Richmond Free Press Feb. 8-10, 2024 edition

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VOL. 33 NO. 6

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FEBRUARY 8-10, 2024

‘Removing obstacles to growth’ VUU’s plan for $42M investment includes new housing, but not historic hospital

By Debora Timms

President Hakim J. Lucas used Virginia Union University’s Founders Day celebrations to announce a partnership with a New York-based development and investment firm to build affordable housing along Brook and Overbrook roads.

The Steinbridge Group has committed $42 million to build 130 to 200 residences on the northern edge of VUU’s campus.

During the Feb. 2 press conference, the group’s founder and CEO, Tawan Davis, said his firm had worked with businessman and philanthropist Robert F. Smith’s Student Freedom Initiative (SFI) to select VUU as the first HBCU to receive an investment as part of its $100 million initiative announced in November 2023.

Its aim is to help HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions make underutilized assets economically productive, thereby diversifying their revenue streams and improving their financial situations and endowments.

Mr. Davis estimated that Steinbridge’s investment in VUU will increase the university’s endowment 13% to 18%, as well as providing the school cash income 3.5 to 5.5 times greater than what would have resulted from the sale of the land in today’s market. He noted that while a significant number of Black professionals emerge from the HBCU system, the schools are funded 30% less than their counterparts and that the collective endowments of all HBCUs is less than the smallest Ivy League endowment.

Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson, VUU’s board chair, said this project was a demonstration of thinking creatively about removing the obstacles to growth.

Please turn to A4

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Virginia Union University officials recently announced a partnership with the Steinbridge Group and the Student Freedom Initiative to build 130 to 200 residences on the northern edge of VUU’s campus. Attending the Feb. 2 announcement at the university’s Claude G. Perkins Living and Learning Center were Leonard L. Sledge, director of the Department of Economic Development for the City of Richmond; Ann-Frances Lambert, City Council vice president; Tawan Davis, Steinbridge Group founding partner and CEO; Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson, VUU board chairman; Keith Shoates, COO of the Student Freedom Initiative; and Dr. Hakim Lucas, VUU president.

An hour can save a life

More diverse blood donors needed amid emergency shortage nationwide

appointments.

“The biggest shortfalls are for National Blood Donor Month might Type O blood, which is the most have ended Jan. 31, but ongoing transfused type, and platelets which shortages in Virginia and nationally are always in demand because of mean that the need for donors remains their short shelf life,” he said. “But critical. no matter your blood type, if you’re The January designation, first proan eligible donor, the Red Cross needs claimed by former President Richard your donation.”

Mr. Clarke Nixon in 1970, aims to raise awareHe added that one in seven patients ness of the need for blood donations, especially entering the hospital will need blood. In fact, during the winter months. someone in the U.S. will need a transfusion Jonathan McNamara, communications di- of blood and/or platelets every 2 seconds, yet rector for the American Red Cross, said in a only about 3% of age-eligible people donate recent telephone call that the number of people blood yearly. donating blood has dropped by 40% over the Dr. Kimberley Sanford said VCU Health past two decades. Winter months can exacer- began using the American Red Cross about the bate shortages even further as bad weather and Please turn to A4 seasonal illnesses cause donors to cancel their

By Debora Timms

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

The American Red Cross Blood Donation Center on Emorywood Parkway in Henrico is just one location of many in the Richmond area where blood plasma can be donated.

A record number of Americans can’t afford rent The Associated Press

Monique Grant moves belongings out of an apartment after being evicted Jan. 31 in Westminster, Colo.

Monthly rent has outpaced income across the U.S., and forced many to make tough decisions between everyday necessities and a home. In turn, a record number of people are becoming homeless and evictions filings have ratcheted up as pandemic-era eviction moratoriums and federal assistance ends.

DENVER Single mom Caitlyn Colbert watched as rent for her two-bedroom apartment doubled, then tripled and then quadrupled over a decade in Denver — to $3,374 from $750 last year.

Every month, like millions of Americans, Ms. Colbert juggled her costs. Pay rent or swim team fees for one of her three kids. Rent or school supplies. Rent or groceries. Ms. Colbert, a social worker who helps people stay financially afloat, would often arrive home to notices giving her 30 days to pay rent and a late fee or face eviction.

“Every month you just gotta budget and then The Associated Press

Please turn to A4

RPS School Board appoints Shavonda Dixon for 9th District; budget changes, safety also discussed

By Darlene M. Johnson

Mr. Kamras

The Richmond School Board has unanimously voted to appoint Shavonda Dixon to represent the 9th District.

The spot was formerly held by Nicole

Jones, who had served on the board since 2021. Ms. Jones left the board to serve on City Council. She is filling the seat vacated by Michael Jones, who was elected to the House of Delegates in November.

During the Feb. 5 meeting, the board convened in a 30-minute closed session to discuss Ms. Dixon’s appointment after a motion by Dr. Shonda Harris-Muhammed, Please turn to A4

Julianne Tripp Hillian

Flower girls Alayla Kerr, 11 (left) and her sister, Makayla Robinson, 18, make part of a collaborative peony flower curtain at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts during ChinaFest: Year of the Wood Dragon on Saturday, Feb. 3. The peony, known as the “king of flowers” in China, symbolizes wealth, royalty and beauty.

Virginia Democrats sending gun control bills to a skeptical Gov. Youngkin

By Sarah Rankin

Dozens of pieces of gun-related legislation that advocates say will bolster public safety are winding their way through Virginia’s Democratic-controlled General Assembly, including a measure that would halt the sale of certain semiautomatic firearms.

The question hanging over all the bills is: Just how many will Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin veto?

Gov. Youngkin, who generally toed the GOP party line on firearms rhetoric in his campaign but notably did not receive the endorsement of the National Rifle Association, is a former private equity executive whose first two years in public office were spent with a GOP majority in the state House of Delegates that largely prevented Democratic gun bills from reaching his desk.

After that chamber flipped in November’s elections, the governor signaled to lawmakers in a speech on the

session’s opening day that he wanted to see bills that would tighten the penalties on criminals who use guns rather than legislation further restricting the purchase and use of firearms. Still, he’s been assiduously quiet about where he might wield his veto pen, as he navigates a divided government dynamic and negotiations with the new Democratic legislative majority over a proposed sports Please turn to A4

Gov. Youngkin

Richmond Free Press

A2 February 8-10, 2024

Local News

FeedMore hosts food drive Free Press staff report

A canned food drive to benefit Feed More will be held in the Henrico Sports & Events Center starting Saturday, Feb. 10 through Friday, March 1, with free tickets to the upcoming Atlantic 10 Conference Women’s Basketball Championship for those who contribute.

Anyone who donates five canned food items, including peanut butter, pasta sauce, vegetables, soups and tuna during the drive at the center will receive two general admission tickets to the first or second round games of the Atlantic 10 Championship on Wednesday, March 6, or Thursday, March 7.

“Today, one in nine neighbors across the 34 cities and counties we serve struggle with hunger,” said Christy Dalton, Feed More’s community engagement manager.

“These generous donations will help us meet the growing need for food assistance in our region and will help ensure that our most vulnerable neighbors receive the nourishing meals they need to thrive.”

A maximum of two tickets will be provided for each five cans, which can be donated between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. each day of the food drive. Canned food items do not have to be packaged or stored in any specific way when brought to the center for donation.

For more information on the food drive,please contact Mark Clements, director of marketing and business development for the Henrico Sports & Events Center, at mclements@henricocenter.com.

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Cityscape Slices of life and scenes in Richmond

Work continues on a VDOT project to improve safety and traffic flow by realigning the entrance ramp from Belvidere Street to I-95 south/I-64 east and removing an existing slip ramp from Brook Road. Also, crosswalk improvements near the start of the ramp (on Belvidere Street) will increase pedestrian safety and accessibility in the area. Benefits: The project will improve safety, traffic flow and the merge condition at the interchange. In addition, new sidewalks will be installed.

Richardson gets new hearing in controversial case

By George Copeland Jr.

Bonnie Newman Davis/Richmond Free Press

Standing up

“It was February 1, 1960.

They didn’t need menus. Their order was simple.

A doughnut and coffee, with cream on the side.

Members of the Richmond Alumni Chapter of North Carolina A&T State University shared stories about their alma mater with students at Lucille Brown Middle School on Feb. 1. Students in several classrooms read the book, “Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down,” by Andrea Davis Pinkney. The picture book is a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-in on Feb. 1, 1960 in Greensboro, N.C., when four A&T college students staged a peaceful protest. Their stand for justice became a defining moment in the struggle for racial equality and the growing Civil Rights Movement. Chapter members include Jana Pollard, Pamela Doss, chapter president, Michael Bernard, Phenie Gollat, Kae Watson, an exceptional education teacher at Lucille Brown, and Sara Morrison, IEP compliance coordinator.

A man who was cleared in the murder of a police officer, but has served decades in prison, has another chance to seek his release.

Last Thursday, the Virginia Supreme Court granted an evidentiary hearing for Terrence Richardson, allowing him and his attorney, Jarrett Adams, to make their case to the Court of Appeals of Virginia, which had initially refused their request for a new hearing.

The decision followed a November hearing where two legal teams representing Mr. Richardson and the Commonwealth of Virginia presented arguments for and against the evidentiary hearing.

“Upon consideration of the record, briefs, and argument of counsel, the Court is of the opinion that there is reversible error in the judgment of the Court of Appeals,” the court justices wrote in their order to the Court of Appeals.

“Without taking any position on the merits of Richardson’s petition, the Court

is of the opinion that the Court of Appeals abused its discretion when it refused to grant his request for an evidentiary hearing.”

In 1998, Mr. Richardson and Ferrone Claiborne were arrested in the shooting death of Waverly Police Officer Allen W. Gibson and sentenced in 2001.

On the advice of their lawyers, they pleaded guilty to lesser crimes, were acquitted of murder in federal court, but were given life sentences by a district judge who used their guilty pleas as cause for conviction.

Years after their conviction, Mr. Adams said that he’d found new evidence that was withheld from them and the Commonwealth during the trial. In 2022, support from the office of former Attorney General Mark R. Herring was reversed by his successor Jason Miyares, and a writ of innocence petition was later denied by the Virginia Court of Appeals.

The evidence uncovered by Mr. Adams — including an eyewitness statement, a photo lineup and an anonymous tip to State Police all identifying a third person in the

case — was a key part of his legal team’s argument for the evidentiary hearing.

“After over two decades of wrongful imprisonment and nearly seven years of litigating the case, Terence Richardson and Ferrone Claiborne will finally have a pathway to reclaiming their freedom and proving their innocence in court – again,” Mr. Adams said in a statement.

“By granting the evidentiary hearing in Mr. Richardson’s case, we look forward to the opportunity to bring the critical evidence we uncovered to light.

“Finally, this ruling will give these men, their families, and the family of Officer Gibson a chance to find the truth about what happened on that tragic day over two decades ago, and importantly, hold those actually responsible for the murder of Officer Gibson accountable.”

Mr. Richardson and Mr. Claiborne’s case has gained national notoriety. Organizations such as The Innocence Project are supporting the men.

The date of the evidentiary hearing has not been determined.

Free community testing for COVID-19 continues The Richmond and Henrico County health districts are offering testing at the following locations: • Thursday, Feb. 8, 1 to 5 p.m. - Henrico Arms Apartments, 1566 Edgelawn Circle • Friday, Feb. 9, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. - Southside Women, Infants and Children Office, 509 E. Southside Plaza.

RHHD’s Resource Centers are providing free at-home tests for pickup at select locations: • Creighton Court at 2150 Creighton Road, call 804-3710433 for more info • Fairfield Court at 2311 N. 25th St., call 804-786-4099 for more info • Gilpin Court at 436 Calhoun St., call 804-786-1960 for more info • Hillside Court at 1615 Glenfield Ave., call 804-230-7740 for more info • Mosby Court at 1536 Coalter St., call 804-786-0204 for more info • Southwood Court at 1754 Clarkson Road. Unit #B, call 804-230-2077 for more info • Whitcomb Court at 2106 Deforrest St., call 804-786-0555 for more info Call the Richmond and Henrico Call Center at (804) 2053501 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday for more information on testing sites, or go online at vax.rchd.com.

The Virginia Department of Health also has a list of COVID19 testing locations around the state at www.vdh.virginia.gov/ coronavirus/covid-19-testing/covid-19-testing-sites.

Want a COVID-19 vaccine?

Those interested can schedule an appointment with RHHD by calling (804) 205-3501. Vaccines.gov also allows people to find nearby pharmacies and clinics that offer the COVID-19 vaccine, and those interested can also text your ZIP code to 438829 or call 1-800-232-0233.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends that children between the ages of 6 months to 4 years old may need multiple doses of the updated vaccines depending on their COVID-19 vaccine status and whether they had previously received Pfizer and Moderna.

Waiting periods for additional vaccines can range from three to eight weeks or four to eight weeks depending on the vaccine dose previously received.

Children between the ages of 5 and 11 years old who are unvaccinated or have received a vaccine before Sept. 12, 2023, should get one updated Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

Those age 12 years and older who are unvaccinated should get either one updated Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or two doses of the updated Novavax vaccine. People in that age range who received a vaccine before Sept. 12, 2023, should get one updated Pfizer, Moderna or Novavax vaccine.

People who are moderately or severely immunocompromised may get additional doses of updated COVID-19 vaccine, and are encouraged to talk with their health care providers about how and when to receive them.

Compiled by George Copeland Jr.

Photos by Bonnie Newman Davis/Richmond Free Press

Stars shine during the day

Members of the Richmond Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority hosted their 34th Annual Oratorical Contest on Saturday, Feb. 3, at John Marshall High School.

The theme: “Shining Stars in the Literary Universe.”

Tranelle Pollard, Richmond Public Schools 2024 Teacher of the Year, was among hundreds of administrators, teachers and parents who came out to support dozens of RPS student participants.

Toward the end of the program, Ms. Pollard, school counselor at Dogwood Middle School, took the stage and enthusiastically called out the names of all Richmond Public Schools. Students cheered when hearing their schools mentioned.

Joining Ms. Pollard onstage were Antoinette Rogers, cochairperson of the chapter’s Arts and Letters Committee, Dionne Ward, former principal at Brookland Middle School, and RPS School Board Chair Stephanie Rizzi.

Above, Qassie Powell of Miles Jones Elementary School displays her certificate from the Oratorical Contest.

Priscilla Goldsborough and Gwen Davis distribute voter registration information during the program. Byesheba Entzminger-Bullock, director of Changing Faces, a mental health provider, was a vendor during the event.

VSU students providing free tax assistance Free Press staff report

Virginia State University’s Accounting students are collaborating with the IRS for the 37th year to provide free income tax preparation and filing assistance to Tri-City area residents with an income of $73,000 or below.

VSU’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program will focus on 2023 individual and joint filers three days a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4 to 7 p.m. and Wednesdays from 4 to 8 p.m., from Tuesday, Feb. 6, to Thursday, April 4.

“We are extremely thankful to continue

our long-standing partnership with the IRS to provide this much-needed service,” Theodore R. Andrews, Jr., assistant professor of accounting and VITA manager, said in a statement.

“This program not only benefits the community but also provides valuable hands-on experience for VSU students, who will gain practical skills in tax preparation and client communication.”

The service is the result of the Special Topics Service-Learning course, created within VSU’s College of Business to help low-income and elderly residents in the area file their taxes.

Those interested should drop off their tax information and valid identification in Room 128 in Singleton Hall on the VSU campus during the listed hours.

Once submitted, a VITA worker will call clients to review their tax returns, which will be filed electronically after the taxpayer picks them up and approves them.

This service will not be available on days when VSU is closed. For more information, please contact Dr. Andrews at (804) 504-7079 or Bertha Morgan in the VSU Accounting and Finance Department at (804) 524-5842.

