Jury awards $25M in damages to victims of white nationalist violence in Charlottesville rally Reuters
to protest the city’s planned removal of Confederate statues from city-owned property. The event turned deadly when a car was driven into the crowd of counterprotesters by James Alex Fields, a self-described neo-Nazi, killing 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyer and injuring dozens of others. The jury in Charlottesville was asked to consider whether the white supremacists and hate groups conspired to commit racially motivated violence during the weekend of the rally. Then-President Trump was criticized for initially saying there
were “fine people on both sides” of the dispute between neoNazis and their opponents at the rally. The jury of 11 deliberated for more than three days following four weeks of testimony in the civil trial in a federal court in Charlottesville. Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, had asked jurors to consider awarding millions of dollars in punitive damages—from $7 million to $10 million for those physically harmed and $3 million to $5 million for emotional pain, NBC News reported.
Richmond Free Press © 2021 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
VOL. 30 NO. 48
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
www.richmondfreepress.com
ee Fr
Fr ee
CHARLOTTESVILLE A federal jury in Charlottesville, looking into deadly “Unite the Right” white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in August 2017, found defendants liable in four out of six counts and awarded $25 million in damages, according to media reports on Tuesday. The jury awarded the money to nine people who suffered injuries, the New York Times and the Associated Press reported. White supremacists had organized the rally in Charlottesville
NovembER 24-27, 2021
Making an impact Dr. Lillie R. Bennett has been caring for Richmond children in her medical practice for nearly 50 years By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Joyce Carter happily drives 40 miles from Caroline County to Richmond so her three adopted children can see one doctor. For her, the care the children receive from Dr. Lillie Robinson Bennett is worth it. “I trust her,” Ms. Carter said in explaining why she travels to Dr. Bennett’s Chamberlayne Avenue office in the North Side when she has other options. Ms. Carter is hardly alone. For thousands of Richmond mothers and fathers, Dr. Bennett is the physician they want to care for their children’s health. And it’s been that way for the nearly 50 years that Dr. Bennett has been practicing in this city. Dr. Bennett ranks among the longest serving, if not the longest serving, of the 295 pediatricians who specialize in the care and treatment of babies, children and
adolescents in Metro Richmond. She still has a ways to go, though, to match the 73-year record of late Atlanta pediatrician Leila Denmark, who practiced until she was 103. Dr. Bennett doesn’t tell her age – “I don’t talk age” – but 58 years have passed since her graduation in 1963 from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn. As Thanksgiving approaches, Dr. Bennett is grateful for the good health that has enabled her to continue practicing, which she credits to exercise, eating right and “keeping a positive attitude.” She also is thankful that she has a joint practice with her son, Dr. Richard L. Bennett Jr., who followed her into medicine and sees his young patients at his office on the campus of the Bon Secours-Richmond Community Hospital in the East End. Please turn to A4
Officials, volunteers revving up for return of Armstrong-Walker Classic this Saturday
Wilder, James named to Gov.-elect Youngkin’s transition team By Reginald Stuart
Gov.-elect Glenn A. Youngkin, who won a razor thin victory this month to the state’s top governing post, has organized a transition team that includes former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder and Kay Coles James, two people of color. Mr. Wilder, who served for years in the state Senate before becoming lieutenant governor in 1986 and then the nation’s first elected African-American governor in 1990, has significant seasoning in working with the legislature. Ms. James, a Richmond native and Hampton University graduate who served as a state cabinet secretary under former Gov. George Allen and as director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management Mr. Wilder Ms. James under former President George W. Bush, has significant experience on both the state and federal government level and on Capitol Hill, where she steps down next month as president of the Heritage Foundation, an established conservative think tank. Throughout his campaign and since winning the Nov. 2 gubernatorial election, Gov.elect Youngkin has given few clues beyond rare election campaign rhetoric about his strategy or governing plan. He has echoed conservative rhetoric from the campaign trail in speeches to conservative, Republican advocacy groups, including an appearance last week at the Republican Governors Association annual conference in Phoenix. He has declined numerous post-election requests to talk
By George Copeland Jr.
More than 40 years after the last official Armstrong-Walker Classic football game and parade, enthusiastic former teachers and alumni are working with city officials and community volunteers to ensure its successful return this Saturday, Nov. 27. “We are so happy that we have an opportunity to make this occasion another legacy in the city of Richmond,” said Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press Howard Hopkins, interim activities direcHoward Hopkins, former coach, tor for Richmond Public Schools, who was teacher and principal with Richmond a former coach and teacher at Maggie L. Public Schools, shows off his athletic jacket with the colors of both Walker High School and former principal Armstrong High School and Maggie L. at Armstrong High School. Dressed in a jacket split between ArmWalker High School that he said is a “representation of unity.” Mr. Hopkins strong’s and Walker’s colors, Mr. Hopkins is on the organizing committee of the was one of many speakers to share details Armstrong-Walker Classic Legacy of the new Armstrong-Walker Football parade and football game that is Classic Legacy parade and game during a taking place Saturday, Nov. 27. City Hall news conference Monday.
