Free Press SOL article 'does a tremendous disservice' to RPS students
Re “Down again: Student achievement drops again for Richmond Public Schools, according to 2018-19 SOL test results,” Free Press Aug.15-17 edition: The article published in the Free Press will likely lead many readers to believe that Richmond Public Schools’ Standards …
Changing Hanover school names ‘won’t change a thing’
Re “Hanover County NAACP files federal lawsuit over schools’ Confederate names,” Free Press Aug. 22-24 edition: The Hanover County Branch NAACP’s federal lawsuit over Hanover schools with Confederate names is on specious grounds.
Media responsible for racial tensions
The continual negative reporting of the Ferguson, Mo., killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown by former police Officer Darren Wilson is a prime reason for racial tensions to increase on the part of white people.
400 years
We pay tribute here to the “20 And odd Negroes” who, 400 years ago in late August 1619, ended up on Virginia’s shores at Point Comfort in what is now Hampton.
Get serious about white extremists and domestic terrorism
Just over a decade ago, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the FBI produced a report titled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”
Getting to root cause of racism
It’s amazing how often the news media give big play to an academic report that tells us something black mothers already knew.
Invest in Richmond’s schoolchildren, not Coliseum
Re “Moving on up or out? Mayor Stoney submits to City Council $1.5B Coliseum replacement and Downtown development plan,” Free Press Aug. 8-10 edition: Richmond is in the process of approving spending $1.5 billion for city infrastructure development, including a …
Toward more precise language
Re “University health services bracing for ripple effect from mass shootings,” Free Press Aug. 15-17 edition: Your article quotes Dr. Darylnet Lyttle, director of the student health center at Virginia State University, saying, “We are at work to reduce the …
A clearer vision needed
We are not convinced of the need or the benefits of the costly plan to replace the Richmond Coliseum and divert millions of tax dollars that ordinarily would go to the city’s general fund to pay for the project.
Calling for a groundswell
How, in a span of only 24 hours, could two cities in different states and regions suffer mass shootings — one in El Paso, Texas, a city only a few miles from the nation’s southern border, and the other in …
A tribute to Toni Morrison
“Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge. Whether it is obscuring state language or the faux-language of mindless media; whether it is the proud but calcified …
Why I visited the border
As I ventured to the southern border near Laredo, Texas, I could not help but think about the tragic shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, which are stark reminders of the dangers that plague our communities under the …
Nearly 1,000 good reasons
Some people claim there is no reason to enact tougher gun laws in the United States. We wholeheartedly disagree.
Richmond’s next commonwealth’s attorney
On Thursday, Aug. 8, and Saturday, Aug. 10, Richmond Democrats will vote to decide who will be the Democrats’ nominee for Richmond commonwealth’s attorney.
Righting old wrongs
“The U.S. ‘war on drugs’ — a decades-long policy of racial and class suppression hidden behind cannabis criminality — has resulted in the arrest, interdiction and incarceration of a high percentage of Americans of color. The legal cannabis industry represents …
