NEWJOURNAL & GUIDE Serving Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Suffolk & The Peninsula
Vol. 123, No. 44 | $1.50
November 2, 2023 - November 8, 2023
Publishing since 1900 ... that no good cause shall lack a champion and evil shall not thrive unopposed.
www.thenewjournalandguide.com
NAACP Reschedules State Conference For One Day Only: Nov. 11 By Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter New Journal and Guide For the first time in 88 years, the Virginia NAACP will not hold its annual multi-day state convention. Instead, according to state President Robert N. Barnette Jr. in a press release on October 26 to the media and local chapters, a one-day meeting will be held on November 11 at the Omni Hotel in Richmond. Barnette’s announcement followed days of Photo: Courtesy uncertainty and frustration PORTSMOUTH LEADERS AND OFFICIALS – (L-R) Brian Donahue; Rep. Bobby Scott; Sen. L. Louise Lucas; by many Virginia NAACP Councilman Mark Hugel; Vice Mayor Lisa Lucas-Burke; Councilman Vernon Tillage; City Attorney Lavonda Grahammembers who had heard the Williams; and Mayor Shannon Glover. convention was canceled but had not received official confirmation, according to various news outlets. The Virginia NAACP Conference’s annual threeday convention, planned Special to the Guide
“NATIONAL HISTORY BEING MADE IN PORTSMOUTH”
PORTSMOUTH The Portsmouth Marine Terminal was the site on Oct. 27 to celebrate the city’s critical role in Dominion Energy’s construction of its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. Recently, the first eight of 176 huge monopile foundations for the developing project were delivered to the Terminal to be staged for what will be North America’s largest offshore wind farm, about 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. Company, civic, and community leaders gathered at the Port of Virginia to view the first of the monopile foundations
Moving forward, more than 1,000 local jobs will be needed to support ongoing operations and maintenance for the first offshore wind project in America being constructed by Dominion Energy.
Mayor Shannon Glover which will be installed into the sea floor to support the wind turbine generators. Once operational, the offshore wind project can save Dominion Energy customers about $3 billion in fuel costs in the first 10 years alone, Dominion
Energy CEO Bob Blue said. “Virginia is leading the way in offshore wind,” said State Senator L. Louise Lucas, who joined Blue, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Portsmouth Mayor Shannon Glover, and a host of other elected officials at the portside ceremony. “I look forward to the finalization of this project which will help
for last weekend, arrived at a crucial moment for the civil rights organization as the convention was scheduled to host leadership elections. The lack of communication and the uncertainty it created angered some NAACP members who said it was a result of mismanagement by the organization’s executive board and that it could have been easily avoided. “You must be kidding me. While we are up against it, the State NAACP can’t get enough delegates to hold a convention?” Phillip Thompson, former president of the Loudoun County branch of the NAACP and former member of the Virginia State Conference’s executive committee, wrote in an email ...see NAACP, page 5A
INSIDE:
Hunton YMCA Relocates Services To Temporary Site ...see page 3B
to diversify the grid, assist with the reduction of carbon emissions, and most importantly economic development and jobs for the citizens here in Hampton Roads.” The 2.6 gigawatt project will provide electricity to up to 660,000 homes. Limited onshore construction is expected to begin later this year. ...see Portsmouth, page 6A
NORFOLK’S REDEVELOPMENT IN ST. PAUL’S QUADRANT ONGOING By Leonard E. Colvin
Also, the city and Chief Reporter the Urban League of New Journal and Guide Hampton Roads are Several developments are underway in Norfolk’s downtown joining forces to bring a St. Paul’s Quadrant as the city nears the completion of the first phase of grocery store and other redevelopment with the soon-to-open new Kindred Housing Community. It commercial resources replaces Tidewater Gardens. Relocated to a temporary location to the area. is the Hunton YMCA, which sat in the midst of Tidewater Gardens for 35 years. Plans call for construction of its new home on Brambleton Avenue. Also, the city and the Urban League of Hampton Roads (ULHR) are joining forces to redevelop the Church Street Square shopping
strip at Church Street and East Brambleton, to bring a grocery store and other commercial resources to the area. Two years after the Sav-A-Lot grocery store closed and a year after the Dollar General was shuddered
due to arson, the St. Paul community has been without a viable grocery outlet in the Church Street Square Complex. During its October 24 meeting, the Norfolk City Council authorized the city to apply for a $5 million grant to help transform the shopping center, into the site of a new Food Lion Grocery Store and job training and support center. The project will be a collaboration between the city Department of Development and The Urban League of Hampton Roads which is purchasing the five-acre Church Street Square site. According to Norfolk Economic Development Authority Director Sean Washington, the site is under contract for $3.2 By Rosaland Tyler million. ...see Norfolk, page 5A Associate Editor New Journal and Guide
Google Donates $1M To Hampton University For Digital Upgrades
CALLS CONTINUE FOR DOJ TO LOOK INTO WRONGFUL VOTER PURGE
By Rosaland Tyler Associate Editor New Journal and Guide
About 200 voters were recently reinstated in the city of Richmond – which has a population of about 230,000, while at least 275 misclassified voters were identified, and deemed eligible to vote. All told, a total of 3,400 voters were removed from Virginia’s voting list,
but recently reinstated. Prince William County, said last week by email that 87 voters had been reinstated. The number had risen to 107, he said in an Oct. 27 update. Virginians will go to the polls on Nov. 7. According to news reports, the governor’s administration first disclosed the problem earlier this month following reporting from VPM News about concerns raised by civil rights advocates over improper voter removals.
Photo: Courtesy
Many organizations and individuals continue to question the total number of registered voters in Virginia. While Jeff Goettman, the chief of staff for Youngkin, said the administration suspects the errors “are the result of antiquated data systems and insufficient processes maintained over the last 20 plus years.” Democrats continue to question and criticize the GOP’s purged list. ...see Purge, page 8A
ELECTION DAY IN VIRGINIA IS NOV. 7
There was a time when the digital divide stretched across HBCU campuses, the same way acres of undeveloped land lay fallow awaiting a philanthropist’s magic touch at the turn of the century. Now, students with cellphones, tablets and laptops spill out of renovated campus buildings that were built by turn-of-the-century HBCU students with handmade bricks. The way philanthropists like Andrew Carnegie donated funds that led to the construction of new HBCU buildings at Tuskegee Institute in the early 1900s, today’s corporate leaders and the federal government are supplying funds that are slowly wiping out the digital divide on HBCU campuses.
For example, Google recently donated $2 million to Hampton and Morehouse. According to a recent UNCF press release, Hampton will use its recent $1 million Google gift to “enable the university to expand pathways and opportunities by facilitating needed infrastructure and classroom technology upgrades.” According to its website, Hampton also received a recent $1.76M grant from the Simons Foundation to help develop a new Stellarator Experiment Group to advance research in Fusion Plasma Science. ...see Digital, page 6A