Richmond Free Press April 8-10, 2021 edition

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APRIL 8-10, 2021

Confederate chair held ransom White Lies Matter group threatens to turn stolen $500,000 stone chair into a ‘toilet’ unless the United Daughters of the Confederacy in Richmond posts banner on anniversary of Confederate surrender at Appomattox

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

A photo of the stolen Confederate chair and a flyer outlining demands were in a packet emailed to the Richmond Free Press by a group calling itself White Lies Matter.

It started with the March theft of an ornate stone chair dedicated to Confederate President Jefferson Davis that has been a fixture for more than a century in a cemetery in Selma, Ala. Now a group calling itself White Lies Matter is claiming possession of the chair that is valued at $500,000 and has sent a ransom demand to the chair’s owner, the United Daughters of the Confederacy in Richmond.

The demand: Unfurl a banner outside the UDC headquarters building on Arthur Ashe Boulevard that the group has delivered. The banner must be put up on Friday, April 9, the 156th anniversary of the surrender of the Confederate Army at Appomattox.

According to the group’s statement that was emailed to the Free Press, the banner features a quote by Assata Shakur: “The rulers of this country have always considered their property more important than our lives.”

Ms. Shakur, a former member of the Black Liberation Army, escaped from a New Jersey correctional facility in 1979 after being convicted for the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state trooper. She reportedly is living in exile in Cuba.

The email states that the banner must go up by 1 p.m. Friday and be visible for 24 hours. The time was chosen because that was when rebel Gen. Robert Please turn to A4

UR suspends building name change; fundraiser halted with alumni boycott

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

More than 100 University of Richmond students, along with faculty and staff, march Wednesday in a demonstration led by the Black Student Coalition calling for the names of Rev. Robert Ryland and Douglas Southall Freeman to be removed from campus buildings.

Students are pulling out of campus organizations. Alumni, including a 7,300-member alumni Facebook group, are halting donations. And the faculty Senate has censured the board chair or rector.

The University of Richmond’s Board of Trustees is feeling the heat over its decision to keep buildings named for two white men who were instrumental to the school’s development but have gained pariah status on campus because of their ties to slavery and the promotion of racial segregation.

On Monday, the 25-member board announced that it would suspend its controversial decision to keep an academic building and a dorm named for the two controversial though longPlease turn to A4

Vaccine efforts surge with 100,000th dose given at Richmond Raceway

By George Copeland Jr.

For Antwon Agee, the 34-year-old Richmond nurse expected a routine couple of hours last Saturday helping the Richmond and Henrico County health districts vaccinate people at Richmond Raceway, as he has for the last month.

For Tom Leonard, owner of Tom Leonard’s Farmer’s Market, he expected to be just one of many people age 65 or older who would get their second vaccine dose. It would the final dose of protection against a virus that has claimed some of his friends in Connecticut and New York and that led to sweeping changes at his store.

But Saturday wasn’t any normal day.

Mr. Agee found himself administering the raceway clinic’s 100,000th vaccine dose — to Mr. Leonard — a landmark in the area fight against the pandemic.

“I’m very grateful to be here to have my second shot,” Mr. Leonard said following his vaccination. “I’m pretty excited about this.”

Please turn to A4

Court TV via AP, Pool

In this image from video, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo testifies Monday about the knee restraint used by former officer Derek Chauvin in the May 25 arrest and killing of George Floyd.

Chauvin violated policy, training and ethics in pinning George Floyd, chief says Free Press wire report

MINNEAPOLIS Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo joined in condemning the actions of Derek Chauvin during the second week of the trial of the former officer charged with murdering George Floyd while he was in custody.

Breaking the traditional “blue wall of silence,” Chief Arradondo provided devastating testimony that Mr. Chauvin’s act of pressing his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck was unjustified and far outside the bounds of acceptable action for officers of his department after a suspect has been arrested and brought under control.

“To continue to apply that level of force to a person proned out, handcuffed behind their back — that in no way, shape or form is anything that is by policy,” Chief Arradondo said in court Monday. “It is not part of our training. And it is certainly not part of our ethics or our values.”

Please turn to A4

Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

Tom Leonard, 65, owner of Tom Leonard’s Farmer’s Market in Short Pump, holds up his sleeve as nurse Antwon Agee administers his second shot of the Pfizer vaccine last Saturday. Mr. Leonard received the 100,000th dose of the vaccine given at clinics at the Richmond Raceway. “I feel pretty special today,” he said.

Free COVID-19 testing Free community testing for COVID-19 continues.

The Richmond and Henrico County health districts are offering testing at the following locations: • Thursday, April 8, 10 a.m. to noon, Regency Square rear parking deck, 1420 N. Parham

Road, Western Henrico. Drive-thru testing.

• Thursday, April 15, 1 to 3 p.m., Hotchkiss Field Community Center, 701 E. Brookland Park Blvd. in North Side.

Appointments are encouraged by calling the

Please turn to A4

Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

Bubbling with joy Amaya Moran, 3, of Chesterfield enjoys the bubble-making station last Saturday at the Family Easter at Maymont celebration. This weather and the easing of pandemic restrictions brought lots of people to the outdoor event.

Please see more photos, B2.

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Richmond Free Press

April 8-10, 2021

Local News

City Council still undecided on Confederate statues

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Twenty-two organizations and individuals have submitted bids to own and relocate one or more of the city’s now stored Confederate statues.

But the bidders – ranging from museums to individuals – will have to wait a little longer. The city is still not ready to choose a new owner—or owners—of the Confederate iconography that was removed from city streets and parks more than nine months ago.

Richmond City Council spent time Monday discussing the next step in the process for disposing of the statues, cannon replicas and other items that were either pulled down last year by demonstrators or taken down by a crew hired by the city.

However, no conclusion appeared to be reached.

The council seemed poised to hand the selection work over to Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s administration, but then pulled back from that stance during an Organizational Development Committee meeting. At this point, a council consensus on the direction could await another meeting.

Other items related to the monuments also remain undecided.

For example, no final report and conclusion have been announced in a special prosecutor’s probe into Mayor Stoney’s use of city funds to remove most of the statues in early July.

The mayor also has not yet announced any movement on the removal of the statue of Confederate Gen. A.P. Hill in North Side. A statue of the general, along with his entombed and his remains, are at Hermitage and Laburnum avenues.

Also still in limbo is the legal action to remove the stateowned statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that dominates Monument Avenue. The Virginia Supreme Court has not set a hearing date for an appeal from nearby landowners seeking to prevent Gov. Ralph S. Northam from removing the towering figure on horseback.

Still, the city’s authority to remove the statues it owns received a boost from a decision that the state’s highest court handed down April 1.

In a case involving Charlottesville, the state Supreme Court found that a 1997 law the General Assembly passed to protect Confederate monuments located in cities applied only to those statues erected after the law went into effect.

The seven-member court overturned a lower court ruling that sought to apply the law to statues that were put in place long before 1997. A law protecting statues located in counties was passed in the early 1900s, but that law did not cover statues in cities.

The state Supreme Court unanimously found that under long-standing precedent, laws apply going forward unless the legislature includes language specifically stating that a law also applies to past actions. In this case, the General Assembly did not include such wording.

The ruling came on an appeal from Charlottesville seeking to overturn a lower court’s injunction barring that city from covering or removing two Confederate statues located in city-owned parks. Those parks had been named for Confederates, but have since been renamed.

The high court ruled that Charlottesville could do what it wanted with the statues because they were installed decades before 1997.

The ruling also appears to apply to any of the Confederate statues the City of Richmond owns and removed as those also were put in place long before the 1997 law.

However, the ruling did not address statues whose deeds of gift to a community were accompanied by a covenant requiring a community to maintain them forever, a key issue in the case of the Lee statue.

Neil S. Kessler is new chair of RRHA board Free Press staff report

As anticipated, the board of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority has a new chair – Neil S. Kessler.

Mr. Kessler moved up from vice chair after the current chair, Veronica G. Blount, resigned from the board’s top post following the board’s closed session last week.

Mr. Kessler is expected to fill the remainMr. Kessler der of her term as chair, which runs through October, when the board holds annual elections.

Ms. Blount noted in a statement that she will remain on the board, but “I will be embarking on some new community engagement activities which will enable me to be much more useful to residents and community stakeholders.”

“We appreciate Commissioner Blount’s commitment to serving Richmond’s most vulnerable residents,” Mr. Kessler stated.

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Cityscape Slices of life and scenes in Richmond

A new mural pays tribute to the late Lorna Pinckney, a vibrant woman who was a dominant figure on the Richmond arts scene before her death at age 43 in October 2017. Location: The 400 block of Adams Street in Jackson Ward. Artists Hamilton Glass and Eli McMullen teamed to create this celebratory portrait of the creative Ms. Pinckney best known for Tuesday Verses, a weekly program that ran for more than 15 years at Jackson Ward’s Tropical Soul Café, Addis Ethiopian Restaurant in Shockoe Bottom and other venues. Her program provided a unique open stage for area poets, musicians, singers, comedians, dancers and artists to serve up their latest pieces to an appreciative audience. A New York native, Ms. Pinckney was described in a Richmond magazine homage as a “writer, singer, graphic designer and business owner with a dazzling smile, an ‘anything’s possible attitude’ and an infectious personality.”

State Board of Elections investigation continuing into city Electoral Board

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

The state Board of Elections is to meet Tuesday, April 20, to determine whether allegations involving two Democratic members of the Richmond Electoral Board are to be referred to the Richmond Circuit Court for further action.

The state board has requested written statements from the complainants as well as from the two city board members— James M. Nachman, chair of the city Electoral Board, and Joyce K. Smith, its vice chair.

Under state law, only the court, which appoints the city Electoral Board, can remove members for cause. A referral from the state board would require the Circuit Court to hold a hearing at which either a judge or a jury would hear evidence and decide whether removal is merited.

Mr. Nachman said he would respond to the allegations that center largely on claims that he and Ms. Smith acted improperly in some aspects of counting the votes from the Nov. 3 election.

The Richmond City Republican Committee has spearheaded the complaints, which Mr. Nachman said are based on inaccurate information and amount to “malicious and defamatory” claims that would not stand up to scrutiny.

For example, he noted that one complaint alleges that he and Ms. Smith improperly opened sealed envelopes

containing precinct results early on Nov. 4 without witnesses. Mr. Nachman said two staff members were present and that the work was done to collect results from precincts whose unofficial results had not been reported on Election Night. He said he and Ms. Smith gathered information, returned the voting machine tapes to the envelopes and resealed the envelopes with their signatures as the two staff members watched.

Mr. Nachman

Ms. Stevens

He noted that state law requires the canvass of election results, including the opening of envelopes, to start the day after the election, but does not specify a time.

Mr. Nachman said the third member of the city Electoral Board, C. Starlet Stevens, a Republican, had left and could not be reached. He noted that he and Ms. Smith constituted a quorum of the board. He also noted that he and Ms. Smith relied on advice from veteran Richmond Voter Registar Kirk Showalter, who was fired earlier this year on Feb. 1.

Jones misses filing deadline, canceling primary challenge to Delegate Carr

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

Face masks for RPS students Nkechi George-Winkler, right, and Beverly Davis, second from right, officers representing the Richmond chapter of the Continental Societies Inc., present boxes containing 5,000 face masks to Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras and School Board Chair Cheryl L. Burke. The service organization, which is dedicated to the welfare of children, made the presentation April 2 in the lobby of Henry L. Marsh Elementary School in Church Hill. The masks, in children’s sizes, will help protect youngsters during the pandemic as several hundred students are expected to return for inperson learning April 12 at five buildings. All city schools are to reopen in the fall.

He also has described as false a claim from a former precinct chief, Ames Russell, that Mr. Nachman and Ms. Smith opened the sealed envelope for Precinct 115.

“I don’t know who did that, but we did not,” Mr. Nachman said.

He and Ms. Smith at a subsequent board meeting voted to dismiss Mr. Russell, though Mr. Russell had received high marks for his work.

Another allegation is that Mr. Nachman also performed part of the canvass at his home without observers.

Mr. Nachman has confirmed that he did so with help from his wife, who was sworn in as an elections officer. He said he did so only because he and the other two board members, as well as Ms. Showalter, were in quarantine due to COVID-19 and the city Voter Registrar’s Office also was closed. He said that he invited Ms. Stevens to participate, but she was too ill. He said Ms. Stevens consented to his action, but she now denies that.

Another complaint alleges that after Ms. Showalter was fired, Mr. Nachman and Ms. Smith improperly named Jerry Richardson as interim registrar without the required notice to Ms. Stevens. The board’s minutes, however, show that the board, including Ms. Stevens, voted to name Ms. Richardson acting registrar on Feb. 26.

Mr. Nachman said that the Republicans have “created a mess” without justification in retaliation for the firing of Ms. Showalter.

Veteran Richmond Delegate Betsy B. Carr will not face a challenge in the June 8 Democratic primary.

The primary in the 69th House District that Delegate Carr has represented since 2009 is listed as canceled after her announced challenger, 9th District City Councilman Michael J. Jones, did not submit several required items, including statements of qualifications and of economic interest, to the state Department of Elections by the March 25 deadline.

The state Board of Elections heard appeals at its March 31 meeting from Dr. Jones and seven other candidates seeking extensions to file the paperwork. But the board then rejected any extensions in a change from the past two years when they were routinely granted.

Robert Brink, chairman of the state Board of Elections, announced in January and sent notice to both of the state’s major political parties that candidate filing extensions no longer would be guaranteed and to notify all candidates. He made it clear he would oppose using the board’s discretion to extend deadlines, and the two other members of the board appear to have agreed with him.

Dr. Jones still has until the day of the

Delegate Carr

Dr. Jones

primary to file to run as an independent in the November general election. On Monday, he said he has not given that consideration as he still is focused on “trying get this extension that has been passed out” in previous years.

He told the Free Press he is hiring an attorney to review his legal options. With early voting in the primary to start Friday, April 23, Dr. Jones has a narrow window to get a court to hold the board’s action was arbitrary and to put him on the ballot.

Dr. Jones said that he filed all of the candidate paperwork to the city Voter Registrar’s Office on March 5, well before the deadline. He said that Assistant Registrar Donald Gaines told him that he could file all the paperwork with the city office and that the office would make sure the items were properly filed with the state.

Dr. Jones said that did not happen. He

said he found out on March 30 when Amy Wentz, chair of the 69th House District Democratic Committee, called him about 2 p.m. to notify him he had missed the filing deadline. He said he went to see Mr. Gaines, whom he said did not provide an adequate explanation of why the documents were put in Dr. Jones’ file and not transmitted to the state.

Neither Mr. Gaines nor acting city Voter Registrar Jerry Richardson have responded to a request for comment.

Dr. Jones acknowledged that he and his campaign staff should have doublechecked and submitted the items to the state Department of Elections after finding the city office did not.

In other Democratic primary races, challenger Kyle R. Elliott qualified to run against incumbent Dawn M. Adams in the 68th House District that includes portions of the city’s West End and South Side, while challenger Richard W. Walker qualified to run against incumbent Jeffrey M. Bourne in the 71st House District that covers much of the city’s North Side.

Also, challenger John R. Dantzler II qualified to run against incumbent Lamont Bagby, chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, in the 74th House District that includes much of Eastern and Central Henrico County.

Richmond Free Press

April 8-10, 2021 A3

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Because Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has more stories to tell.

Get vaccinated when it’s your turn.

Overcoming obstacles isn’t just part of our history, it’s our heritage. It’s why the story of COVID vaccines has Black doctors and scientists at its center. And one of the reasons Dr. Gates got vaccinated.

Learn more at cdc.gov/coronavirus

Richmond Free Press

A4 April 8-10, 2021

News

Richmond Police records show 84 complaints filed against officers in 2020

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

How well are Richmond Police policing themselves to prevent the kind of hugely expensive and horrific mess created by former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin in his fatal arrest of George Floyd?

The department generally has been mum about its efforts to maintain oversight of the more than 650 sworn personnel who are available for duty. Police Chief Gerald M. Smith did not respond to a request for comment.

Some limited insight can be gleaned from the annual summary the Internal Affairs Division posts on the Richmond Police Department’s website. The annual reports online begin with 2013.

A review of the reports shows that Richmond officers are subject to complaints and that such complaints come from

residents and from within the department.

For example, in 2020, city residents filed 26 complaints, while the department filed 58 complaints against officers. In 2019, 57 of the 109 complaints were generated from departmental sources and in 2018, 93 of the 142 complaints were generated internally.

Complaints run the gamut, but the most serious appear to be allegations involving the use of excessive force and criminal behavior.

The data indicate that since 2015, four to 10 complaints of excessive force have been filed every year against one or more officers, but the Internal Affairs does not disclose whether those complaints came from civilians or supervisors and fellow officers within the department.

Also, the Internal Affairs reported that 10 to 18 complaints of criminal activity or misconduct have been filed against officers each

year since 2015. However, no additional data is provided on whether the alleged conduct involves a felony or misdemeanor, nor does it offer a general description of the type of crime involved.

The Internal Affairs reports since 2015 show 30 percent to 38 percent of the complaints have been substantiated each year.

Missing, though, is any data on the type of complaints that were substantiated. For example, the Internal Affairs does not report how many of the specific complaints of excessive force or of criminal activity or misconducted were found to be valid.

Nor do the annual summaries provide any data as to whether any of the substantiated complaints resulted in discipline.

Much of the department’s internal oversight is left shrouded in mystery, which is one of the reasons for the push for civilian oversight boards in Richmond and across the state to increase transparency.