Richmond Free Press

February 8-10, 2024 A3

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Richmond Free Press

A4 February 8-10, 2024

News

VUU’s plan for $42M investment includes new housing, but not historic hospital Continued from A1

“That is not new for Virginia Union because Virginia Union was born on the slave block,” he said about the university, which was founded in 1865 to provide formerly enslaved Virginians with educational opportunities.

He added this was just VUU’s first step in achieving its recently unveiled 10-year master plan.

But all of this change does not come without cost. Some people are concerned that the area’s history might be one of those costs with the loss of the old Richmond Community Hospital (RCH) building that currently sits unused on Overbrook Road.

When asked whether the vacant hospital building will be preserved, Dr. Lucas replied, “Oh, no. We will be memorializing (the site) and finding ways that historically represent it.”

When asked why the building will be destroyed, Dr. Lucas replied that “it is not in a place that we can convert any useable building in line with anything in the medical field.”

In 1932, RCH expanded to the site on Overbrook Road from Jackson Ward. VUU sold the land and the hospital’s board voted to return the building to the university when it moved in 1980 to its current location in the East End. Many of the doctors who practiced at RCH also lived nearby in Douglass Court, the first Black subdivision built adjacent to VUU and named for Frederick Douglass.

Lifelong resident and fifth-generation Richmonder Gary L. Flowers said that history needs to be preserved and honored, and that the university’s leadership must be “very sensitive to what buildings like Richmond Community Hospital mean to us.

“If the building is demolished, there is no suitable memorialization of where it once stood,” he said in a recent telephone call.

Mr. Flowers said his connections to VUU and RCH are deeply personal. His paternal grandparents raised their family on DuBois Avenue in Douglass Court and he was born at RCH. His paternal great-grandfather was a laborer during the construction of the

original nine buildings. And both his father and grandfather did construction work on campus while his mother was on the faculty of its Sydney Lewis School of Business.

“The building doesn’t take up a large footprint,” he said, arguing that the university should preserve the building as a museum that would honor the Black physicians who practiced there and those that came before.

“It could be preserved and housing built around it — a historical oasis in the Sankofa sense,” Mr. Flowers said, explaining that the African term Sankofa refers to a mythical bird whose head is turned backward while its feet face forward. Sankofa is a Twi word from the Akan Tribe of Ghana that loosely translates to, “Go back and get it.”

He added that creating such a museum would “enshrine those medical practitioners, while at the same time moving forward with the development of Virginia Union University.”

VUU plans to break ground on the project in late 2024 and finish work by the end of 2025.

More diverse blood donors needed amid emergency shortage nationwide Continued from A1

time that she because director of transfusion medicine in 2012.

“We did not have enough blood to support our community,” she said in a recent video call.

“The American Red Cross, with its national organization and ability to move blood nationally, was able to help the Richmond area.”

Each blood donation results in multiple blood products — red blood cells, plasma and cryoprecipitate, as well as platelets, which are obtained through a separate donation process known as apheresis. Patients who have suffered traumatic injuries, who are undergoing surgeries or who are being treated for medical conditions such as anemia, cancer or blood disorders might need blood transfusions as part of their treatment.

Both Dr. Sanford and Mr. McNamara stressed another important aspect in meeting the transfusion needs of patients — donor diversity.

While the race of blood donors and blood recipients does not typically matter, the blood types most people might be familiar with — A, B, O and AB — also must be matched by factors such as whether the blood is Rh-positive or Rh-negative.

There are actually more than 600 known antigens for red blood cells, Dr. Sanford said, some of which are unique to specific racial and ethnic groups. Ro is an Rh antigen, or haplotype, that is 10 times more likely to occur in

individuals who are Black or of African descent.

This is especially important when transfusions are made to the more than 100,000 people in the United States with sickle cell disease, a condition that disproportionately affects those of African descent.

Matching blood-transfused to patients with rare blood disorders such as sickle cell disease reduces the risk of complications. One in three African-American blood donors are a match for people with sickle cell disease, but donation rates among communities of color tend to be lower for reasons such as medical mistrust, lack of access and lower donor eligibility.

These lower donation rates, combined with overall shortages, is why Dr. Sanford said VCU Health’s policy is to reserve donations from African-American donors for sickle cell patients.

Preston Page knows what it is like to live with sickle cell disease. He was diagnosed with the blood disorder as a 6-month-old. The New Jersey native moved to Virginia with his family at 12, and was often in and out of the hospital with pain crisis as a child. While this has gotten better for him as he has gotten older, he said adulthood often requires those with sickle cell disease to be “silent warriors.”

“Living with sickle cell is a challenging ordeal,” said the now 32-year-old who has resided in the Manchester neighborhood of Richmond for the past eight years.

“We have jobs, families and ambitions,” Mr. Page added. “We also have a daily obstacle to overcome to achieve those things.”

He often goes to work in pain and said he has had dozens of blood transfusions over the years.

Blood shortages and lack of donor diversity has doubled the impact, making it harder for blood recipients to get a match.

It is why last year Mr. Page became an advocate for the sickle cell community. He began sharing his story to inspire those with sickle cell disease, to encourage more diverse donor populations to give blood and to increase the pressure on legislators and pharmaceutical executives to do more to make medical treatments a more affordable, viable alternative for treatment.

The Red Cross and VCU Health also are involved in education and advocacy. They have formed partnerships with organizations such as the Sickle Cell Association, faith-based groups and high schools and colleges. In 2022, the American Red Cross introduced an HBCU Ambassador program that provides selected students with leadership and advocacy training and scholarship funds in return for a two-year commitment to increasing awareness of sickle cell disease and the need for donor diversity.

The program also hosts blood drives on HBCU campuses across the nation.

Even for those who cannot donate, there are still plenty of ways to show support. You can

encourage family and friends to donate, be an advocate on social media, volunteer at a blood drive or host your own.

Jonathan Clarke, 53, organized a drive for the first time last year. The master firefighter worked with friends and colleagues to create a successful event, so this year Richmond Firefighters Local 995 and Brothers and Sisters Combined are doing it again.

Mr. Clarke, who was diagnosed with leukemia in May 2022, knows what it is like to be both a blood donor and a blood recipient. He received four blood transfusions between late 2022 and early 2023 and he said those who gave their blood saved his life.

“Before my diagnosis, I was going regularly to donate blood,” Mr. Clarke said. “Now I’m on the other side and thankful to be receiving help from someone just like me.

“You never know what the future holds, so give while can,” he added. “Tomorrow it may be your turn, or a loved one’s. We all need to help.”

The Richmond Firefighters Local 995 and Brothers and Sisters Combined blood drive in honor of Jonathan Clarke will take place at the Richmond Convention Center on Tuesday, Feb. 13, from 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and on Wednesday, Feb. 14, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Appointments can be scheduled for this and other donation events near you at redcrossblood. org

RPS School Board appoints Shavonda Dixon for 9th District Continued from A1

6th District. Ms. Dixon was not present at the meeting.

Ms. Dixon, a graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School and a mother of two, will be sworn in next week and she will attend her first board meeting on Thursday, Feb. 20, according to a press release from RPS. Following the announcement, the board held a public hearing about the 2024-2025 school year budget. Public comments included advocating for better pay for RPS employees, allocating more money to help teachers with classroom supplies and investing more into improving academics and not just behavior in RPS alternative schools —- including Amelia Street, Richmond Alternative School and Thrive.

During the Jan. 22 School Board meeting, Superintendent Jason Kamras presented his initial budget proposal for the 2024-2025 school year. The proposal includes an expenditure increase of $36.2 million and almost $1.75 million in nonpersonnel reductions.

The operating budget covers day-to-day costs of running the school division, such as books, transportation and teacher salaries.

The budget proposal includes five priority areas: talent, academics, wellness, engagement and operations.

Talent ($18.9 million) covers teacher and staff compensation, which includes a proposed 3% raise with a 1.17% step increase for almost all employees, honoring collective bargaining agreements between teachers and administration and salary decompression for staff who still have a compressed salary schedule from the 2008 recession. If approved, the proposed

raise will result in a 35.3% compounded increase in teacher pay since the 20172018 school year.

During this week’s meeting, Matthew Stanley, director of advocacy and outreach for RPS, discussed budget requests and amendments that include teacher compensation, significant raises and cost-of-living adjustments.

Mr. Stanley also responded to 8th District representative Dawn Page’s questions surrounding lottery funding for RPS. For the 2023-2024 school year, $855 million came from lottery funding to support public education. Of all public education funding, slightly more than 9% comes from lottery proceeds. Traditionally, lottery funds are expected to go directly toward public education costs.

This year, Gov. Glenn Youngkin proposed to take some literary fund revenue to pay for teacher retirement and unfunded liabilities for teacher retirement, totaling $385 million for the 2024-2025 school year and $150 million in the 2025-2026 school year. The literary fund historically has been used to provide loans to school divisions for school construction.

Although significant lottery funding goes toward public education, Ms. Page said the lottery funding is misleading to the public.

She urged a deeper look into how much public education money comes from lottery funds and where this funding goes.

Cheryl Burke, 7th District, also pushed for more insight into lottery funding for public education. Ms. Burke raised concerns about all proposals not being passed and suggested a further breakdown of proposals such as RPS 200 for Fairfield Court Elementary.

Mr. Stanley provided recommendations for adding $250 million into reforming the At-Risk Add-On funding, which provides more aid to economically disadvantaged students to help them succeed. Research shows that such students need 40% to 60% more funding than their peers in suburban localities, Mr. Stanley said.

Mr. Stanley also recommended the Prevention, Intervention and Remediation Program, an incentive program where money is distributed based on test scores, and also suggested that the program’s funding be combined under the At-Risk Add-On funding.

Another meeting will take place Feb. 14 before the board adopts the official budget for the 2024-2025 school year.

In other business, John Beazley, director of Care and Safety, provided updates on two areas of the care and safety plan, including the cell-phone pilot program that was tested in five schools across the division. The pilot received positive feedback from students and staff, he said.

Mr. Beazley also provided an update on safety survey information that covers facilities, risk management and safety and security. According to his presentation, nine schools need little to no safety updates; while 26 schools need moderate safety updates; and six schools, including Richmond High School for the Arts, need major safety updates.

The major safety updates can include additional structural work such as fixing malfunctioning doors. RPS requested that the company completing the audit return to do a complete audit to cover items such as malfunctioning speakers that have not yet been addressed.

Va. Dems sending gun control bills to a skeptical Youngkin Continued from A1

arena deal in Northern Virginia.

Gov. Youngkin’s press office did not directly respond to questions about his position on a range of bills, but said he would review any legislation that comes to his desk.

The administration’s silence has left advocates on both sides of the issue uncertain of the final outcome.

“He basically telegraphed a message of, ‘If you’re going to send me more gun control, I’m not going to be happy with it.’ But that’s all we know,” said Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a grassroots gun rights group.

Among the dozens of gun bills sponsored this year by Democratic lawmakers — who do not have the numbers to override a Gov. Youngkin veto — is legislation that would prohibit the importation, sale, manufacture, purchase or transfer of an “assault firearm” made on or after July 1

of this year. Possession of such a weapon would be banned for those under 21, and the measure would also prohibit the sale of certain ammunition-feeding devices that can hold over 10 rounds.

Republicans and other opponents have questioned the constitutionality of the measure that would impact the sale of new models of the popular AR-15.

Proponents have argued it would limit the number of “weapons of war” available for sale in the future, along with highcapacity magazines that have been used in mass shootings.

On Wednesday, the Senate passed the legislation on a party-line vote after a lengthy debate in which one GOP legislator warned it would ultimately be vetoed. A House version cleared that chamber last week, also along party lines.

Other gun control proposals making their way through the General Assembly with Democratic support include measures that would ban assault weapons in public areas, ban plastic guns able to be missed

by metal detectors, and prohibit the concealed carry of a gun by most people onto the premises of a restaurant or club that sells alcohol. Additional bills would create a civil penalty for people who leave guns unattended and visible in a motor vehicle, and require people purchasing a gun to complete a firearms safety course or otherwise “demonstrate competence” with a firearm.

“We’re hopeful that if the governor wants to keep Virginia safe that he’ll sign these bills into law,” said Mike Fox, a volunteer who helps lead the Virginia chapter of Moms Demand Action.

Meanwhile, a small handful of bills are moving toward Gov. Youngkin’s desk with broad bipartisan support.

One would expand the types of firearm safety devices eligible for a previously enacted tax credit. Another would ban auto sears, which convert semi-automatic handguns into automatic weapons. Older ones permissible under federal law would be allowed, according to Mr. Van Cleave.

The Associated Press

Amy Case stands in her mobile home park, Jan. 23, in Auburn, Mass., where residents complain they are facing double-digit rent increases that they cannot afford. Their concerns are echoed nationally where a report from Harvard University found 22.4 million households are rent burdened.

A record number of Americans can’t afford rent Continued from A1

you still fall short,” she said, adding what became a monthly refrain: “Well, this month at least we have $13 left.”

Millions of Americans, especially people of color, are facing those same, painful decisions as a record number struggle with unaffordable rent increases, a crisis fueled by rising prices from inflation, a shortage of affordable housing and the end of pandemic relief.

The latest data from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, released in January, found that a record high 22.4 million renter households — or half of renters nationwide — were spending more than 30% of their income on rent in 2022. The number of affordable units — with rents under $600 — also dropped to 7.2 million that year, 2.1 million fewer than a decade earlier.

Those factors contributed to a dramatic rise in eviction filings and a record number of people becoming homeless.

“It’s one of the worst years we’ve ever seen,” said Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, a senior research associate at the Harvard center, who added that the level of cost-burdened households in 2022 had not been seen since the Great Recession in 2008, when 10 million Americans lost their homes to foreclosure.

After failing to make a significant dent in the problem over the past decade, state and federal lawmakers across the U.S. are making housing a priority in 2024 and throwing the kitchen sink at the issue — including proposals to enact eviction protections, institute zoning reforms, cap annual rent increases and dedicate tens of billions of dollars toward building more housing.

In Auburn, Mass., pervasive rent hikes have already hit the last bastion of affordable housing.

Just off an interstate alongside a pond, residents at the American Mobile Home Park face rent increases upwards of 40%. Many tenants, mostly seniors and others on fixed incomes, haven’t signed new leases with those increases. The group Lawyers For Civil Rights has sent a letter to the landlord accusing it of “unconscionable rent increases,” and failing to provide critical services like adequate garbage and snow removal.

“How am I going to pay that?” said Amy Case, 49, wondering how she’ll balance the $345 monthly increase with the $200 she has to spend on medications and the cost of a twice-yearly MRI to monitor her brain tumor.

“I don’t know what else to cut back on,” said Ms. Case, an administrative assistant at a local college, who said she would only have $300 left over each month for other necessities. “Probably less groceries. I certainly can’t cut back on my medications.”

Richmond Free Press

February 8-10, 2024 A5

A6 February 8-10, 2024

Richmond Free Press

News

Prisoners in the U.S. are part of a hidden workforce linked to hundreds of popular food brands

By Robin McDowell and Marggie Mason The Associated Press

eventually was settled under undisclosed terms. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the company $19,500, ANGOLA, La. saying workers had not been given proper A hidden path to America’s dinner tables training and that its machines had inadequate begins here, at an unlikely source — a former safety guards.

