usher emerged at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium for the Super Bowl halftime show seated on a throne, joined by a marching band and a trove of Vegas performers — but stayed its center.
VSU, NSU bands featured in documentary
In honor of Black History Month, the Pepsi National Battle of the Bands (NBOTB) announced the debut of “The Legacy of HBCU Marching Bands,” a documentary film that pays tribute to the heritage and legacy of marching bands at historically black colleges and universities. The film will air on WTVR CBS6 at 9 p.m.,Sunday, Feb. 18.
NFL broke color line in 1946
Sunday night’s Super Bowl will showcase two franchises with Black players making up some 65% of their rosters.
RPS School Board appoints Shavonda Dixon for 9th District; budget changes, safety also discussed
The Richmond School Board has unanimously voted to appoint Shavonda Dixon to represent the 9th District.
Family of Black girls handcuffed by Colorado police, held at gunpoint reach $1.9M settlement
The four Black girls lay facedown in a parking lot, crying “no” and “mommy” as a police officer who had pointed her gun at them then bent down to handcuff two of their wrists. The youngest wore a pink tiara as she held onto her teenage cousin’s hand.
‘Removing obstacles to growth’
VUU’s plan for $42M investment includes new housing, but not historic hospital
President Hakim J. Lucas used Virginia Union University’s Founders Day celebrations to announce a partnership with a New York-based development and investment firm to build affordable housing along Brook and Overbrook roads. The Steinbridge Group has committed $42 million to build 130 to 200 residences on the northern edge of VUU’s campus. During the Feb. 2 press conference, the group’s founder and CEO, Tawan Davis, said his firm had worked with business- man and philanthropist Robert F. Smith’s Student Freedom Initiative (SFI) to select VUU as the first HBCU to receive an investment as part of its $100 million initiative announced in November 2023. Its aim is to help HBCUs and other minority-serving institu- tions make underutilized assets economically productive, thereby diversifying their revenue streams and improving their financial situations and endowments. Mr. Davis estimated that Steinbridge’s investment in VUU will increase the university’s endowment 13% to 18%, as well as providing the school cash income 3.5 to 5.5 times greater than what would have resulted from the sale of the land in to- day’s market. He noted that while a significant number of Black professionals emerge from the HBCU system, the schools are funded 30% less than their counterparts and that the collective endowments of all HBCUs is less than the smallest Ivy League endowment. Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson, VUU’s board chair, said this project was a demonstration of thinking creatively about remov- ing the obstacles to growth.
Personality: Shawna Chapman
Spotlight on America’s United States Mrs. Mid-Atlantic 2024
Growing up in Petersburg, Shawna Chapman never believed pageants were open to women like her, whose background includes dropping out of high school and experiencing periods of homelessness.
An hour can save a life
More diverse blood donors needed amid emergency shortage nationwide
National Blood Donor Month might have ended Jan. 31, but ongoing shortages in Virginia and nationally mean that the need for donors remains critical.
The Holy Eucharist commemorates Rev. Barbara Harris
The Diocese of Virginia announces the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist commemorating the consecration of the Right Reverend Barbara Clementine Harris, the first woman Bishop in the Anglican Communion, and celebrating the life and witness of the Reverend Absalom Jones, the first African-American priest in The Episcopal Church.
Carl Weathers, linebacker-turned-actor, dies at 76
Carl Weathers, a former NFL linebacker who became a Hollywood action movie and comedy star, playing nemesis-turned-ally Apollo Creed in the “Rocky” movies, facing off against Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Predator” and teaching golf in “Happy Gilmore,” has died. He was 76.
Mahomes, Purdy in NFL spotlight
Meet the “odd couple” of Super Bowl quarterbacks. Greatness, from the get-go, was predicted for Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, not so for San Francisco’s Brock Purdy, the longest of the longshots.
