July 7 9, 2015 issue

Washington NFL team shot down by federal court

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Can the government ban trademark registration of the racist mascot name of Washington’s pro football team?

Yes, a federal judge ruled Wednesday in throwing the team for a big loss in its efforts to defend and maintain the name.

The decision is the biggest setback for the defiant team since the Richmond Free Press and other media outlets banned the use

of the name. The Free Press took the action in October 2013, after deeming the name on a par with the “n” word for black people.

In his 70-page opinion, U.S. District Court Judge Gerald B. Lee of Alexandria affirmed the 2014 decision of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to cancel federal registration of the name and logo after finding the team’s name is disparaging to Native Americans.

Federal law bars trademark protection for names that the board

determines to be offensive or that bring a group of people into contempt or disrepute.

Team owner Daniel Snyder, who has vowed to maintain the name, is expected to appeal the decision to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond and would likely go to the U.S. Supreme Court if the team loses again.

Please turn to A4

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Richmond Free Press

JULY 9-11, 2015

Brush-off in city pays dividends in Norfolk Training program helps public housing residents get construction jobs

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Rebuffed in Richmond, A. Hugo “Al” Bowers Sr. is training unemployed public housing residents in Norfolk for construction jobs.

Last week, the first 19 participants — seven women and 12 men — graduated from the school the veteran contractor set up under a contract with the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

“We put them through eight weeks of intensive training in the trades,” said Mr. Bowers, CEO of a family construction and development firm, Bowers Family Enterprises LLC, and a subsidiary, Bowers Strategies, which is operating the school.

Under the tutelage of construction veterans, participants learned the basics of painting, carpentry, drywall installation and construction administration, he said. Each Mr. Bowers student had to pass daily tests to show they retained what they had learned.

And as part of their training, they helped construct a small building on the NRHA campus, he said, and also received instruction in handling themselves in the workplace.

Mr. Bowers now is facing the biggest test for his program.

He must place at least 14 graduates in jobs under the contract.

Already, two students have been hired.

He thinks it’s feasible for all of the students to get jobs. He said builders who came to the site were impressed.

“We’re not saying these students are skilled workers at this point,” Mr. Bowers said. “But we have armed them with knowledge. They have come from knowing nothing to knowing how to Please turn to A4

Singing for a saint

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

The Greater Richmond Metro Mass Choir sings at the homegoing service for gospel music icon Maggie Ingram.

Hundreds of people attended the service last Thursday at Saint Paul’s Baptist Church in Henrico County to celebrate the life of Mrs. Ingram, who for more than six decades led the family gospel group Maggie Ingram and the Ingramettes. Please see article, more photos on B4.

From slave to legislator

Virginia’s early black lawmakers honored

By Joey Matthews

James Apostle Fields started life in Virginia as a slave in Hanover County.

By his death in 1903, he had gone to Hampton University, earned a law degree at Howard University and been elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.

From 1889 to 1890, he represented James City, Williamsburg, Warwick (now Newport News) and York counties and Elizabeth City in the General Assembly.

His great-great-granddaughter, Ajena Rogers, was among about 200 descendents of Mr. Fields and other trailblazing African-Americans who served in the General Assembly from 1867 though Reconstruction that attended a “Family Reunion” Monday at the State Capitol to honor their descendants’ legacy.

At the reunion, they took the Slave Trail Walk, toured the State Capitol, viewed the “Remaking Virginia: Transformation through Emancipation” exhibit at the Library of Virginia, and enjoyed a private reception and a public forum to discuss their descendants’ legacy.

The group hailed from as far away as California and Mr. Fields Arizona to New York, South Carolina and Virginia and ranged in age from 2 to 92. The descendants were buoyed by the recognition of their ancestors and the legacy they left.

“That legacy has come down through all generations

of my family,” Ms. Rogers said. “All of us, except one, have worked in some form of civil service.”

Robert Lipscomb of Cumberland County said he came to honor his descendant, James F. Lipscomb, who represented Cumberland County from 1869 to 1877 in the General Assembly.

“It’s an honor and it’s a privilege to know he was one of the forefathers, someone who cared about his country and took his time to see that his country was put on the right path,” he said.