Southern slave plantation that is now the “It’s somebody’s child, it’s somebody’s country’s largest maximum-security prison. dad, it’s somebody’s uncle, it’s somebody’s Unmarked trucks packed with prisonfamily,” said Mr. Ellington’s mother, Alishia raised cattle roll out of the Louisiana State Powell-Clark. “Yes, they did wrong, but they Penitentiary, where men are sentenced to hard are paying for it.” labor and forced to work, for pennies an hour The AP found that U.S. prison labor is in or sometimes nothing at all. After rumbling the supply chains of goods being shipped all down a country road to an auction house, the over the world via multinational companies, cows are bought by a local rancher and then including to countries that have been slapped followed by The Associated Press another 600 with import bans by Washington in recent miles to a Texas slaughterhouse that feeds into years. For instance, the U.S. has blocked the supply chains of giants like McDonald’s, shipments of cotton coming from China, a Walmart and Cargill. top manufacturer of popular clothing brands, The Associated Press Intricate, invisible webs, just like this one, because it was produced by forced or prison link some of the world’s largest food compa- Prisoners harvest turnips in April 2014 at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La. Below labor. But crops harvested by U.S. prisoners nies and most popular brands to jobs performed left, barges sit docked at the Louis Dreyfus Holding Co. along the Mississippi Riverlast year in have entered the supply chains of companies

by U.S. prisoners nationwide, according to Port Allen, La. Louis Dreyfus and other commodity traders have scooped up millions of dollars’ that export to China. a sweeping two-year AP investigation into worth of soy, corn and wheat straight from prison farms. Below right, Sylvester Hameline works While prison labor seeps into the supply last August with the milking equipment in the dairy at the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge, prison labor that tied hundreds of millions Mont. The U.S. has a history of locking up more people than any other country, and goods tied chains of some companies through third-party of dollars’ worth of agricultural products to to prison labor have morphed into a massive multibillion-dollar empire, extending far beyond the suppliers without them knowing, others buy goods sold on the open market. direct. Mammoth commodity traders that are classic images of people stamping license plates or working on road crews.

They are among America’s most vulneressential to feeding the globe like Cargill, able laborers. If they refuse Bunge, Louis Dreyfus, Archer to work, some can jeopardize Daniels Midland and Consolitheir chances of parole or face dated Grain and Barge — which punishment like being sent to together post annual revenues of solitary confinement. They also more than $400 billion — have are often excluded from protecin recent years scooped up miltions guaranteed to almost all lions of dollars’ worth of soy, other full-time workers, even corn and wheat straight from when they are seriously injured prisons, which compete with or killed on the job. local farmers.

The goods these prisonThe AP reached out for ers produce wind up in the comment to the companies it supply chains of a dizzying identified as having connections array of products found in to prison labor, but most did most American kitchens, from not respond.

Frosted Flakes cereal and Ball Cargill acknowledged buyPark hot dogs to Gold Medal ing goods from prison farms in flour, Coca-Cola and Riceland Tennessee, Arkansas and Ohio, rice. They are on the shelves of virtually every supermarket in saying they constituted only a small fraction of the company’s the country, including Kroger, Target, Aldi and Whole Foods. overall volume. It added that “we are now in the process of And some goods are exported, including to countries that have determining the appropriate remedial action.” had products blocked from entering the U.S. for using forced McDonald’s said it would investigate links to any such labor, — Calvin Thomas or prison labor. while Archer Daniels Midland and General Mills, which produces Many of the companies buying directly from prisons are violating Gold Medal flour, pointed to their policies in place restricting their own policies against the use of such labor. But it’s completely offenses. In some places, it allows prisoners to also shave time suppliers from using forced labor. Whole Foods responded flatly: legal, dating back largely to the need for labor to help rebuild off their sentences. And the jobs provide a way to repay a debt “Whole Foods Market does not allow the use of prison labor in the South’s shattered economy after the Civil War. Enshrined in to society, they say. products sold at our stores.” the Constitution by the 13th Amendment, slavery and involuntary While most critics don’t believe all jobs should be eliminated, Bunge said it sold all facilities that were sourcing from servitude are banned – except as punishment for a crime. they say incarcerated people should be paid fairly, treated hu- correction departments in 2021, so they are “no longer part of That clause is currently being challenged on the federal level, manely and that all work should be voluntary. Some note that Bunge’s footprint.” and efforts to remove similar language from state constitutions are even when people get specialized training, like firefighting, their Dairy Farmers of America, a cooperative that bills itself as the expected to reach the ballot in about a dozen states this year. criminal records can make it almost impossible to get hired on top supplier of raw milk worldwide, said that while it has been Some prisoners work on the same plantation soil where slaves the outside. buying from correctional facilities, it now only has one “member harvested cotton, tobacco and sugarcane more than 150 years “They are largely uncompensated, they are being forced to dairy” at a prison, with most of that milk used inside. ago, with some present-day images looking eerily similar to work, and it’s unsafe. They also aren’t learning skills that will To understand the business of prison labor and the complex the past. In Louisiana, which has one of the country’s highest help them when they are released,” said law professor Andrea movement of agricultural goods, the AP collected information incarceration rates, men working on the “farm line” still stoop Armstrong, an expert on prison labor at Loyola University New from all 50 states, through public records requests and inquiries to over crops stretching far into the distance.

Orleans. “It raises the question of why we are still forcing people corrections departments. Reporters also crisscrossed the country, Toil and torture to work in the fields.” following trucks transporting crops and livestock linked to prison Willie Ingram picked everything from cotton to okra during A shadow workforce with few protections work, and tailed transport vans from prisons and work-release his 51 years in the state penitentiary, better known as Angola.

In addition to tapping a cheap, reliable workforce, companies sites heading to places such as poultry plants, egg farms and During his time in the fields, he was overseen by armed sometimes get tax credits and other financial incentives. Incar- fast-food restaurants. A lack of transparency and, at times, bafguards on horseback and recalled seeing men, working with cerated workers also typically aren’t covered by the most basic fling losses exposed in audits, added to the challenges of fully little or no water, passing out in triple-digit heat. Some days, protections, including workers’ compensation and federal safety tracking the money. he said, workers would throw their tools in the air to protest, standards. In many cases, they cannot file official complaints Big-ticket items like row crops and livestock are sold on the despite knowing the potential consequences. about poor working conditions. open market, with profits fed back into agriculture programs. For “They’d come, maybe four in the truck, shields over their These prisoners often work in industries with severe labor instance, about a dozen state prison farms, including operations face, billy clubs, and they’d beat you right there in the field. They shortages, doing some of the country’s dirtiest and most dan- in Texas, Virginia, Kentucky and Montana, have sold more than beat you, handcuff you and beat you again,” said Mr. Ingram, gerous jobs. $60 million worth of cattle since 2018. who received a life sentence after pleading guilty to a crime he The AP sifted through thousands of pages of documents and As with other sales, the custody of cows can take a serpentine said he didn’t commit. He was told he would serve 10½ years spoke to more than 80 current or formerly incarcerated people, route. Because they often are sold online at auction houses or to and avoid a possible death penalty, but it wasn’t until 2021 that including men and women convicted of crimes that ranged from stockyards, it can be almost impossible to determine where the a sympathetic judge finally released him. He was 73. murder to shoplifting, writing bad checks, theft or other illegal beef eventually ends up.

The number of people behind bars in the United States started acts linked to drug use. Some were given long sentences for Sometimes there’s only one way to know for sure. to soar in the 1970s just as Mr. Ingram entered the system, nonviolent offenses because they had previous convictions, while In Louisiana, an AP reporter watched as three long trailers disproportionately hitting people of color. Now, with about others were released after proving their innocence. loaded with more than 80 cattle left the state penitentiary. The 2 million people locked up, U.S. prison labor from all sectors Reporters found people who were hurt or maimed on the job, cows raised by prisoners traveled for about an hour before has morphed into a multibillion-dollar empire, extending far and also interviewed women who were sexually harassed or being unloaded for sale at Dominique’s Livestock Market in beyond the classic images of prisoners stamping license plates, abused, sometimes by their civilian supervisors or the correctional Baton Rouge. working on road crews or battling wildfires. officers overseeing them. While it’s often nearly impossible for As they were shoved through a gate into a viewing pen, the Though almost every state has some kind of farming program, those involved in workplace accidents to sue, the AP examined auctioneer jokingly warned buyers “Watch out!” The cows, he agriculture represents only a small fraction of the overall prison dozens of cases that managed to make their way into the court said, had just broken out of prison. workforce. Still, an analysis of data amassed by the AP from system. Reporters also spoke to family members of prisoners Within minutes, the Angola lot was snapped up by a local correctional facilities nationwide traced nearly $200 million who were killed. livestock dealer, who then sold the cattle to a Texas beef proworth of sales of farmed goods and livestock to businesses over One of those was Frank Dwayne Ellington, who was sentenced cessor that also buys cows directly from prisons in that state. the past six years — a conservative figure that does not include to life in prison with the possibility of parole after stealing a Meat from the slaughterhouse winds up in the supply chains of tens of millions more in sales to state and government entities. man’s wallet at gunpoint — a result of Alabama’s habitual of- some of the country’s biggest fast-food chains, supermarkets Much of the data provided was incomplete, though it was clear fenders act. In 2017, Mr. Ellington, 33, was cleaning a machine and meat exporters, including Burger King, Sam’s Club and that the biggest revenues came from sprawling operations in the near the chicken “kill line” in Ashland at Koch Foods — one of Tyson Foods.

South and leasing out prisoners to companies. the country’s biggest poultry-processing companies — when its “It’s a real slap in the face, to hear where all those cattle are Corrections officials and other proponents note that not all whirling teeth caught his arm and sucked him inside, crushing going,” said Jermaine Hudson, who served 22 years at Angola work is forced and that prison jobs save taxpayers money. For his skull. He died instantly. on a robbery conviction before he was exonerated. example, in some cases, the food produced is served in prison During a yearslong legal battle, Koch Foods at first argued He said it’s especially galling because the food served in kitchens or donated to those in need outside. They also say work- Mr. Ellington wasn’t technically an employee, and later said prison tasted like slop. ers are learning skills that can be used when they’re released his family should be barred from filing for wrongful death “Those were some of the most disrespectful meals,” Mr. and given a sense of purpose, which could help ward off repeat because the company had paid his funeral expenses. The case Hudson said, “that I ever, in my life, had to endure.”

“You can’t call it anything else.

It’s just slavery.”

I

n honor of Black History month, the Library of Virginia presents a free preview screening of the documentary film Current: A Descendant's Journey for Truth followed by a discussion with producer Pam Smith, director Loria King and other members of the film’s team.

Friday, Feb. 23 | 2 to 4 p.m.

Register at lva-virginia.libcal.com/event/11899342

WWW.LVA.VIRGINIA.GOV

Richmond Free Press

February 8-10, 2024 A7

Local News

The Holy Eucharist commemorates Rev. Barbara Harris Free Press staff report

The Diocese of Virginia announces the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist commemorating the consecration of the Right Reverend Barbara Clementine Harris, the first woman Bishop in

the Anglican Communion, and celebrating the life and witness of the Reverend Absalom Jones, the first African-American priest in The Episcopal Church.

The service is Feb. 12 at 7 p.m., St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, 2900 Hanes Ave.

At the service, Bishop Gayle Harris Will preach and Bishop E. Mark Stevenson will preside. A reception will follow the service in the Ruth E. Little Parish Hall. Limited street parking available and at Trinity Baptist Church parking lot on W. Essex Street.

Black History Month events Soundings: Collaborations with Dawoud Bey Organized by: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Where: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts at 200 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd.

When: Friday, Feb. 9, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Cost: $8 or $5 for VMFA members More information: vmfa.museum/ calendar/black-history-month-2024 Art After Hours: Trilogy Organized by: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Where: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts When: Saturday, Feb. 10, from 7 to 11 p.m.

Cost: $55 or $45 for VMFA members More information: vmfa.museum/ calendar/black-history-month-2024 Black History: Learning from the Past and Inspiring the Future Organized by: Here2Hear Where: Virginia Museum of History and Culture, 428 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd.

When: Saturday, Feb. 10, from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Cost: Free More information: www.here2hear.org/ events Student Webinars - “Abraham Lincoln, African Americans, and the Emancipation Proclamation,” “Pauli Murray and the Law” and “Remarkable Black Virginians” Organized by: The Virginia Museum of History & Culture Education Team Where: Online When: Wednesday, Feb. 14, Wednesday, Feb. 21, and Thursday, Feb. 22, at 10 a.m.

Cost: Free, but registration is required More information: secure.virginia history.org/2282

2024 RVA Community Makers Award Program and Public Art Unveiling Organized by: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Where: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts When: Thursday, Feb. 15, from 6 to 7 p.m.

Cost: Free More information: vmfa.museum/ calendar/black-history-month-2024 Art: A Platform for Change Organized by: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Where: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts When: Thursday, Feb. 15, from 7:15 to 8:30 p.m.

Cost: Free More information: vmfa.museum/ calendar/black-history-month-2024 2024 RVA Community Makers Art Exhibit Organized by: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Where: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts When: From Friday, Feb. 16, to Monday, March 18 Cost: Free More information: vmfa.museum/ calendar/black-history-month-2024 Dance After Work Organized by: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Where: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts When: Friday, Feb. 16, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Cost: Free More information: vmfa.museum/ calendar/black-history-month-2024 Harmony & Heritage: The Black History Musical Organized by: The College of William and Mary’s Office of Residence Life and Housing and Student Engagement Team

Amplifying artists of every age.

Where: Ernst Hall at 11301 Johnson Road at the College of William and Mary in Petersburg When: Friday, Feb. 16, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Cost: Free More information: www.eventbrite. com/e/814660871597 Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce Advocacy Day Organized by: The Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce and the Virginia Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials Where: Virginia State Capitol at 1000 Bank St. with a reception at the Omni Richmond Hotel at 100 S. 12th St. When: Monday, Feb. 19, from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Cost: $50 for a day briefing only from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., $50 for the reception only at 5:30 p.m. and $75 for both M o re i n f o r m a t i o n : w w w. vablackchamberofcommerce.org/advocacyday Protecting Your Peace as a Change Agent Organized by: The University of Richmond’s Department of Psychology, the Student Center for Equity & Inclusion, the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement, and Counseling and Psychological Services Where: UR Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Center for the Arts at 453 Westhampton Way When: Wednesday, Feb. 21, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Cost: Free More information: engage.richmond.edu or www.eventbrite.com/e/807244850077 African American Read-In Organized by: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Where: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts When: Thursday, Feb. 22, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Cost: Free More information: vmfa.museum/ calendar/black-history-month-2024 African American Read-In for Families Organized by: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Where: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts When: Saturday, Feb. 24, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Cost: Free More information: vmfa.museum/ calendar/black-history-month-2024 Tri-Cities Enrichment Center Black History Discussion for Kids Organized by: Tri-Cities Elite Tutoring Where: Tri-Cities Enrichment Center at 231b N. Sycamore St. in Petersburg When: Saturday, Feb. 24, from noon to 2:30 p.m.

Cost: $25 More information: www.eventbrite. com/e/792649765787 Black Wellness Expo Organized by: RUSH Community Group Where: 63Thirty5 Restaurant at 6335 Jahnke Road #A When: Saturday, Feb. 24, from 1 to 4 p.m.

Cost: $15 for general admission, $25 for vendor table More information: www.eventbrite. com/e/799005275287 Black AF - A Celebration of Black Herstory Organized by: Hand-Made In RVA Where: Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, 601 W. Broad St. When: Sunday, Feb. 25, from noon to 6 p.m.

Cost: $11 More information: www.eventbrite. com/e/809693443887

Nasha Thomas National Director, AileyCamp Master Teacher

Black History Month 2024 AARP celebrates artists over 50 of every form. Through our Brain Health work, we know that art keeps us mentally sharp, as it connects us and preserves our collective story. We’re uplifting these dynamic artists who have mastered their craft in the areas of costume design, dance and hiphop music.

Doug E. Fresh Hip-Hop Legend

Ruth E. Carter Award-Winning Costume Designer

Celebrate Black artists that make your community thrive this Black History Month and beyond.

Discover more today at AARP.org/BlackCommunity

Richmond Free Press Under water in the West End Editorial Page

A8

February 8-10, 2024

Don’t pull plug on historic hospital, VUU Without question, it’s good news that Virginia Union University is partnering with New York investor The Steinbridge Group to build about 200 general-use residences along the campus’ north edge.