UR suspends building name change; fundraiser halted with alumni boycott Continued from A1

White Lies Matter emailed this crafted photo of where they demand the banner should be placed — and what it should say — outside the United Daughters of the Confederacy’s Richmond headquarters on Arthur Ashe Boulevard.

Chair held ransom Continued from A1

E. Lee first met Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant to surrender his 28,000 troops.

If the UDC refuses to comply, the group wrote that it will bore a hole in the chair’s seat and turn it into a toilet.

If the UDC does display the banner, “not only will we return the chair intact, but we will clean it to boot. For all that talk about heritage, they really haven’t taken care of the thing,” White Lies Matter wrote.

White Lies Matter issued the statement to the Free Press and other media outlets Monday detailing its actions and demands.

The initial response on Monday from the UDC: “Fake news.”

UDC officials, bombarded with calls from media outlets, have not been available for further comment.

What is not fake, however, is that the chair is gone. The Selma Police Department confirmed Monday that the chair disappeared from the cemetery between midnight and 3 a.m. March 19.

The Dallas County, Ala., District Attorney Michael W. Jackson, who is Black, was unaware of the theft until the media began calling. “This incident is sending Selma back into ‘The Twilight Zone,’ ” he said.

He said he learned from police that a $5,000 reward has been posted for information leading to recovery of the chair, which was placed in Selma’s Live Oak Cemetery in 1893 by a group known then as the Ladies of Selma and subsequently given to the UDC. Among those interred in the cemetery are Edmund Pettus, a Confederate general, former U.S. senator and leader in the Alabama Ku Klux Klan, whose namesake bridge a few miles away became a key battleground in the 1965 march for Black voting rights. The march became known as “Bloody Sunday” because of police violence against peaceful protesters, including the former Georgia Congressman John Lewis, who was 25 at the time.

Jefferson Davis is not buried in Live Oak Cemetery. A leading white supremacist in his day, he is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy.

It is unclear who or how many people comprise White Lies Matter. The group only lists an email address. It is not even certain the felony theft was carried by members of such a group as the Selma police have no suspects.

This is the second theft of a Confederate relic from the Selma cemetery. In 2012, a bronze bust of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest was stolen from the cemetery. It was never recovered. The UDC has replaced it.

In the email statement, White Lies Matter wrote that “Jefferson Davis does not need (the chair) anymore. He’s long dead. To be honest, he never even had the chance to sit in it in the first place.

“Like most Confederate monuments, it mostly exists to remind those whose freedom had to be purchased in blood that there still exists a portion of our country that is more than willing to continue to spill blood to avoid paying that debt down,” the statement continued.

“We took their toy, and we don’t feel guilty about it. They never play with it anyway. They just want it there to remind us what they’ve done, what they are still willing to do.

“But the South won’t rise again. Not as the Confederacy. Because that coalition left out a large portion of its population.

“All that’s left of that nightmare is an obscenely heavy chair that’s a throne for a ghost whose greatest accomplishment was treason.”

Chauvin violated policy Continued from A1

Mr. Chauvin is charged with second degree murder, third degree murder and manslaughter in Mr. Floyd’s death, which triggered racial justice protests in Richmond and cities across the country and put police practices and criminal justice reform on the front burner of the country’s agenda.

If convicted of the top charge, Mr. Chauvin could spend 40 years in prison.

Along with Chief Arradondo, the prosecution also presented testimony from a police use of force expert to bolster the case that Mr. Chauvin knew or should have known he was killing Mr. Floyd.

In his testimony, Los Angeles Police Sgt. Jody Stiger said that it was clear to him that Mr. Chauvin used excessive force on Mr. Floyd after he was taken in custody for allegedly using a possible counterfeit $20 bill to buy items at a convenience store.

Sgt. Stiger, whose testimony began Monday and continued Tuesday, said the officers were justified in using force while Mr. Floyd resisted their efforts to put him in a squad car. But once Mr. Floyd was on the ground and stopped resisting, the officers “should have slowed down or stopped their force as well,” he testified.

Based on his review of video evidence, Sgt. Stiger testified that Mr. Chauvin had his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck — and was bearing down with most of his weight — the entire time he lay face down with his hands cuffed behind his back.

dead individuals, the Rev. Robert Ryland and Douglas Southall Freeman.

In a conciliatory statement, the board noted that “our interest all along has been to chart a path that was honest about our history and respectful of the varying views in our community. We respect the deep convictions about these issues among faculty, staff, students and alumni, and we accept that our process and the proposed decision have not achieved our objectives.

“The board has decided to suspend the recent naming decision. The board is reviewing options for a broader, more inclusive process to determine how decisions are made about questions of renaming, and we expect to communicate our plans shortly.”

Not everyone is convinced.

One is Christopher Wiggins, a 2003 graduate and member of the alumni Facebook group, which announced a boycott of the university’s annual 36-hour Giving Day to show solidarity with the call by students, faculty and staff who want the Ryland and Freeman names removed.

That donation boycott spread, and on Tuesday, the university was forced to suspend the fundraising campaign that brought in $1.55 million last year, but had received only one $25 contribution after the donation portal opened following months of marketing.

Students led a protest on campus Wednesday, supported by faculty and staff.

Mr. Wiggins told the Free Press that he is “cautiously optimistic that the message being sent by students, faculty, staff and alumni is finally being heard” by a previously intransigent board. But he said he is disappointed that board is pushing any decision past graduation and the close of the spring semester when most students will not be around.

Still, the board’s announcement, which follows two months of protests at the nearly 4,000-student school, appears to many to

signal that the board of the private liberal arts school is no longer wedded to keeping the names.

Rev. Ryland has long been a university hero. UR traces its roots to a Virginia Baptist educational initiative in 1830, and Rev. Ryland, as the first president, built up the fledgling school after becoming president in 1834. He also served as pastor of First African Baptist Church when state law required white pastors of Black churches.

But Rev. Ryland also championed slavery, bought enslaved Black people and rented them out to the university, which paid him for their labor. His name is on a wing of an academic building.

Mr. Freeman, a 25-year university trustee and influential rector who was closely involved in the school’s operations, is better known for his powerful backing of harsh racial segregation and the bogus science of racial purity or eugenics in his roles as the editor of a Richmond daily newspaper and as a radio commentator.

A dorm bears the name of Mr. Freeman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the Confederacy and its military leaders.

Since 2019, student government groups have lobbied the board to have Rev. Ryland’s and Mr. Freeman’s names removed, leading the university to take a deep dive into its history.

The board and UR’s first Black president, Dr. Ronald A. Crutcher, came up with a hybrid plan to keep the Ryland name but rename a terrace for one or more of his slaves and to provide more information about them.

In addition, the board planned to keep the Freeman name, but link it with celebrated Black Richmond newspaper editor John Mitchell Jr., who often fought Mr. Freeman’s ideas, by making it MitchellFreeman Hall.

That idea fell flat with many on campus and drew fire from the Free Press for trying to put white supremacists on an equal plane with those they sought to oppress.

The naming issue came to full boil on

March 26 when the board’s rector, Paul B. Queally, a major donor whose name is on three UR buildings, met with groups of students, faculty and staff.

According to witness reports, Mr. Queally was rude to a Black staff member, which led the faculty Senate to censure him. Black students also found his conduct too brusque.

During the meetings, Mr. Queally was quoted repeatedly as saying the naming issue was settled and also stating that he want to help “Black, brown and ‘regular students.’ ” In its statement, the board defended Mr. Queally and said trustees who took part in the meetings reported that he, like those who spoke with, were candid and passionate, but that he maintained “a spirit of mutual respect.”

Mr. Wiggins said that Mr. Queally has a track record of disrespectful speech.

He said he is among those who want Mr. Queally to step down as rector despite his largesse toward the school.

Dr. Kathleen Skerrett, a UR professor and former dean of the School of Arts & Sciences, said that the board’s defense of Mr. Queally “curdles the joy of the announcement” that the current renaming plan has been suspended.

“Our campus representatives were unanimous in their outrage at what they witnessed and experienced in that meeting,” she stated, citing the rector’s “rude and belittling conduct to a staff representative, who is Black, and to student leaders of the Black Student Coalition.”

She said the controversial exchanges began when Mr. Queally told the student leaders that the renaming decision was final, and she said Mr. Queally did not appear pleased when the staff member stood in solidarity.

The bottom line, Dr. Skerrett said: “Our trustees must repudiate prior decisions to honor men who advanced white supremacy and damaged and dishonored Black people’s lives.”

Vaccine efforts surge with 100,000th dose Continued from A1

Mr. Agee was surprised at being selected to handle the inoculation, but was more than happy to take on the role as a way to help vaccination efforts and as a sign of the trust shown by local health officials to choose him to administer the dose.

“It felt great getting a little recognition for helping the community,” Mr. Agee said.

“I’m just really appreciative that they chose me to give the 100,000th dose.”

Saturday’s mass vaccination clinic was set to vaccinate 6,000 people across two events held at the raceway that day, according to Zach Zellner, incident commander of all vaccination efforts at Richmond Raceway.

The landmark dose is a major sign of how the operation has grown in the last two months the site has been used for mass clinics run by the Richmond and Henrico health districts. It also comes at a moment of transition for vaccination efforts in Virginia, as the state prepares to expand vaccine eligibility to all adults on April 18.

The 100,000th dose wasn’t the only

Free COVID-19 testing Continued from A1 Richmond and Henrico COVID-19 Hotline at (804) 205-3501 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, or by registering online at https:// bit.ly/RHHDCOVID. Testing will be offered while test supplies last.

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

Want a COVID-19 vaccine?

Seniors ages 65 and older who live in Richmond or Henrico County can call the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts COVID-19 hotline — (804) 205-3501 — from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday to schedule a vaccine appointment.

Others who want a vaccine should contact the statewide COVID-19 Vaccination PreRegistration System at vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling 877-VAX-IN-VA, or (877) 829-4682.

The statewide call center is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week to help people pre-register by phone or to answer questions about the vaccine. The call center has Englishand Spanish-speaking agents and a call-back service to help people in more than 100 other

notable event Saturday. The Richmond and Henrico health districts held their first drive-thru clinic for people with disabilities and their caregivers at the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources’ office near St. Joseph’s Villa in Henrico County.

According to Joanna Cirillo, a public health nurse supervisor for the health districts and their operations chief for COVID-19, the clinic was organized weeks earlier with the aid of several local organizations, including SOAR365 and Resources for Independent Living. The goal was to provide an avenue for vaccination that would avoid any potential issues individuals with disabilities may face at other clinics.

In total, 130 people pre-registered and, with favorable weather and a supply of Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine, the health districts’ “pit crew” approach to vaccinating people in their cars and vehicles proved to be a smooth operation.

“This is perfect because some of our participants might be in a wheelchair, or there might be behavioral issues or mobillanguages.

Additionally, TTY service is available to help people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

The battle against COVID-19 has expanded greatly in Virginia and nationwide during the last week. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced that April 19 is the new, stepped up deadline for states to expand eligibility for vaccines to all adults.

Last week, however, Gov. Ralph S. Northam announced that vaccines would be available to all adults by April 18, a day earlier than the new national deadline. At the time, 21 of the state’s 35 local health districts had started vaccinating essential workers in Phase 1C. Concerns over whether the state could manage such a quick expansion in vaccinating people seemingly were answered Tuesday when the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced an award of more than $77 million to Virginia to support local efforts to increase vaccinations. The money is to go toward expanding COVID-19 vaccine programs and ensuring greater equity and access for those disproportionately affected by the virus.

State officials also announced several new initiatives, including one to recruit individuals eligible to administer doses through the new Virginia Volunteer Vaccinator Registry.

Others include a new pilot program by the Virginia Department of Health that would test

ity issues,” said Sharon Yates, a registered nurse with SOAR365. “So for them to come here and they don’t have to get out of their car has just been wonderful.”

Shanna Jones went to the drive-thru clinic with her fiancé, Terrell Whitehead, so they could be vaccinated along with her son, Shakur “Dre” Spells, 25, who has autism.

Sitting in their car following their injections, the three were calm and collected as they waited out any side effects. It was a tranquil moment for a family that has experienced some unease during this time. Ms. Jones’ 14-year-old daughter briefly had the virus. She is too young to be vaccinated.

Ms. Jones admitted she initially was hesitant to get the vaccine and had turned down earlier opportunities for her son and family to be inoculated. But the more she researched vaccines, the more her fear subsided, she said.

“I’m a lot more confident,” Ms. Jones said. “It was important for me to protect” her son. “And that means protecting us to protect him.” for COVID-19 at schools, and an expansion of Virginia State University’s vaccination efforts using mobile clinics for underserved communities, courtesy of its newly created VSU Public Health Institute.

State health officials reported Wednesday that more than 4.3 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered in the state, with 1.6 million people fully vaccinated, or 18.8 percent of the state’s residents. Roughly 33 percent of the population has received at least one dose.

State officials reported 629,155 cases of COVID-19 statewide on Wednesday, along with 26,911 hospitalizations and 10,415 deaths.

Virginia’s seven-day positivity rate rose to 6.2 percent. Last week, it was 5.8 percent.

According to state data, African-Americans comprised 22 percent of cases statewide and 24.7 percent of deaths for which ethnic and racial data is available, while Latinos made up 16.5 percent of cases and 6.5 percent of deaths.

As of Wednesday, Richmond reported a total of 16,026 positive cases, 751 hospitalizations and 253 deaths; Henrico County, 23,649 cases, 987 hospitalizations and 582 deaths; Chesterfield County, 25,849 cases, 879 hospitalizations and 404 deaths; and Hanover County, 7,511 cases, 265 hospitalizations and 149 deaths.

Richmond Free Press

Actions

Speak

Louder Words have value, especially when they are used to make a promise. But the most important thing about a promise is the action you take afterward. At Dominion Energy, we believe in taking action – to deliver on our commitment to help people, communities, and the environment.

COVID-19 Response and Support In response to the pandemic’s economic impact, Dominion Energy has stepped up to meet the needs of our customers. We suspended all service disconnections for non-payment to provide uninterrupted, reliable service 24/7. We have given more than $1 million to support coronavirus relief efforts by the American Red Cross and other nonprofits, to help our communities in need.

Social Justice and Higher Education At Dominion Energy, we believe higher education is critical to addressing centuries of institutional racism. That is why we have committed $35 million to our initiative supporting historically Black colleges and universities, and to minority student scholarships. In addition, we have allocated another $5 million to promote social justice and community building.

Solar and Wind Energy To build a cleaner energy future, we have added more than 3.6 million solar panels throughout Virginia, helping to make us America’s third largest in solar. In addition, we are developing the largest offshore wind project in the U.S., which will produce enough energy to power up to 660,000 homes by 2026.

EnergyShare® For years, our EnergyShare® program has helped our neighbors across Virginia, assisting individuals and their families with bill payment and energy saving upgrades. As of today, the program has helped more than 858,000 people. In 2020, we expanded the EnergyShare® program to assist those impacted by the coronavirus with an additional $500,000 to help provide energy bill relief for small businesses, nonprofits, and houses of worship throughout Virginia.

Lower Rates And to help residential customers, we have kept our rates more than 10%* below the national average.

Turning promises into reality is what defines us. That is why we are proud to invest in what we believe in, and what we know is important to you.

*Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, as of 1/26/2021

April 8-10, 2021 A5

Richmond Free Press

A6 April 8-10, 2021

Local News

Confluence of events propels record number of Black candidates to statewide races

By Reginald Stuart

Historian Julian M. Hayter echoes in a phrase what many people say this election year is all about.

“It reflects the ‘blueification’ of the state,” said Dr. Hayter, an associate professor of leadership studies at the University of Richmond, when assessing why so many African-Americans are running for Virginia’s top offices — including three Black Democratic candidates for governor, one Republican and one Libertarian Party candidate.

A record 11 Black candidates are running statewide — for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general. That number rises when people of color from other ethnic backgrounds are included.

“This is not your old Virginia,” said Dr. Hayter, noting that the state’s “political demographics” have changed dramatically from 32 years ago when voters in November 1989 chose then-Lt. Gov. L. Douglas Wilder as the state’s and nation’s first Black chief executive.

“Wilder could not have a racial agenda when he ran,” said Dr. Hayter. “It was a brilliant campaign,” he added.

He credited Mr. Wilder’s style with paving the political road and setting the stage for the eventual election of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois to be president of the United States.

The “blueification” of Virginia today indicates the state “is no longer as politically conservative or racially conservative as it was. We are dealing with profound demographic shifts,” Dr. Hayter said, with a bottom line being a greater sense of confidence among the voting population that it is willing to vote for an African-American or a woman as governor.

One indication of the change at hand, said Dr. Hayter and, in separate interviews, his peers,

is political power shifting to suburban areas around Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads and Richmond.

“People think they have a shot,” he said.

With this year’s election season officially launching this month, many ballot Dr. Hayter box veterans and political observers wonder what has triggered this proliferation of Black candidates reflecting a variety of political persuasions — five for governor; three Black candidates for lieutenant governor (one Republican and two Democrats); and three Black candidates for attorney general (one Democrat and two Republicans).

“I guess (the candidates) look at this as an opportunity for change,” said Bernice Travers, former president of the Richmond Crusade for Voters, the oldest and largest Black voting action group in the state. “I’m trying to feel my way through this season,” Ms. Travers said.

Ditto, said many of her leadership peers.

They collectively cite myriad developments converging to make this a big-time election year for Virginia. From the presidential term of businessman Donald Trump to last November’s national election results and the local impact of the global health pandemic, all are mentioned as motivating factors for candidates.

The pandemic also has been cited for the absence of neighborhood forums, door-to-door campaigning and leaflet drops in neighborhoods that typically help candidates get their message out. In person, face-to-face campaigning has been replaced by Zoom meetings and debates and email and social media messages purportedly from the advertised candidate, Ms. Travers and others said.