Milton Brown of Richmond paid tribute to his great-grandfather, Goodman Brown, who served in the House of Delegates from 1887 to 1888.

“I’m very proud to say that, during those times, there were courageous people like him who stepped Please turn to A4

Federal recognition for Pamunkeys brings tribe closer to nationhood

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Sky show For the child in all of us, radiant fireworks light up the skies and the James River for thousands of wide-eyed observers who attended the city’s annual fireworks show last Friday launched from Brown’s Island in Downtown. Other fireworks shows were held across town on Saturday, July 4, at The Diamond and at Dogwood Dell. Please see more photos on B3.

Defeated in battles with the English invaders who took their land, the Pamunkey Indians have been on a reservation and under the thumb of Virginia’s government for more than 350 years — long before there was a state.

Now the dwindling descendants of Pocahontas, Powhatan and other members of the tribe that met the first English settlers to Jamestown in 1607 are one step closer to gaining their independence — and separation from Virginia.

The U.S. Interior Department has announced that the Pamunkey Indians would become the first tribe in the Commonwealth of Virginia to receive official recognition from the federal government.

The recognition allows the 203-member tribe to begin the process of turning its 1,200-acre reservation in King William County into a separate, self-governing entity independent of state control — and opens the possibility the tribe might develop a gambling casino.

If the Pamunkey tribe ultimately transforms the reservation into a sovereign nation, it would represent the state’s first loss of territory since 50 northwestern counties broke away to form West Virginia during Please turn to A4

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Joyce “Pale Moon” Krigsvold, a volunteer at the Pamunkey Indian Museum and Cultural Center on the reservation and an expert potter, stands near a likeness of the first Pamunkey chief, Powhatan, on the tribal grounds in King William County.

A2 July 9-11, 2015

Richmond Free Press

Local News

City distributing new recycling cans The big recycling push is on in Richmond.

On Monday, the city Department of Public Works began distributing 95-gallon recycling cans. The new cans are bright green with blue tops.

At least 57,000 are to be distributed by the end of August to single-family homes and to apartments with fewer than four units. Each can will have an identification tag that can be tracked if the can is lost or stolen.

Residents who use the cans will be eligible for up to $25 a month in coupons and discounts from area merchants participating in the Recycling Perks program. Residents can sign up for Recycling Perks at www.richmondgov.com/richmondrecycles/ Richmond has teamed up with The Recycling Partnership to beef up recycling and reduce the amount of waste going to the landfill. The partnership awarded Richmond nearly $560,000 to help pay for the cost of the new cans and to educate the public on recycling.

The project began earlier this year with the distribution of 6,000 of the new cans. This week, the project expanded citywide.

One big change — the place of collection. Residents whose trash is collected in alleys also will have their recyclables collected in alleys.

Until now, all recycling collections have been curbside.

The city wants to boost recycling because it gets paid for each ton of recycling that gets collected. The city also has to pay for each ton of waste that it ships to a landfill. — JEREMY M. LAZARUS

View online how tax dollars are spent Want to know how the city is spending your tax dollars?

Jump on your computer and go to this website — www.data. richmondgov.com.

On the site, you can check out a payment register that shows the non-payroll checks the City of Richmond has written, who got paid and how much they were paid.

Mayor Dwight C. Jones launched the new “Open Data Portal” on Monday.

The city’s action follows in the footsteps of the Richmond School Board, which began posting its check register last year.

“We are making this data available to advance transparency in government,” said Mayor Jones.

The new program still has glitches, including posting duplicates of the same check. The portal went live six months after City Council passed an ordinance requiring the information be made public.

In a release issued Monday touting the website as an advance in transparency, Douglas McCollough, director of the city’s Department of Information Technology, stated, “The departments of information technology and finance have been working for more than a year to provide this tool to residents.”

So far, only checks written in May have been posted, according to the release. The check data is to be updated monthly.

The new portal also gives residents access to data on city real estate assessments and results of an annual survey of residents’ satisfaction with city services and schools.

Data on vehicle accidents involving pedestrians and bicycles also is available.

Other data is expected.