The investment group plans to commit $40 million to the project, and school officials say it will be the largest financial partnership in VUU’s history.

Indeed, it’s a wonderful development for VUU and a key step in the school’s $500 million plan to overhaul the campus.

But, as the old saying goes, the devil is in the details. Specifically, the historic Richmond Community Hospital that literally is a majestic monument to the struggles and successes of the Richmond black community.

Clearly, the structure is more than just a building. In the early 1900s, the hospital was founded in Jackson Ward by Dr. Sarah Garland Jones and other Black doctors who weren’t allowed to work at white hospitals in Richmond. For many years, Richmond Community Hospital was the epicenter of care for black people in the city, especially during segregation.

The hospital moved to Overbrook Road in the 1930s and to its current location in Church Hill in 1980. In 1995, the doctors, who owned the hospital as part of a forprofit partnership, sold it to Bon Secours, according to news reports.

Dr. Jones, it should be noted, was the first Black person and first woman to be certified to practice medicine by the Virginia State Board of Medicine.

At issue is whether the old hospital building on Overbrook Road will be demolished or repurposed. As reported in this week’s Free Press front page article, the hospital is to be torn down, according to VUU President Hakim Lucas. But he adds, the university will commemorate the old hospital in some fashion.

The Free Press is against demolition of this historic building. And we’re concerned that not enough thought is being given to its future. The hospital structure represents too much hard work and history to be an afterthought.

Perhaps it should be resurrected as a museum to celebrate the sacrifice and achievement of those brave doctors who started it more than 100 years ago. At the very least, it should be added to the National Register of Historic Places. That would avail it to everything from federal grants to public and private money for renovation and repairs.

Whatever happens, this much is clear: The old hospital was there for Black Richmond when the community needed it the most. Now it’s time for us to return the favor.

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Setting record straight on Black History With the start of Black History Month, I brace myself for the mis-telling of Black History yet again.

In schoolhouses and everywhere the stories are told, a persistent myth shows its ugly head: the ridiculous notion that great Black leaders are not just exceptional but exceptions.

It is an idea rooted in the ahistorical and unnatural misperception that the most notable Black Americans were superhumans that sprung forth from collective misery. It discounts the many, many Black leaders who were – and are – the children and grandchildren of courageous leaders in their own right.

Paul Robeson was a phenomenal actor, orator, singer, athlete, and activist. The family that produced him might be even more impressive. His father escaped enslavement to earn two college degrees and become a prominent minister. His mother was part of the Bustill family, who were famous abolitionists and included Grace Bustill Douglass, the crusading abolitionist and feminist.

Vice President Kamala Har-

ris’s path to the vice presidency began as a transformative district attorney. She refused to pursue the death penalty, and shifted her department’s punitive focus away from sex workers and squarely onto sex buyers and traffickers.

She both provided a model for the movement to elect more Black and progressive district attorneys and spawned the national training institute for female candidates known as Emerge America.

Vice President Harris would

Ben Jealous readily admit there is no explaining her uncommon courage without accounting for her civil rights activist parents and her education at the very university that produced Thurgood Marshall.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is perhaps Black America’s bestknown leader. His grandfather was himself a crusading Black Baptist preacher and the first president of the Atlanta branch of the NAACP. Malcolm X is America’s most famous Black nationalist.

Before him, his father Earl Little was a Black nationalist Baptist preacher who organized for Marcus Garvey. Harassment by the Ku Klux Klan forced the Littles to relocate from Omaha, Neb. to Lansing, Mich., where Earl was murdered by a Klan-like white

supremacist group.

StaceyAbrams rose to become the first woman leader of a party in Georgia’s legislature and the most impactful voting rights activist of the 21st century. Her parents were courageous civil rights activists and her father was among the youngest leaders of the Hattiesburg boycott in Mississippi.

From the time he started preaching at age 4, the Rev. Al Sharpton’s early years were shaped by the mentorship of Black leaders such as Adam Clayton Powell Jr., James Brown, and the incomparable Jesse Jackson. But it was his mother Ada Sharpton’s work that inspired her son’s founding of the National Action Network.

Mrs. Sharpton rose from poverty to power as a prominent civil rights activist in New York City’s outer boroughs and became president of Mothers in Action.

Fifteen years ago, I was named the youngest national president in the history of the NAACP. My grandmother Mamie Bland Todd trained future U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski as a social worker early in her career. In researching my latest book, I followed my own ancestry back to my grandmother’s grandfather.

In the late 1800s, Edward David Bland led Black Republicans into coalition with former white Confederate soldiers to form a third party that took over the Virginia

Black wealth remains elusive For America, Black History Month brings opportunities to revisit our nation’s lessons, achievements, and unfulfilled promises, capturing our attention as well as our hopes. Yet nothing hits home harder than the painful reminders of how so much of Black America continues to struggle financially, despite an economy that reports low unemployment, a robust stock market, and low inflation.

Whether discussing kitchen table economics, or yesteryear’s grievances, money – or the lack thereof – is an ongoing and dominant concern. Now is a good time to examine the policies and practices contributing to why Black wealth remains so elusive for people whose work ethic often is far larger than their paychecks.

The Federal Reserve’s recently updated Survey of Consumer Finance 2019-2022, analyzes postpandemic trends – particularly as they affect racial wealth gaps.

In 2022, Asian-Americans had a typical family wealth of $536,000, the highest of any race or ethnicity, and nearly twice the typical white family’s wealth of $285,000. But these six-figure wealth assets did not include either Black or Latino households. Instead, a typical Latino family held only about 20 percent of the wealth of the typical white family (about $61,600),

and Black family wealth was even lower at $44,900, only 15 percent of the wealth held by white families.

“Despite strong growth in wealth for non-white families over the past two surveys, we remain far from racial equality, reflecting the large differences in wealth that have persisted for decades,” states the report.

Charlene Crowell Recently the Brookings Institution independently analyzed the Fed’s data in a new publication entitled Black wealth is increasing, but so is the racial gap, citing the effects of public policies against Black participation in proven wealth-building assets.

“Policies that privilege whiteness are reflected in higher levels of wealth for the average white family, which can be leveraged across generations to generate greater wealth and advantages,” wrote Brookings. “This became very clear during the pandemic: Black households made major gains through housing and business equity, yet that growth paled in comparison to white households’ gains from investment returns.”

For example, Brookings found that in 2020 Black businesses employed 1.3 million people and created over 48,000 new jobs. If access to capital could be available to more entrepreneurs to begin new businesses, or expand existing ones, greater Black wealth likely would result.

In a separate but related

analysis, Brookings examined how redlining of Black business districts suppressed wealth-building, similarly to how lowered appraisal values of Black homes suppress wealth-building in majority-Black neighborhoods.

“Our research found that storefronts and shopping centers in communities with higher shares of Black residents are valued measurably lower than otherwise comparable properties in communities with fewer Black residents”, wrote Brookings last November in Building Black wealth through community real estate ownership. “We estimate that the undervaluation of majority-Black ZIP codes results in aggregate wealth losses of $171 billion in retail space for the owners of these properties...

By comparison, owner-occupiers of housing lose an estimated $235 billion in majority-Black ZIP codes.”

Imagine what Black wealth could be derived if these billiondollar discounts were removed from Black and Latino communities. Until or unless public policy reforms effectively address these historic inequities, racial wealth gaps will persist. The financial bottom line – regardless of color – is that people cannot invest what they do not have, or are shut out from mainstream lending. Let’s embrace the lessons of history and enact policies to increase lending for minority homes and business owners, to close the nation’s racial wealth gaps.

Charlene Crowell is a senior fellow with the Center for Responsible Lending.

The Free Press welcomes letters The Richmond Free Press respects the opinions of its readers. We want to hear from you.

We invite you to write the editor. All letters will be considered for publication. Concise, typewritten letters related to public matters are preferred. Also include your telephone number(s). Letters should be addressed to: Letters to the Editor, Richmond Free Press, P.O. Box 27709, 422 East Franklin Street, Richmond, VA 23261, or faxed to: (804) 643-7519 or e-mail: letters@richmondfreepress.com.

state government. Known as the Readjusters, the bipartisan political movement won all statewide elected offices and controlled the Commonwealth of Virginia from 1881 to 1885.

In that time, they abolished the poll tax and the whipping post; radically expanded Virginia Tech and created Virginia State University; and readjusted the terms of the Civil War debt to save the free public schools and take the state from a financial deficit into a surplus.

Parentage and family connection are not and never should be a prerequisite for leadership in our country. But we can still recognize that one of the greatest traditions in Black leadership is Black leaders who raise Black leaders.

The writer is executive director of the Sierra Club and author of “Never Forget Our People Were Always Free” and “Reach: 40 Black Men Speak on Living, Leading, and Succeeding.”

Richmond Free Press 422 East Franklin Street Richmond, VA 23219 Telephone (804) 644-0496 FAX (804) 643-7519 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 27709 Richmond, VA 23261 ______________

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Richmond Free Press

February 8-10, 2024 A9

News

Family of Black girls handcuffed by Colorado police, held at gunpoint reach $1.9M settlement The Associated Press

DENVER The four Black girls lay facedown in a parking lot, crying “no” and “mommy” as a police officer who had pointed her gun at them then bent down to handcuff two of their wrists. The youngest wore a pink tiara as she held onto her teenage cousin’s hand.

The 6-year-old Lovely watched as her mother, Brittney Gilliam, was led to a patrol car in handcuffs after she shouted in frustration at the police, who mistakenly believed the car Ms. Gilliam was driving was stolen.

Over three years later, the Denver suburb of Aurora has agreed to a $1.9 million settlement with Ms. Gilliam and the girls to resolve a lawsuit that claimed the police officers’ actions were evidence of “profound and systematic” racism, a lawyer for the family, David Lane, announced Monday.

The settlement saved the girls the trauma of having to relive what happened during a trial, Mr. Lane said. The money will be evenly divided among Ms. Gilliam and the four girls, with the girls’ portions being placed into annuities so the money will grow by the time they access it when they turn 18, Mr. Lane said.

In a written statement, the city confirmed a deal had been reached.

“The Aurora Police Department remains committed to strengthening the relationship with the community through accountability and continuously improving how it serves the public,” it said.

That summer day in 2020 was supposed to be a fun girls’ day out for Ms. Gilliam, her daughter, her sister and two nieces. It instead became a traumatic ordeal.

An investigation by prosecutors found no evidence the officers committed any crimes, in part because they found they were following their training for conducting a high-risk stop of what they suspected was a stolen vehicle. However, they said the incident was “unacceptable and preventable” and urged police to review their policies to ensure nothing like it happens again.

One of the officers who stopped the car, Darian Dasko, was suspended for 160 hours.

He and the other officer, Madisen Moen, still work for the department.

Video of the young girls lying facedown and being put in handcuffs triggered outrage following protests over racial injustice earlier this decade

The Associated Press

Brittany Gilliam responds to questions in the office of her attorney, David Lane, on Friday, Aug. 18, 2023, in downtown Denver. Ms. Gilliam’s attorney announced on Monday that a deal has been struck with the city of Aurora, Colo., stemming from an incident that ended with the woman and her family being handcuffed and held on the ground at gunpoint by police. Ms. Gilliam has agreed to a $1.9 million settlement with city officials in Aurora.

sparked by the killing of George Floyd.

This settlement also marks the latest Aurora has been forced to pay out over police misconduct. The city settled for $15 million in 2021 with the parents of Elijah McClain. The 23-year-old Black man was killed in 2019 after he was stopped as he walked down the street, placed in a neck hold and injected with a sedative. One police officer also was convicted in his death and two others were acquitted. Two paramedics also were convicted.

A state civil rights investigation — launched amid outrage over Mr. McClain’s death and released after Ms. Gilliam’s lawsuit was filed — found a deeply engrained culture of racially biased policing in the department.

Mr. Lane said he hopes the settlement sends a message to law enforcement nationwide that

they need to use discretion in how they respond to situations.

“You can’t be robocop and be an effective cop.

You have to use common sense,” he said.

Ms. Gilliam’s girls’ day out had started with a trip to a nail salon, but they arrived to find it closed. As Ms. Gilliam sat in her car searching her phone for another salon to visit, officers approached with their guns drawn and ordered her and a passenger to roll down their windows and put their hands out.

The officers could not see who else was inside because the SUV had tinted windows, according to the prosecutors’ investigation. But eventually, everyone was ordered out and put on the ground.

Ms. Gilliam shouted, “You don’t have to do all that. You don’t have to do all that,” body camera video shows.

“OK. OK, we’ll deal with that,” Officer Dasko replied.

“Don’t tell me it’s OK!” Ms. Gilliam shot back.

About a dozen bystanders gathered to watch, some taking out phones to record it.

The video showed police seeming confused about how to handle the situation when they realized children were inside the SUV. Officer Moen had graduated from the police academy two days before. She hesitated about what to do after the girls were on the ground, asking other officers who arrived later if she should handcuff them all. Another officer advised her to handcuff some of them.

Soon after, another officer seen in the footage said it was time to de-escalate the situation, telling one of the handcuffed girls, “You’re going to be with your momma. You’re going to be OK. Alright? Alright? We’ll get you out in a second, sweetheart. It’s for our safety.” The body camera footage then shows Ms. Gilliam being led to a patrol car, hands cuffed behind her back.

Amid shouting and crying, police soon realized their mistake. While the department’s system notified them that Ms. Gilliam’s Dodge with Colorado license plates was stolen, the vehicle that was actually stolen was a motorcycle with the same license plate number in Montana.

Officers kept their guns drawn for about three-and-a-half minutes, and they removed the girls’ handcuffs after about eight-and-a-half minutes, once they realized the car wasn’t stolen, according to prosecutors.

For the first year, Ms. Gilliam said the encounter with police left her full of rage, angry she could not do anything to help the girls.

“Mentally, it destroyed me because I felt like not only am I not safe, these kids aren’t safe,” she said in an interview before the settlement was announced, recalling how it felt to be held on the ground in handcuffs.

Her daughter, whom she said was previously a “joyous” child, began acting out and became withdrawn. Lovely would not talk about what had happened. Ms. Gilliam eventually realized her daughter was afraid of upsetting her further.

But exactly a year later almost to the minute, Ms. Gilliam gave birth to another daughter. She said she felt God was trying to wake her up and that she needed to let go of her anger.

“I felt like I wanted justice, but at the same point, I couldn’t be angry,” she said. “All I wanted to do was heal.”

Justice Department proposes major changes to address disparities in state crime victim funds The Associated Press

The Justice Department proposed changes Monday to rules governing state-run programs that provide financial assistance to violent crime victims in order to address racial disparities and curb the number of subjective denials of compensation.

The proposal from the Justice Department’s Office for Victims of Crime, a major overhaul to how states across the U.S. currently handle victims compensation claims, comes less than a year after an Associated Press investigation exposed that Black victims were disproportionately denied in many states — often for subjective reasons rooted in implicit biases that are felt across the criminal justice system.

If adopted, the changes would bar states from considering a victim’s criminal history and eliminate some of the most subjective reasons for denials in many states.

“Certain populations may be more likely to have criminal history due to unjustified disparate treatment in the criminal justice system or due to criminal conduct induced through force, fraud, or coercion, such as unlawful acts that traffickers compelled their victims to commit, and this can result in unjustifiably disproportionate denial of claims for those populations,” according to the proposal.

President Biden’s vow of affordable internet for all is threatened by the looming expiration of subsidies Thousands of Americans each year turn to the state-run victim compensation programs that provide financial assistance to victims of violent crime.

The money is used to help with funeral expenses, physical and emotional therapy, lost wages, crime-scene cleanup and more.

