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New ‘Emancipation and Freedom Monument’ unveiling draws crowds, tears
“Overwhelming!” “Excited!” “Proud!” Those were some of the comments from onlookers as they viewed the state’s new “Emancipation and Freedom Monument” that was unveiled Wednesday on Brown’s Island on the James River in Richmond’s Downtown.
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Denied their chance
Racism and segregation wouldn’t allow young African-Americans in Richmond to use whites-only pool for life-saving swimming merit badge in quest to become Eagle Scouts
J. Maurice Hopkins never wanted this story written.
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BlackTop youth program loses gym space
A private South Side youth program that won plaudits and a $500,000 city grant for its virtual school operation that served more than 80 students daily during the 2020-21 school year has been evicted from its home in a church gymnasium and is scrambling to find a new location for its operations.
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School Board rejects terminating contract for school food vendor
The Richmond School Board and schools administration debated the future of who will be contracted to provide meals to the city’s 24,000 students and what they will eat after last week’s public outrage over the condition, quality and nutritional value of the “Grab and Go” meals delivered to schools daily by provider Preferred Meals.
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Commonwealth Catholic Charities to lead city’s winter overflow shelter efforts
Homeless people needing shelter in Richmond beginning Friday, Oct. 1, through mid-April will have a place to stay if the private shelters are full during cold weather.
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Haitians and a history of U.S. mistreatment
The inhumane treatment of thousands of Haitian migrants encamped and stuck at the U.S.-Mexico border on the Rio Grande near Del Rio, Texas, is just the latest example of the double standard employed by this country regarding Black immigrants.
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Pass the Freedom to Vote Act, by Ben Jealous
Republican-controlled state legislatures have imposed new voting restrictions. They are getting ready to create more safe congressional seats for Republicans through abusive partisan redistricting. They are undermining faith in elections with false claims about election fraud and demands for fake “audits.”
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Trial in ‘Operation Varsity Blues’ college admissions scandal gets underway
The first full trial in the college admissions bribery scandal opened Monday with defense attorneys seeking to portray the two parents accused of buying their childrens’ way into school as victims of a con man who believed their payments were legitimate donations.
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Trial set for Oct. 12 in Fourth Baptist Church dispute
A Richmond Circuit Court judge on Tuesday refused to throw out a case in which some members of historic Fourth Baptist Church have sought protection for their voting rights in church affairs, clearing the way for a trial scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 12.
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VUU to play VUL Sept. 18 in Willard Bailey Classic
Who is Coach Bailey rooting for?
Virginia Union University’s long-awaited first football game on its beautifully renovated field left much to be desired. The game this Saturday, Sept. 18, against beleaguered Virginia University of Lynchburg figures to produce far happier results.
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’Monumental Conversations:’ RPS launches new, free app offering insight into community feelings about Confederate statues that lined Monument Avenue
A new mobile app gives people the ability to hear the stories of the generational resistance of Black Richmonders to the Confederate statues on Monument Avenue that once stood as symbols of the white “Lost Cause” narrative.
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Lessons taught at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
Nine teams passed on Paul Pierce in the 1998 NBA draft, and if you think he doesn’t remember each and every one of them, then you don’t know Paul Pierce.
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Va. voters’ choice: Moving forward or going back, by Ben Jealous
Virginia voters will pick the state’s next governor in November. The choice couldn’t be clearer, and neither could the national implications of this race in a bellwether state. Not only is the Virginia election a curtain-raiser for the midterm elections of 2022, it’s also the biggest test so far of whether the Trumpified GOP can win major races.
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From hatred to hope
The 131-year old, 12-ton bronze symbol of white supremacy honoring Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue is taken down as scores watch in person and online
An empty pedestal covered with colorful anti-racist slogans. That’s all that remains of the state’s greatest symbol of white supremacy – the statue of the traitorous Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee riding his horse, Traveller.
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Friends throw fundraiser for singer Carlton Blount
Carlton V. Blount’s voice has taken him to New York, Los Angeles and a host of other places he could only dream about when he was growing up in Richmond.
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A new day
It’s gone. The six-story statue of Confeder- ate Gen. Robert E. Lee, which stood as a towering symbol of white supremacy over Richmond and the South since 1890, is down.
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Eviction protections still in place for Va. renters
Eviction protections are still in place for struggling Virginia renters despite last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that appears to open the floodgates for landlords to go to court to remove tenants who have fallen far behind.