According to the city administration, all data appearing on the portal first will be reviewed and approved for release by an Open Data Workgroup and the directors of the departments that own the data. — JEREMY M. LAZARUS

40 rooms added to veterans care center

A state-supported nursing home for veterans opened 40 new private rooms Wednesday at its location in South Side.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe joined in celebrating the expansion that will allow the Sitter & Barfoot Veterans Care Center to provide long-term care to 200 ailing veterans.

The new addition has been dubbed the Richmond wing of the nursing home that sits on the campus of the McGuire Veterans Administration Medical Center.

The new space “will allow our Commonwealth to provide services to even more men and women who served and sacrificed to keep our country safe,” the governor said.

Sitter & Barfoot offers rehabilitation services as well as longterm care. It also has a wing for veterans with dementia.

The center opened in 2008 and is one of two state nursing homes for veterans. The other is a 240-bed facility in Roanoke.

This year, the General Assembly approved the governor’s plan to open two more facilities, one in Northern Virginia and the other in Hampton Roads. — JEREMY M. LAZARUS

After controversy, Dr. Bedden won’t teach at VSU this fall Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Dana T. Bedden will not be teaching a class at Virginia State University in the fall.

In response to a Free Press query, RPS spokesperson Richard Davis said last Friday that Dr. Bedden has “decided against pursuing the opportunity to teach in an adjunct capacity at Virginia State University.”

He did not give a reason for Dr. Bedden’s decision.

The Free Press reported in its May 21-23 edition that the School Board had voted 6-2 to allow Dr. Bedden to take a job in the fall as an adjunct professor after he lobbied for the right.

Two members of the board — Tichi Pinkney Eppes, 9th District, and Mamie L. Taylor, 5th District — strongly voiced their opposition to Dr. Bedden taking the part-time teaching post at VSU. They voiced concerns that teaching there would take time away from the daunting tasks he faces at RPS. Dr. James Harris, chair of the Educational Leadership Department at VSU, had formally invited Dr. Bedden in a May 4 letter to teach a school law course that would meet once a week beginning in the fall.

He said Dr. Bedden would have to apply for the position in order to be hired.

Under terms of the School Board’s agreement, Dr. Bedden would have been limited to teaching one course per semester and the course would have to be “after business hours” and could not “infringe upon or otherwise compromise his ability to perform his (RPS) duties.” — JOEY MATTHEWS

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Cityscape Slices of life and scenes in Richmond

Traffic now flows east and west on Grace Street between 4th and 9th streets. The double lines show the change. This view was taken from 6th Street looking east. The statue of George Washington at the State Capitol can be seen in the background. The work began in late April and was completed last month. The street remains one-way westbound between 4th and Belvidere streets, but that stretch will eventually be converted to two-way. The purpose of the change: To test whether this makes the street more attractive to businesses.

Richmond Free Press

July 9-11, 2015

A3

Local News

City refuse collectors halt work, forcing talks on better pay

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Richmond’s refuse collectors once again proved they can be a powerful force when they stand up for themselves.

For about five hours Tuesday, the city’s 25 trash trucks stood still at the South Side depot as 70 refuse collectors pushed for better pay and aired other grievances — forcing city officials to scramble to soothe their concerns as calls began pouring in from residents whose trash was not picked up.

The first trucks began to roll just after 11 a.m. after officials met behind closed doors with Mavis Green, a veteran refuse collector who was tapped to represent the 31 full-time and 39 temporary workers who weekly empty Supercans at more than 60,000 residential addresses.

Mr. Green emerged from the meeting to tell reporters that he was given assurances that the workers’ concerns would be addressed.

Among other things, the city is promising a compensation study that could lead to better pay and to move more temporary workers to full-time status after five years. At least three temporary workers were hired recently to fill vacancies and another two could be added, officials said.

“We’re hoping in good faith that they honor their commitments,” Mr. Green said, warning that if city officials back down, he and his fellow workers are ready to park the trucks again.

However, the workers only can go so far as government employee strikes are illegal.

The stoppage is the first for the refuse collectors in more than 11 years. During the tenure of City Manager Calvin D. Jamison, the refuse collectors briefly held a strike to protest a city plan to reduce crews on trash trucks from three to two. The city backed down and promised to create more open lines of communication, a pledge that has apparently been broken in recent years.

