Richmond Free Press August 23-25, 2018 Edition

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Howardena Pindell exhibit at VMFA B2

Richmond Free Press © 2018 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

VOL. 27 NO. 34

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

www.richmondfreepress.com

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Lady Clubber tees up for celebration B1

august 23-25, 2018

‘Deeply disappointing’ RPS superintendent reacts to city SOL scores showing 2 of every 5 students unable to pass one or more tests

School Board member James “Scott” Barlow, right, welcomes more than 60 volunteers Tuesday at Carver Elementary School to help clean and spruce up the school through RPS Shines!

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Ronald E. Carrington/Richmond Free Press

RPS Shines! spiffs up schools

Plumbers and professional craftsmen volunteering their services will be handling the bathroom fix-ups at Carver and other Richmond’s Carver Elementary School was turned into a haven schools, officials said. Carver’s bathrooms have new sinks and of help Tuesday as more than 60 volunteers, many of them from “are ready to go,” said Shadae Thomas-Harris, RPS’ chief enlocal colleges and high schools, picked up a bucket and cloth gagement officer. and helped put a polish on the Leigh Street school. Carver’s new assistant principal, Frenishee Smith, greeted The effort was part of RPS the corps of enthusiastic workers ‘We want (students) to come back in the school lobby, where she led Shines! , a weeklong blitz involving nearly 1,000 volunteers of all ages them in a Carver chant followed to a beautiful and welcoming sprucing up 22 of the city’s public by a high kick. environment so they can have a schools before students arrive for the Mr. Kamras also offered words first day of classes on Sept. 4. of thanks and encouragement, shook great school year’ — Robin Dalton Students from nearby Virginia the volunteers hands and posed for Union and Virginia Commonwealth universities, the Maggie L. pictures with several groups before the work started. Walker Governor’s School and Henrico County joined School “RPS Shines! harkens back to a time when entire communiBoard member James “Scott” Barlow, Superintendent Jason ties took care of neighborhood schools to help keep them in Kamras and other Richmond Public Schools administrators to Please turn to A4 clean baseboards, windows and outdoor areas at Carver. By Ronald E. Carrington

The good news: More than half of Richmond’s public school students passed one or more state Standards of Learning tests in 2018 and are meeting state objectives in the core subjects of reading, writing, math, science and history/social studies. The bad news: At least two of every five students were unable to pass one or more of those tests, keeping RPS ranked near the bottom among Virginia school divisions for student academic achievement. Mr. Kamras Ms. Page “I am not going to sugarcoat it. These scores are deeply disappointing,” Richmond Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras stated after reviewing student results from the spring round of SOL tests that were released Wednesday by the Virginia Department of Education. He noted that the percentage of students passing SOL tests Please turn to A4

Funeral arrangements announced for ‘Queen of Soul,’ Aretha Franklin Free Press wire reports

Aretha Franklin, the glorious “Queen of Soul” whose music became the backdrop for a generation and a theme song for both the civil rights and women’s movement, will be laid to rest Friday, Aug. 31, at Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit. The beloved recording artist died at her

Special tribute on B6 Detroit home on Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018, after waging a quiet battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 76. Her entombment at a family gravesite alongside her father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin, brother Cecil Franklin and sisters Carolyn and Erma Franklin will follow a two-day public viewing Tuesday, Aug. 28, and Wednesday,

Aug. 29, at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, followed by a funeral on Thursday morning at Greater Grace Temple. Attendance at the service will be limited to family and friends, relatives announced last week through a publicist. Blissful on “(You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman,” despairing on “Ain’t No Way” and up front on “Respect,” few performers were so universally idolized by peers and critics as Ms. Franklin and so exalted and yet so familiar to their fans. Ms. Franklin’s fans couldn’t get enough, nor could the music industry honor her enough. She won 18 Grammy Awards and, in 1987, became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Please turn to A4

Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

Last glorious days of summer Deondre McKnight Williams, 9, frolics in the cool waters and bubbles of a “Foam Pit” set up last Friday at the Byrd Park Round House for Playground Day, hosted by the Richmond Department for Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities. Youngsters everywhere are fitting in the last days of fun before the new school year starts Sept. 4.

Monument rally peaceful as neo-Confederates met by counterprotesters By George Copeland Jr.

“Tear these racist statues down!” Those words, shouted by about 40 counterprotesters on Monument Avenue, drowned out attempts by about 15 neo-Confederates on Sunday to speak in support of keeping the statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis on the tree-lined street. The rally, held at the Davis statue at Monument and Davis avenues, was organized by the Virginia Task Force of Three Percenters, also known as the Dixie Defenders. It was the fourth such rally in the last year by neo-Confederate groups in support of the five statues honoring slave-owning losers of the Civil War. Sunday’s rally was called in response to the Monument Avenue Commission’s recommendation in July to Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney that the statue honoring the Confederate president be removed because, the commission stated, it is “most unabashedly Lost Cause in its design and sentiment.” The commission also recommended that contextual signs be added to the other statues. Several of the neo-Confederates

Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

Mary Atkins, 73, takes her argument to stop the hate directly to the group of about 15 neo-Confederates, several carrying military-style weapons, who staged a rally Sunday to call for keeping the statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis on Monument Avenue. Counterprotesters, who want the statues honoring Confederates to be removed, arrived early and took over the space directly at the foot of the monument.

were visibly armed Sunday with military-style weapons. Some were dressed in combat gear. They also included members of the Tennesseebased group, CSA II: The New Confederate States of America, who had served as the driving force behind the previous protests. While the rally was to start at noon at the foot of the Davis statue, the neo-Confederates were beat to the spot by roughly eight counterprotesters who apparently arrived before 8 a.m. Sunday and set up their signs and cases of water. The neo-Confederates then were forced to set up across from the statue on a median strip. About 17 uniformed Richmond Police officers already were on site and patroling both groups and the passing vehicle traffic. Despite a brief verbal confrontation between the two groups, the day was peaceful with no arrests. The only clash came from the sounds of music both groups pumped from personal speakers. Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham, who was on Monument Avenue monitoring the situation, explained the decision to leave the streets open as a Please turn to A4


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