Ms. Travers noted she discards much of the

emailed campaign material, especially requests seeking contributions.

“We want to get” the candidate’s pledge or promise “in writing,” said Ms. Travers. “We want to see them.”

With the phenomenal Ms. Travers outcome of the contentious Georgia elections last fall and in January, and the victory and inauguration of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris as vice president, “It’s our turn,” said attorney Lezli Baskerville, president and chief executive officer of the Washington-based National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, in speaking about the number of women seeking statewide office.

Ms. Baskerville said women have a track record of running households, political campaigns, nonprofits, small businesses and schools. “Now we have to run,” she said, noting fundraising may still be the weak spot in women’s political efforts. But they are getting a boost through online giving groups that never existed in prior decades, she said.

From a political point of view, analysts said the agonizing impact of the coronavirus pandemic and associated economic and political developments during the past year have set the stage for progressive leaders to continue their efforts.

Test. That’s the word Eric W. Claville, director of Norfolk State University’s Center for African American Public Policy, uses to describe this year’s elections in Virginia. Mr. Claville, who earned his undergraduate and law degrees at Southern University in Louisiana, characterized this year as “extremely significant” in several respects.

“It’s a test of this new Democratic wave of voters who are more apt to vote for candidates

and policies that are less conservative and more progressive,” he said. “It’s a test of the new voters who have been added to the roles,” he said, noting the hundreds of thousands of new voters in the November presidential election 2020 Mr. Claville and nearly 70,000 earlier this year when Gov. Ralph S. Northam restored the voting rights of Virginia felons who have completed their prison terms, even if they are on probation or parole.

For Republicans, it’s a test of whether the conservative movement “can recapture the party of Ronald Regan and George Bush after four years of Trumpism,” Mr. Claville said.

He said he has spoken briefly with nearly all the politicians seeking statewide office and has assessed the political mood. He and his peers generally agree that winning will take a statewide organization, money to communicate across the state and progressive ideas.

For sure, the issues aspiring leaders say they want to tackle are akin to the pre-pandemic years— job opportunities, equal and affordable housing, education equity and employment security.

Wendy Hobbs, president of the Goochland County Branch NAACP, said branch members have to sort through the election choices. Already, however, she said there is no doubt Black voters will want to select the next term of leaders who are committed to continuing and building upon the programs in place under Democratic Gov. Ralph S. Northam.

“The challenge for Black people is to know who’s running and listening to them,” said Ms. Hobbs, who has served as branch president for more than a decade. “Black voters will vote for whoever will represent them the best.”

Fairfax compares his treatment to George Floyd during Democratic debate

By Lyndon German

Lt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax accused his Democratic rivals for governor of treating him like George Floyd or Emmett Till by calling for his resignation in 2019 over unresolved sexual assault complaints without affording him due process.

“Everyone here on this stage called for my immediate resignation, including Terry McAuliffe,” Lt. Gov. Fairfax said during Tuesday night’s debate between the five candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for governor.

“He treated me like George Floyd. He treated me like Emmett Till. No due process. Immediately assumed my guilt,” Lt. Gov. Fairfax said, referring to Mr. McAuliffe, the former governor who polls peg as the current front-runner in the gubernatorial race.

The lieutenant governor was responding to a question about

the future of law enforcement when he made the comparison to himself and the two Black men who were killed by white violence — Mr. Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis Police officer last May and Mr. Till, a teen who was murdered in August 1955 after being accused of whistling at a white woman in Mississippi.

Lt. Gov. Fairfax said he, a Black man, had his life changed “in an instant” by the presumption of guilt.

None of the other candidates, Mr. McAuliffe, state Sen. Jennifer McClellan of Richmond, former Prince William County Delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy or Delegate Lee Carter of Manassas, responded to his comments during the debate.

The debate, hosted by WTVR-CBS 6, was the first of four sponsored by the state Democratic Party ahead of the June 8 primary. Early voting starts later this month.

The winner of the primary will take on a Republican and at least one independent candidate in the November general election.

Going into the debate, polls from Christopher Newport University and YouGov have Mr. McAuliffe leading the Democratic field as he seeks to reclaim the seat he held from 2014 to 2018. Virginia governors cannot succeed themselves. Mr. McAuliffe said in order for Virginia to move to the next level, the state needs to “go big and go bold.”

“We cannot tinker around the edges. We have to lead, we have to be forward, we have to lead this country in taking us out of this COVID crisis,” he said, noting his experience can help lead Virginia out of the public health and resulting economic crises.

“We did it before and we’ll do it again,” Mr. McAuliffe said, referring to the recession

and recovery during his tenure as governor.

Mr. McAuliffe came under fire from Ms. Carroll Foy and Sen. McClellan, attorneys who challenged his record on gun reform. They criticized a compromise Mr. McAuliffe struck with Republicans that produced several tighter gun control measures while striking down a state policy that would not have recognized in Virginia concealed weapons permits issued by 25 other states. Republicans controlled the Virginia General Assembly at the time.

“I was born and raised right here in Petersburg that has one of the highest rates of gun violence in Virginia. ... So when I tell you gun violence is personal to me, I mean it,” Ms. Carroll Foy said.

A Virginia Military Institute graduate and public defender, Ms. Carroll Foy recounted her

experience with gun violence.

She criticized Mr. McAuliffe for not going far enough on gun reform as governor.

As a mother who has faced hard financial decisions during the pandemic, Ms. Carroll Foy said Virginians deserve a governor who has “walked in their shoes” and empathizes with their circumstances.

Ms. Carroll Foy or Sen. McClellan would become the first Black woman governor in the nation if either wins the primary and the Nov. 2 election.

During the debate, Sen. McClellan, an attorney with Verizon, touted her experience as a legislator who can work across the aisle and get things done.

“I have more state government experience than all of the other candidates on the stage combined,” she said.

With 16 General Assembly sessions under her belt, Sen.

McClellan said her ability to find common ground with legislators and understanding different perspectives is what makes her the right candidate to rebuild the state’s economic and health care safety nets.

Delegate Carter also views himself as a candidate who wants to address the divide in Virginia’s government.

“I think it’s no secret that Virginia is divided, but that division is not between Democrats and Republicans. It’s not between urban and rural voters. That division is between the haves and the have nots,” said Delegate Carter, a Marine veteran who identifies as a socialist.

As a legislator, Delegate Carter has introduced and supported bills to repeal the death penalty and legalize marijuana.

If elected governor, he said he intends to address equity in the Commonwealth.

Public Meetings

Funding the Right Transportation Projects You are invited to share comments on transportation projects that have been recommended for funding in the FY 2022-2027 Six-Year Improvement Program (SYIP). Additionally, pursuant to §33.2-202, comments will be accepted for new projects valued in excess of $25 million. The Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) will consider your comments as it develops the FY 2022-2027 Six-Year Improvement Program. The program allocates public funds to highway, road, bridge, rail, bicycle, pedestrian and public transportation projects.

All federally eligible projects in the SYIP will be included in the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program to document how Virginia will obligate its federal funds. Meeting materials were made available on or before April 20, 2021, and continue to be available at: http://www.ctb.virginia.gov/planning/springmeetings2021/default.asp.

The public is able to provide feedback on the FY 2022-2027 Six-Year Improvement Program update at the virtual spring meetings for the corresponding VDOT construction district on the dates and times noted below. The meetings will be conducted using electronic communications in accordance with Item 4-0.01.g. of Chapter 1289 (2020 Acts of Assembly), as the COVID-19 emergency makes it impracticable or unsafe to assemble in a single location.

Culpeper District April 22 4 p.m.

Dial: 720-260-4991 PIN: 490 669 687#

Bristol District April 27 4 p.m.

Dial: 720-260-4991 PIN: 490 669 687#

Fredericksburg District April 27 6 p.m.

Dial: 707-518-3672 PIN: 447 283 101#

Lynchburg District April 29 4 p.m.

Dial: 720-260-4991 PIN: 490 669 687#

Staunton District April 29 6 p.m.

Dial: 707-518-3672 PIN: 447 283 101#

Richmond District May 3 4 p.m.

Dial: 720-260-4991 PIN: 490 669 687#

Northern Virginia District May 3 6 p.m.

Dial: 707-518-3672 PIN: 447 283 101#

Salem District May 5 4 p.m.

Dial: 720-260-4991 PIN: 490 669 687#

Hampton Roads District May 5 6 p.m.

Dial: 707-518-3672 PIN: 447 283 101#

The public may view the meetings via live stream by clicking the "View stream" button on the corresponding district tab found at the following link: http://www.ctb.virginia.gov/planning/springmeetings2021/default.asp.

There will be opportunity for public comment. When announced, public comment can be made during a meeting by calling in to th e number set out in the table above for that particular meeting and entering the PIN when prompted. Callers will be placed on hold until others in the queue ahead of them have had the opportunity to speak. No comments can be made by means of the livestreaming function. You may also provide written comments using online forms at the following link: http://www.ctb.virginia.gov/planning/springmeetings2021/default.asp.

The public is invited to share feedback on transportation projects that have been recommended for funding through participation in this virtual public meeting or by submitting comments on or before May 17, 2021, using the online form, email or posted mail.

For information on road and highway projects: Six-YearProgram@VDOT.Virginia.gov, or Infrastructure Investment Director, Virginia Department of Transportation, 1401 East Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23219 or online form found at http://www.ctb.virginia.gov/planning/springmeetings2021/default.asp.

For information on rail and public transportation projects: DRPTPR@drpt.virginia.gov, Public Information Office, Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, 600 East Main Street, Suite 2102, Richmond, VA 23219.

The Commonwealth is committed to ensuring that no person is excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, its services on the basis of race, color, or national origin, as protected by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. If you need further information on these policies or special assistance for persons with disabilities or limited English proficiency, please contact the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Title VI Compliance Officer at 804-786-2730 or the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation’s Title VI Compliance Officer at 804-7864440 (TTY users call 711).

Interstate 95 South Arthur Ashe Boulevard Ramp Widening (Exit 78) and Interstate 95 South Lane Reassignment City of Richmond Find out about the proposed Interstate 95 south (Exit 78) ramp widening at Arthur Ashe Boulevard (Route 161) and Interstate 95 south lane reassignment project from Bryan Park interchange to the Arthur Ashe Boulevard off ramp.

This project includes widening the ramp to create a dedicated exit lane and option lane on Interstate 95 south. The project will improve safety and operations in the area while creating a dedicated lane for Interstate 64 east to Interstate 95 south just south of the Bryan Park Interchange. For more information about this project, visit http://www.virginiadot.org/projects/richmond/richmond---i-95-south-bryan-parklane-restriping-and-ramp-improvements-at-arthur-ashe-boulevard.asp.

Project information is available at VDOT’s Richmond District Office located at 2430 Pine Forest Drive, South Chesterfield VA 23834-9002, 804-524-6000, 1800-663-4188, TTY/TTD 711. Please call ahead to make arrangements for personnel to share more information or answer your questions.

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

You may request that a public hearing be held by sending a written request to Mr. Scott Chapman, Virginia Department of Transportation, 2430 Pine Forest Drive, South Chesterfield VA 23834-9002 or by email to scott.chapman@vdot.virginia.gov on or prior to April 22, 2021. If a request for a public hearing is received, notice of date, time and place of the hearing will be posted.

VDOT 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 special assistance for persons with disabilities or limited English proficiency, contact the project manager at the phone numbers listed above.

State Project: 0095-127-680, C501, P101, R201; UPC: 118581

Richmond Free Press

April 8-10, 2021 A7

Local News

Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

Casino protest More than 100 people line Forest Hill Avenue on Tuesday to protest the proposal to bring a Bally’s casino to 61 acres that nestle the Powhite and Chippenham parkways. The proposal is drawing fire for the potential impact on traffic and the surrounding neighborhoods. Concerns also are being raised about Black gravesites being on the property, although Bally’s officials deny it. The company also has created a plan to build access to the casino via Jahnke Road and to shut off traffic to its gaming site from Forest Hill. City Hall announced virtual public meetings on the three casino plans for 6 p.m. Thursday, April 8, and noon Friday, April 9. To join the meeting by phone, the call-in number is (804) 3169457. To join via the Microsoft Teams meeting link, go to http://bit.ly/APR82021 with ID #478604710 for Thursday, and http://bit.ly/APR92021 with ID 175675932# for Friday.

Marijuana on track for legalization July 1

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Rally calls for end to mandatory minimum sentences

In landmark action Wednesday, the General Assembly put Virginia on track to legalize possession of a small amount of marijuana on July 1.

Democratic majorities in the state House and Senate approved amendments that Gov. Ralph S. Northam sent down to speed up the legalization that was set to become effective three years from

By George Copeland Jr. now in the original legislation that was sent to him.

Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press Chris Young. Kemba Smith.

The push to speed up this change became possible after DemoLt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax speaks, while state Sen. Joseph D. “Joe” Morrissey stands cratic Majority Leader, Delegate Charniele L. Herring of Alexandria, Quadaire “Q” Patterson. Jerry by, during a rally and news conference Monday at the Bell Tower in Capitol Square that James. dropped her opposition to legalizing marijuana. drew more than a dozen people.

These names and many others She wanted to wait until the state’s new marijuana regulatory agency is created, develops regulations and begins issuing licenses were the focus of a news confer- Center in Southampton County. see mandatory minimums ended tem unequally punishes people for the manufacture and retail sale. She had been a key sponsor of ence Monday at the Bell Tower “We have got to stand for those and to remove the impact and of color. in Capitol Square, as prison families who have been without pain they’ve caused many.

Ms. Pradia’s mandatory 24½ the legislation in the House of Delegates.

“We’re here today to say -year federal prison sentence was Republicans did their best to block legalization, forming an justice advocates called for the their loved one because of manenough is enough,” Sen. Morris- commuted in 2000 by President almost unmovable bloc, despite polls suggesting 68 percent of end of mandatory minimum datory minimums.”

Inmates have “rehabilitated sey said. “Mandatory minimum Bill Clinton to time served — Virginians support giving marijuana use for adults the same status sentences.

The rally was organized themselves,” she continued, sentences are destroying genera- 6½ years. A graduate of Virginia as alcohol enjoys. In contrast, the 23-member Virginia Legislative by state Sen. Joseph D. “Joe” “and they have done what they’re tions of Virginians.”

Union University and former Black Caucus provided a solid bloc of support.

“At this moment in his- state organizer with the Virginia In the 100-member House of Delegates, the final tally was 53- Morrissey of Richmond and Lt. supposed to do. Now it’s time for them to come home.” tory, we have an opportunity ACLU, Ms. Pradia now serves 44, with two members not voting. In the 40-member Senate, 20 Gov. Justin E. Fairfax.

Their goal: Seeing mandatory The rally was charged with to right things that have been on the Virginia Parole Board.

Democrats voted yes and the 20 Republicans voted no. Democratic “I urge the legislators and the Lt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax broke the tie by voting in support of the minimum sentences abolished emotion and meaning, particu- wrong for so long,” Lt. Gov. voters to rethink these policies amendments to legalize this summer, though retail sales still will either through a special legisla- larly for two politicians, one with Fairfax said. tive session or during next year’s a checkered history over his own This ongoing issue brought as they do not indicate a violent be banned.

Passage was tied to criminal justice reform in the wake of find- General Assembly session. They past conduct, and the other who out a wide range of support crime or a violent person,” ings that Black people were four times more likely to face arrest want to end the law that has led still faces unresolved allegations for banning mandatory mini- said Santia Nance, who spoke and conviction for possession of marijuana than white individuals, to disproportionate convictions from the past. Some of the ad- mums, including Advocates on behalf of her loved one, of Black and brown people in vocates at the rally made it clear for Equity in Schools, RVA Mr. Patterson, who has been even though use is about equal across racial lines. their presence was in support of League for Safer Streets and imprisoned for 13 years. “We The amended legislation, which Gov. Northam created after Virginia.

“We have got to get Virginia the end of mandatory minimums Gus Smith of Henrico, whose have to reconsider the people consultation with Democratic lawmakers, would allow anyone 21 and older to possess up to one ounce, or about 29 grams, of mari- out of the Stone Age,” said and separate from any support daughter, Kemba Smith Pradia, who have been behind bars for juana. According to estimates, that is enough to create 28 joints. The Paulletra James, whose husband, of Sen. Morrissey or Lt. Gov. a first-time, nonviolent offender, these mandatory minimums and law also would allow people to grow up to four plants. Possession Jerry James, is serving 38 years Fairfax. All those present were became a high-profile example let our loved ones come home would be decriminalized for those under 21, with a first offense in the Deerfield Correctional united, however, in their desire to of how the criminal justice sys- in this pandemic.” carrying a $25 fine.

Those adults still locked up for simple possession of marijuana would be able to seek immediate release. People whose lives NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC OF A PETITION BY have been marred by arrests and VIRGINIA ELECTRIC AND POWER COMPANY FOR APPROVAL OF A RATE ADJUSTMENT CLAUSE, convictions will be able to seek DESIGNATED RIDER CCR, FOR THE RECOVERY OF COSTS INCURRED TO COMPLY WITH § 10.1-1402.03 OF THE CODE OF VIRGINIA, expungement of such charges PURSUANT TO VIRGINIA CODE § 56-585.1 A 5 e from their criminal histories.

CASE NO. PUR-2021-00045 According to Gov. Northam, •Dominion Energy Virginia (“Dominion”) has applied for approval of a rate adjustment clause, designated Rider CCR, for recovery of costs incurred to comply with state and federal Virginia will be the 16th state and environmental regulations.