Despite their essential service, refuse collectors feel unappreciated. They remain among the lowest paid city workers, with starting pay around $24,000 and average pay around $31,000 for full-time employees.

A study by the city Department of Public Works has found that the compensation for refuse collectors is well below average compared with

neighboring localities and cities in Hampton Roads. Department officials have been advocating for pay raises, though with little success.

Meanwhile, the Department of Public Works increasingly has had to rely on temporary workers to fill out trash truck crews and to handle other work. Many of those temporary workers essentially are full-time employees who are paid at least $11.66 per hour, but are not eligible for city health insurance or pension benefits.

The work stoppage apparently was triggered when refuse collectors learned that a 2 percent pay increase for city employees would not be included in the first paycheck in July. The workers expected the pay increase to go into effect July 1, when the new budget fiscal year began.

The angry workers apparently were never told that City Council had acquiesced to Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ request to stall the pay increase until July 11, which means it would show up in the second July check. The council voted without debate to approve the change at its June 22 meeting.

Feeling cheated, workers also revived other simmering grievances, including the overall low pay and the high cost of the employee share of health insurance and the continuing use of temporary employees who rarely have a path to fulltime jobs. Some of the temporary workers have been on the job for 10 years or more.

“The pay increase was the primary issue,” said Sharon North, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Works.

She said the city is aware of the workers’ concerns, but said none could be fixed quickly.

For example, she said the city is planning a bigger compensation study that will review worker pay across the government to determine whether Richmond is competitive compared with other cities and counties of similar size, including the refuse collectors. That study could lead to adjustments, but “it will take time,” she said.

The refuse collectors also are upset about the amount they pay for city health insurance to cover themselves and family members. So are other city employees.

Ms. North said the city is seeking bids from health insurance companies in hopes of finding a provider that would be more affordable for employees, but neither she nor anyone else could guarantee that outcome.

In the new budget, Richmond picked up the increase in the cost of health insurance so employees would not have to pay more.

Ms. North said that while the department

plans to do more to fill vacancies with temporary workers, there is only so much money. In preparing the new budget, City Council slashed support for vacant positions in order to shift funds to Richmond Public Schools.

For the Department of Public Works, that has meant cutting the number of temporary workers on July 1 from 127 to 44, with most of those remaining assigned to trash collection.

The department had warned that the cut that council imposed would mean fewer workers available to collect leaves, maintain alleys, fill potholes and pick up brush, appliances and other bulk trash.

The department has been short of at least 100 full-time positions in the past six years and needed the temporary employees to supplement its full-time staff on those jobs.

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

On her side Kandise Lucas, a volunteer advocate for schoolchildren with mental challenges, receives a pledge of state NAACP support Monday from Jack Gravely, interim executive director of the civil rights group. Location: The state NAACP headquarters in Richmond. The state NAACP rallied to assist Ms. Lucas after she was arrested in May for trespassing at a Chesterfield County school from which she was barred. She was handcuffed after she showed up to serve as an advocate for a special needs child at the request of the child’s parents. Ms. Lucas chose not to fight the charge in court Tuesday. She entered an Alford plea in which she maintained her innocence, but agreed the evidence was strong enough to convict her. She was placed on 12 months’ probation, with the prospect the charge could be dismissed if she is not arrested or convicted again.

BUILD ON A PROUD TRADITION F.D. Patterson

Project Coordinator

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Credible corporations and governmental entities that place advertising in the columns of the Free Press are sending the message that they appreciate our patronage and respect us as customers.

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Vote daily with your dollars to make a difference.

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The Virginia Commonwealth University School of Education seeks applicants for a Project Coordinator position with an anticipated start date of August 16, 2015. At VCU, our motto is “Make it Real”. And that is what we do in the School of Education. Join us in preparing students for careers that shape the future of PK-20 education.

This position involves project management of federally-funded research projects. This is a key position in the Department of Special Education and Disability Policy. The Project Coordinator is responsible to the PI and Co-PI for the coordination and oversight of all grant/development activities related to the BEST in CLASS Elementary School project. This position is a 12-month, non-tenure eligible, Teaching and Research faculty position.

