VUU Homecoming B2
Richmond Free Press © 2021 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
VOL. 30 NO. 42
Mr. El-Amin
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
Delegate McQuinn
www.richmondfreepress.com
Defunct
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Meet this week’s Personality B1
OCtobER 14-16, 2021
Rev. Campbell
Rev. Turner
Richmond Slave Trail Commission, formed in 1998 by City Council to advocate for educating people about the enslaved and the city’s long and sordid history with slavery, no longer exists By Jeremy M. Lazarus
The Richmond Slave Trail Commission – an advocacy group created by Richmond City Council to raise awareness of the role slavery played in the capital city’s history – is defunct. Little apparent notice has gone to the governing body that
created it and appoints the membership. “That’s horrible, horrible,” said former City Councilman Sa’ad El-Amin, who led the effort to create the commission in 1998 and served as its chair until he was forced to resign his council seat in 2003 amid legal woes. Delegate Delores L. McQuinn, who has chaired the commis-
Former President Obama, First Lady Jill Biden, other big-name Dems to stump for McAuliffe
Ms. Biden
Mayor Bottoms
sion since then, confirmed that the group has not met in at least two years and has no intention of meeting any time soon. The commission is best known for creation of the Slave Trail that winds through South Side and Downtown; excavating the site of the notorious Lumpkin’s Jail slave trading post in Shockoe Bottom; and placement of the Slavery Reconciliation Statue on East Main Street near 14th Street. Although there is no public record of City Council being given notice or approving the decision, Delegate McQuinn said Please turn to A4
Ms. Abrams
By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Former President Obama and other prominent Democrats are headed to Virginia in a bid to rally voters for the party’s candidate for governor, Terry McAuliffe. The rush of help is coming as Republicans privately boast that GOP gubernatorial candidate and Donald Trump surrogate Glenn Youngkin is poised to lead the first Republican sweep of Virginia’s three top offices. Polls indicate the race for governor is neck and neck heading toward the final stretch to Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 2. President Obama is scheduled to campaign in Richmond on Saturday, Oct. 23, nine days before the high-stakes election that could end the Democrats’ eight-year reign in the Please turn to A4
President Obama
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
Healthy habits Faith Walker helps her 2-year-old niece, Legacy, and daughter, Phoenix, 6, sanitize their hands at the Richmond Folk Festival on Brown’s Island last weekend. Thousands of people attended the three-day cultural extravaganza, where people were asked to wear masks, use hand sanitizer and keep socially distanced to help curb the spread of COVID-19. Free COVID-19 vaccines and hand sanitizer stations were available at the site for festivalgoers during the weekend. Please see more festival photos, B2.
Kaine-Holton Area leaders talk about the next steps for Richmond in the post-Confederate monument era household By George Copeland Jr.
The statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee may be gone from Monument Avenue, but the work to create a better Richmond continues. That’s the consensus from local leaders and organizers as the Richmond community adjusts to a city without some of its most infamous features — the row of statues honoring vanquished traitors who took up arms against the United States in an effort to keep Black people in bondage. The statues are now down, an effort spurred by changing public opinion and the wave of racial justice protests following the murder in May 2020 of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police. Across a range of roles and experiences, people reaffirmed this period as a moment that cannot be wasted. And those invested in taking advantage of the energy generated around the statues’ removal have a number of ideas to move the city forward.
split on casino
For James E. “J.J.” Minor III, president of the Richmond Branch NAACP, this moment is one that calls for amplifying the voices and concerns of the underprivileged and overlooked by giving them a place in discussing Richmond’s past and future. This redress would extend not just to the AfricanAmerican community, but indigenous residents and other groups whose mistreatment has been left unresolved. “I think there needs to be a balance of history,” Mr. Minor said. “I think once we have a balance of history, we can move in the right direction.” Mr. Minor had several suggestions for what that rebalancing could look like, from the reshaping of the former Lee monument to how history is taught in schools to the possibility of reparations. More ideas are likely to emerge from the Richmond NAACP’s efforts, as the group is planning “table talks” following the Nov. 2 Please turn to A4
By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press
The pedestal remains where the Robert E. Lee statue stood.
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine gave casino opponents a boost when he announced that he had voted against the proposed South Side gambling mecca. But during a visit to City Hall last Friday, he disclosed that his wife, Anne B. Holton, a former Richmond judge, past state secretary of education and former interim president of George Mason University, disagreed with him. And she told him, “Honey, I’m canceling your vote on this one” by casting a “yes” vote in support of the planned $565 million casino, Sen. Kaine recounted. Sen. Kaine said Ms. Holton was persuaded by the casino’s potential for bringing development and new jobs to that portion of the city.
Community Vaccination Center opens at Richmond Raceway By George Copeland Jr.
Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press
A long line stretches out the door of the Old Dominion Building at the Richmond Raceway on Tuesday, the first day for the reopened Community Vaccination Center where people can get booster shots or their first or second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
A reinstated mass vaccination clinic at Richmond Raceway on Laburnum Avenue got off to a busy, though rocky start this week, with officials promising a quick adjustment to accommodate the unexpected demand for shots. Now called the Community Vaccination Center, the raceway clinic opened Tuesday and attracted nearly 400 people to the Old Dominion Building to receive protection from COVID-19, nearly double the anticipated turnout. Officials acknowledged later that the clinic was not fully prepared for the surge of people who lined up to get
inoculated or receive booster shots on opening day. The Henrico County-based CVC is one of nine similar sites VDH is establishing across the state to step up delivery of shots both to those who are not
vaccinated and those seeking booster shots. These mass sites are designed to bolster the delivery of vaccines and existing disPlease turn to A4
Free COVID-19 testing, vaccines Free community testing for COVID-19 continues. The Richmond and Henrico County health districts are offering testing at the following locations: • Thursday, Oct. 14, 1 to 3 p.m., Southwood Resource Center, 1742 Clarkson Road, Apt. B. • Tuesday, Oct. 19, 9 to 11 a.m., Second Baptist Church of South Richmond, 3300 Broad Rock Blvd., drive-thru testing. • Wednesday, Oct. 20, 9 to 11 a.m., Eastern Henrico Recreation Center Pavilion, 1440 N. Laburnum Ave. Appointments are not necessary, but can be made by calling
Please turn to A4