•Dominion requests a revenue requirement of $216.146 million for its 2021 Rider CCR. According to Dominion, this amount would increase the bill of a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt the first in the South to legalize hours per month by $2.95. marijuana.

•Due to the ongoing public health emergency related to the spread of the coronavirus, or COVID-19, a Hearing Examiner appointed by the Commission will hold a telephonic hearing in this case on July 27, 2021, at 10 a.m., for the receipt of public witness testimony.

Virginia decriminalized pos•A Hearing Examiner will hold an evidentiary hearing in this case on July 27, 2021, after the receipt of public witness testimony. session of small amounts of •Further information about this case is available on the SCC website at: scc.virginia.gov/case. marijuana last year, making it On February 26, 2021, pursuant to § 56-585.1 A 5 of the Code of Virginia (“Code”) and the State Corporation Commission’s (“Commission”) Rules Governing Utility Rate Applications and Annual Infora civil offense that carries a PDWLRQDO )LOLQJV RI ,QYHVWRU 2ZQHG (OHFWULF 8WLOLWLHV 9LUJLQLD (OHFWULF DQG 3RZHU &RPSDQ\ G E D 'RPLQLRQ (QHUJ\ 9LUJLQLD ³'RPLQLRQ´ RU ³&RPSDQ\´ ¿OHG ZLWK WKH &RPPLVVLRQ LWV SHWLWLRQ UHTXHVWLQJ DSSURYDO RI D UDWH DGMXVWPHQW FODXVH GHVLJQDWHG 5LGHU &RDO &RPEXVWLRQ 5HVLGXDOV ³5LGHU &&5´ IRU WKH UHFRYHU\ RI FRVWV LQFXUUHG WR FRPSO\ ZLWK 9LUJLQLD 6HQDWH %LOO ³6% ´ FRGL¿HG DV &RGH small fine.

10.1-1402.03 (“Petition”).

Law enforcement organizaIn its Petition, the Company seeks cost recovery for certain environmental projects involving coal combustion residual (“CCR”) removal (collectively, “CCR Projects”) located at the Company’s Bremo Power tions were among those urging 6WDWLRQ &KHVWHU¿HOG 3RZHU 6WDWLRQ 3RVVXP 3RLQW 3RZHU 6WDWLRQ DQG &KHVDSHDNH (QHUJ\ &HQWHU FROOHFWLYHO\ ³3RZHU 6WDWLRQV´ $FFRUGLQJ WR WKH &RPSDQ\ WKH &&5 3URMHFWV DUH UHTXLUHG IRU WKH &RPSDQ\ the legislature to reject legalizato comply with SB 1355. tion, despite the enforcement The Company states that, prior to enactment of SB 1355, the Company initially planned to cap and close in place the CCR storage facilities at each Power Station, consistent with federal and state regulations. ,Q KRZHYHU WKH *HQHUDO $VVHPEO\ SDVVHG 6% ZKLFK UHTXLUHV WKH &RPSDQ\ WR UHPRYH DOO &&5 IURP WKH FXUUHQW VWRUDJH ORFDWLRQV DQG HLWKHU EHQH¿FLDOO\ UHXVH LW RU PRYH LW WR D TXDOL¿HG ODQG¿OO disparity.

7KH &RPSDQ\ VWDWHV WKDW WR FRPSO\ ZLWK 6% WKH &RPSDQ\ LV UHTXLUHG WR That disparity was a key rea L UHPRYH DOO &&5 IURP WKH VWRUDJH XQLWV DW HDFK 3RZHU 6WDWLRQ LQ DFFRUGDQFH ZLWK DSSOLFDEOH VWDQGDUGV HVWDEOLVKHG E\ WKH 9LUJLQLD 6ROLG :DVWH 0DQDJHPHQW 5HJXODWLRQV DQG HLWKHU D EHQH¿FLDOO\ UHXVH son the Richmond City Council DOO VXFK &&5 LQ D UHF\FOLQJ SURFHVV IRU HQFDSVXODWHG EHQH¿FLDO XVH RU E GLVSRVH RI WKH &&5 LQ D SHUPLWWHG ODQG¿OO DV GLUHFWHG LQ IDFLOLWLHV WKDW PHHW IHGHUDO &ULWHULD IRU 0XQLFLSDO 6ROLG :DVWH /DQG¿OOV on Monday backed a resoluVWDQGDUGV LL EHQH¿FLDWH DW OHDVW PLOOLRQ FXELF \DUGV RI &&5 IURP DW OHDVW WZR RI WKH 3RZHU 6WDWLRQV LLL GHYHORS D WUDQVSRUWDWLRQ SODQ LQ FRRUGLQDWLRQ ZLWK ORFDO JRYHUQPHQWV LPSDFWHG E\ WKH WUDQVSRUW of CCR as directed; (iv) identify options for utilizing and prioritizing hiring of local workers, and advance the Commonwealth’s workforce goals; and (v) compile reports detailing the Company’s closure plan tion proposed by 9th District and progress as directed in the statute.

Councilman Michael J. Jones In this proceeding, Dominion asks the Commission to approve Rider CCR for the rate year beginning December 1, 2021, and ending November 30, 2022 (“Rate Year”). The Company states that the two urging passage of the governor’s NH\ FRPSRQHQWV RI WKH UHYHQXH UHTXLUHPHQW DUH WKH 3URMHFWHG &RVW 5HFRYHU\ )DFWRU DQG WKH $FWXDO &RVW 7UXH 8S )DFWRU 7KH &RPSDQ\ UHTXHVWV D 3URMHFWHG &RVW 5HFRYHU\ )DFWRU RI PLOOLRQ RQ D 9LUJLQLD MXULVGLFWLRQDO EDVLV ZKLFK LQFOXGHV DPRUWL]DWLRQ RYHU WKH 5DWH <HDU RI FHUWDLQ GHIHUUHG FRVWV LQFOXGLQJ ¿QDQFLQJ FRVWV LQFXUUHG SULRU WR WKH EHJLQQLQJ RI WKH 5DWH <HDU DQG WKH SURMHFWHG PRQWKO\ amendments.

FDVK H[SHQGLWXUHV DWWULEXWDEOH WR WKH &&5 3URMHFWV 7KH &RPSDQ\ UHTXHVWV DQ $FWXDO &RVW 7UXH 8S )DFWRU UHYHQXH UHTXLUHPHQW RI $FFRUGLQJO\ WKH WRWDO 5LGHU &&5 UHYHQXH UHTXLUHPHQW UHTXHVWHG IRU Still, Dr. James Avery said the UHFRYHU\ GXULQJ WKH 5DWH <HDU LV PLOOLRQ )RU SXUSRVHV RI FDOFXODWLQJ WKH 5DWH <HDU SURMHFWHG UHYHQXH UHTXLUHPHQW WKH &RPSDQ\ XWLOL]HV D JHQHUDO UDWH RI UHWXUQ RQ FRPPRQ HTXLW\ RI SHU WKH Commission’s Final Order in Case No. PUR-2019-00050. rush to legalize ignores the ill effects that increased marijuana According to the Petition, the Rider CCR rate will be billed on a cents per kilowatt-hour (“kWh”) basis, which will apply to each Company rate schedule or special contract approved by the Commission pursuant to Code § 56-235.2. Pursuant to Code § 10.1-1402.03, the Company has allocated costs of the CCR Projects to all Virginia customers as a non-bypassable charge, irrespective of the generation supplier use will cause. An addiction of any such customer. If the proposed Rider CCR for the Rate Year is approved, the impact on customer bills would depend on the customer’s rate schedule and usage. The Company states that implementaWLRQ RI WKH SURSRVHG 5LGHU &&5 RQ 'HFHPEHU ZRXOG LQFUHDVH WKH PRQWKO\ ELOO RI D UHVLGHQWLDO FXVWRPHU XVLQJ N:K SHU PRQWK E\ expert and visiting professor at the University of Virginia, Dr. Interested persons are encouraged to review the Petition and supporting documents for the details of these and other proposals.

Avery said the modern variet7$.( 127,&( WKDW WKH &RPPLVVLRQ PD\ DSSRUWLRQ UHYHQXHV DPRQJ FXVWRPHU FODVVHV DQG RU GHVLJQ UDWHV LQ D PDQQHU GL൵HULQJ IURP WKDW VKRZQ LQ WKH 3HWLWLRQ DQG VXSSRUWLQJ GRFXPHQWV DQG WKXV PD\ DGRSW ies and growing methods make UDWHV WKDW GL൵HU IURP WKRVH DSSHDULQJ LQ WKH &RPSDQ\¶V 3HWLWLRQ DQG VXSSRUWLQJ GRFXPHQWV the marijuana now available The Commission entered an Order for Notice and Hearing that, among other things, scheduled public hearings on the Petition. On July 27, 2021, at 10 a.m., the Commission will hold a telephonic hearing, far more potent and potentially ZLWK QR ZLWQHVV SUHVHQW LQ WKH &RPPLVVLRQ¶V FRXUWURRP IRU WKH SXUSRVH RI UHFHLYLQJ WKH WHVWLPRQ\ RI SXEOLF ZLWQHVVHV 2Q RU EHIRUH -XO\ DQ\ SHUVRQ GHVLULQJ WR R൵HU WHVWLPRQ\ DV D SXEOLF ZLWQHVV shall provide to the Commission (a) your name, and (b) the telephone number that you wish the Commission to call during the hearing to receive your testimony. This information may be provided to the addictive. &RPPLVVLRQ LQ WKUHH ZD\V L E\ ¿OOLQJ RXW D IRUP RQ WKH &RPPLVVLRQ¶V ZHEVLWH DW scc.virginia.gov/pages/Webcasting; (ii) by completing and emailing the PDF version of this form to SCCInfo@scc.virginia. gov; or (iii) by calling (804) 371-9141. This public witness hearing will be webcast at scc.virginia.gov/pages/Webcasting.

“This is not your father’s marijuana,” Dr. Avery said in 2Q -XO\ DIWHU WKH UHFHLSW RI SXEOLF ZLWQHVV WHVWLPRQ\ HLWKHU LQ WKH &RPPLVVLRQ¶V VHFRQG ÀRRU FRXUWURRP ORFDWHG LQ WKH 7\OHU %XLOGLQJ (DVW 0DLQ 6WUHHW 5LFKPRQG 9LUJLQLD RU E\ HOHFWURQLF PHDQV WKH &RPPLVVLRQ ZLOO FRQYHQH D KHDULQJ WR UHFHLYH WHVWLPRQ\ DQG HYLGHQFH UHODWHG WR WKH 3HWLWLRQ IURP WKH &RPSDQ\ DQ\ UHVSRQGHQWV DQG WKH &RPPLVVLRQ¶V 6WD൵ )XUWKHU GHWDLOV RQ WKLV KHDULQJ an interview. “This is a far more ZLOO EH SURYLGHG E\ VXEVHTXHQW &RPPLVVLRQ 2UGHU RU +HDULQJ ([DPLQHU¶V 5XOLQJ potent drug.”

The Commission has taken judicial notice of the ongoing public health emergency related to the spread of the coronavirus, or COVID-19, and the declarations of emergency issued at both the state and federal He said that the levels of OHYHOV ,Q DFFRUGDQFH WKHUHZLWK DOO SOHDGLQJV EULHIV RU RWKHU GRFXPHQWV UHTXLUHG WR EH VHUYHG LQ WKLV PDWWHU VKRXOG EH VXEPLWWHG HOHFWURQLFDOO\ WR WKH H[WHQW DXWKRUL]HG E\ 9$& Copies and forTHC, which creates the high, are mat RI WKH &RPPLVVLRQ¶V 5XOHV RI 3UDFWLFH DQG 3URFHGXUH ³5XOHV RI 3UDFWLFH´ &RQ¿GHQWLDO DQG ([WUDRUGLQDULO\ 6HQVLWLYH ,QIRUPDWLRQ VKDOO QRW EH VXEPLWWHG HOHFWURQLFDOO\ DQG VKRXOG FRPSO\ ZLWK 9$& 5-20-170, &RQ¿GHQWLDO LQIRUPDWLRQ RI WKH 5XOHV RI 3UDFWLFH )RU WKH GXUDWLRQ RI WKH &29,' HPHUJHQF\ DQ\ SHUVRQ VHHNLQJ WR KDQG GHOLYHU DQG SK\VLFDOO\ ¿OH RU VXEPLW DQ\ SOHDGLQJ RU RWKHU GRFXPHQW 30 percent or higher, at least 15 VKDOO FRQWDFW WKH &OHUN¶V 2൶FH 'RFXPHQW &RQWURO &HQWHU DW WR DUUDQJH WKH GHOLYHU\ times the levels that marijuana Pursuant to 5 VAC 5-20-140, )LOLQJ DQG VHUYLFH RI WKH &RPPLVVLRQ¶V 5XOHV RI 3UDFWLFH WKH &RPPLVVLRQ KDV GLUHFWHG WKDW VHUYLFH RQ SDUWLHV DQG 6WD൵ LQ WKLV PDWWHU VKDOO EH DFFRPSOLVKHG E\ HOHFWURQLF PHDQV users experienced in the 1960s 3OHDVH UHIHU WR WKH &RPPLVVLRQ¶V 2UGHU IRU 1RWLFH DQG +HDULQJ IRU IXUWKHU LQVWUXFWLRQV FRQFHUQLQJ &RQ¿GHQWLDO RU ([WUDRUGLQDULO\ 6HQVLWLYH ,QIRUPDWLRQ and 1970s when marijuana $Q HOHFWURQLF FRS\ RI WKH &RPSDQ\¶V 3HWLWLRQ PD\ EH YLHZHG RQ WKH &RPPLVVLRQ¶V ZHEVLWH RU PD\ EH REWDLQHG E\ VXEPLWWLQJ D UHTXHVW WR FRXQVHO IRU WKH &RPSDQ\ 7LPRWK\ ' 3DWWHUVRQ (VTXLUH 0F*XLUHgained far wider popularity. “A Woods LLP, Gateway Plaza, 800 East Canal Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219, or tpatterson@mcguirewoods.com. hit or two is enough to create a 2Q RU EHIRUH -XO\ DQ\ LQWHUHVWHG SHUVRQ PD\ ¿OH FRPPHQWV RQ WKH 3HWLWLRQ E\ IROORZLQJ WKH LQVWUXFWLRQV RQ WKH &RPPLVVLRQ¶V ZHEVLWH scc.virginia.gov/casecomments/Submit-Public-Comments RU E\ ¿OLQJ VXFK FRPPHQWV ZLWK WKH &OHUN RI WKH 6WDWH &RUSRUDWLRQ &RPPLVVLRQ F R 'RFXPHQW &RQWURO &HQWHU 3 2 %R[ 5LFKPRQG 9LUJLQLD $OO VXFK FRPPHQWV VKDOO UHIHU WR &DVH 1R high,” he said.

PUR-2021-00045.

He predicted “an increase in 2Q RU EHIRUH 0D\ DQ\ LQWHUHVWHG SHUVRQ RU HQWLW\ PD\ SDUWLFLSDWH DV D UHVSRQGHQW E\ ¿OLQJ ZLWK WKH &OHUN RI WKH &RPPLVVLRQ DW WKH DGGUHVV DERYH RU VFF YLUJLQLD JRY FON H¿OLQJ , a notice of particthe number of first-time users, ipation in accordance with the Commission’s Rules of Practice. Notices of participation shall include the email addresses of the party or its counsel. The respondent simultaneously shall serve a copy of the particularly teen users, with notice of participation on counsel to the Company. Pursuant to 5 VAC 5-20-80 B, 3DUWLFLSDWLRQ DV D UHVSRQGHQW, of the Commission’s Rules of Practice, any notice of participation shall set forth: (i) a precise VWDWHPHQW RI WKH LQWHUHVW RI WKH UHVSRQGHQW LL D VWDWHPHQW RI WKH VSHFL¿F DFWLRQ VRXJKW WR WKH H[WHQW WKHQ NQRZQ DQG LLL WKH IDFWXDO DQG OHJDO EDVLV IRU WKH DFWLRQ $Q\ RUJDQL]DWLRQ FRUSRUDWLRQ RU JRYHUQgreater prospects for addiction.”

PHQW ERG\ SDUWLFLSDWLQJ DV D UHVSRQGHQW PXVW EH UHSUHVHQWHG E\ FRXQVHO DV UHTXLUHG E\ 9$& &RXQVHO RI WKH 5XOHV RI 3UDFWLFH $OO ¿OLQJV VKDOO UHIHU WR &DVH 1R 385 )RU DGGLWLRQDO He said that studies indicate that information about participation as a respondent, any person or entity should obtain a copy of the Commission’s Order for Notice and Hearing. with regular use, one in 11 adults 2Q RU EHIRUH -XQH HDFK UHVSRQGHQW PD\ ¿OH ZLWK WKH &OHUN RI WKH &RPPLVVLRQ DQG VHUYH RQ WKH 6WD൵ WKH &RPSDQ\ DQG DOO RWKHU UHVSRQGHQWV DQ\ WHVWLPRQ\ DQG H[KLELWV E\ ZKLFK WKH UHVSRQGHQW H[SHFWV WR HVWDEOLVK LWV FDVH DQG HDFK ZLWQHVV¶V WHVWLPRQ\ VKDOO LQFOXGH D VXPPDU\ QRW WR H[FHHG RQH SDJH ,Q DOO ¿OLQJV UHVSRQGHQWV VKDOO FRPSO\ ZLWK WKH &RPPLVVLRQ¶V 5XOHV RI 3UDFWLFH LQFOXGLQJ 9$& and one in 16 teens becomes 5-20-140, )LOLQJ DQG VHUYLFH; and 5 VAC 5-20-240, Prepared testimony and exhibits $OO ¿OLQJV VKDOO UHIHU WR &DVH 1R 385 addicted. $Q\ GRFXPHQWV ¿OHG LQ SDSHU IRUP ZLWK WKH 2൶FH RI WKH &OHUN RI WKH &RPPLVVLRQ LQ WKLV GRFNHW PD\ XVH ERWK VLGHV RI WKH SDSHU ,Q DOO RWKHU UHVSHFWV H[FHSW DV PRGL¿HG E\ WKH &RPPLVVLRQ¶V 2UGHU IRU Gov. Northam said the state is 1RWLFH DQG +HDULQJ DOO ¿OLQJV VKDOO FRPSO\ IXOO\ ZLWK WKH UHTXLUHPHQWV RI 9$& Copies and format, of the Commission’s Rules of Practice. planning a marketing campaign to The Company’s Petition, the Commission’s Rules of Practice, and the Commission’s Order for Notice and Hearing may be viewed at: scc.virginia.gov/pages/Case-Information. educate the public on the health VIRGINIA ELECTRIC AND POWER COMPANY and safety risk.