But the AP found last year that in 19 out of the 23 states willing to provide racial data,

The Associated Press

Pamela White, whose son Dararius Evans was killed in 2019, was initially denied compensation by Louisiana’s program because officials blamed her son for his own death. She eventually won.

Black victims were disproportionately denied compensation.

In Indiana, Georgia and South Dakota, Black applicants were nearly twice as likely as white applicants to be denied. From 2018 through 2021, the denials added up to thousands of Black families each year collectively missing out on millions of dollars in aid.

Thousands of people are denied compensation every year for often subjective reasons that scrutinize victims’ behavior before or after a crime. The AP found that Black victims were nearly three times as likely to be denied for these reasons, including a category often called “contributory misconduct” where programs sometimes, without evidence, accuse victims of causing or contributing to their own victimization.

The proposed changes would strictly limit when a state program can deny a person for misconduct including requiring that states put into law or policy what is specifically considered contributory conduct and the process they use to decide if it is being applied in a denial. The proposal also clarifies that state programs should not claw back money

victims receive from crowdfunding sources such as GoFundMe among other changes.

Pamela White, whose son Dararius Evans was killed in 2019, was initially denied compensation by Louisiana’s program because officials blamed her son for his own death. She received few details of how the state came to that conclusion and had to take out a personal loan to cover his funeral expenses while she appealed the decision. She eventually won.

Ms. White said Monday that she was happy to hear about the proposed rule changes from the federal government.

“Why make things difficult when someone is already going through a hard time?” Ms. White said. “I’m thankful that (the proposal) has happened because murders are still taking place. You know, parents are still going to have to bury their children.”

Over the last decade, several states have passed laws or made administrative regulation changes to limit some of the most subjective kinds of denials.

Other states have passed laws expanding access to the funding or adding covered expenses.

Many of those changes came

after victims and advocates protested, testified and urged lawmakers to change the rules.

Lenore Anderson, president and co-founder of Alliance for Safety and Justice, which organizes victims to advocate for criminal justice reforms, praised the federal office and the proposed changes.

“These proposed reforms are a long time coming. Too many victims across the country have faced extraordinary barriers trying to get help in times of crisis,” she said, noting the proposals align with criticisms advocates have been hearing from victims for decades. “The Office for Victims of Crime is really focused on expanding victim access. They are really focused on securing fair access to help that is desperately needed in times of crisis. This is thoughtful rulemaking that should be applauded.”

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Ms. Anderson and other advocates have pushed for federal rule changes that would require state programs to all adhere to a victim-centered approach to considering claims.

Many of the items in the proposal Monday give states more room to expand services and approve claims. The proposal would allow states to apply a broader definition to medical or mental health expenses to allow people in rural areas with fewer licensed providers to find care or to allow for Native American healing practices to be covered expenses. The proposal would allow for a broader definition of who would be eligible to include people beyond a close familial relationship to a victim and allow for states to create broader definitions of allowable property damage expenses that contribute to victim safety.

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Richmond Free Press

A10 February 8-10, 2024

Sports Stories by Fred Jeter Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs QB, will lead the team into the Super Bowl.

Mahomes, Purdy in NFL spotlight

Meet the “odd couple” of Super Bowl quarterbacks.

Greatness, from the get-go, was predicted for Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, not so for San Francisco’s Brock Purdy, the longest of the longshots.

Coming out of Texas Tech, Mahomes was 10th overall draft choice by KC in 2017. In sharp contrast, Iowa State alum Purdy was the 262nd and last player drafted in 2022 when the 49ers called his name.

The final draftee earns the dubious title of “Mr. Irrelevant.”

Eight QBs were selected ahead of him. Mahomes was the second QB taken in 2017, after Mitchell Trubisky by Chicago.

Now, the opposites are on a collision course for the 58th Super Bowl Sunday night in Las Vegas. What would the odds have been on that in Sin City?

Mahomes, wearing jersey No. 15, and Purdy, No. 13, will be the most cheered and jeered athletes on pro football’s grandest stage. Their performances will go a long way in determining the outcome.

Rookie years: Mahomes signed a four-year, $16.42 million contract with a 10.08 million bonus. He replaced Alex Smith as the Chiefs’ starter late in the season, then Smith was traded the next season, to Washington, so Mahomes would be the clear starter.

Just hoping to make the team, Purdy’s contract was more bargain basement, by comparison. He received a non-guaranteed (make good) four-year pact for $3.7 million with a $77,008 bonus. His base salary as a rookie was $705,000, a pittance for

It’s time for the main event Super Bowl LVIII NFC champion San Francisco 49ers vs. AFC champ Kansas City Chiefs When: Sunday, Feb. 11 Where: Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas Kickoff: 6:30 p.m.

Te l e v i s i o n : C B S a n d Univision CBS announcers: Jim Nantz, Tony Romo, Tracy Wolfson and Evan Washburn

Radio: Westwood One National Anthem: Reba McEntire Halftime show: Usher Favorite: San Francisco by about two points Commercials: Average cost of 30-second slot is $7 million.

a starting NFL QB. Purdy began the season as the third stringer behind Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo but took over due to injuries to both. Had Lance and Garoppolo both not gone down with season-ending surgery, we might not yet have heard of Brock Purdy.

Against common wisdom, Purdy guided San Fran to the NFL championship, versus Philadelphia, and might have taken his team to Super Bowl LVII if not for incurring a serious elbow

Brock Purdy, San Francisco 49ers QB, is playing in his first Super Bowl.

injury requiring surgery.

Historical perspective: Mahomes, already with two Super Bowl crowns, has moved up the list of football’s most successful signal callers.

Even Tom Brady, with seven Super Bowl rings, might be within Mahomes’ reach. Only QB’s with more than Mahomes’ two are Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw with four each, and Troy Aikman and Earl Morrall with three.

Meanwhile over achiever Purdy becomes the lowest-drafted QB ever to start a Super Bowl and the third youngest at 24.

This season: Purdy has had a slightly better season, passing for 4,280 yards, with 31 touchdowns, 11 interceptions and a league best 111.3 passer rating.

In playoff wins over Green Bay and Detroit, he tossed for 519 yards with two TDs and one pick.

During regular season, Mahomes threw for 4,183 yards with 27 TDs and 14 picks. His QB rating was 92.6.

In playoff wins over Miami, Buffalo and Baltimore, Mahomes passed for 718 yards with four TDs and no picks.

Fun facts: Mahomes’ powerful arm wasn’t by accident. His father, Pat Sr., pitched in the major leagues and Japan from 1992 to ’03. Patrick was a talented high school pitcher himself in Tyler, Texas.

The number 13 is considered unlucky by many, but not in Purdy’s case. He grew up a passionate fan of Miami Dolphins QB Dan Marino. Like his idol, Purdy wears No. 13 and has become “Mr. Relevant.”

NFL broke color line in 1946 Sunday night’s Super Bowl will showcase two franchises with Black players making up some 65% of their rosters.

So much has changed in that regard over the many decades following World War II. Sports fans and even non-sports know plenty about the pioneering Jackie Robinson, who broke major league baseball’s color line in April 1947.

Not so much is known about Kenny Washington and Woody Strode, who broke the same racial barrier in the NFL, and even beat Robinson to it by seven months, in September 1946.

Washington and Strode, football teammates of Robinson at UCLA, were the first Black players in the NFL after being signed, long after college, by the Los Angeles Rams.

Born in Los Angeles in 1918, Washington was a brilliant running back who in 1939 for undefeated UCLA led the nation in scoring and total offense and was the Trojans’ first consensus All-American.

Still, there was no place for him in the NFL, which had been segregated since 1933 largely due to Washington owner George Preston Marshall’s “gentleman’s agreement” among executives.

Instead, Washington helped coach at UCLA, joined the LA Police Department and played a brand of semi-pro football for the Hollywood Stars.

By the time the NFL came calling he was 28 and had been through several knee surgeries.

Still, he averaged 6.1 yards per carry in three seasons and ran back a kickoff 92 yards that still stands as a Rams record.

Woody Strode, born in Los Angeles in 1914, was a full 32 when he played on the Rams’

line at little more than 200 pounds, although heavily muscled.

Between UCLA and his Rams’ debut, he joined the U.S. Air Corps, serving in Guam and the Marianas, and played semi-pro football with Washington on the Bears.

Strode played just one season with the Rams before turning his focus to the silver screen. In 1946, the Rams went 6-4-1 with the league’s first integrated team.

Known as the “Black Hercules,” Strode starred in many feature productions, perhaps most notably The 10 Commandments in 1956 and Spartacus in 1960. He also dabbled in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts.

While Washington and Strode broke the NFL color line on the West Coast, bruising running back Marion Motley (from Leesburg, Ga.) and undersized lineman Bill Willis (from Columbus, Ohio) were in a similar role with the Cleveland Browns of the then All-American Football Conference. The AAFC was secondary to the NFL before merging in 1950.

With Motley and Willis as headliners, the Browns won the AAFC in 1946, ’47, ’48 and ’49.

In 1950, the Browns’ first NFL season, Cleveland went 10-2 and won the title, defeating the Rams in the finals. In 105 NFL games Motley rushed for 4,720 yards, averaged 5.7 per carry and scored 31 touchdowns.

Willis was a six-time All-Pro guard in the AAFC and NFL combined.

Young sports enthusiasts coming along need to learn about Robinson, but not to overlook Washington and Strode, and Motley and Willis as well.

UCLA archives

Woody Strode, Jackie Robinson and Kenny Washington are shown in this 1939 photo from UCLA.

CIAA MEN’S & WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT FEB 26 – MAR 3 • CFG BANK ARENA IN BALTIMORE

Kuany is VCU’s sure shot If VCU is looking for someone as the Rams defeated the University to take a shot, from any spot on the of Richmond, 63-52, before a filledfloor, at any time, Kuany Kuany is to-the rafters, partisan crowd of 7,637 willing and able. at the Siegel Center.

The slender 6-foot-9 graduate In addition to the 15 points, Kuany student leads the Rams in 3-point achad six rebounds and two blocked curacy (43.1%) and free-throws (87%) shots as coach Ryan Odom’s Rams and is second to dunk specialist Tobi improved to 14-8 overall and 6-3 in Lawal with 53% overall accuracy.

Atlantic 10. The victory ended UR’s Kuany Kuany A transfer from the University 11 game winning streak.

California, Kuany was born in Kenya but VCU will play host to Dayton’s Flyers moved to Melbourne, Australia, as a child. He Friday at 7 p.m. in a contest that will be moved to the United States at age 15 for high televised on ESPN2. Dayton is coached by school and played four seasons for Cal before former Rams’ Coach Anthony Grant and coming cross country. was 18-3 starting this week and ranked 21st Kuany was a main man Feb. 3 with 15 points nationally.

VUU’s future tied to Caine In what has been a rebuilding season Coach Butler’s squad went 50-15 for Virginia Union University basketthe past two seasons but got caught ball, Joshua Caine is a cornerstone. short this go-round with only two The 6-foot-7, 220-pound freshreturnees from last year’s NCAA man from Waldorf, Md., is cause for tournament second round outfit. optimism as VUU works toward the “I’d compare Josh to Raemaad CIAA tournament in Baltimore Feb. Wright (Class of ’23),” Coach Butler 26-March 3. said of last year’s All-CIAA rebound“Joshua has an unbelievable moing leader. “Raemaad was All-Rookie Joshua Caine tor,” VUU Coach Jay Butler said. as a freshman.”

“He’s tough, he runs the floor and I think he The Panthers’ 82-63 loss at Lincoln. Pa., has a chance to make the (CIAA) All-Rookie Feb. leaves them at 9-14 overall, 4-7 in CAA team.” and 3-2 in Northern Division. A No. 2 seed in Caine flashed his star power Jan. 27 in a Baltimore remains realistic. road victory over Bluefield State, scoring 24 Following the loss at Lincoln, the Panthers points on 12-for-14 shooting from floor with traveled to the District of Columbia for a nine rebounds.

Washington Wizards game Feb. 4 at Capital For that, plus an 11-point outing against Bowie One Arena, courtesy of NBA. State, he was named CIAA Rookie of the Week.

VUU will play CIAA foe Winston-Salem On the season he averages six points and three State on Feb. 17 as part of the NBA All-Star boards, numbers that figure to grow.

Game festivities in Indianapolis.

PLAN YOUR TRIP TO EXPERIENCE THE CIAA TOURNAMENT IN BALTIMORE

BALTIMORE.ORG/CIAA

February 8-10, 2024 B1

Section B

Richmond Free Press

Love Stories T

Devon and Angela Henry

he line into the bookstore wrapped around the building. Angela had been standing in line for nearly an hour. Out of nowhere comes this bowlegged guy wearing a cowboy hat, suede coat, a tank top and Timberland boots…in AUGUST. He spoke and gave “dap” to just about everyone in line until he vanished inside the bookstore. He would later come out of the bookstore with all of his books while giving salutations to everyone.

Angela was still in the same place but “Mr. Popular,” as she described him, was on his way to his dorm to enjoy the rest of his day. Angela didn’t know his name but remembered his face and was not a fan.

That was until early one morning before class. Angela was walking with a friend, BJ, who also was friends with Devon. Devon was waiting in front of the library at 7:55 a.m., again because “Mr. Popular” knew everyone and everyone knew him. BJ told Angela, “Let’s go over and speak to my man Devon real quick.”

Angela soon realized that Devon was the guy who cut the entire line at the beginning of the year. She was not enthused, in fact, she barely wanted to look at him. It was quite difficult because Devon’s personality makes you want to laugh and be around him. They exchanged pleasantries and moved on with their day.

Angela’s work-study job was in the library, and there was always a line of guys acting like they were looking for books but really trying to get her attention. Soon after they met, Devon literally was in the library every day trying to get Angela’s attention. Finally, she gave him her phone number with the caveat, “Don’t call me on the same day.” Devon called her that evening at 12:01 a.m. because it was “technically not the same day.”

They talked until the sun rose and have been smitten with one another ever since. They married in 2002, welcomed their first child in 2003 and a second child in 2008.

It has been 21 years of love and laughter with God being at the center of it all!

Angela Henry is president of Pennant Solutions Group.

Devon Henry is CEO and president at Team Henry Enterprises LLC,

Kaestner and Jacqueline “Jackie” McDonnough

I

t was February 1978 and classes at City College of New York had started late due to a snowstorm. I was a Trinidadian Brooklyn high school senior taking a course for free at the college. I nervously walked into class and took a seat up front. About 30 minutes later, a super cute, bearded guy, wearing a silver mylar jacket with NASA patches, walked in carrying a Samsonite briefcase.

He took my breath away.

A Jamaican, he was a third-year, electrical engineering transfer student who lived in the Bronx and worked in the college math lab. This was important because our paths would never have crossed if we hadn’t taken that class.

After class, several of the students introduced themselves.

Somehow Kaestner, the cute Jamaican, and I ended up walking to the bookstore together. After leaving the bookstore, he walked me to my subway stop and along the way, he shared shelled peanuts, something he always carried in his jacket pocket, and offered to tutor me in calculus. Long story short, this was the beginning of our whirlwind romance.

Over the next months, we laid the foundation for what was to become a decades-long relationship. Highlights of our first months together included pizza and movies and St. Patrick’s Day at the Empire State Building. In April, Kaestner met me on the steps of the iconic Midtown New Public Library and presented me a bouquet of daffodils!

New York’s Hayden Planetarium, nighttime walks in Central Park and a late spring walk through Brooklyn Botanical Garden’s Cherry Walk rounded out our relationship. The following September, I left for Northwestern University. The following May, Kaestner moved me back to New York and, five months later, we were married.

We now reside in Richmond’s Highland Park, where our romance continues and where we have the good fortune to live on the same street with one of our two sons and his family, my mom and a host of relatives.

Jackie McDonnough is an emerita professor of science education, VCU School of Education. Kaestner McDonnough is retired but worked at Philip Morris USA as an instrumentation electrician.

