Paule Marshall remembered B4 A5, A8
Richmond Free Press © 2019 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
VOL. 28 NO. 34
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
www.richmondfreepress.com
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Fr ee
First 400 years
AUGUST 22-24, 2019
‘Rey’ of hope Cristo Rey Richmond High School opens to high expectations by students, officials By Samantha Willis and George Copeland
Heritage Auctions via Associated Press
This photo released by Heritage Auctions shows a Punahou School basketball jersey reportedly worn by former President Barack Obama during his student days at the school in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Obama’s old high school basketball jersey sells for $120,000 Free Press wire report
DALLAS A basketball jersey believed to have been worn by former President Barack Obama while he was at an elite Honolulu prep school has sold at auction for $120,000. Heritage Auctions said the No. 23 Punahou School jersey sold last Saturday night in Dallas to a collector of American and sports artifacts who did not want to be identified. Mr. Obama wore that number during the 1978-79 school year. The jersey was put up for auction by Peter Noble, who was three years behind Mr. Obama at Punahou School. He said he grabbed the jersey the summer before his senior year because it was Mr. Obama destined for the trash. He said he took it because 23 was his number on the basketball team. Mr. Noble, now 55 and living in Seattle, said years later, after Mr. Obama’s first election in 2008, he saw an old photo of the 44th president wearing a No. 23 jersey while a guard on the school’s 1979 Hawaii state championship team. “I took it because they were getting rid of it,” Mr. Noble said. “It meant nothing else, really.” Mr. Noble said he grew up “idolizing” Punahou basketball. The auction house says details on the shirt match the one Mr. Obama, who mostly sat on the bench during his Punahou basketball days, is photographed wearing. After seeing the photo, Mr. Noble said he thought it was interesting and showed the jersey off to friends out of pride for Punahou. Mostly, the shirt remained in his closet, following him during moves to various cities. Mr. Noble says a portion of the sale will go to Punahou School. “I got to thinking: Is there an opportunity to do something, perhaps good?” he said. “Perhaps have this see a bigger, broader light of day than sitting in my closet.”
By the numbers
City finishes fiscal year with surplus By Jeremy M. Lazarus
If Richmond City Council approves, retired city employees such as Elmer Seay and Daisy Weaver might receive a 1 percent increase in their city pensions — the first cost-of-living increase since 2008. And three projects aimed at opening access to parts of James River Park, Brown’s Island and other public property to people in wheelchairs, on crutches and using walkers could be fully funded. The reason: City Hall expects to finish the 2019 fiscal year with a $15 million surplus, according to the fourth quarter financial report issued Aug. 15. Mayor Stoney That’s a complete reversal from three months ago when top city officials warned City Council of a looming $1.6 million deficit and asked for permission to tap a savings account reserved for emergencies to avoid a shortfall in the $735.8 million 2018-19 budget. In late May, the council was told the deficit was an urgent matter and that a failure to support the administration’s request to shift funds between departments and tap savings could leave Please turn to A4
Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press
Corey Taylor, principal of Cristo Rey Richmond High School, welcomes members of the school’s inaugural class Monday and sets expectations for the academic year.
When the bell rang at 7:45 a.m. Monday, 96 ninth-grade students began the inaugural school year at Cristo Rey Richmond High School, a private school that promises opportunities for some of the area’s poorest youths through a rigorous, college preparatory curriculum combined with an unconventional work component that seeks to give them a boost in the job market. Located at 304 N. Sheppard St. inside the former Benedictine High School, Cristo Rey is “part of a network of 37 schools across the United States,” explained Peter McCourt, president and chief executive officer of the Richmond school. “Nationally, Cristo Rey schools have produced about 15,000 graduates, with a 100 percent college acceptance rate.” Cristo Rey is a Catholic school whose goal is to educate “young people of limited economic means to become men and women of faith, purpose and service,” according to its mission statement. “We are a faith-based, Catholic learning community,” Mr. McCourt said, “but we welcome students of all faiths. They do not have to be Catholic to attend.” Cristo Rey opens in Richmond at a time of academic uncertainty, with public schools in the metro area garnering both nationwide honors and Please turn to A4
State NAACP president dismissed, listening tour stopped in shake-up By Jeremy M. Lazarus
The president of the Virginia State Conference NAACP was abruptly dismissed and the civil rights group’s statewide “Listening Tour” has been halted in changes announced last weekend by the state administrator. Robert N. Barnette Jr. of Hanover County is to immediately take the helm of the state NAACP, replacing the Rev. Kevin L. Chandler of South Boston. Mr. Barnette was serving as the state vice president, as well as president of the Hanover County Branch NAACP. Rev. Chandler was not planning to run for re-election. The change is the work of Gloria Sweet-Love, the Tennessee State NAACP president whom the national NAACP appointed earlier this year to administer the Virginia affiliate. She announced the change Saturday during a meeting of the state NAACP executive committee and then sent a notice to the branches around Virginia on Tuesday. In her news release to the media, Ms. Sweet-Love did not mention her dismissal of two other executive committee members — Jesse Frierson of Richmond, who was removed as chairman of the state NAACP Political Action Committee, and state Treasurer James P. Boyd of Portsmouth. Neither Mr. Frierson nor Mr. Boyd could be reached for comment. The changes spotlight a continuing instability in the top reaches of the organization, which is impacting its effectiveness in the state. On Aug. 1, the state conference kicked off a statewide “Listening Tour” in Richmond to hear about the issues and concerns facing African-Americans and to
come up with a plan for policy and political solutions. T h e t o u r, a n nounced by Rev. Chandler and Mr. Frierson, was to make stops in seven additional communities Mr. Barnette through Sept. 30 and then release a report later in the fall. Jonathan McKinney, Mid-Atlantic regional director for the national office, put the brakes on the effort, according to reports, because the tour was not properly approved by the state executive committee and because of concerns about two of the tour’s co-sponsors, the Virginia State Unit of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference and the Frederick Douglass Leadership Institute. Rev. Chandler, who was unable to attend last weekend’s executive committee meeting, told the Free Press on Tuesday that he hadn’t received any notice saying he’d been removed from office. He said he only learned he was out after talking with a reporter, who read him the state NAACP news release about the change. “This is the first time I’ve heard about any removal,” said Rev. Chandler, the 56year-old pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in South Boston. “This is a shock to me. … This is not a way to operate a civil rights organization.” Rev. Chandler was elected president in Please turn to A4
All smiles Eight-month-old Henry Tidwell was all smiles last Saturday as he and his mother, Whitney Tidwell, took in the sights and sounds at the 29th Annual Down Home Family Reunion at Abner Clay Park in Jackson Ward. Please see more photos, B2.
Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press