Faith leaders react to Tyre Nichols police video beating with grief, goals
Religious leaders reacted swiftly — with legislative appeals and collective grief — to the release of video footage of police officers beating Tyre Nichols, a Black man who died days after a traffic stop in Memphis, Tenn.
Religious leaders sue to block Missouri’s abortion ban
A group of religious leaders who support abortion rights filed a lawsuit Jan. 19 challenging Missouri’s abortion ban, saying lawmakers openly invoked their religious beliefs while drafting the measure and thereby imposed those beliefs on others who don’t share them.
Virginia Union University announces Founder’s Day Convocation
Dr. Darran T. Brandon Sr., pastor of the historic First Calvary Baptist Church in Norfolk and president of the Virginia Baptist State Convention, will be the keynote speaker during Virginia Union University’s Founder’s Day Convocation at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. …
Black churches to receive share of $4M for preservation work
Nearly three dozen historic Black religious sites will receive a $4 million infusion of funding to help them with renovations and preservation of their buildings across the country.
The role of Blackness in the Hamline Islamic art controversy
In early October, Erika López Prater, a professor at Hamline University in Minnesota, showed her online Islamic art history class an image of the Prophet Muhammad. A Muslim student in the class complained, citing Islamic tradition barring representations of the …
Richmond Free Press freelance writer, editor Charles H. Taylor III, dies at age 70
From his earliest days to his twilight years, Charles H. Taylor III was a person of excellence and compassion for those who knew, worked with and loved him.
Longtime Richmond educator remembered
Bessie Patricia Carter Brown loved being involved with education, her family said.
Earle P. Taylor, photographer and cultural arts innovator, dies at 94
Earle Palmer Taylor, a renowned Richmond photographer who ran a nonprofit Shockoe Bottom art gallery for two decades and taught hundreds of people the art of taking and de- veloping pictures at the city’s Pine Camp art center, has died.
Pope Francis praises ‘gentle’ Pope Benedict XVI ahead of funeral
Pope Francis praised Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s “acute and gentle thought” as he presided over a packed Wednesday general audience in the Vatican, while thousands of people paid tribute to the former pope on the final day of public viewing …
Influential African-Americans who died in 2022
They were literary giants, luminaries of stage and screen, and masters of their chosen professions – be it music, sports or fashion. Most are famous, a few are notorious. Yet they all profoundly impacted their fields of endeavor.
William Barber launches new center at Yale
Yale Divinity School is launching a new Center for Public Theology and Public Policy, an advocacy-focused body to be led by prominent pastor and activist the Rev. William Barber II.
Alphonso H. ‘Al’ Bowers Jr., who fought for construction diversity, dies
Alphonso Hugo “Al” Bowers Jr., a veteran Richmond contractor who was outspoken in promoting Black inclusion in government building projects and promoted construction trades training program for unemployed adults, has died.
Pastor Marshall D. Burgess Sr. memorialized
A memorial service for Rev. Marshall D. Burgess Sr. was held on Dec. 2, 2022, at Metropolitan African American Baptist Church in Richmond. He died on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2022, at the age of 90.
Lawrence Hugh ‘Larry’ Everette, social worker and popular singer, dies at 74
Lawrence Hugh “Larry” Everette was passionate about helping people and singing.
‘Treat everybody like family,’ advises Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church
Last Saturday marked months of planning for the ordination and consecration of The Rev. Canon E. Mark Stevenson as the 14th Bishop of the Diocese of Virginia on Dec. 3 at The Saint Paul’s Baptist Church in Henrico County.
