Final score
Our Sports page will look different next week. Fred Jeter, our longtime sports writer, ends his tenure with The Richmond Free Press with this issue.
Black athletes are Black men, women first, by David W. Marshall
During a recent Fox Sports pregame show appearance, Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson was asked about his return to Birmingham, Ala.’s Rickwood Field, where he played 114 games in the minor leagues. His powerful response was a …
Extreme heat a wake-up call, by Ben Jealous
As I write these words, the mercury is soaring. The world is reeling from the deadly impact of extreme heat and weather events. This is climate change in action. We are living it. And the thermometer-busting temperatures are just the …
Poor people are the new swing vote, By William J. Barber II
If you’re an ordinary American who goes to work to pay the bills or takes care of a loved one most days, it’s easy to feel down when you see the headlines about the 2024 election. Donald Trump has been …
Spirituals, freedom songs echo across generations, by Hazel Trice Edney
Every Sunday, millions of African Americans across the nation make their way to church anticipating relief from lives of financial woes, pressures at work, health concerns, family matters, race discrimination and inequities among other stressful issues of everyday life.
The big payback
Over the next few weeks, we will be devoting a portion of our pages to a three-part story called “40 Acres and a Lie.” This project is the result of work by the Center for Public Integrity, the Center for …
Protecting the elders
There’s a lot you can learn about a place by looking at how they treat their vulnerable populations, such as senior citizens. Here in Virginia, we’ve got some work to do on that issue. We’re glad our attorney general recognized …
Countering MAGA movement with nonviolent extremism, by David W. Marshall
Between 1941 and 1945 some 6 million Jews were systematically murdered across German-occupied Europe during World War II. As part of a state-sponsored genocide, two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population was executed. As a result, those of Jewish faith made it …
Talks of mandated national service, by Clarence Page
Don’t get nervous, young folks, but talk about a national service mandate has been bubbling up again in Washington.
If you’re truly pro-life, you should be anti-gun, by Tony Campolo
In 2022, 48,204 Americans were killed by guns, which are now the leading cause of death among children and teens. Our gun deaths have come to define us in the eyes of the world. You might even say that guns …
Rewinding a Reckoning
When police officers murdered Minneapolis resident George Floyd in 2020, and America went through what some people called a “racial reckoning,” a portion of the population seemed ready to have that “talk” about power and privilege that they had been …
Pick your shots
The sudden rise in the popularity of the WNBA seems to have caught the usual commentators on television and the internet off guard. For many of them, this a new game, although the league has been around since 1996. But …
Reparations program accused of being discriminatory, by Clarence Page
News that a conservative non-profit legal group is challenging Evanston, Ill.’s groundbreaking reparations program got me thinking about the many attempts to redress the wrongs of systemic racism through monetary compensation.
CO2 pipelines a bad deal — follow the money, by Ben Jealous
“Isn’t it sad that money controls everything?”
Black woman’s bid to buy Virginia Beach home faces illegal barrier, echoes of the past, by Roger Chesley
People who overstate the racial progress America has witnessed over the past several decades need to be reminded, every so often, of the discrimination that still lurks in housing, education, employment and the like. An African-American woman’s quest to buy …