The Free Press proudly presents its annual Valentine’s Day feature that shares the Love Stories of five Richmond area couples.

Eric Clay and Regina H. Boone

W

e met because of our ancestors.

It was Saturday, Dec. 7, 2019.

My best friend, Nikki, was in town and Eric was solo, seated in a packed Library of Virginia auditorium with an empty seat beside him and a new local acquaintance of mine seated on the other side.

Nikki and I scooted in and got the last two spots just behind my new friend and Eric.

At a certain moment I noticed a photo opportunity.

I reached for my phone and took a picture, framing the back of his head and his hands grasping the program that read “Truth & Conciliation in the 400th Year,” and more words that described the all-day symposium “…History of Africans and people of African descent in Virginia from their earliest days to the present …” I locked all of that in, never thinking beyond that click.

We never imagined Richmond would draw us back to live and definitely not the place we would find the love of our lives.

We believe our parents — his mother, Ann Lee Clay, and my father, Raymond H. Boone, who both passed from pancreatic cancer — had a hand at guiding us back home, not only to our other parents and siblings, but for ourselves.

During the symposium, a break came. My friend and I left. I took her to the airport. Eric left, too. That could have been it.

I returned, hoping to catch another panel. Eric also returned.

After standing, because there were no more seats, another break arrived and I made my way to say hello to a few folks before being approached by a handsome man — asking if I attended UVA since he said he spotted me speaking to a mutual friend who also attended UVA. I quickly said, “No, I went to Spelman.”

The conversation moved fast — learning we were recent Richmond returnees, we both had lived in Baltimore and, at this point, is where we learned our parents had died from the identical cancer.

The symposium continued.

We left for a restaurant and exchanged information before I left for an assignment.

As much as we thought we had come to a symposium to learn about our history, and thought we returned to Richmond for others, ultimately our ancestors called us home for another reason.

Fast forward to now. We married nearly five months ago.

We survived many things — dating during the pandemic, my work schedule documenting the 2020 uprisings, the dismantling of the Confederate statues and recently standing together as we fought my breast cancer as a team.

We realize we were being prepared for these moments.

We are forever thankful to our ancestors.

Regina H. Boone is a staff photojournalist for the Richmond Free Press. Eric Clay is the director of health equity at the Community Foundation for a greater Richmond.

O

Archie and Linda Comfort

ur love story began in 1974. But before I unfold the pages of time, let me tell you about this man. Before I knew him or who he was, he apparently knew of me.

We used to have a Country Fair in Louisa, Va., my hometown. I was at the fair one night with some friends.

Apparently, he was there, too, eyeing me from a distance. To this day, he can tell you what I was wearing that night.

Then there was another time on a Saturday afternoon while I was out shopping and enjoying the day. Unbeknownst to me, he spotted me and was eyeing me again.

I still didn’t know him nor saw him or knew what he looked like.

When the time was right, it happened. Our love story began one July evening not too long after the County Fair ended. We were introduced by a beautiful young woman who turned out to be his sister, whom I knew from work.

She’d never told me about him, but they eventually came to my family’s home and, boy, he was so good looking!

To this day, 49 years later, I still ask myself, “What did he see in me, a country girl, who never dated nor really had a boyfriend?” My father, bless his heart, didn’t allow his daughters to have boyfriends or date at all! It still baffles me why my father allowed me to see Archie but not the other boys who came to our house.

Growing up, our county lines were unbelievably close.

Archie lived in Spotsylvania County and I lived in Louisa County. We were so close to one another yet we didn’t know one another. It had to be destined by God to bring our lives together. I can’t explain it any other way.

After a year and a half of dating (or courtship back then), we were united as husband and wife on Oct. 25, 1975. Our lives since have meant living in various states, overseas and other places that my husband’s job took us.

Today we still enjoy and love each moment God gives us. Our advice to every couple and everyone: Love from your heart and not from what you see on the outside, for it all will change over time.

Linda Comfort recently retired from Dillards. Archie Comfort is retired from the U.S. government, and

Mayor Levar Stoney and Brandy Stoney

Y

ou’ve got mail!” Remember those days? You can almost hear the line if you listen closely.

Back in the (recent) day, the digital way to start up and hold a conversation with a new person was to ask for their email address and wait until later in the night for them to have time to respond — if they did. In true millennial fashion, our love story started similarly, but in a much more instantaneous way: Instagram.

What started one day as laughing emoji replies back and forth to Instagram stories turned into several hours of nonstop conversation. Neither of us initiated the replies or conversation with the intention of starting a relationship, but from that night on our lives would be forever changed.

Now, I’m a bit more direct than Levar sometimes, so I told him if he wanted to continue the conversation any further, he’d have to do it via text or call — IG was not about to hold me captive. I gave him my number and said goodnight.

Of course I then had to update my mom on how quickly life can change from when she and I spoke earlier in the day. She worked at City Hall for many years and kept up with the politics of the city. She’d been a big Levar fan, and advocate over the years, and constantly was trying to put it in my universe that one day we’d eventually connect and start dating.

Well, her manifesting it somehow worked, and after that night of our hourslong conversation, I told her that if we connected the same way in person, Levar and I were going to get married. I knew right away that my forever person had just stepped into my life. Two days later, we went on our first date and we have been inseparable ever since.

Now, we are married and just a few short weeks away from having our baby girl to add one more chapter to our love story. We are still inseparable besties, and the bond from that first night of talking is even stronger. The best part? We still send plenty of laughing emojis to each other.

Brandy Stoney is chief movement officer with Beee Squad.

Levar M. Stoney is mayor of the City of Richmond. “

Richmond Free Press

B2 February 8-10, 2024

Happenings Women dominate the 2024 Grammy Awards­— Is the tide turning?

By Maria Sherman The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES When the 2024 Grammy nominees were first announced, women dominated the major categories. And at Sunday’s show, those nominations translated into awards: Every televised competitive Grammy went to at least one woman.

Several women earned their very first Grammys, including Miley Cyrus, best new artist Victoria Monét, country artist Lainey Wilson and Karol G — also the first woman to win in best música urbana, a moment that may reflect changing perceptions of reggaetón and Latin hip-hop as exclusively “men’s music.”

“You know, I feel a lot of responsibility about that. As a woman, I have to say, like in my experience, it was tough, like so many things, to be a girl in this industry, in the music that I do, in urban music,” the “Mañana Será Bonito” artist told The Associated Press backstage, saying she also reflected “women in the world fighting

to represent” themselves.

Paramore became the first rock band fronted by a woman to win best rock album. And Taylor Swift, of course, not only made history by becoming the first artist to win album of the year four times — but she also is still the only woman to ever win more than twice.

“What we want is just an equal space in the industry and to be seen equally on equal levels — not just on the creative side but on the business side — so hopefully the equality in the industry will kind of level things out a little,” she added. “I think we’re still kind of figuring that part out. But we’re getting there, slowly.”

Only 19.5% of all songwriters across the Billboard Hot 100 songs in 2023 were women, according to analysis from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. Women still make up a fraction of producers and engineers.

But at the Grammys, where much of the focus is on performers, it appeared like women were ruling the industry.

Phoebe Bridgers of boyge-

The Grammys paid tribute to the “goddess of rock ‘n’ roll” on Sunday with a high-energy performance of Tina Turner‘s “Proud Mary.” And who better to bring this timeless tune to the stage than Fantasia Barrino?

The award for best R&B song went to SZA for “Snooze” during the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 4, in Los Angeles.

Taylor Swift, right, Miley Cyrus and Billie Eilish helped the Grammys reach its largest audience since 2020. Tracy Chapman, below, and Luke Combs perform “Fast Car” during the awards show.

The Associated Press

nius won her first Grammys last night, taking home more than any other performer last night, with four.

In the week leading up to the Grammys, Ms. Bridgers told the AP there was some significance to the band’s recognition because “it was only a couple of years ago now that that (expletive) who is now being accused of sexual violence said women need to step it up if they want to be nominated.”

She was referring to former Recording Academy President Neil Portnow, who, in 2018, said women need “to step up” if they wanted to receive Grammys and then issued an apology. He stepped down in 2019. In November 2023, Portnow was sued by a woman who said he had drugged and raped her in 2018, an allegation his representative has called “completely false.”

Ms. Bridgers renewed her critique backstage at the Grammys, telling the media room, as she held one of her four trophies, that she hopes he’ll “rot.”

The Recording Academy has made considerable changes to their programming in the postPortnow years, attempting to better reflect the current musical climate. Recently, more than 2,400 music creators joined the voting bloc — of those new additions, 50% are people of

color, 46% are under the age of 40, and 37% are women.

In January, Recording Academy CEO and President Harvey Mason jr. theorized the number of women nominated was “a direct result of a lot of the changes that we’ve been making at the academy,” something echoed by Swift while accepting her first award of the night.

“I know that the way the Recording Academy voted is a direct reflection of the passion of the fans,” she said.

The question then becomes: Was this year a fluke? The result of an all-star year of women who couldn’t be ignored? A correction? Symbolic of some systemic shift? Or something else entirely?

The only real televised criticism came from Jay-Z, the lone man awarded solo on the telecast (Finneas also won a televised Grammy, alongside his sister, Billie Eilish). His acceptance speech for the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award began by shouting out the rap legends that came before him — the ones who worked to bring hiphop to the preeminent music award show, only to have rap categories not make the official broadcast Sunday.

“We want you all to get it right,” Jay Z said in his speech.

“At least get it close to right.”

The he switched focus to Beyoncé, who last year became the most decorated artist in Grammy history, with 32 trophies.

“Most Grammys, never won album of the year. How does that work?” he said of his wife.

“Even by your own metrics it doesn’t work.”

Emily Lordi, a Vanderbilt University professor whose focus is African-American literature and Black popular music, says there is value in examining the intersections of race and feminism at the Grammys.

This year, two women — SZA, for her critically acclaimed and groundbreaking “SOS,” and Janelle Monae, for her innovate treatise on sensuality and freedom “The Age of Pleasure,” were up for album of the year. If one of them had taken it home, the winner would have become the first Black woman to do so since Lauryn Hill with “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” in 1999.

Ms. Lordi says that record “suggests a residual and highly flawed view of Black women’s music as ‘niche,’” despite the fact that “Black women have foundationally influenced every genre of American music, so that Billie Eilish’s vocal style is a direct descendant of Billie Holiday’s aesthetic, just as Miley is made possible by Tina Turner, and Taylor by Tracy Chapman.”

Janelle Monae, who has 10 career nominations, did not win a Grammy — and never has. SZA, who led nominations with nine, took home three awards — but was completely shut out of the general field categories.

There’s much to celebrate about the 2024 Grammys, including its focus on female performers — something that wouldn’t have seemed possible as recently as 2011, when the Grammys still had genderspecific awards.

But, Ms. Lordi notes, “as we champion the representation of women, we also need to keep thinking intersectionally and critically about which women are being honored and for what?”

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Richmond Free Press

Growing up in Petersburg, Shawna Chapman never believed pageants were open to women like her, whose background includes dropping out of high school and experiencing periods of homelessness.

And yet, when Mrs. Chapman took to the stage for America’s United States (AUS) Mrs. Mid-Atlantic pageant, she carried herself with the confidence of a professional.

From the interview to the resort wear she showcased, she brought skill and self-assurance that earned her the title and the chance to compete on a larger scale.

“When I was crowned as America’s United States Mrs. Virginia, it was so surreal,” Mrs. Chapman says. “It was even more surreal at nationals when I won the People’s Choice Award.”

These wins are the latest in Mrs. Chapman’s roughly oneyear pageant career that includes America’s United States Mrs. Virginia 2023, America’s Leading Edge Mrs. Chesterfield County 2024, America’s Classic Mrs. Virginia 2024 and its Mini Supreme and Ms. Hospitality/ Congeniality categories.

It’s an impressive run for someone who started in late 2022 with the Mrs. Virginia Pageant, inspired by a friend who won Miss Curvy Virginia.

Mrs. Chapman liked the approach of AUS’s pageant system, which she said “encourages you to be you,” and she shared her interest in competing with her mother, Ardele Rena Williams, who became her first sponsor. As she began competing, Mrs. Chapman developed a stage persona, Sasha, to help manage the demands of the stage and stand out from other hopefuls. Who are the judges?

“She is fierce, confident, commanding of the room, graceful and elegant,” Mrs. Chapman said of her alter ego.

“My mother loves to watch me transform when the curtains open.”

February 8-10, 2024 B3

Happenings Personality: Shawna Chapman Spotlight on America’s United States Mrs. Mid-Atlantic 2024 Outside the lights and spectacle of the pageants, Mrs. Chapman is more laid-back compared with her Sasha persona. She still is outspoken and driven, but stays in tune with her pageant responsibilities to “have a heart of service and help my community.”

It’s an understatement to say that she stays busy. Mrs. Chapman is the owner of the Naturally Unique Beauty hair salon, provides catering and meal prep through Creations

by Mrs. C. Mrs. Chapman also is employed as a teacher at Petersburg High School’s Master Barber Program. She is vice chair of Recover Hope, a nonprofit organization focused on human trafficking and its victims, which she joined last year after meeting CEO Linda Hawkins in December 2022.

“We need to educate the community, children included, in what to look for,” Mrs. Chapman said, “and set measures to save survivors and help them recover and get the resources they need.”

August will see the start of the Mrs. America’s United States pageant and Mrs. Chapman is gathering sponsors and other resources to potentially compete against 49 other contestants.

“That is something that I live by with this pageant,” Mrs. Chapman said. “Being unapologetically myself.”

Meet a married pageant queen and this week’s Personality, Shawna Chapman: Latest achievement: America’s United States Mrs. MidAtlantic 2024.

Occupation: Teacher, Petersburg High School’s Master Barber Program.

Date and place of birth: Nov. 10 in Petersburg.

Where I live now: Chester.

Education: Studied at Virginia State University.

Family: Husband, Tino, son Jayden,18, and daughter Samantha, 22.

America’s United States Mrs. Mid-Atlantic is: She is a person who is selfless. She has a heart of service all the time. Mrs. Mid-Atlantic fixes another queen’s crown with grace and love.

When and why founded: The pageant was founded by Tava Cook and Connie Thomas of Sylva, N.C., in 2020. According to Ms. Cook: “Connie Thomas and I wanted something different than the ‘standard’ pageant.

We wanted to be open to all ages and all sizes, giving each woman a place where she feels comfortable and confident to just be herself.”

Where the 2024 crowning pageant was held: The official crowning is taking place Feb. 18, 2024, in Albemarle, N.C. I am already crowned for the

2024 court. This just makes it official.

Virginia and the pageant scene: There are a lot of different pageants in Virginia — in-person and virtually, including pageants for those with special needs (and) for the novice to more seasoned pageant participants. There is something for everyone to participate in.

How I qualified to compete: The Mrs. Division is for women 30 and over, married and can have children. You must live in, work in or be from the area you represent.

Why I decided to compete in pageants: Pageantry was not something I ever thought was for me.

When I told my mother I was interested, she became my first sponsor for my first competition. I love that the AUS system encourages you to be you. I saw a friend who won Miss Curvy Virginia, so I did my research and started reaching out to the organization. I previously modeled and I thought that it was similar, but I learned that they are two totally different things.

How I wowed the judges: My interview carried a lot of weight in scoring so that was great and my on-stage energy in my resort wear; when I dropped my cover off my shoulders, the room went wild!

My beauty secrets are: I have a facial routine including Murad products and I use white-wash clothes so the dye does not bother my sensitive skin. That’s my biggest secret and I exfoliate daily.

My platform is: My platform is Recover Hope. They exist to prevent exploitation through

awareness of human trafficking. I am vice chair for this organization as well. Human and sex trafficking are real and happening right here in our backyard. Many don’t want to discuss it, but it doesn’t make it less prevalent.