Responsibilities: Duties will include performing daily operations of the project; supervising graduate research assistants and data staff related to data collection, behavioral observations, behavioral coaching, and continuing development of a teacher intervention at the K-2nd grade levels; and performing ongoing data collection and analysis in collaboration with project personnel.

Qualificiations: A minimum of a Master’s degree with significant experience of at least 3 years in management of federally-funded research projects; knowledge and experience in issues associated with human subject protection, including writing and monitoring institutional review board protocols; experience recruiting research participants, including families, children and teachers; experience implementing and monitoring program delivery and data collection in school-based settings; demonstrated experience working in and fostering a diverse faculty, staff, and student environment or commitment to do so as a faculty member at VCU. In addition, the position requires proficiency with personal computers and related software, such as Word, Excel, and SPSS. Preferred Qualifications: Experience hiring, training and supervising staff; experience and knowledge in child and family assessments; experience disseminating research findings, including peer-refereed manuscripts and presentations; experience preparing and submitting grant proposals.

Application Process: In order to be considered for this position, application materials must be submitted online through VCU eJobs, www.vcujobs.com, and must include all of the following documents: 1) letter of intent which addresses the applicant’s qualifications for this position, and relative to the goals and mission of VCU and the School of Education; 2) a curriculum vitae; and 3) contact information for three professional references. Application materials must be uploaded as one PDF document (in the “Other Document” field) to www.vcujobs.com for considerations by the Search Committee.

Questions may be directed to Dr. Bryce McLeod, Search Committee Chair, bmcleod@vcu.edu. Candidates must agree to current and former employers being contacted if they are among a group of finalists for this position.

Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until July 24, 2015, the application deadline.

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Richmond Free Press

A4 July 9-11, 2015

News

Brush-off in city pays off in Norfolk Continued from A1

use every tool, and they also have demonstrated a willingness to learn and follow instructions, which is what employers need.”

Each of the graduates was presented with a full set of equipment they would need to go to work, including a tool belt, steel-toed boots and a hard hat.

NRHA is spending about $5,000 per student for the training program, and plans to have Mr. Bowers train a class of 20 in each of the next two years.

For NRHA, the program is one way to meet its obligations under Section III, a 40-year-old federal law that promotes employment of public housing residents in construction projects

supported with federal dollars. The trained residents help NRHA provide a pool of trained workers for contractors to hire.

Mr. Bowers said he has tried to interest Richmond in this kind of program since 2003, when former City Manager Calvin Jamison was running the city. Neither Mr. Jamison nor the mayors that followed him, L. Douglas Wilder and Dwight C. Jones, supported the idea of developing a trade school for adults as a means to address poverty in the city, Mr. Bowers said.

Mr. Bowers said unemployment is still high in part because too many Americans lack the training they need to meet job requirements, particularly in construction.

“If we don’t have trained Americans, someone else is going to get the jobs because the jobs need to be done.”

He said that’s particularly true of the construction industry, which often turns to non-Americans. Many of the Latinos who end up being hired have learned the trades in their home countries, he said.

Richmond and other school districts have missed the boat, he said, in ensuring that students who are not going to college leave schools with employable skills. The city needs a facility that can provide such training for the adults who have been left by the wayside, he said.

Mr. Bowers hopes the Norfolk program can become a model for change. The “beauty of this program is that construction doesn’t change because of the location. It’s ‘sticks and bricks’ no matter where you are.”

Virginia’s early black lawmakers honored Continued from A1

up to serve,” he said.

State records show that African-Americans served as early as the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1867-1868. They were elected to the constitutional convention that was required

by Congress after the Civil War as a condition of Virginia’s re-admission into the Union. It required the state to create a reconstructed government and establish a new constitution.

Known as the Underwood Convention for federal Judge John Underwood who served as the convention’s president, it created a new Virginia Constitution ratified in 1869 that gave all men, including African-American men, the right to vote. Women did not get the right to vote until 1919.

As a result of the new Constitution, about 100 African-American men served in the Virginia Assembly between 1869 and 1890.

Panelists at the forum were Ms. Rogers, a historian and supervisor ranger with the National Park Service at the Maggie Walker National Historic Site; Viola O. Baskerville, a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates and former state secretary of administration; Hampton Sen. Mamie E. Locke, chair of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus; and Juanita Owens Wyatt, a member of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Commission and also a descendant of Mr. Lipscomb and Peter G. Morgan of Petersburg, who served in the Underwood Convention and in the House of Delegates from 1869 to 1871.