Richmond Free Press

Cardinal at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

Editorial Page

A8

April 8-10, 2021

Lessons from the Chauvin trial The murder trial of former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd has offered us many lessons, if we care to listen.

One chief lesson is that these egregious incidents of police abuse, brutality and even murder stamp individuals and communities with permanent scars and trauma that all the therapy available may never heal.

We feel deep empathy for the teenager who had the presence of mind to record the brutal last 9 minutes and 29 seconds of Mr. Floyd’s life, as well as for her 9-year-old cousin, the mixedmartial arts instructor and the EMT who must live with the nightmare they witnessed for the remainder of their lives.

The rest of us must question our own complicity in allowing such inhumanity and depravity to go unchecked and unabated in cities and towns across America.

George Floyd is just one victim of the out-of-control racism and white supremacy that permeates our policing and justice systems. There have been scores of other victims – named and unnamed – of police harassment, intimidation and brutality whose cases remain shrouded behind the police blue wall of silence and will never have a public hearing in a court of law.

The testimony so far in Mr. Chauvin’s murder trial clearly illuminates the imperative for profound and critical cultural changes within police departments that now hide and protect rotten cops like Derek Chauvin. Law enforcement agencies throughout Metro Richmond, Virginia and the nation must change their practices to initially screen job candidates for signs of psychological maladjustment, racism, white supremacy, homophobia, misogyny and sociopathic traits that can lead an officer to wantonly take a human being’s life like Mr. Floyd’s was taken.

Better and continuous screening must routinely take place for all who hold law enforcement positions. Such periodic and continual monitoring would help departments root out and remove dangerous cops who are a threat to the people of a community and poisonous to the standards and reputation police departments claim to strive to uphold.

We believe police reform legislation passed during the special session of the General Assembly and signed into law last fall by Gov. Ralph S. Northam is a good starting point for dealing with some of the police issues that have plagued Virginia’s communities.

Two of those measures empower localities to create civilian review boards to review and address citizens’ complaints about police misconduct and abuse. These laws also give the review board authority to issue subpoenas and make binding disciplinary decisions.

A task force currently is working to create such a board in Richmond. We believe that is a step in the right direction.

We believe civilian review boards are paramount in ensuring transparency and accountability from those who are sworn to protect and serve us. And we renew our call for review boards to be created in jurisdictions around Richmond and throughout the state, including a civilian oversight panel for the State Police.

We hope the Richmond task force will not get bogged down under the weight of politics or process, as some people may try to thwart a civilian review board’s creation. The board’s authority must extend to a reasonable period retroactively in order to be an effective deterrent for abusive behavior in the future. Trust is built only when people feel their grievances are heard and not disallowed due to delay and/or the passage of time.

Once again we call on the national NAACP or other independent civil rights organizations to create and maintain a national database of police officers who resign, are disciplined, fired, sued or criminally charged for excessive use of force and aberrant behavior.

The Virginia General Assembly last year approved a bill that requires the state Department of Criminal Justice Services to create uniform standards for police training and conduct, and enables the department’s oversight board to de-certify officers who are found to have violated the standards and to create a database to prevent an officer who is de-certified by one department from working for another department.

While this action may help address some of the problems within Virginia, we believe a national database maintained by an independent, non-governmental organization would put police agencies and the public on notice so that bad cops can’t leave their jobs in one state, move elsewhere and wreak havoc on a community in a different state. No city or town should have officers like Derek Chauvin on their streets or in their schools.

In the past, we have called for law enforcement agencies to employ the “drop a dime” philosophy of crime prevention on themselves — to report a fellow officer whose actions cross the line, harming people and tarnishing the department’s reputation.

The testimony by Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo gave law enforcement across the country a view of what leadership looks like when he testified that Derek Chauvin’s kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, who was laid out on the ground with his hands cuffed behind is back, violated department policy. “(T)hat in no way, shape or form is anything that is by policy,” Chief Arradondo told the court. “It is not part of our training, and it is certainly not part of our ethnics or values.”

While Virginia hasn’t had a role model like Chief Arradondo, a Black man whose public actions show that police abuse will not be tolerated, one of Virginia’s new laws may help put the brakes on abusive policing. It requires officers to intervene when they witness another officer engaging or attempting to engage in the use of excessive force.

Will that be enough to prevent such an event in Virginia?

We shall see.

We also hope that the new statewide minimum training standards for law enforcement officers will be effective in creating awareness of racism, curbing biased policing and profiling and improving de-escalation techniques.

The people of Richmond are serious about eliminating police brutality. But until top elected and appointed officials get serious and take action implementing policies and practices that will bring about positive change, our city and communities will continue to be plagued by ongoing issues of abusive policing.

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Justice is on trial

The murder trial of former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin has begun, 10 months after George Floyd died in the street with Mr. Chauvin’s knee on his neck.

Americans, especially Black Americans, are watching closely to see if justice will be done.

The beginning of the trial made me profoundly sad, but also profoundly hopeful.

It made me sad because Mr. Floyd is gone and nothing will bring him back to his family.

It made me hopeful because Mr. Floyd’s killing sparked a renewed movement that is challenging police killings of unarmed civilians — a multiracial and multigenerational movement.

The fact that Mr. Chauvin has been indicted and is facing trial is itself reason for hope.

But my hope is tempered by history. As Black Americans know all too well, our system often fails to hold law enforcement accountable for killing Black people, even when the killing is on video.

Think about Eric Garner. Mr. Garner died in 2014 after a New York City Police officer put him in a choke hold and wrestled him

Ben Jealous to the ground. Before he died, Mr. Garner told police officers, “I can’t breathe,” 11 times. It was all on video.

But a New York grand jury decided not to indict the officer who killed Mr. Garner. And five years later, in 2019, U.S. Attorney General William Barr decided not to bring federal civil rights charges against him.

Last year, Mr. Floyd said “I can’t breathe” 27 times as he laid on the ground with Mr. Chauvin’s knee on his neck.

Other officers looked on even as people begged and pleaded

with them to spare Mr. Floyd’s life.

The trial testimony has been brutal. We learned on the first day that Mr. Chauvin kneeled on Mr. Floyd’s neck for nine and a half minutes — even longer than we thought. On the second day, a teenage witness tried to hold back tears on the stand while she described watching a man die and not being able to help him.

I am convinced that the truth about what happened to George Floyd came out only because someone filmed his death. It was only after video was shared widely that the officers were fired and charges eventually were filed. And even now, rumors and disinformation being spread online blame Mr. Floyd for his own death.

A New York Times investigation published last year found that during the past decade, at least 70 people — more than half of them Black — died in law enforcement custody after saying “I can’t breathe.” Most of them were stopped or held for

Community voices and public safety reforms Last year was a year that shook the city of Richmond and the nation — from the devastation and heartache of the COVID19 pandemic to the protests in response to long-standing racial inequities and the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The visceral reactions left many of us re-examining the sanctity of a Black life, with magnification on the institutions we all wanted to believe were set in place to serve and protect us all. Against a backdrop of boarded up businesses and dismantled monuments, we all knew that we had to find a constructive path forward.

Last summer, Mayor Levar M. Stoney organized the Task Force on Reimagining Public Safety. Knowing action needed to be timely and informed by data, the mayor took a slightly different approach to the formation of this task force. He knew this important work could not occur in silos, but would instead need collaboration and compromise to be successful. Thus, he joined hand in hand with members of the Richmond community and members of his administration to ensure cross-collaboration, information sharing and timely communication.

The 60-member task force brought together community members, social justice advocates, academics, legal experts, health professionals, law

enforcement, human services professionals, social services and emergency communication professionals as a first step in devising an intentional, equitydriven plan to make Richmond a truly safer place for all its residents.

Reginald E. Gordon During the course of 90 days, the task force had many difficult and, at times, uncomfortable conversations. From sharing stories of trauma, to examples of systemic racism, to debating steps for meaningful community healing, the task force took on

Chief Gerald M. Smith the weight of a heavy task. But, this group never buckled under that weight. They learned from one another, forged new partnerships and bridged gaps.

The task force was an affirming experience for Human Services, which includes the city Office of Community Wealth Building, the Department of Social Services, the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs and Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities. We learned during community conversations that many people wanted increased access to services and programs with the potential to improve the quality of life in their household and respective neighborhoods.

As we work on reimagining public safety — on expanding who and what helps our community stay safe — we consistently refer to the task force’s conversations and final report to guide our decision-making.

As shared during the March 23 meeting of Richmond City Council’s Public Safety Com-

mittee, 27 of the 31 recommendations are considered “in progress or under evaluation,” including: • A Community Training Academy to ensure residents are at the table when police recruits are going through the academy; • A partnership with Capital One and Leadership Metro Richmond to create a 24/7 human services system; • A proposed budget for a “Community Safety Coordinator” to work with community members and partners on items related to public safety, such as gun violence prevention; and, • An Office of Professional Accountability to address concerns impacting the Richmond Police Department and business cards for officers to give to residents to better connect and improve communication between the community and the department.

Reimagining public safety will not happen overnight, but we are proud of the direction that our city is going. Of course we still have challenges – from gun violence, to training needs, to high volume in calls for service — but we are taking active steps to mitigate these issues, using the task force’s report and engagement as a guide.

In order to create a truly equitable and inclusive city, we must offer residents a seat at the table to listen, engage in difficult conversations and find compromise. We look forward to continuing to working together with our community to reimagine public safety.

Mr. Gordon is the deputy chief administrative officer for human services for the City of Richmond.

Chief Smith leads the Richmond Police Department.

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.

nonviolent infractions, 911 calls about “suspicious” behavior or mental health issues. More than 40 of the “I can’t breathe” deaths happened after Mr. Garner was killed.

We hope and expect that the trial now under way will bring justice for Mr. Floyd and his family. But obviously the problem in law enforcement is much bigger than individual “bad apples.”

We can save lives and prevent future deaths by reimagining public safety and demanding real, institutional change. That is the motivation for measures like the federal George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and a wave of initiatives being proposed and considered at state and local levels.

We must finally have equal justice under the law, and it starts with a criminal justice system that holds law enforcement accountable.

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Richmond Free Press

April 8-10, 2021 A9

Letters to the Editor

‘Nothing will stop us from voting’ There are efforts in 43 states led by the Republican Party to limit voting. Most of these laws target African-Americans and other minority groups.

Nothing will stop us from voting.

First, in reference to the anti-vote measures in Georgia — the first test case — the federal courts will knock down most of their laws. The NAACP already has filed suit and, hopefully, the U.S. Department of Justice will file suit.

Second, hopefully, President Biden will sign a voting rights

bill that will provide federal voting rules for all the states. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was monumental.

And if none of the above is implemented, you still will not stop us. The more you try to stop us from voting, the more determined we will be to vote.

Blood has been shed, men and women have been beaten and individuals have given their lives for our fair right to vote.

We love this nation and we love democracy. Fair voting laws are what make our nation a democracy.

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Delivering Progressive Change Right Now As the only candidate for Governor in the Virginia Senate, Jenn is creating historic progress for all Virginians.

Passing the Voting Rights Act of Virginia which eliminates barriers to voting due to racial discrimination and proactively protects the right to vote.

Making Virginia the first state in the South to repeal the ban on abortion coverage through plans offered on the health exchange.

Ensuring that people with mental illnesses and developmental and intellectual disabilities are not needlessly and unjustly trapped in the criminal justice system.

Extending more worker protections to domestic workers through the Virginia Human Rights Act. Ending the death penalty in Virginia.

In the words of the late poet Maya Angelou, “You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I’ll rise. … I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”

No matter what you do to try to stop my voting rights, still I’ll vote.

TONNIE VILLINES South Boston

April is National Donate Life Month The Children’s Organ Transplant Association, or COTA, was founded in April 1986 when residents of Bloomington, Ind., rallied around a toddler who needed a life-saving liver transplant.

In less than eight weeks, the community raised $100,000 to place the boy on the organ waiting list. But he died before an organ was found. Those community volunteers, along with his parents, turned tragedy into triumph by using those funds to help other transplant families.

For 35 years, COTA has assisted thousands of transplant families by raising funds for transplant-related expenses. COTA has built extensive volunteer networks across the nation in an attempt to ensure that no child or young adult needing an organ or tissue transplant is

excluded from a transplant waiting list due to lack of funds.

We need your help today to make sure that tragedies, like the one that was the catalyst in founding COTA 35 years ago, are not repeated.

April is National Donate Life Month. Every day, 20 people die in the United States waiting for an organ transplant. One organ donor can save eight lives. Today, 110,000 people are waiting for life-saving transplants. Please go to www.

RegisterMe.org and register to be a designated organ and/or tissue donor.

RICK LOFGREN Bloomington, Ind. The writer is president of the Children’s Organ Transplant Association.

To believe is naive With its ideologies of the field hand, housemaid and plantation owner, the 1860s class system has re-entered our society, sweeping away the six decades since the 1960s politicalized demonstrations’ attempt to make changes to the establishment’s culture.

Once a passionate 18-year-old but now a cynical senior citizen, I shudder, thinking that nothing we will ever do will replace the deep-

rooted, boot-licking hierarchy no matter the movement fueled by the hope of building an equal, diverse and inclusive world.

It’s heartbreaking to be so naive as to believe in a dream of tolerance for all, especially when so many suffer from provincialism.

RICK KNIGHT Henrico County

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'HVFHQGDQWV &RXQFLO GHVFHQGDQWVFRXQFLOYD#JPDLO FRP On March 10, 2021, we, relatives and descendants of African Americans laid to rest in segregated burial grounds in greater Richmond and members of the broader Black community, wrote to Governor Ralph Northam to express our concerns about the treatment of these sacred sites.

We have not yet received a response from Governor Northam.

While the governor’s actions to remedy the desecration of Columbian Harmony Cemetery demonstrate an investment of time, energy, and money in the task of confronting past racial injustice, we communicated urgent requests based on our observations of rapid and alarming developments at cemeteries in the East End of Richmond and Henrico County.

Our group, a descendants council, grew out of a painful experience many of us shared in October 2020. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources and the Enrichmond Foundation held a virtual “Public Hearing to Discuss Human Remains Found at East End Cemetery,” attended by several dozen community members.

Questions asked by attendees, who were not visible, went unanswered; and one speaker was abruptly cut off at the time limit set by the conveners. Perhaps most disturbing, a DHR staffer revealed without warning that some of the recovered remains appeared to have been subjected to “postmortem cutting,” indicating that grave robbers may have violated East End, as they did other Black burial grounds in our city, to provide “anatomical material” for medical students.

We believe that there are more respectful, transparent, and inclusive ways to engage descendants.

Enrichmond — owner of East End and Evergreen Cemeteries, two historic African American burial grounds — created an advisory board that, per its charter, they can “dissolve, reorganize, or otherwise alter” at any time. Such a board is no substitute for an independently constituted body of descendants.

Enrichmond’s stewardship of Evergreen and East End has been intermittent and haphazard — and at times deeply disrespectful.

• In June 2020, Enrichmond forced out the longtime stewards of East End, putting an end to a successful grassroots reclamation effort in place since 2013.

• In July, without notice, Enrichmond removed American flags from veterans’ graves and floral arrangements left by loved ones, throwing them into a dumpster. Most had recently been placed and were in good condition.

• From June to September, sections of East End and Evergreen became wildly overgrown again.

Enrichmond conducted light and sporadic maintenance at East End in some areas while leaving cut-up trees heaped on graves for weeks or months in others. In late September, Enrichmond sent an unsupervised commercial landscaping crew into East End with weed whackers, damaging fragile grave markers and destroying others.

Most egregious was what took place when the aforementioned human remains were discovered at East End. Enrichmond contacted the news media, which posted and broadcast images of the remains. Only after public outcry were the photos and video taken down by the television station.

In light of these issues and the opaque process by which Evergreen and East End came under their current ownership, we asked the governor to pause, reflect, and reset rather than continue with unvetted top-down plans. It is time to give descendants the voice they deserve and halt the transfer of public funds to Enrichmond until: • A proper cultural landscape report for the cemeteries Enrichmond owns or seeks to control is commissioned and reviewed by the relevant authorities.

• The Commonwealth provides all due diligence and other material upon which it has based its decision to subsidize and support Enrichmond’s acquisition of African American burial grounds.

• Public meetings are convened to allow the community to deliberate on the future of these sacred sites with all of the necessary information in hand.