How much time goes into getting ready for a pageant: It is an all-year event for nationals. With seeking sponsors and donations, picking material for garments and costumes, fittings, hair, make-up photo shoots, etc. (She said her clothes are handmade by Print Rayge Studios, LLC on IG @Prntdbyrayge, which also provides coaching.)

Mrs. Mid-Atlantic America United States 2024’s responsibilities: Continue to have a heart of service and help my community.

How I start the day: I greet every day with prayer and optimism. I believe your day is what you make of it and I believe you control that power.

The three words that best describe me: Ambitious, selfless, a leader.

If I had 10 extra minutes in the day: I would meditate. I am always on the go and my life is so structured, it would be nice to have just a few more minutes to pray and reflect on what has transpired and what’s to come — uninterrupted.

If I hosted a dream dinner party, my special guest would be: Jennifer Lewis. I love her because of her openness about her mental heaalth and the years of experience in the acting industry, as well as the opportunity to network with her.

Best late-night snack: My late-night snacks are strawberries and sugar with homemade whipped cream or I like orange

Jell-O with mandarins or peach Jell-O with peaches.

The music I listen to most is: I listen to old 2000s and earlier hip-hop, R&B and reggae. I occasionally listen to classical music, being a former musician.

I played all woodwinds but was a concert clarinet player.

I love to break down the key and time signature.

Something I love to do that most people would never imagine: I love animals! I used to ride and train horses and love to take care of them.

Animals are a pivotal part of life and I believe we need to take care of them like they take care of us. I’m an advocate for them and their well-being as well.

A quote that inspires me: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou At the top of my “to-do” list: Self-care. You cannot pour from an empty cup. I believe you must take care of yourself before you can help or take care of others.

The best thing my parents ever taught me: Never give up!

They did not raise a quitter and you have to go through things to get to the other side.

The person who influenced me the most: I am my biggest influence and inspiration based on what I have gone through and accomplished and to see where I am today. I grew up in low-income housing, I was a young mother, a high school dropout, I was homeless and lost everything.

I beat cervical cancer twice (most recently in 2023) fastforward to owning several businesses, teaching high school, working toward my college degree and advocating for my community.

Next goal: To get my restaurant, Creations by Mrs. C, in a brick-and-mortar location.

The Market @ 25th In 2023, VPM partnered with artist David Marion of Liberated Flow to design a mural in The Market @ 25th’s community room. The purpose of the mural is to reflect the culture and history of the Church Hill community alongside VPM’s mission to educate, entertain and inspire from childhood through adulthood.

Photo courtesy of Monica Pedynkowski

CONNECTED TO WHAT SPARKS CONVERSATION. CONNECTED TO WHAT MATTERS.

CONNECTED TO WHAT MATTERS. As Virginia’s home for public media, we bring you relevant news and local storytelling As Virginia’s home for public media, we bring you relevant news to foster a greater understanding of our state, our neighbors and our world. and local storytelling to foster a greater understanding of our state, VPM.org our neighbors and our world.

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Richmond Free Press

B4 February 8-10, 2024

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Photos by Julianne Tripp Hillian

A Lunar celebration ChinaFest: Year of the Wood Dragon took place Feb. 3 at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The celebration of the Lunar New Year included vibrant performances, hands-on art activities, and collaborative community art-making project.

Dancers from Yu Dance Arts were among several performers to the delight of museum goers.

Right, dancers Bella (left), Angela (center), and Amy (right) of On The One Dance Co. performed “Swimming Upstream and Jumping.” The dance, inspired by the form of a fish, embodies excitement, resilience, and an enterprising spirit, reflecting the courage of individuals navigating challenges in this era. It symbolizes perseverance against adversity, with dancers pushing against the current and braving the elements. In Chinese culture, fish symbolize luck and prosperity.

Right, Dragon dancers of the Choy Wun Dance Troupe also were part of the many creative performers.

For the culture

Recommended works and artists in celebration of Black History Month by Richmond Free Press staff members, Part 2: Books “Harlem Renaissance” by Nathan Irving Huggins “Devil in a Blue Dress” by Walter Mosley (Easy Rawlins series) “Ghetto Gastro presents Black Power Kitchen” by Jon Gray, Pierre Serrao and Lester Walker “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates “Song of Solomon” by Toni Morrison “Washington Black” by Esi Edugyan “Becoming” by Michelle Obama Movie “Get Out Documentary “Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror” Artists Beauford Delaney Amy Sherald April Coleman • Books “The Color Purple”

by Alice Walker “Yellow Wife” by Sadequa Johnson “Razorblade Tears”

by S.A. Cosby “Lead Me Home” by Stacy Hawkins Adams “Truth Tellers: The Power and Presence of Black Women Journalists Since 1960” by Bonnie Newman Davis

Movies “The Color Purple” (1985) “The Color Purple” (2023) “Django Unchained” “Eve’s Bayou” “Harlem Nights” Artists Kehinde Wiley Ernie Barnes Jacob Lawrence Joy Labinjo Music Prince Jon Batiste H.E.R. Karla E. Peters • Book “Black Hollywood: Reimagining Iconic Movie Moments” by Carell Augustus Music Ledisi sings Nina Documentary “Stamped from the Beginning” Movie “Rustin” Sandra Sellars • Book “The Grift “by Clay Cane Documentary “Donyale Luna: SuperModel — first Black woman on cover of Vogue DocuSeries” “The 1619 Project” Joyce Thompson • For other Black History Month recommendations, please visit https://richmondfreepress.com/ news/2024/feb/01/culture/

The is True King planning Lil Walter hisforfuture the Virginia Music Hall of Fame for Outstanding Entertainer, Musician, Producer, Writer, Author and Promoter Plus Pull up True King Lil Walter on YouTube for new music

“Did Y’all come Here to Party,” “Roses”

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Richmond Free Press

February 8-10, 2024 B5

Obituaries/Faith Directory

Carl Weathers, linebacker-turned-actor, dies at 76 The Associated Press

NEW YORK Carl Weathers, a former NFL linebacker who became a Hollywood action movie and comedy star, playing nemesis-turned-ally Apollo Creed in the “Rocky” movies, facing off against Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Predator” and teaching golf in “Happy Gilmore,” has died. He was 76.

Matt Luber, his manager, said Mr. Weathers died Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. His family issued a statement saying he died “peacefully in his sleep.”

“Carl Weathers will always be a legend,” Schwarzenegger wrote on Instagram. “An extraordinary athlete, a fantastic actor and a great person. We couldn’t have made ‘Predator’ without him. And we certainly wouldn’t have had such a wonderful time making it.”

Comfortable flexing his muscles on the big screen in “Action Jackson” as he was joking

around on the small screen in such with ‘Rocky’ without him.’” shows as “Arrested Development,” Creed, who appeared in the first Mr. Weathers was perhaps most four “Rocky” movies, memorably closely associated with Creed, who died in the ring of 1984’s “Rocky made his first appearance as the IV,” going toe-to-toe with the hulkcocky, undisputed heavyweight world ing, steroid-using Soviet Ivan Drago, champion in 1976’s “Rocky,” starring played by Dolph Lundgren.

Sylvester Stallone.

Mr. Weathers went on to 1987’s Most recently, Mr. Weathers “Predator,” where he flexed his pecs starred in the Disney+ hit “The alongside Mr. Schwarzenegger and a Mandalorian,” appearing in all three host of others, and 1988’s nouveau Mr. Weathers seasons. blaxploitation flick “Action Jackson,” “We lost a legend yesterday,” Mr. Stal- where he trains his flamethrower on a bad guy lone wrote in an Instagram message that in- and asks, “How do you like your ribs?” before cluded a video tribute. The actor stood before broiling him. a painting of him and Mr. Weathers boxing and He later added a false wooden hand to play said, “Carl Weathers was such an integral part a golf pro for the 1996 comedy classic “Happy of my life, my success ... I give him incredible Gilmore” opposite Adam Sandler and starred credit and kudos. in Dick Wolf’s short-lived spin-off series “When he walked into that room and I saw “Chicago Justice” in 2017 and in Disney’s him for the first time, I saw greatness. ... I “The Mandalorian,” earning an Emmy Award never could have accomplished what we did nomination in 2021. He also voiced Combat

Carl in the “Toy Story” franchise.

Mr. Weathers grew up admiring actors such as Woody Strode, whose combination of physique and acting prowess in “Spartacus” made an early impression. Others he idolized included actors Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte and athletes Jim Brown and Muhammad Ali, stars who broke the mold and the color barrier.

Growing up in New Orleans, Mr. Weathers started performing in plays as early as grade school. In high school, athletics took him down another path but he would reunite with his first love later in life.

Mr. Weathers played college football at San Diego State University — he majored in theater — and went on to play for one season in the NFL, for the Oakland Raiders, in 1970.

After the Raiders, he joined the Canadian Football League, playing for two years while finishing up his studies during the offseason at San Francisco State University. He graduated with a B.A. in drama in 1974.

In Memoriam: Tributes pour in for host, activist Joe Madison

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

it was a hunger strike Association, reprefor voting rights or senting the Black his advocacy for antiPress of America, we lynching legislation express our profound Tributes poured in following condolences to the that I was proud to the death of Joe Madison, the family of Joe Madisign in 2022, Joe talk show host, activist and son. As a trailblazer fought hard against philanthropist known as “The and consistent freeinjustice,” PresiBlack Eagle.” After a lengthy dom fighter journaldent Biden stated. bout with prostate cancer, the ist and broadcaster, Madison aligned his popular SiriusXM host died Joe Madison emplatform with his Mr. Madison on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. bodied the essence purpose, Vice PresiHe was 74. and courage to speak truth to dent Harris added. “Through his Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., power.” decades-long career in radio, he president and CEO of NNPA, President Biden and Vice championed the fight for equity stated, “On behalf of the Na- President Kamala Harris also of- and justice. Our nation is better tional Newspaper Publishers fered their thoughts. “Whether because of his voice.”

According to his official “The Church With A Welcome” bio, the native of Dayton, Ohio, was an All-Conference

Sharon Baptist Church 500 E. Laburnum Avenue, Richmond, VA 23222 www.sharonbaptistchurchrichmond.org (804) 643-3825 Rev. Dr. Paul A. Coles, Pastor

Sundays Morning Worship 10:00 A.M.

Back Inside

Broad Rock Baptist Church 5106 Walmsley Blvd., Richmond, VA 23224 804-276-2740 • 804-276-6535 (fax) www.BRBCONLINE.org

“Please come and join us” Every Sunday @ 11:00 am.

Live Streaming Every Sunday At: BRBConline.org or YouTube(Broad Rock Baptist Church)

Bible Study online and in person Wednesday 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

“MAKE IT HAPPEN” Pastor Kevin Cook

running back at Washington University in St. Louis where he was also a baritone soloist in the university choir and a disc jockey at the campus radio station. He earned his bachelor’s in sociology, becoming the first person in his family to graduate college.

In 2015, Mr. Madison set the Guinness World Record for the longest on-air broadcast, 52 hours. During the record-

Moore Street Missionary Baptist Church

1408 W. Leigh Street · Richmond, Va. 23220 (804) 358—6403

Dr. Alonza L. Lawrence, Pastor

E-n-t-h-u-s-i-a-s-m Say it three times

Enthusiasm…

Enthusiasm…

rights bills. Unbeknownst to his listeners, he was fighting prostate cancer during his hunger strike. When asked if he understood the danger he was in, he replied, “I am willing to die.”

Mr. Madison was married to his wife, Sharon, for more than 45 years. His family includes four children, five grandchildren and one greatgrandchild.

St. Peter Baptist Church

Dr. Kirkland R. Walton, Pastor

Worship Opportunities Sunday Worship Opportunities: 10 A.M. [In-person and Livestream] Sunday Church School Opportunities: Adults [In-person] at 8:30 A.M. Children [Virtual] online via our website.

Bible Study Opportunities: Noon [In-person] 7 P.M. [Virtual]; Please contact the church office for directives.

Enthusiasm!

Write: I’ll Listen Ministry Post Office Box 16113 Richmond, VA 23222

breaking show, he raised more than $250,000 for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Five months later, Mr. Madison made history again by broadcasting live from Cuba and becoming the first American radio host to do so in more than 50 years.

In 2021, Mr. Madison went on a 73-day hunger strike to encourage passage of voting

“Your Home In God’s Kingdom”

Riverview Baptist Church Sundays Sunday School - 9:30 A.M. Worship Service - 11 A.M.

2040 Mountain Road • Glen Allen, Virginia 23060 Office 804-262-0230 • Fax 804-262-4651 • www.stpeterbaptist.net

7M\XL &ETXMWX 'LYVGL 8LIQI 1SFMPM^MRK *SV 1MRMWXV] 6IJVIWLMRK 8LI 3PH ERH )QIVKMRK 8LI 2I[ A 21st Century Church With Ministry For Everyone

We Embrace Diversity — Love For All! Come worship with us!

Via Conference Call (202) 926-1127 Pin 572890# In Person Sunday Service also on FACEBOOK and YouTube

Back Inside Sundays Join us for 10:00 AM Worship Service

2604 Idlewood Avenue, Richmond, Va. 23220 (804) 353-6135 • www.riverviewbaptistch.org Rev. Dr. John E. Johnson, Jr., Interim Minister

Live on Facebook @ 4ixth #aptist $IVSDI 37" Live on Youtube @4#$ 37" Or by visiting our website www.sixthbaptistchurch.org

Rev. Dr. Yvonne Jones Bibbs, Pastor

400 South Addison Street Richmond, Va. 23220

(near Byrd Park)

(804) 359-1691 or 359-3498 Facebook Fax (804) 359-3798 `VeaUON]aV`aPUb_PU_cN www.sixthbaptistchurch.org

Rev. Dr. Yvonne Jones Bibbs, Pastor

1858

The People’s Church

Good Shepherd Baptist Church

216 W. Leigh St., Richmond, Va. 23220 Tel: 804-643-3366 Fax: 804-643-3367 (PDLO ṘFH#HEHQH]HUUYD RUJ ZHE HEHQH]HUUYD RUJ

1127 North 28th Street, Richmond, VA 23223-6624 • Office: (804) 644-1402

The Rev. Sylvester T. Smith, Ph.D., Pastor “There’s A Place for You”

Sunday Church School • 9am

Join us at 11:00 a.m. each Sunday for in-person worship service or Live-stream on YouTube (Good Shepherd Baptist Church RVA).

(in-person and livestream on YouTube)

Antioch Baptist Church

(Zoom)

Sunday Morning Worship • 11am Wednesday Bible Study • 7pm (Zoom)

Please visit our website Ebenezer Baptist Church Richmond, VA for updates http://www. ebenezerrva.org

Dr. Wallace J. Cook, Pastor Emeritus

“Redeeming God’s People for Gods Purpose”

“Working For You In This Difficult Hour”

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SUNDAY WORSHIP HOUR – 10:00 A.M. CHILDREN’S CHURCH & BUS MINISTRY AVAILABLE SUNDAY SCHOOL (FOR ALL AGES) – 9:00 A.M. TUESDAY MID-DAY BIBLE STUDY – 12 NOON DR. JAMES L. SAILES PASTOR WEDNESDAY MID-WEEK PRAYER & BIBLE STUDY – 7:00 P.M. A MISSION BASED CHURCH FAMILY EXCITING MINISTRIES FOR CHILDREN, YOUTH, YOUNG ADULTS & SENIOR ADULTS BIBLE REVELATION TEACHING DIVERSE MUSIC MINISTRY LOVING, CARING ENVIRONMENT

Joseph Jenkins, Jr. Funeral Home, Inc. 2011-2049 Grayland Avenue Richmond, Virginia 23220 (804) 358-9177

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Joseph Jenkins, Jr., Founder (Dec. 19, 1938 - Dec. 9, 2006) Joseph Jenkins, III. • Jason K. Jenkins • Maxine T. Jenkins

Richmond Free Press

B6 February 8-10, 2024

Legal Notices/Employment Opportunities City of Richmond, Virginia CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given that the City of Richmond Planning Commission has scheduled a public hearing, open to all interested citizens, on Tuesday, February 20, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber on the Second Floor of City Hall and the Council of the City of Richmond has scheduled a public hearing on Monday, February 26, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber on the Second Floor of City Hall, located at 900 East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia, to consider the following ordinances: Ordinance No. 2024-035 To authorize the special use of the property known as 6422 Forest H i l l Av e n u e f o r t h e purpose of ten singlefamily detached dwellings fronting on a private street, upon certain terms and conditions.