The event was co-sponsored by the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Commission, the Library of Virginia, the Virginia House of

Photos by Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Left, Shelly Lipscomb Echeverria proudly displays a shirt bearing the image of her ancestor, Delegate James F. Lipscomb, who represented Cumberland County from 1869 to 1877 in the General Assembly. Above, forum panelist Ajena Rogers is the great-greatgranddaughter of James Apostle Fields, who served in the legislature from 1889 to 1890.

Delegates and the Senate of Virginia.

Richmond Delegate Jennifer L. McClellan, who chairs the King Commission, delivered opening remarks and called the event an opportunity “to fill out more of Virginia’s full history.”

“They paved the way for those of us who came later,” she added.

Ms. Baskerville outlined the history of the early African-American legislators and the hard-fought battle for civil rights that followed.

She said she had sought to have their story told since her first year in the General Assembly

in 1998.

She called it “a labor of love and inquiry.”

She said they “had to have been very courageous men” to endure what they did at the time.

Sen. Locke said racism today is more of “a quiet bias,” but it still exists.

“We may no longer have Jim Crow, but he’s now James Crow, Esquire,” she said.

She cited the “assault on unarmed black boys and men,” including Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown Jr. and Eric Garner, and the dispari-

ties against African-Americans in the criminal justice system.

She assailed the Confederate flag and what it represents. “It’s about not wanting AfricanAmericans to have equal rights or to desegregate the South,” she said.

“We’re faced with a ‘Massive Resistance,’” she added, citing legislative efforts to stymie voting rights, resistance to President Obama’s policies and the U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down part of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Federal recognition for Pamunkeys brings tribe closer to nationhood Continued from A1

the Civil War. About 50 tribal members live with their families on the reservation, a mix of farmland, forests and marsh on the banks of the Pamunkey River about 45 miles east of Richmond.

The Pamunkey tribe is one of 11 Native American tribes the Commonwealth of Virginia recognizes. The tribe will gain the coveted federal recognition in 90 days — in early September — opening the door to federal programs. Six other Virginia tribes are seeking federal recognition through legislation in Congress.

“We’re elated,” acting Pamunkey Chief Robert F. Gray said in a telephone interview from his home on the reservation, one of two in the state, the other being for the Mattaponi tribe located near West Point.

“Finally, the federal government has acknowledged we are a historic tribe,” said Chief Gray, ending forever any chance the state could wipe out the tribe’s identity, as it tried to do for decades before World War II. Joyce “Pale Moon” Krigsvold, an expert potter and volunteer at the Pamunkey Indian Museum and Cultural Center on the reservation, said the tribe likely would hold a celebration of the historic recognition once it becomes official in two months.

The tribe’s efforts to gain federal recognition began 35 years ago and have cost an estimated $2 million.

Repeatedly rebuffed, the tribe filed its latest application in 2012. According to the federal government, the tribe more than made its case that it has been organized since at least 1900 and could prove its existence and the family history of its members with records dating back to colonial times.

Before submitting the latest application, the tribe voted to end a longstanding ban against interracial marriage between tribal members and African-Americans.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus in January had urged the Interior Department to block recognition of the tribe because of the ban. The department overruled the objection in issuing its final decision.

Former Pamunkey Chief Kevin Brown wrote the CBC that the ban was rooted in Virginia’s culture of racism. “Racial intermixture was raised repeatedly as a rationale to divest us of our reservation and our Indian status,” he wrote.

He recalled Virginia’s efforts to wipe out Indians as a separate group between 1912 and 1946 when Dr. Walter Plecker served as the state registrar of births, marriages and other such records.

During that period, Dr. Plecker refused to allow the word Indian to be used, claiming there were none anymore. Instead, he required that Indians be classified as “colored.”

“His rationale was, of course, racial intermixture among the Indians,” Chief Brown wrote, adding that the “antiquated and now repealed” tribal law was “never an attack on or reflective of ill will toward African-Americans.”