• We are integrated into ongoing discussions, planning, and activities related to sacred sites in which our ancestors have been laid to rest. Such engagement should be in accordance with the nationally recognized rubric of best practices, “Engaging Descendant Communities in the Interpretation of Slavery a Museums and Historic Sites,” created by the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund and James Madison’s Montpelier.

These calls for accountability at Richmond’s historic Black cemeteries are not new, but it has taken this long to gain momentum and broad support across the city, state, and nation.

Over 12,000 citizens (thus far) have signed the Protect Richmond’s African American Cemeteries petition on Change.org in support of our letter. We applaud Mayor Levar Stoney for being the first public official to take meaningful action. He froze special-access agreements to city-owned Black cemeteries and halted funding that the city had planned to give Enrichmond. More steps must follow that only the governor can take if we are to have true accountability and equity at these sacred sites.

Please ask our leaders to seize this opportunity to keep Virginia in the forefront of America’s movement towards racial justice. The petition may be found at https://www.change.org/p/ralph-s-northam-protect-richmond-s-african-american-cemeteries.

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Richmond Free Press

A10 April 8-10, 2021

Sports Stories by Fred Jeter

winners

Darron Cummings/ Associated Press

Baylor players and coaches celebrate after winning the NCAA championship game 86-70 against undefeated Gonzaga on Monday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Ind.

Baylor takes down undefeated Gonzaga to win Gonzaga University was undefeated NovemSeniors will have the option to return for ber to March, but Baylor University was unde- another season under the NCAA’s pandemic feated in April, and that’s what counts most. guidelines.

It was an “un game,” with the Baylor Bears Brilliant Gonzaga freshman Jalen Suggs, a scoring an unexpectedly easy 86-70 win over likely lottery pick in this year’s NBA draft, led Gonzaga with an unforgettable show Monday the Zags with 22 points. night in the men’s NCAA Tournament final.

It was Suggs who banked in the 35-foot shot Under 18th-year coach Scott Drew, the Big- at the buzzer to defeat UCLA in the overtime 12 school from Waco, Texas, dominated from semifinals. start to finish at the tournament in Indianapolis to sever the Zags’ winning For the win streak at 31.

79 55 Hartford Baylor rolls “I thought we were on a mission through six NCAA 76 63 Wisconsin opponents to to make the most of it,” Coach Drew become national said. champ: 62 51 Villanova Baylor started the game on a 9-0 run and never let up on the gas, leading by 81 72 Arkansas as many as 20 points.

“They punched us in the mouth from 78 59 Houston the get go,” said Gonzaga All-American Corey Kispert.

86 70 Gonzaga Gonzaga was seeking to become the first undefeated champion since Indiana in 1976.

Baylor was never seriously tested in Indiana.

Baylor, playing in the Final Four for the Of its six NCAA victories, all were by doublefirst time since 1948, became only the second digit margins except for an 81-72 win over the team from the state of Texas to win the title, University of Arkansas in the Elite Eight. following Texas Western (now University of The Bears won their last 11 straight games Texas-El Paso) in 1966. overall. Their last loss was Feb. 27 at Kansas.

The more physical Bears outmuscled the Zags Baylor became the first NCAA champ since on the glass, winning the rebounding 38-22. the University of Virginia won the final in 2019.

Finishing 28-2, Baylor was 10-of-23 on There was no tournament in 2020 due to the 3-pointers compared to 5-for-17 by Gonzaga. pandemic. This year’s entire event was held in Junior Jared Butler scored 22 points with a “bubble” in Indiana. four 3-pointers. He also dished seven assists and It’s not like the Bears were immune to the snagged three rebounds en route to being named ramifications of the dreaded virus. Games Most Outstanding Player. against Texas, West Virginia, Texas Christian “The start of the game was tremendous,” said and Oklahoma were canceled earlier in the year Butler, a 6-foot-3 guard from Reserve, La. “It was due to positive COVID-19 tests. electrifying, especially in that kind of moment.

The Bears are no one-year wonder. The team Everyone stepped up. Everyone was clicking on was 26-4 a year ago and would have been a favorite all cylinders. That’s what it takes to win.” to win it all in the tournament that never was.

The two seniors in Coach Drew’s lineup were Unfazed by the disappointment, the Bears guard MaCio Teague, who had 19 points, and viewed this season as a chance to take care of burly Mark Vital, who grabbed 11 rebounds. unfinished business, and they did.

B a y l o r

Remembering Final Four record holders

Bill Bradley

As time passes, it’s the Final Four team champions that are most remembered, as they should be.

But every now and then, it’s nice to dust off the old record book and review some individual all-time “champs.”

With this year’s Final Four in the books, here are some single-game individual records to reflect on:

Most points: 58, Bill Bradley of Princeton, 1965, against Wichita State.

Fields goals: 22, Bradley, same game.

Rebounds: 27, Bill Russell of San Francisco, 1956, against Iowa.

Blocked shots: 12, Jeff Withey of Kansas, 2012, against Ohio State.

Assists: 18, Mark Wade of University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 1987, against Indiana.

Steals: 8, Ty Lawson of University of North Bill Russell Carolina, 2009, against Michigan State.

Three-pointers: 10, Freddie Banks of UNLV, 1987, against Indiana.

Triple doubles: B.H. Born of Kansas, 1953, against Indiana; Oscar Robertson of Cincinnati, 1959, against Louisville; and Magic Johnson of Michigan State, 1979, against Pennsylvania.

Eric Gay/Associated Press

Stanford players celebrate after clinching the NCAA crown Sunday at the buzzer with a 54-53 victory over Arizona at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

Stanford women win title for first time since 1992 Instead of home sweet home, let’s hear it for “Home Sweet Hotel.”

That could be the theme for Stanford University’s women’s basketball team that defeated the University of Arizona 54-53 for the NCAA title last Sunday.

En route to the finals, The Cardinal spent some 86 days away from their own bedrooms and gymnasium due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Santa Clara County, Calif., shut down all contact sports in November, leaving Stanford to fend for itself for practices and games. Many of the team’s home games were rescheduled as road games.

After months of a nomadic existence, The Cardinal found cozy accommodations at San Antonio’s Alamodome, where the entire threeweek women’s NCAA Tournament was played in a “bubble.”

“It’s been a long, difficult journey being on the road, sleeping in hotels, living out of your bags,” said Haley Jones, who was named Most Outstanding Player.

In a thrilling finish that left both sides breathless, Coach Tara VanDerveer’s squad won its first NCAA crown since 1992.

Arizona star Aari McDonald missed a heavily contested 3-pointer at the game’s final buzzer that would have given the Wildcats their first-ever title.

“It was the longest second,” Coach VanDerveer said about the time between McDonald releasing the shot and the time it bounded off the back of the rim. “That’s how basketball is.

If you’ve got a faint heart or a weak stomach, then don’t coach.”

Richmond native Anna Wilson played a key role defensively throughout for Stanford, matching strides with McDonald all over the floor.

On the climactic play, it was Wilson, along with teammates Lexie Hull and Cameron Brink, who forced McDonald to take an awkward, falling-backward heave as time expired.

Wilson is the sister of NFL Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, who was

in attendance. After watching his sister’s victory, he gave her a shoutout on social media: “Drive. Will. Passion. Energy.

You’ve earned it all through hard work, leadership, prayer, & immeasurable Faith. I Love You Anna Wilson. I Love You Champ.”

During the game, Wilson was assigned to guard the left-handed McDonald, who had scored a record 37 percent of her team’s points throughout the tournament.

McDonald finished with 22 points, but she made just five of 21 shots from the field.

Wilson, the Pac-12 Co-Defensive Player of the Year, made sure every McDonald shot was challenged.

Earlier in the second half, Wilson left the game after bumping knees with an opponent.

She went to the locker room for treatment and came back moments later, ready to roll.

Overall, Wilson had five points, four rebounds, three assists, one steal and four fouls in 31 intense minutes.

Jones, a 6-foot-1 sophomore, played like her waist-length braids were on fire, scoring 17 points (8-for-14 from the field) and snagging eight rebounds.

Like Wilson, who attended Collegiate School in Henrico County, Jones has a Virginia connection as well. Jones’ first cousin, former Olympian and WNBA star DeLisha Milton-Jones, is head women’s coach at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.

This marked the first Final Four in which there were two Black head coaches, South Carolina’s Dawn Staley and Arizona’s Adia Barnes. Staley, the former University of Virginia basketball great, coached South Carolina to the 2017 NCAA championship.

Dana “Pokey” Chatman coached Louisiana State University to three straight Final Fours in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Coach Carolyn Peck took Purdue to the Final Four in 1999 and Coach C. Vivian Stringer guided Cheyney State to the title game in 1982.

Coincidentally, Peck was among the ESPN analysts for this year’s tournament.

HBCU made it to NCAA Division I Final Four only once Mark Wade

Ty Lawson

Freddie Banks

HBCUs have made just one appearance Women, or the AIAW. in the men’s and women’s NCAA Division I Now 73, Coach Stringer is in her 25th season Final Four in the tournament’s history. as head coach at Rutgers, with 1,046 career Coach C. Vivian Stringer and a group of victories. She trails only Tara VanDerveer, young women from the Philadelphia area Geno Auriemma and the late Pat Summitt were responsible for that one-time among women’s team coaches. showing.

Her Rutgers Scarlet Knights Coach Stringer led the Cheyney went 14-5 this past season, losing to State Wolves to a runner-up finish Brigham Young in the first round of in the 1982 Final Four at the Northe NCAA Tournament. folk Scope. Cheyney defeated the Coach Stringer has been honored University of Maryland 76-62 in the as the Naismith College Coach of the semifinals before losing to LouisiYear and inducted into the Women’s ana Tech 76-62 in the final.

Basketball Hall of Fame and the Coach Stringer went on to lead Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall both Iowa (1993 and 2000) and of Fame.

Rutgers (2007) to Final Four ap- Coach Stringer On the NCAA Division II front, pearances.

Virginia Union University was the The NCAA did not govern women’s athlet- first HBCU to win the women’s championship in ics until 1982. Prior to that, women’s events 1983 under Coach Lou Hearn. The Lady Panthers were conducted under the umbrella of the finished as runner-up in 1984 and, again, in 2017 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for under former Coach AnnMarie Gilbert.

MLB moving All-Star game to Denver in response to Georgia voter suppression Free Press wire report

Major League Baseball plans to relocate the All-Star Game to Coors Field in Denver after pulling this year’s Midsummer Classic from Atlanta over objections to sweeping changes to Georgia’s voting laws.

The Associated Press learned Monday night that the commissioner’s office was expected to declare Tuesday that the Colorado Rockies will host the game.

MLB pulled the July 13 game from Truist Park in Atlanta in response to Georgia voting rules that Republican Gov. Brian Kemp quickly signed into law March 25. Critics, including the CEOs of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola, have

condemned the changes as being too restrictive.

The Georgia law includes new limits on voting by mail and greater legislative control over how elections are run, amid a push in Republican-led states to reduce voting options after former president Donald Trump made baseless claims of widespread fraud in last year’s election.

The law also makes it a crime for anyone other than poll workers to distribute food or water to voters in line.

Colorado has a Democratic governor, Jared Polis, and a Democratic-controlled legislature.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred made the decision to move the All-Star events and the amateur draft from Atlanta after discussions with individual players and the Players Alliance, an

organization of Black players formed after the death of George Floyd last year, the commissioner said in a statement.

Gov. Kemp has vowed to defend the measure in the face of legal challenges by the NAACP and other groups. Other Republicans also have criticized MLB’s move. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott backed out of throwing the first pitch at the Texas Rangers’ home opener Monday and said the state would not seek to host the All-Star Game or any other special MLB events.

Coors Field last hosted the All-Star Game in 1998, the fourth season for the stadium and sixth for the Rockies franchise. It’s uncertain what kind of seating capacity there might be due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Section

B

April 8-10, 2021 B1

Richmond Free Press

Happenings

Personality: Mahmud Chowdhury Spotlight on chairman of Asian American Society of Central Virginia At a time of heightened concern for and within the Asian-American community, Mahmud Chowdhury has his hands full.

The Henrico County resident has felt in recent weeks that his part-time volunteer position as chairman of the Asian American Society of Central Virginia has expanded into a full-time one in the wake of violence against Asian-Americans across the nation.

Nevertheless, Mr. Chowdhury is committed to serving his community and spreading a message of greater understanding and unity across Greater Richmond.

“Don’t hate Asian-Americans just because we look different,” Mr. Chowdhury says.

“We are also human beings just like you are.”

First formed in 1998, AASoCV has worked to represent 18 local Asian-American communities by highlighting their cultures, traditions and rights. The group’s mission also includes charitable activities, fostering cultural exchange and civic participation, and more.

Mr. Chowdhury first joined the group around 2008 through his connections at the U.S. Bangladesh Social Organization, where he served as chairman.

Starting out as a member of the AASoCV board, he later became chairman in February 2015. Since then, he has served three consecutive terms, all in order “to make a positive difference for the betterment of Asian-Americans” in the area and to highlight and raise the Asian-American communities’ profile.

“I wanted to contribute in a bigger way to the community,” Mr. Chowdhury notes.

As chairman, Mr. Chowdhury is tasked with setting the vision and curriculum of AASoCV’s work. His chief goal as chairman is to ensure the protection of Asian-American civil and political rights and to protect immigrant communities from exploitation.

To do so, Mr. Chowdhury seeks to bring their concerns to local, state and federal political and civic leaders and to get involved starting from the grassroots levels.

He has seen a lot more interest in this work as a number of local, state and national politicians and organizations have reached out to AASoCV recently about collaborations and community outreach.

As a result, Mr. Chowdhury says he had a 90-minute meeting last week with the police chiefs and commonwealth’s attorneys for the City of Richmond and Henrico and Chesterfield counties. The meeting was the latest in a long line of new connections being formed in the wake of tragedy, he says.

AASoCV’s work has been impacted somewhat during the COVID-19 pandemic. But that hasn’t stopped the group.

A Virtual Asian-American Celebration is set for May 22.

Mr. Chowdhury and others are doing everything they can to keep going in trying times.

“Be creative and adapt to the situation presented,” Mr. Chowdhury says. “As it goes, when nature gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

Meet a community advocate and this week’s Personality, Mahmud Chowdhury: No. 1 volunteer position: Chairman, Asian American Society of Central Virginia, or AASoCV.

Date of birth: Jan. 1 Where I live now: Glen Allen.

Education: Studied electrical engineering at the University of Houston, University Park.

Occupation: Real estate owner/ principal broker, Freedom 1 Realty Inc. Family: Wife, Ferdoushi “Runu” Chowdhury, and three daughters, Farah, 33, Sera, 26, and Rifah Chowdhury, 22.

Asian American Society of Central Virginia is: An organization representing 18 Asian communities and highlighting Asian cultures, traditions, education and civic rights of these immigrant Asian-American communities.

When and why founded: In 1998, for showcasing cultures and traditions and political/ civil rights of Asian-American communities.

Founders: Lou-Jen Chu, Wilson Goh and Dr. Suwattana Sugg, among others.

Mission: To advance integration of AsianAmericans into the local community, while maintaining ethnic traditions, culture and identity; to stress unity among diverse groups; to initiate charitable activities and foster cultural exchange and civic participation; to advocate equal representation as a minority group; to nurture a non-partisan atmosphere of cooperation; and to strive to secure and uphold civil rights and equal justice under the U.S. Constitution and other laws of the United States for all Americans regardless of race, creed, color, sex, religion, education, profession, disability or national origin.

Brief profile of membership: Leaders of these Asian communities, with a maximum of three people who are selected by their own communities to represent their interests in the umbrella organization AASoCV. Number of members: 45 currently.

When elected chairman of AASoCV: In February 2015.

Why I accepted position: To make a positive difference for the betterment of AsianAmericans living in the Greater Richmond area and to highlight and raise the profile of Asians living in our area.

Length of term: Two years.

I have been re-elected several times.

Previous chairman’s name: Dr. Emanuel Eugenio.

No. 1 goal as AASoCV chairman: To make sure AsianAmerican civil/political rights are protected and these immigrant communities are not taken advantage of.

Strategy for achieving goals: Raise profile and concerns to local, state and federal political/ civic leaders and get involved starting from the grassroots levels.

How COVID-19 is affecting AASoCV’s mission: It definitely made it harder for us to achieve our goals. Through social media and virtual Zoom meetings, we kept in touch with our communities. We are planning to hold a virtual Asian American celebration May 22.

Lessons AASoCV has learned from the pandemic: In some ways, communities coming together is harder — not impossible, although hard. Be creative and adapt to the situation presented. As it goes, when nature gives you lemons, make lemonade.

AAPI acronym means: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

What does Stop Hate AAPI mean for AASoCV: Don’t hate Asian-Americans just because we look different. We are also human beings just like you are.

Racial equity and AASoCV: Goes hand in hand.

AASoCV partners with: Likeminded organizations and appreciates the sponsors like Dominion Energy, Altria, Capital One, Henrico and Chesterfield counties, Evergreen Groups and Wells Fargo, among others.

Black community and AsianAmerican communities of Central Virginia: Need to form

closer relationships to benefit and learn from each other.

How I start the day: How can I make a positive difference in someone’s life today.

Three words that best describe me: Humble, ambitious and caring.

Best late-night snack: Nuts and yogurts.

How I unwind: Family vacations and through prayers.

What I have learned about myself during the pandemic: Be adaptive, more appreciative to God, as God is there to remind that no one is more powerful than God. God created me and He can take me away in a flash.

Something I love to do that most people would never imagine: Donate anonymously.

Quote that I am most inspired by: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” — President John F. Kennedy At the top of my “to-do” list: To stop Asian hate through education to eradicate ignorance.

Best thing my parents ever taught me: To stay honest and humble.