Ordinance No. 2024-036 To authorize the special use of the properties known as 2900 Rady Street and 2733 5th Avenue for the purpose of up to 83 permanent supportive housing units, upon certain terms and conditions.

Interested citizens who wish to speak will be given an opportunity to do so by following the instructions referenced in the February 26, 2024 Richmond City Council Formal meeting agenda. Copies of the full text of all ordinances are available by visiting the City Clerk’s page on the City’s Website at https:// www.rva.gov/office-cityclerk, and in the Office of the City Clerk, City Hall, 900 East Broad Street, Suite 200, Richmond, VA 23219, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Candice D. Reid City Clerk

Divorce VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF HANOVER JENNIFER SPENCE, Plaintiff v.

CARLTON SPENCE, Defendant.

Case No.: CL23003763-00 ORDER OF PUBLICATION The object of this suit is to obtain a divorce from the bond of matrimony from the defendant on the ground of living separate and apart without any cohabitation and without interruption for a period exceeding twelve months.

It is ORDERED that the defendant, who is a nonresident, appear here on or before the 20th day of March, 2024 at 9:00 AM and protect his interests.

A Copy, Teste: FRANK D. HARGROVE, JR., Clerk I ask for this: Dorothy M. Eure, Esquire VSB# 27724 Law Office of Dorothy M. Eure, P.C. 8460 Mount Eagle Road Ashland, VA 23005 (804 798-9667 VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF HANOVER TIFFANY CARVAN, Plaintiff v.

WAYNE CARVAN, Defendant.

Case No.: CL24000221-00 ORDER OF PUBLICATION The object of this suit is to obtain a divorce from the bond of matrimony from the defendant on the ground of living separate and apart without any cohabitation and without interruption for Continued on next column

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a period exceeding twelve months.

It is ORDERED that the defendant, whose whereabouts are unknown, appear here on or before the 14th day of March, 2024 at 9:00 AM and protect his interests.

A Copy, Teste: FRANK D. HARGROVE, JR., Clerk I ask for this: Law Office of Dorothy M. Eure, P.C. Dorothy M. Eure, Plaintiff’s Attorney VSB# 27724 8460 Mount Eagle Road Ashland, VA 23005 (804 798-9667

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF HANOVER BARBARA MULHI, Plaintiff v.

ABULGHANI MULHI, Defendant.

Case No.: CL23004218-00 ORDER OF PUBLICATION The object of this suit is to obtain a divorce from the bond of matrimony from the defendant on the ground of living separate and apart without any cohabitation and without interruption for a period exceeding twelve months.

It is ORDERED that the defendant, whose whereabouts are unknown, appear here on or before the 28th day of February, 2024 at 9:00 AM and protect his interests.

A Copy, Teste: FRANK D. HARGROVE, JR., Clerk I ask for this: Law Office of Dorothy M. Eure, P.C. Dorothy M. Eure, Plaintiff’s Attorney VSB# 27724 8460 Mount Eagle Road Ashland, VA 23005 (804 798-9667

be submitted to ABC no later than 30 days from the publishing date of the first of two required newspaper legal notices. Objections should be registered at www.abc.virginia. gov or 800 552-3200.

Edible Education LLC Trading as: 21 Spoons 13568 Wateford Pl Midlothian, Chesterfield, Virginia 23112-3928 The above establishment is applying to the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage C ontrol (ABC) AUTHORITY for a Retail Restaurant Wine, Beer, Mixed Beverages On and Off Premise license to sell or manufacture alcoholic beverages.

NOTE: Objections to the issuance of this license must be submitted to ABC no later than 30 days from the publishing date of the first of two required newspaper legal notices. Objections should be registered at www.abc.virginia. gov or 800 552-3200.

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF HENRICO PAUL ALLAN AKONG, Plaintiff v.

ROSE ANN AKONG, Defendant.

Case No.: CL22006250-00 ORDER OF PUBLICATION The object of this suit, brought by Paul Allan Akong, is a Complaint for divorce on the grounds of living separate and apart for more than (1) one year. It appearing from an affidavit that the Defendant, Rose Ann Akong, cannot be found, and that due diligence has been used without effect to ascertain the location of the Defendant; it is hereby ORDERED that the Defendant appear before this Court on or before March 18, 2024 at 9:00 AM, to protect their interest herein.

A Copy Teste: HEIDI S. BARSHINGER, Clerk I ASK FOR THIS: W. Allan Burns Jr. VSB #68002 Cravens & Noll, P.C. 15871 City View Dr. Ste 300 Midlothian, VA 23113 (804) 330-9220 Telephone (804) 330-9458 Facsimile Counsel for the Plaintiff VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF HENRICO SAMUEL TARRY, Plaintiff v.

CHAQUITA (SIMON) TARRY, Defendant.

Case No.: 23006132-00 ORDER OF PUBLICATION The object of this suit is to: Obtain a divorce a vincullo matrimonii or from the bonds of matrimony.

It appearing from an affidavit is that diligence has been used without effect, by or on the behalf of the plaintiff to ascertain in what county or city defendant is.

It is ORDERED that Chaquita (Simon) Tarry appear at the above-named court and protect his/her interests on or before the18th day of March, 2024 at 9:00 a.m.

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF HANOVER JOAO MORENO DIAS, Plaintiff v.

JAMEISHA DAVIS, Defendant.

Case No.: CL24000179-00 ORDER OF PUBLICATION The object of this suit is to obtain a divorce from the bond of matrimony from the defendant on the ground of living separate and apart without any cohabitation and without interruption for a period exceeding twelve months.

It is ORDERED that the defendant, whose whereabouts are unknown, appear here on or before the 13th day of March, 2024 at 9:00 AM and protect her interests.

A Copy, Teste: FRANK D. HARGROVE, JR., Clerk I ask for this: Law Office of Dorothy M. Eure, P.C. Dorothy M. Eure, Plaintiff’s Attorney VSB# 27724 8460 Mount Eagle Road Ashland, VA 23005 (804 798-9667

Custody VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF CHESTERFIELD COUNTY IN THE MATTER OF THE ADOPTION OF A CHILD TO BE KNOWN AS HAYDEN MICHAEL GAINES (VIRGINIA BIRTH REGISTRATION NUMBER 145-21-083144) BY ERIN DANIELLE GAINES AND JACOB EDWARD GAINES Case No. CA-23-60 ORDER OF PUBLICATION 01/24/2024 The object of this suit is to allow the petitioners Erin Danielle Gaines and Jacob Edward Gaines to adopt a child known as Hayden Michael Taylor pursuant to Virginia Code Section 63.2-1242.3. However, the petitioners have been unable to locate the birth mother, Harley Makala Taylor, for purposes of service and whose parental rights must be terminated in order to proceed with the adoption.

Diligence has been used without effect to ascertain the location of Harley Maka la Taylor. An affidavit has been filed in support hereof. The last known addresses of Harley Makala Taylor are 4118 Nine Mile Road, Henrico, Virginia 23223 and Capital Inn, Room 219, 5408 Williamsburg Road, Henrico, Virginia 23150.

Upon consideration, this Order of Publication is GRANTED and it is therefore ORDERED that the birth mother Harley Makala Taylor appear on or before March 29, 2024 at 9:00 am in the Circuit Court for Chesterfield County and do what is necessary to protect her interests.

AN EXTRACT TESTE: AMANDA L. POHL, CLERK I ask for this: Sherry A. Fox, Esquire (VSB #72943) Fox Family Formation 10640 Charter Hill Court, Suite 103 Ashland, Virginia 23005 (804) 317-3416 (Telephone)

ABC License Smoke and Barrel, LLC Trading as: Smoke and Barrel, LLC 2329 W Main St Richmond, Virginia 23220 The above establishment is applying to the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control AUTHORITY (ABC) for a Retail Restaurant or Caterer Application Restaurant, Wine, Beer, Mixed Beverages, Consumed On and Off Premises license to sell or manufacture alcoholic beverages.

Joseph Hadad, owner NOTE: Objections to the issuance of this license must

Henrico County, Virginia Notice of Willingness to Hold a Public Hearing The County of Henrico is proposing to provide approximately 2,000 feet of 5-footwide sidewalk on both sides of Shrader Road between Parham Road and Eunice Drive including ADA ramps, and a pedestrian crossing at Eunice Drive. Construction is anticipated to begin in June 2025.

Information related to this project including the plans, project schedule, and funding information can be reviewed at the County of Henrico, Department of Public Works, 4305 E. Parham Road, Administration Annex Building, 3rd Floor, Henrico, Virginia 23228, Telephone: (804) 501-4624.

Staff Accompanist I

If your concerns cannot be satisfied, the County is willing to hold a public hearing.

You may request a public hearing by sending a written request to the Department of Public Works, Attn: Michael Elander, P. O. Box 90775, Henrico, VA 23273-0775, on or before February 23, 2024. If a request for a public hearing is received, a notice of the date, time, and place of the public hearing will be provided.

Notice COPYRIGHT NOTICE FOR THE STRAW This copyright notice informs the potential user of the name JOVAN ORLANDO BRADSHAW and all its derivatives that is intended as pertaining to me, sincere knoshon el, an American State National, In Propria Persona Sui Juris, Proprio Heredes, that any unauthorized use thereof without my express, prior, written permission signifies the user’s consent for becoming the debtor on a self executing UCC Financial Statement in the amount of $500,000 per unauthorized use of the name used with intent of obligating me, plus costs, plus triple damages.

Mount Olive Baptist Church in Glen Allen, Virginia is seeking a well-rounded, self-motivated parttime musician. The Staff Accompanist I will work collaboratively with the Staff Accompanist II to provide worship experiences in music while fulfilling the vision and mission of the church. This position will report directly to the Pastor.

The Staff Accompanist I will play the piano, organ and/or keyboard for one church service on Sunday as well as other designated church services and events held at the church and outside engagements when needed. The Staff Accompanist I will be responsible for praise and worship during services.

The County ensures nondiscrimination and equal employment in all programs and activities in accordance with Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. If you need more information or special assistance for persons with disabilities or limited English proficiency, contact Michael Elander at the above address, phone number, or at ela013@henrico.us.

The successful candidate must have training and skills in piano/keyboard/organ and must be able to play a variety of music to support assigned to the Adult Choir and Men’s Choir.

This position will remain opened until filled.

Applicants may pick up an application from the church office or submit a resume in lieu of an application to: Mount Olive Baptist Church, 8775 Mt. Olive Avenue, Glen Allen, Virginia 23060. The email address is mstyles@mobcva.org. and the fax number is (804) 262-2397. For more information, please call (804) 262-9614, et. 227.

VDOT UPC #: 117046

A Criminal History Background Check is Required.

The Central Virginia Transportation Authority (CVTA) seeks public comment on its FY 2025-2030 Regional Revenue Draft Funding Scenario

Principal Data Analyst – Capital One Services, LLC in Richmond, VA; Mult pos avail: Lead quant & qualt analysis of econ data, relating constants & variables, restrictions, alternatives, conflicting objectives, & their num parameters. To apply, visit https://capitalone.wd1.myworkdayjobs. com/Capital_One and search “Principal Data Analyst” or “R180030”.

Regional leaders will make funding decisions worth an estimated $151.5 million to improve local bike, pedestrian, bridge, and highway infrastructure over the next four years.

A 15-day public comment period is open from February 8, 2024-February 22, 2024.

Comments may be submitted at information@cvtava.org or through the website. Comments sent before 3 p.m. on February 22, 2024, will be distributed to the members of the Authority.

Anyone wishing to submit comments at the public meeting/hearing may do so by attending: In person: February 23, 2024, at 9am, at PlanRVA: 424 Hull St Suite 300, Richmond, VA 23224 OR Virtual: Register for the Zoom Video Webinar and submit your comment via the Q&A. The draft project list is available for public review and comments online: https://planrva.org/transportation/cvta-comments/

Senior Software Engineer: Glen Allen, VA. Dsgb. devel, test, & impl web apps using JavaScript, jQuery, JSON, AJAX, JIRA, Bootstrap, Nodejs, GitHub, Bitbucket, Jenkins, Angular, ReactJS, Eclipse in Linux, Unix, & Windows environ. Involve in req analysis & build & deploy into the devel. Devel user interface using Angular 12 for Single Page Application (SPA) devel. Utilize Agile & Scrum methodologies for UI devel. Engage in coding, debugging, testing & deploy & architecture in different modules. Perf UI designs for projects & engage in code review on team delivs. Devel modules to communicate the web API services & consume REST API to exchange info w/ d/ bases. Utilize Oracle & SQL Server to design & maintain d/bases. Req Bachelor’s in Comp Sci or Biotech or Info Systems or Rel w/ 5 yrs exp in the job offered or rel field. Job reqs trav &/or relo to var unanticipt client sites in the US. Mail resume to Global Sumi Technologies Inc., Attn: HR, 11549 Nuckols Road, Suite B, Glen Allen, VA – 23059.

The City of Richmond announces the following project(s) available for services relating to: RFP No. 240006371: Centralized Transit Signal Priority (TSP)/ Emergency Vehicle Preemption (EVP) Project Pre-Proposal Conference Call/Video Meeting: February 15, 2024 at 10:00 A.M. For all information pertaining to this RFP conference call, please logon to the Richmond website (www.RVA.GOV).

Lead Software Engineering Associate – Capital One Services, LLC in Richmond, VA; Mult pos avail: Assist with overall tech design, dvlpmnt, modification, & implementation of comp apps using existing & emerging tech platforms. To apply, visit https://capitalone.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/ Capital_One and search “Lead Software Engineering Associate” or “R180096”.

Proposal Due Date: Wednesday, March 20, 2024/Time 3:00 P.M. Information or copies of the above solicitations are available by contacting Procurement Services, at the City of Richmond website (www.RVA. GOV), or faxed (804) 646-5989. The City of Richmond encourages all contractors to participate in the procurement process.

To advertise in the

Richmond Free Press call 644-0496

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Propane Education & Research Council: Manager, Research and Development – Richmond, VA. The Manager, Research and Development supports PERC initiatives to grow propane demand through research, analysis, technology development, and sustainability programs. Master’s degree or foreign equivalent in Mechanical Engineering or in a closely related field and 5 years of experience with conventional and/or alternative fuels, engines, and emission technologies OR Ph.D. or foreign equivalent in Mechanical Engineering or in a closely related field and 3 years of experience with conventional and/or alternative fuels, engines, and emission technologies. Fulltime telework permitted with Manager’s approval. Up to 15% travel required. TO APPLY: Please access the job application page at https://propane.bamboohr.com/ careers/30 to apply directly for this position.

Shrader Road Sidewalk

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Freelance Writers: Richmond Free Press has immediate opportunities for freelance writers.

Newspaper experience is a requirement. To be considered, please send 5 samples of your writing, along with a cover letter to news@ richmond freepress.com or mail to: Richmond Free Press, P. O. Box 27709, Richmond, VA 23261.

No phone calls.

Thank you for your interest in applying for opportunities with The City of Richmond.

To see what opportunities are available, please refer to our website at www.richmondgov.com.

EOE M/F/D/V

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