Mr. Gray, who took over leadership last week after Chief Brown resigned the post, said it is too early to tell what impact the recognition will have on the tribe, even from the federal programs.

An Air Force veteran and now a civilian manager in the Air Force Reserve, Mr. Gray said the real meaning is that “the government is willing to enter into negotiations and recognize us a sovereign nation” — the status of the 566 other tribes across the nation who have federal recognition.

Once the initial recognition is in place, Mr. Gray said the tribe would be able to apply for federal trust status with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, a status that would transform the tribe’s 1,200 acres into a fully self-governing entity that could have its own police force and schools and could allow shops that would be exempt from state taxes.

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

The beauty and tranquility of the 1,200-acre Pamunkey reservation is captured on the banks of the Pamunkey River near the Pamunkey Fish Hatchery.

How long BIA approval would take is uncertain, he said. Federal trust status also would allow the tribe to consider new options for the wooded reservation. One option would be to consider building a casino. Currently, 493 casinos exist on tribal lands elsewhere.

“We have discussed a casino, but nothing came of it,” said Mr. Gray, who has served on the seven-member tribal council since 2008. He said the reason is that the land is still under the jurisdiction of the state, which bans casinos.

Whether the tribe would want to develop a casino or shops that would be exempt from state sales and income taxes in the relatively remote, rural reservation is still a question that is unlikely to be settled quickly.

“It’s too soon to say what might happen,” Mr. Gray said.

“We just received this notice. We need time to catch our breath before we start having such discussions.”

Currently, the only commercial operations on the reservation are a museum and a fish hatchery that operates one or two months in the spring.

He noted that the tribe is skeptical that the initial federal recognition will result in much federal help. For example, Mr. Gray pointed out that the nearest Indian Health Service outlet is in South Carolina, meaning that the service is unlikely to benefit

Pamunkey tribal members.

The tribe also has long relied on King William County for public education for its children. It is unclear that a tribal school set up under federal auspices would be feasible, given the small size of the population.

Nor could Mr. Gray say how much benefit federal housing programs would mean, although such programs might make it easier for the tribe to develop more homes or gain mortgages.

Winning recognition has been far from easy, Mr. Gray said, and would not have been possible without the support of the Native American Rights Fund and lawyers associated with it, most notably Mark C. Tilden, a private attorney who represented the tribe and shepherded the Pamunkey application to the Interior Department.

Mr. Gray said the tribe also was fortunate in having tribal and genealogy records dating back hundreds of years, which few, if any, of the other Virginia tribes have.

Most of the tribes have difficulty documenting their history to the Interior Department’s satisfaction or proving the lineage of members as the result of Dr. Plecker’s decisions, the main reason that so many are seeking to win recognition through a congressional vote.

Washington NFL team shot down in court Continued from A1

The team’s biggest hurdle is a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in a Texas case that gives governments more leeway in such cases. In that case, the state of Texas was allowed to ban Confederate flags from license plates, which the court called “government speech.”

Judge Lee cited that decision in ruling

that trademark registration is government speech and that the government can decide if a name is disparaging and, thus, can be banned from the trademark rolls.

The judge made it clear his ruling does not prevent the team from using the name and logo, only from registering it.

According to legal experts, registration only makes it easier for the team to go after individuals and companies who produce

and sell products without permission.

However, the team will continue to have trademark protection because the name and logo have been in use for decades, experts said. Common use provides copyright protection.

The team also could register the name and logo in each of the 50 states and in other countries and gain the same protection, experts said.

Richmond Free Press

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RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

www.richmondfreepress.com

NOVEMBER 13-15, 2014

New boss at VSU

Lynch confirmation delayed until 2015?

Free Press staff, wire reports

Dr. Hammond

President Obama has set yet another precedent with his choice to succeed U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

Loretta Lynch, a 55-yearold Greensboro, N.C., native and Harvard educated lawyer, would be the nation’s first African-American female attorney general if confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

As the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York since 2010, Ms. Lynch has worked on numerous high-profile cases involving Ms. Lynch police brutality, bank fraud and money laundering.

Sources close to the Obama administration said they expected Ms. Lynch would generate little controversy, making for a smooth Senate confirmation process.