Person who influenced me the most: Our daughter, Farah Chowdhury (she doesn’t know it but…)

Book that influenced me the most: “Dreams from my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance” by former President Barack Obama.

What I’m reading now: “Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain atAny Age” by Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Next goal: Have grandchildren and spend time with them to complete life cycle.

2020-21 Excellence in Virginia Government awards April 15, 2021 Noon, Free & Open to the Public Register at wilder.vcu.edu

D i s c o v e r c l a s s i c a l m u s i c ’s f i r s t B l a c k c o m p o s e r.

A master swordsman and virtuoso violinist. After more than two centuries, experience the brilliance of Chevalier de Saint-Georges, live in concert.

His sparkling music charmed his adopted society and taught it to smile. Hear his Second Symphony and Violin Concerto, plus the Symphony No. 40 of his rival, Mozart.

Lifetime Achievement Honoree The Hon. Robert C. Scott, U.S. House of Representatives

Hill-Robinson Expansion of Freedom Honoree A.E. Dick Howard, Distinguished Professor of International Law, University of Virginia

Grace E. Harris Leadership Honoree John C. Purnell Jr., Past Executive Director Friends Association for Children

Unsung Heroes Honoree Cristina Dominguez Ramirez, Library Manager Henrico County Libraries

formerly FAN FREE CLINIC

Exceptional health services for those in need

Public-Private Partnership Virginia Housing Susan Dewey, Executive Director

Community Enhancement Health Brigade Karen Legato, Executive Director

Sponsored by:

Innovation in Government Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice Valerie Boykin, Director

Richmond Free Press

B2 April 8-10, 2021

Happenings

‘Scoop! There It Is!’

Nicci Carr now a star for GEICO

By Ronald E. Carrington

“French vanilla, rocky road, chocolate, peanut butter, cookie dough.

Scoop, there it is. Scoop, there it is.

Shaka-laka-chaka-laka-chaka-laka.”

Former Richmond actress and dancer Nicci Carr has become a phenom, dancing in her role as Tasha in the hugely popular GEICO commercial featuring Atlanta-based old school hip-hop duo Tag Team and reworked lyrics to their hit song, “Whoomp!

There It Is.” The spot, created by Richmond’s Martin Agency, was released in December and has caught fire across the nation, with more than 13 million views on YouTube. It is currently the No. 1 ad in America, according to industry publications.

Danny Robinson, chief creative director of the Martin Agency, said they knew the kind of person they wanted for the commercial — an actor who could dance and improvise on the set.

“Nicci Carr is an improv actress,” Mr. Robinson said. “She felt right for the idea” for the GEICO “What Are You Wanting” campaign by creative director Sean Riley and copywriter Roger Hailes.

In addition to Ms. Carr and Tag Team duo Cecil Glenn and Steve Gibson, the spot also features Anthony Goolsby as her husband and Amethyst Davis as her daughter.

Life changed for Ms. Carr in October when she signed a non-disclosure agreement for a top-secret audition for the role of Tasha, a high-energy mom in her kitchen who starts dancing in the commercial.

She said her acting career had been

a journey on a winding road, full of STOPS and starts and potholes. But she has never been out of creative gas as she stays in the extremely tough world of acting.

She said that winding road to be-

Mick Jagger, Captain & Tennille and actor-director Penny Marshall.

“My dad was in that industry and he always had music around,” Ms. Carr said, recalling her life in New York.

She also remembered her mother tak-

Courtesy the Martin Agency and Nicci Carr

Actress Nicci Carr, who grew up in Richmond, stars in the hit GEICO commercial “Scoop There It Is” with Tag Team, the old school hip-hop duo.

coming the darling of GEICO’s most talked about television and social media ad started after moving from New York City to Richmond’s North Side with her mother, Evelyn Jamison.

Ms. Carr attended what is now Barak Obama Elementary School in the early 1980s, where she was introduced to SPARC – Youth Performing Arts and would perform in various plays each year.

Her father, Willis Jamison, did not make the move to Richmond.

He worked for Warner Music Group, WEA records, and had introduced his young daughter to many entertainers and people in the industry, including

ing her to her first movie, “Grease.”

“That opened my eyes to acting.

That changed the trajectory of my life,” Ms. Carr said. She said people at a drive-in theater got out of their cars and danced during the film.

Her family was driven by education, she said. Her aunts and uncles were teachers, principals, medical doctors and other professionals.

However, Ms. Carr was the family entertainer — singing, dancing and acting, which would get her out of youthful trouble with her family.

She said she was a rambunctious and rebellious teen, who did not do well in school, but yearned to see her name

in theatrical lights.

Ms. Carr attended Henderson Middle School and John Marshall High School, where she was awarded for her acting and dancing. Unfortunately, she failed academically and did not graduate.

After a manager at a McDonald’s on Chamberlayne Avenue rejected her for a job because she didn’t have a high school diploma, Ms. Carr, shocked but undaunted, went back to Thomas Jefferson High School, where she earned a GED and was re-introduced to SPARC. That renewal, plus her hard work with her studies, was a positive pivot on her life’s journey.

After finishing St. Paul’s College 1994, Ms. Carr moved from Richmond to Washington in 1996. Through a neighbor, she found a second-grade teaching position at Edison-Friendship Public Charter School in Northeast Washington.

At the same time, Ms. Carr continued working on her acting by practicing accents — English, Spanish and Australian — to perfect their authenticity and believability.

“I love teaching,” Ms. Carr said.

“I excelled (at teaching) using my performing arts. I used my acting to keep the students’ attention even during math.”

During a chaotic lunch period one day, Ms. Carr managed to mesmerize the rowdy second-graders when she took the stage in the lunch room and began a monologue with a perfect English accent.

“Tough crowd, 6- and 7-year-olds,” Ms. Carr said with a laugh, recalling how the youngsters quieted down and listened to her impromptu story told with an accent.

One of the students’ father, a local actor, found out about her performance. He met with Ms. Carr and then contacted an acting friend Los Angeles. The friend was impressed and suggested Ms. Carr head out to the West Coast to pursue acting.

“I bungee jumped out to Los Angeles in 2004,” she said. The decision to go, she said, was made in church after hearing a sermon about Jesus telling his disciples to cast their nets out onto the water to catch fish.

In 2005, things started happening for Ms. Carr. She earned a series of background acting work — in “The West Wing” and “Beauty Shop” with Queen Latifah and her first national commercial with Toyota, followed by Rooms to Go and print advertising.

The next decade was bumpy, with a move to Atlanta, where she currently lives; two failed marriages, which she said drove her into a deep depression; and a hard, professional fall.

Ms. Carr now splits her time between being a STEM coordinator at the University of Georgia and finding the next acting opportunity.

“God has been on my side this entire journey,” Ms. Carr said, reflecting on her newfound fame.

Easter celebration

Easter took on an air of celebration this year, as loosened COVID-19 restrictions allowed people to return to churches for services, many for the first time since early 2020. People also enjoyed outdoor worship services and family activities at area parks. Scores of people attended the Family Easter at Maymont on Saturday, where the Easter Bunny made an appearance, performers and musicians entertained and activities, including a scavenger hunt, were held on the park’s expansive lawns. On Easter Sunday, Cedar Street Baptist Church of God took the temperature of all before they entered the church for services, where attendance was limited and social distancing was observed. Meanwhile, Moore Street Baptist Church held a drive-in worship service in the parking lot of Virginia Union University’s Hovey Field.

Photos by Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Above left, Dr. Alonza L. Lawrence, pastor of Moore Street Missionary Baptist Church, delivers the Easter sermon to people in their cars at the Hovey Field parking lot at Virginia Union University. Above right, congregants are socially distanced according to COVID-19 protocols during worship at Cedar Street Baptist Church of God.

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Despite the pandemic, some people dressed up for Easter Sunday service, including Mammie Diggs who wore red from head to toe to Cedar Street Baptist Church of God. Above, members of the Moore Street Missionary Baptist Church Youth Choir gather after their performance for Easter Sunday. They are, from left, Tahmir Abraham, Brooklynn Taylor, Kamaya Raines, Madison Floyd, Angie Taylor, McKenzie Tolliver and Seanae Hendricks.

Right, Morgan Harris, 3, of Varina almost loses the Easter bonnet she crafted during Saturday’s Family Easter at Maymont as she tries to twirl a hula hoop. The youngster attended the event with her grandmother, Naomi Washington.

Rapper DMX remains on life support

Free Press wire report

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. Supporters and family of the rapper DMX chanted his name and offered prayers Monday outside the New York hospital where he remains on life support.

The 50-year-old was admitted to the hospital on April 2 following a heart attack.

The crowd outside White Plains Hospital called “DMX! DMX!” and when urged to by the main speaker, crossed their arms in the shape of an X. A woman’s sobs

reverberated as those in the audience heard a recording of the rapper, whose birth name is Earl Simmons.

Mr. Simmons’ longtime lawyer, Murray Richman, said on DMX Sunday that the rapper was admitted to the intensive care unit but he was not sure what caused the heart attack.

DMX made his rap debut in 1998 and

has released seven albums in a career that has included three Grammy nominations.

He also has acted in several movies.

But substance abuse has been a struggle for him over the years, including in 2019 when he canceled shows to go to a rehabilitation facility.

Nevertheless, he retained his standing among fans. An online face-off last year with fellow rapper Snoop Dogg as part of the Verzuz series brought in more than 500,000 viewers.

Diamonds  Watches  Jewelry  Repairs

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Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

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Richmond Free Press

April 8-10, 2021 B3

Faith News/Obituary/Directory South Side churches merge, with Pastor Alexander ‘Jay’ Patrick as new head

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Celebration Church and Outreach Center, formerly the Richmond Outreach Center, appears to have merged with the nearby Liberation Church, with Pastor Alexander “Jay” Patrick of Liberation named the pastor of the newly merged church.

Liberation Church, whose motto is “We love people, show kindness and serve change,” held its first joint service on Easter Sunday at the 13-acre campus at 5501 Midlothian Turnpike where the ROC, renamed Celebration Church and Outreach Center, had operated independently since 2007.

The religious property, though tax-exempt, is valued at $15 million, according to city assessment records that also show the property is still listed in the ROC’s name.

According to Celebration officials, Pastor Patrick, a Pittsylvania County native and Hampden-Sydney College graduate who began the church in his home in 2006, was named to lead the combined churches in March.

Members of the Celebration board could not immediately be reached for comment, and the board has not issued a statement on Pastor Patrick’s selection or what impact the merger will have on Celebration Church’s ownership of the property. It is not clear whether both churches will retain separate identities or whether

the Celebration name will pantry that they said curbe retired. rently serves 1,600 people For now, each church a week. has its own website.

Pastor Patrick said there Pastor Patrick issued also would be no changes the only information ahead in the operation of a sepaof the Easter service. He rate Celebration property took to social media to that provides shelter and announce that he and his services to victims of dochurch now hold the keys mestic violence and sex to the property. trafficking.

Pastor Jay Patrick and his wife Ashley Patrick, his wife “This gift does not just Pastor Ashley Patrick and Liberation’s executive come with property, it minister, joined him for the announcement. In comes with responsibility,” said Pastor Patrick. the announcement, Pastor Patrick said Celebra- “We have not just been tasked to take on assets. tion’s board had given Liberation control of the We’ve been tasked to take on a burden in this church’s property debt-free, along with six vans city. We’ve been tasked to take this act of kindand a box truck. ness and disperse it through the city.”

The campus’ main building includes a 4,200The Patricks said they are up for the chalseat sanctuary, three basketball courts and a lenge of maintaining and expanding Celebrafully equipped workout facility, Pastor Patrick tion’s one-stop outreach center that has sought said. The Celebration website notes the workout to serve people who are unemployed, homeless, facility offers monthly memberships. addicted or otherwise in need. The Patricks have Also on the property is a café/restaurant space operated food distribution and other outreach and “a thrift store that is fully functional,” he programs at Liberation. said. Celebration also operates a second Love of As a result of the pandemic, “our city is Jesus Thrift Store at 5158 Nine Mile Road. being ravaged by unemployment and poverty,” The Patricks said the thrift stores would Pastor Patrick said, ticking off statistics about remain in operation to help provide affordable the increase in homelessness, hunger and adclothing and other items to the public. They diction. also said they will continue Celebration’s food “What better time to be in a position to oper-

Thomas F. “Tom” Farrell II, Dominion Energy CEO, dies day after he retires

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

“Due to the Corona Virus Pandemic, Services Are Cancelled, until further notice; but, please join us, by visiting BRBCOnline.org or YouTube (Broad Rock Baptist Church).”

Free Press wire, staff report

Thomas F. “Tom” Farrell II, who led Dominion Energy for more than a decade and was a powerful force in Virginia business and politics, died Friday, April 2, 2021, one day after stepping down from his post as the company’s executive chairman. He was 66.

Mr. Farrell, who served as the company’s chairman, president and chief executive officer from 2007 to 2020, had been battling cancer, Mr. Farrell which took a sudden turn in recent weeks, according to the utility company.

“Tom was a peerless mentor and outstanding leader who sought to find innovative solutions to challenges at Dominion Energy, in the utility industry and in the community he called home,” said Robert M. Blue, who succeeded Mr. Farrell as board chairman.

“In his tenure at the company, Tom oversaw an era of prosperity and growth, and a long-term transformation that will have a lasting impact on clean energy development and on the health of the environment.”

Dominion serves 7 million customers in 16 states and is a Fortune 500 company based in Richmond.

In 2014, the company partnered with Duke Energy to launch the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project, a 600-mile natural gas pipeline designed to cross West Virginia and Virginia into North Carolina.

The massive infrastructure project drew fierce opposition from many landowners, activists and environmental advocates, who said it would damage pristine landscapes and harm wildlife. A pipeline compressor station planned for rural Buckingham County also would have impacted the historic African-American community of Union Hill, which was founded after the Civil War. Dominion canceled the $8 billion project last July, as legal battles mounted, construction fell behind schedule and the cost ballooned. Opponents questioned whether there was sufficient need for the gas it would carry and said it would further encourage the use of a fossil fuel at a time when climate change makes a shift to renewable energy imperative.

Mr. Farrell also led last year’s unsuccessful $1.5 billion Navy Hill District Corp. plan to replace the Richmond Coliseum and redevelop a 10-block area around it in Downtown.

“MAKE IT HAPPEN” Pastor Kevin Cook

151 years of Christian Ser ating r b vice e Cel

Ebenezer Baptist Church 1858

±4HE 0EOPLE´S #HURCH²

216 W. Leigh St. • Richmond, Va. 23220 Tel: 804-643-3366 • Fax: 804-643-3367 Email: ebcoffice1@yahoo.com • web: www.richmondebenezer.com

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.

(Jeremiah 29:11, NRSV) Please visit our website Ebenezer Baptist Church Richmond, VA for updates http://www.richmondebenezer.com

Baptist Church

Dr. Alonza L. Lawrence, Pastor

"APTIST #HURCH Sunday School – 9:45 AM Sunday Services – 11:00 AM Via Conference Call (515) 606-5187 Pin 572890#

All church ac�vi�es are canceled un�l further no�ce.

Follow us on Facebook for “A Word from Moore Street’s Pastor” and weekly Zoom worship info.

Drive-thru giving will be available the 1st and 3rd Saturday from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the church. (Bowe Street side) You also may give through Givelify.

Be safe. Be blessed.

Also Visit Us On Facebook Sunday Service – 11:00 AM 2604 Idlewood Avenue Richmond, Va. 23220 (804) 353-6135 www.riverviewbaptistch.org Rev. Dr. Stephen L. Hewlett, Pastor Rev. Dr. Ralph Reavis, Sr. Pastor Emeritus

Good Shepherd Baptist Church 1127 North 28th St., Richmond, VA 23223 s Office: (804) 644-1402 Dr. Sylvester T. Smith, Pastor “There’s A Place for You”

Due to the COVID-19 Corona Virus All regular activities have been suspended until further notice.

Visit https://youtu.be/qqzhnIEQyQc for inspirational messages from Pastor Smith

“Redeeming God’s People for Gods Purpose”

1384 New Market Road, Richmond, Virginia 23231 | 804-222-8835

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

A MISSION BASED CHURCH FAMILY EXCITING MINISTRIES FOR CHILDREN, YOUTH, YOUNG ADULTS & SENIOR ADULTS BIBLE REVELATION TEACHING DIVERSE MUSIC MINISTRY LOVING, CARING ENVIRONMENT

500 E. Laburnum Avenue, Richmond, VA 23222 www.sharonbaptistchurchrichmond.org (804) 643-3825

2IVERVIEW

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

Antioch Baptist Church

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 WEDNESDAY MID-WEEK PRAYER & BIBLE STUDY – 7:00 P.M.

3HARON "APTIST #HURCH

Moore Street Missionary

Dr. Wallace J. Cook, Pastor Emeritus

Rev. Dr. Adam L. Bond, Pastor

SERVICES

“The Church With A Welcome”

ate a one-stop outreach center,” Pastor Patrick said. “We are ready for this act of kindness. We are ready for this challenge.”

A fast-growing church, Liberation has operated a housing and outreach center for veterans at 1201 Hull St. since 2013, and had relocated its sanctuary in 2017 to 5200 Midlothian Turnpike, which it purchased for $1.2 million from the United Nations Church International, which has taken over the former Richmond Christian Center on Cowardin Avenue.

The Celebration property previously was associated with Geronimo “Pastor G” Aguilar, who founded the Richmond Outreach Center in 2001 when he came to the city.

The center grew into one of the area’s largest churches and won attention and praise from local and state political figures for its work to uplift people with an array of services.