Free community testing for COVID-19 continues. The Richmond and Henrico County health districts are offering testing at the following locations: • Wednesday, Nov. 24, 9 to 11 a.m., Eastern Henrico Recreation Center Pavilion, 1440 N. Laburnum Ave. • Wednesday, Nov. 24, 10 a.m. to noon, Ginter Park United Methodist Church Food Pantry, 1010 W. Laburnum Ave. Appointments are not necessary, but can be made by calling the Richmond and Henrico COVID-19 Hotline at
Please turn to A4
According to Mr. Hopkins, the revival of the classic that ended in 1978 has been aided in part by the contributions of Armstrong and Walker alumni and the work by various committees handling logistics. “I have been getting calls daily,” Mr. Hopkins said. “Some of my former athletes chipped in with money when they found out a financial issue was involved.” The parade will start at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 27, at 4th and Leigh streets and make its way west on Leigh Street to Lombardy Street and the old Maggie L. Walker school building, which is now home to the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School. The parade then will head north on Lombardy Street to the Virginia Union University campus, where it will end at Admiral Street. City officials stressed the parade and entire event would be safe and secure in Please turn to A4
Richmond’s George Floyd? By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Please turn to A4
Free COVID-19 testing, vaccines
Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press
Dr. Lillie R. Bennett cares for patients from her Chamberlayne Avenue office in North Side.
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
In memory and grief Family members of Rah’quan Logan mourn during a gathering Sunday to remember and honor the 14year-old’s life held outside the OMG Convenience Store at Creighton and Nine Mile Roads where he was gunned down Nov. 12 in a quadruple shooting. Nine-year-old Abdul Bani-Ahmad, whose family owns the store, also was killed, while two men were wounded. More than 100 people attended the vigil, including City Council President Cynthia I. Newbille and Richmond School Board Chairwoman Cheryl L. Burke. Many brought silver and black balloons to honor Rah’quan. James “J.J.” Minor III, president of the Richmond Branch NAACP, called on parents and others to stop the violence and asked faithbased organizations to provide support for families. Rah’quan’s funeral was held Tuesday morning at Walter J. Manning Funeral Home in Church Hill with burial in Oakwood Cemetery.
Richmonder Joshua Lee Lawhon’s life ended on Jan. 16, 2018. Mr. Lawhon, who is Black, suffered irreversible brain damage after being smothered by two Richmond police officers and two paramedics during a confrontation at his Stockton Street residence in South Side. The incident, captured on audio and video via body cameras worn by the officers, eerily resembles the Minneapolis police slaying of George Floyd by suffocation that sparked national and global protests against racial injustice and police brutality. Unlike Mr. Floyd, Mr.
Lawhon had no outstanding charges pending against him. He was fatally injured, according to court documents, for rejecting an effort to force him to go to a mental hospital over his protests. He suffered brain damage after he was handcuffed and had his mouth and nose pressed into a couch pillow for nearly six minutes, the recordings show. His last words: “I can’t breathe.” Unresponsive after the officers and paramedics finally stopped holding him down, he was rushed to a local hospital and was officially pronounced dead two days later. While no one involved has been charged in Mr. Lawhon’s
death, his mother, Angela Lawhon, is seeking to hold the participants accountable through a $25 million wrongful death lawsuit that Henrico-based Halperin Law Center has filed in federal court on her behalf. Ms. Lawhon just received major support from a threejudge panel of the Richmondbased 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that found Mr. Lawhon’s death was the result of a violation of his constitutional right to be free from “illegal search and seizure” by government officials. On Nov. 15, the panel issued that opinion in clearing the way for a trial against the named Please turn to A4
Lessons from elders
Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press
Kingston Henderson, 4, gets a lesson in gardening from his greatgrandmother, Pauline Wheeler, 99, and his grandfather, Harris Wheeler, 70, a retired horticulture teacher with Richmond Public Schools. She shows Kingston the tender young collards and instructs him how to plant them in the rich soil tilled by his grandfather. Collards, turnip greens and onions are Mrs. Wheeler’s favorite things to grow in the winter garden behind her North Side home.