But the program and its leader became engulfed in scandal in 2013 when Pastor Aguilar was arrested on Texas charges of felony sexual assault of underage girls while serving as a youth minister in Fort Worth before coming to Richmond.

In 2015, the once celebrated Richmond minister was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

In the aftermath, the ministry adopted the Celebration name and sought to move forward. It is known that church membership has declined.

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

Sunday Service will not be held in our sanctuary.

Join us for 11:00 AM Worship by going to our website www.sixthbaptistchurch.org

Twitter sixthbaptistrva

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 sixthbaptistrva www.sixthbaptistchurch.org

Rev. Dr. Paul A. Coles, Pastor

SUNDAYS Morning Worship 10:00 AM Drive-In Service in our Parking Lot

See you there!

St. Peter Baptist Church

Thirty-first Street Baptist Church

“Working For You In This Difficult Hour”

k

$R +IRKLAND 2 7ALTON 0ASTOR

Worship Opportunities

C

e with Reverence elevanc R g in Rev. Dr. Joshua Mitchell, Senior Pastor bin ❖ om Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic All regular activities have been suspended until further notice.

Please join us on

Join us for online streaming this Sunday at 10 AM. Visit our WEBSITE, look under “/NLINE 3ERVICES,” and access the “0ASTOR S -ESSAGE.” Bible Study Opportunities Thursdays: Virtual Bible Study session via Zoom, every Thursday at 7 PM. Email request to spbcoffice@stpeterbaptist.net; A new Meeting ID and password will be emailed weekly.

Tithing Opportunities Download the Tithe.ly giving app for Apple and Android devices.

Your gift is safe/secure and goes directly to our church.

-OUNTAIN 2OAD s 'LEN !LLEN 6IRGINIA /FlCE s &AX s WWW STPETERBAPTIST NET

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

k

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

Facebook or YouTube

10:30 a.m. Sundays 7:00 p.m. Wednesdays-Bible Study

823 North 31st Street Richmond, VA 23223 (804) 226-0150 Office

Richmond Free Press

B4 April 8-10, 2021

Legal Notices/Employment Opportunities PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given that the City of Richmond Planning Commission has scheduled a public hearing, open to all interested citizens, on Monday, April 19, 2021 at 1:30 p.m. and the Council of the City of Richmond has scheduled a public hearing on Monday, April 26, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. to consider the following ordinances: Ordinance No. 2021-083 To authorize the special use of the property known as 109 North Plum Street for the purpose of no more than one dwelling unit within an accessory building to an existing single-family dwelling, upon certain terms and conditions.

The current zoning for the subject property is R-6 Single-Family Attached Residential. The City’s Richmond 300 Master Plan designates the property for Neighborhood Mixed Use land use.

Primary Uses: Singlefamily houses, accessory dwelling units, duplexes, small multi-family buildings (typically 3-10 units), and open space.

Secondary Uses: Large multifamily buildings (10+units), retail/office/ personal service, institutional, cultural, and government.

Ordinance No. 2021-084 To authorize the special use of the property known as 520 North 25th Street for the purpose of a restaurant and beverage service establishment, upon certain terms and conditions. The property is situated is situated in a R-63 Multifamily Urban Residential District. The Richmond 300 Master Plan designates the property for Community Mixed-Use land use.

Primary Uses: Retail/ office/ personal service, multi-family residential, cultural, and open space. Secondary Uses: Single-family houses, institutional, and government.

Ordinance No. 2021-085 To conditionally rezone the property known as 1801 East Main Street from the M-1 Light Industrial District to the TOD-1C Transit-Oriented Nodal District (Conditional), upon certain proffered conditions. The property is situated in an M-1 Light Industrial District.

The City of Richmond’s Master Plan designates a future land use category for the subject property as Destination Mixed-Use. Primary uses are retail/ office/personal service, multi-family residential, cultural and open space.

No residential density is specified for this land use designation.

The meetings will be held through electronic communication means pursuant to and in compliance with Ordinance No. 2020-093, adopted April 9, 2020, as most recently amended by Ordinance No. 2020-232, adopted December 14, 2020. The meetings will be open to participation through electronic communication means by the public and closed to in-person participation by the public. Less than a quorum of Richmond City Planning Commission members and Richmond City Council will assemble in City Hall, located at 900 East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia, and most members and other staff will participate by teleconference/ videoconference via Microsoft Teams.

The meetings will be streamed live online at the following web address: https://richmondva. legistar.com/Calendar. a s p x . To w a t c h a meeting’s live stream at the web address provided, find and click the link that reads, “In Progress” in the farthest right hand column entitled, “Video”.

The agenda for the Richmond City Council meeting is accessible through the City’s legislative website at the following web address: https://richmondva. legistar.com/Calendar. aspx. To view the agenda at the web address provided, find and click the link that reads, “Agenda” associated with the April 26, 2021 Richmond City Council Formal meeting listed in the calendar.

Interested citizens who wish to speak at the Richmond City Council meeting will be given an opportunity to do so by following the “Formal Meeting Citizen Participation Instructions” attached to the April 26, 2021 Richmond City Council Formal meeting agenda.

Citizens are encouraged to provide their comments in writing to CityClerksOffice@ richmondgov.com in lieu Continued on next column

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of calling in. The person responsible for receiving comments in writing is Candice D. Reid, City Clerk. All comments received prior to 10:00 a.m. on Monday, April 26, 2021, will be provided to Council members prior to the meeting and will be included in the record of the meeting.

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-city-clerk.

Candice D. Reid City Clerk

Divorce VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF HANOVER FANTICASIA WALKER, Plaintiff v.

MADI CEESAY, Defendant.

Case No.: CL21001148-00 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 19th day of May, 2021 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 ROBIN BAILEY-ELLISON, Plaintiff v.

ANTHONY ELLISON, Defendant.

Case No.: CL21001146-00 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 19th day of May, 2021 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 HEIDI BOYETTE, Plaintiff v.

MARK BOYETTE, Defendant.

Case No.: CL21001041-00 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 7th day of May, 2021 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 EVAN HARRIS-DILLARD, Plaintiff v.

LEON DILLARD, JR., Defendant.

Case No.: CL20004669-00 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 7th day of May, 2021 at 9:00 AM, and protect his interests.

A Copy, Teste: FRANK D. HARGROVE, JR., Clerk I ask for this: Dorothy M. Eure, Esquire Continued on next column

Continued from previous column

Law Office of Dorothy M. Eure, P.C. VSB# 27724 8460 Mount Eagle Road Ashland, VA 23005 (804) 798-9667 VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF HANOVER ATTILA HORVAT, Plaintiff v.

CAROLYN HORVAT, Defendant.

Case No.: CL21001093-00 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 7th day of May, 2021 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 VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF HANOVER BRITTNY HATCHER, Plaintiff v.

NAKEA HATCHER, SR., Defendant.

Case No.: CL20004695-00 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 19th day of May, 2021 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 FRED OFOSU-ANIM, Plaintiff v.

LOUISA ANIM, Defendant.

Case No.: CL21000988-00 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 3rd day of May, 2021 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 VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF HANOVER EBONIE DESILVA, Plaintiff v.

WILLIE DESILVA, Defendant.

Case No.: CL21000962-00 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 3rd day of May, 2021 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 OYERINOLA ONI, Plaintiff v.

FOLASADE ROBINSON, Defendant.

Case No.: CL21000822-00 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to obtain a divorce from the bond of matrimony from the defendant on the ground Continued on next column

Continued from previous column

Continued from previous column

Continued from previous column

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 April, 2021 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

nikki cole Case No. J-99157-06-00 J-99157-07-00 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to: Terminate the residual parental rights (“TPR”) of the Unknown Father and Nikki Cole (Mother) of Jamontae Cole DOB 09/04/2020, child.

“TPR” means all rights and responsibilities remaining with parent after transfer of legal custody or guardianship of the person, including but not limited to rights of: visitation; adoption consent; determination of religious affiliation; and responsibility for support.

It is ORDERED that the defendants Unknown Father and Nikki Cole to appear at the above-named Court and protect his/her interest on or before 09/13/2021, at 9:00 AM, Courtroom #4.

UNKNOWN FATHER, antione smith Case No. JJ097382-09-00, JJ097382-11-00 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to: Terminate the residual parental rights (“TPR”) of the Unknown Father and Antione Smith (Father) of Aa’mer Lamont Cooper, child, DOB 01/12/2018, child, “TPR” means all rights and responsibilities remaining with parent after transfer of legal custody or guardianship of the person, including but not limited to rights of: visitation; adoption consent; determination of religious affiliation; and responsibility for support.

It is ORDERED that the defendant, Unknown Father and Antione Smith, to appear at the above-named Court and protect his/her interest on or before 05/17/2021, at 2:00 PM, Courtroom #4.

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF HANOVER DEMARCUS FERGUSON, Plaintiff v.

TASHEKA FERGUSON, Defendant.

Case No.: CL20001294-00 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 April, 2021 at 9:00 AM, and protect her interests.

A Copy, Teste: FRANK D. HARGROVE, JR., Clerk I ask for this: Dorothy M. Eure, Plaintiff’s Counsel VSB# 27724 The 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 JENNIFER WHITE, Plaintiff v.

FRANK WHITE, Defendant.

Case No.: CL21000856-00 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 April, 2021 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 ,

Custody

VIRGINIA: IN THE JUVENILE AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS DISTRICT COURT OF HENRICO COUNTY Commonwealth of Virginia, in re CHAVARRIA GRIJALVA, DULCE N ROSA CHAVARRIA GRIJALVA v.

MARVIN ROSIL Case No. JJ107933-01-00 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to: Custody Special Immigrations.

It is ORDERED that the defendant Marvin Rosil appear at the above-named Court and protect his or her interests on or before 05/20/2021, at 9:00 AM. VIRGINIA: IN THE JUVENILE AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS DISTRICT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND Commonwealth of Virginia, in re LEILIANA LYNNAE FELIX rdss v.

ALBERTO FELIX, JR. Case No. J-97950-05 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to: Terminate the residual parental rights (“RPR”) Alberto Felix, Jr. (Father) of Leiliana Lynnae Felix child, DOB 9/22/2019. “RPR” means all rights and responsibilities remaining with parent after transfer of legal custody or guardianship of the person, including but not limited to rights of: visitation; adoption consent; determination of religious affiliation; and responsibility for support.

It is ORDERED that the defendants Alberto Felix, Jr., (Father) to appear at the above-named Court and protect his/her interest on or before 6/11/2021, at 10:20 AM, Courtroom #1.

VIRGINIA: IN THE JUVENILE AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS DISTRICT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND Commonwealth of Virginia, in re jamonte cole rdss v.

UNKNOWN FATHER Continued on next column

VIRGINIA: IN THE JUVENILE AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS DISTRICT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND Commonwealth of Virginia, in re LEILIANA LYNNAE FELIX RDSS v.

UNKNOWN FATHER, JENNIFER LYNN WARNER Case No. JJ097382-09-00, JJ097382-11-00 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to: Terminate the residual parental rights (“RPR”) Unknown Father (Father) & Jennifer Lynn Warner (Mother), o f L e i l i ana Lynnae Felix, child, DOB 9/22/2019, “RPR” means all rights and responsibilities remaining with parent after transfer of legal custody or guardianship of the person, including but not limited to rights of: visitation; adoption consent; determination of religious affiliation; and responsibility for support.

It is ORDERED that the defendants, Unknown Father, (Father) & Jennifer Lynn Warner (Mother), to appear at the abovenamed Court and protect his/her interest on or before 6/11/2021, at 10:20 AM, Courtroom #1.

VIRGINIA: IN THE JUVENILE AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS DISTRICT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND Commonwealth of Virginia, in re aa’mer lamont cooper RDSS v.

Continued on next column

LICENSE NOTICE AKS Virginia LLC Trading as: BP Food Store 2931 Chamberlayne Ave Richmond, Virginia 23222 The above establishment is applying to the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage C ontrol (ABC) AUTHORITY for a Wine & Beer Off Premises license to sell or manufacture alcoholic beverages.

Amar Singh, Member 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 800-5523200.

Boni Roni BBQ LLC Trading as: Boni Roni BBQ 3016A Mountain Rd Glen Allen, Virginia 23060-2001 The above establishment is applying to the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage C ontrol (ABC) AUTHORITY for a Beer On Premises 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 800-5523200.

BUSINESS MANAGER Richmond, Virginia

Virginia Economic Development Partnership is seeking an experienced economic development professional to successfully promote Virginia to targeted corporate executives and consultants as the preferred location for new and expanding business facilities.

All candidates must apply through our website: https://www.vedp.org/about-vedp.

Application deadline: Open Until Filled VEDP is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All applicants are considered for employment without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, age, veteran status, political affiliation, genetics, or against otherwise µÕ> wi` ` Û `Õ> Ã Ü Ì ` Ã>L Ì ið Ì Ã 6 *½Ã intent that its employment and personnel « V ià > ` «À>VÌ Vià V v À Ì > >«« V>L i federal, state, and local laws and regulations Ài}>À` } ` ÃVÀ >Ì > ` >vwÀ >Ì Ûi action. Applicants requiring more information or requiring assistance may contact VEDP Human Resources at 1-804-545-5634 or vedphr@vedp.org. TDD 1-800-828-1120.

GIS TECHNICIAN Richmond, Virginia

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership is seeking a GIS Technician to join the Research Division’s GIS Team. This position will create and maintain standard and highly-customized cartographic products, maintain multiple GIS datasets, and perform GIS analyses as needed in the support of the VEDP mission.

All candidates must apply through our website https://www.vedp.org/about-vedp. Application deadline: April 11, 2021.

VEDP is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All applicants are considered for employment without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, age, veteran status, political >vw >Ì ] }i iÌ VÃ] À >}> ÃÌ Ì iÀÜ Ãi µÕ> wi` individuals with disabilities. It is VEDP’s intent that its employment and personnel policies and practices conform to all applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations regarding non-discrimination and affirmative action.

Applicants requiring more information or requiring assistance may contact VEDP Human Resources at 1-804-545-5634 or vedphr@vedp. org. TDD 1-800-828-1120

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

Notice of Intent to Acquire Property: 7KH 9DOHQWLQH 0XVHXP KHUHE\ QRWLÀHV LQWHQW WR acquire title to the objects listed below. The last known lender on record is listed below & these objects will become the property of the museum after 65 days if no person can prove ownership of the property, pursuant to Code of VA § 55210.37.

Lender: Unknown Address: Unknown Loan Date: 1943 Description: Animal Hide (L.43.114)

To advertise in the

Richmond Free Press call 644-0496 Follow the Free Press on

Lender: Mrs. James E. Covington Address: 6106 Three Chopt Road Loan Date: February 4, 1947 Description: Pink and Blue Chiffon Evening Gown (L.47.2a-d) Lender: Miss M. Katharine Cary Address: 1715 Park Avenue Richmond, VA Loan Date: 1947 Description: Lamp and globe (L.47.8, .8b)

@FreePressRVA @RichmondFreePressUSA

Richmond Free Press

Mother’s Day / Father’s Day ADVERTISING RATES

Lender: The Rev. and Mrs. Day Carper Address: Southern Presbyterian Church Mission, Bibanga, Belgian Congo Loan Date: January 10, 1948 Description: Rattle (L.48.01.09a) Lender: [Unknown First Name] Claiborne Address: Unknown Loan Date: April 14, 1949 Description: Teapot (L.49.2 a-c) Lender: Mr. J.A. Jamison Address: 4100 Hermitage Road Richmond, VA Loan Date: June 1, 1950 Description: One Wedding Dress, Dressing Gown and Cape (L.50.06.02-04a,b) Lender: Unknown Address: Unknown Loan Date: 1950 Description: One stuffed animal (bunny) and one pincushion (L.50.2.11 & .13) Lender: Mrs. Djenane M. Lemmon Address: 2606 Park Avenue Richmond, VA Loan Date: 1951 Description: Medicine spoon (L.51.11) Lender: Unknown Address: Unknown Loan Date: 1972 Description: Beaker (L.72.06) Lender: Unknown Address: Unknown Loan Date: 1972 'HVFULSWLRQ ,GHQWLÀFDWLRQ 7DJ ´1DWLRQDO /HDJXH / of Women / Voters” (L.72.147.16) Lender: Mrs. Robert Andrews Loan Date: 1978 Description: Dress of brown silk crepe with PRWLIV RI OHRSDUGV DQG ÁRZHUV 9

Please visit website or contact museum for information on how to make a claim: The Valentine Museum Alicia Starliper, Collections Project Manager/ Registrar 804-649-0711 ext. 205 Registrar@thevalentine.org http://www.thevalentine.org/collections/ undocumented-property 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.

Happening

Everyday is Everyday is Mother’s Day to Mom. Father’s Day to Dad. CHECK (3) RUN DATES

City of Richmond, Virginia CITY COUNCIL

Inspiring Father-Son

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Breakfast

Thursday Publication Dates: m April m April 2

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**Publication Dates prior to Mother’s Day and Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day

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Contact Cynthia Downing by phone or fax (804) 644-0496 (804) 643-5436 or email advertising@richmondfreepress.com

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1cx2” $46.76

1cx3” $70.14 (actual size)

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Augustus (Gus) Jefferson, Happy Father’s

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2cx2” $93.52

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Clarence Ballard

Junius Williams, Sr.

In Memory of Our Father

Wilson

CHECK (3) AD SIZE

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Robert McCoy

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Happy Father’s Day!

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Paul Wright

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(actual size)

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2cx3” $140.28 (actual size)

Flowers are pretty, ties are keen for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day Show all how much mom and dad mean to you in this truly special way