The Senate twice previously has confirmed her nomination to federal prosecutor jobs, most recently in 2010.

But senior Senate Democrats and White House aides said Ms. Lynch’s confirmation likely would be delayed until the new session of Congress starts in January. Her nomination then will rest in the hands of Republicans, who will control the upper chamber as a result of the Nov. 4 elections.

Known for her low-key personality, Ms. Lynch has stirred little controversy during two tenures as U.S. attorney. She served in the position under President Bill Clinton from 1999 to 2001, before leaving for private practice. President Obama appointed her to the post once again in 2010.

A Republican-majority Senate confirmed her 1999 appointment, while a Democraticmajority Senate confirmed her in 2010.

Mr. Holder is the only attorney general to serve under President Obama, holding the job since 2009. He is the first African-American to hold the

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RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

www.richmondfreepress.com

MAY 8-10, 2014

Stadium plan near death?

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Coach Michele Drayton enjoys being back with her players and assistant coach Wade Ellegood in the Albert H. Hill Middle School gymnasium Tuesday.

Heartwarming return for Albert Hill coach

By Joey Matthews

“I felt loved and appreciated,” Coach Drayton told the Free Press Wednesday.

“It was a special feeling for me to be back and get such a welcome.

“It was like coming home,” she added.

Parents of the players, along with her Albert Hill colleagues, walked over and welcomed her back with more hugs and well wishes.

Although still weak from the stroke, Coach Drayton sat on the gymnasium bench and watched as her assistant, Wade Ellegood, coached Albert Hill to a win over Elkhardt in the Richmond Public Schools middle school playoff opener.

“I felt like taking over, but he did a good job,” a happy Coach Drayton said afterward of her anxiety of having to watch,

Coach Michele Drayton walked into the Albert H. Hill Middle School gym for the first time since suffering a stroke last month.

The players on her girls’ basketball team excitedly ran over, showering her with hugs.

Surrounding her, they applauded and yelled, “Let’s win this one for Coach Drayton!”

Putting their hands together in a team huddle, they yelled, “Do it for Coach Drayton! One! Two! Three!”

It was a heartwarming homecoming for the longtime Albert Hill hoops coach, who returned to the team Nov. 4. She suffered a stroke Oct. 2 at her North Side home.

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instead of coach.

Albert Hill lost its next game to the team from Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School last Thursday in the playoff semifinals.

But the Albert Hill players and Coach Drayton have much to be proud of. The team completed an 11-1 season, which included a 10-0 regular season.

Under Coach Drayton, Albert Hill has recorded four consecutive unbeaten regular seasons and won the middle school league championship in 2011, finishing 13-0.

Coach Drayton, 46, said she knew something was seriously amiss just prior to suffering the stroke. She had been experiencing a series of headaches and felt

Montague D. Phipps had big dreams three years ago when he bought a derelict duplex from the City of Petersburg for the rock-bottom price of $5,000.

But when his dreams fell apart, he still came out ahead.

He recently sold the still-ramshackle building for $50,000 — a far different outcome than he and the Petersburg government envisioned when Mr. Phipps was approved to buy the property in 2011.

His case is attracting attention in part because he was able to flip the property for a profit and because of his ties to Petersburg City Councilman W. Howard Myers, who defeated a challenger Nov. 4 to win a second term as the Ward 5 representative.

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Young foodie Adilrah Johnson, 8, enjoys fresh-cut fries held by her mother, Shoshana. Mother and daughter tasted their way through Sunday’s GRAZE on Grace, a foodie’s delight. The first-time event featured nearly 30 restaurants and specialty food providers celebrating local and seasonal cuisine — from oysters on the half shell to banana tacos.

Location: East Grace Street, between North 4th and North 7th streets.

James Haskins/Richmond Free Press

This is a view of the decaying property Montoya D. Phipps bought from the City of Petersburg for $5,000 and recently sold for $50,000. Location: 530-32 Fleet St., just across the Appomattox River from Virginia State University.

Mr. Phipps, an adjunct design instructor at Virginia State University, also makes his home and operates his interior design

business out of an apartment he leases from Mr. Myers. The apartment is in a five-unit building that Mr. Myers owns and

By Fred Jeter

where he, too, resides.

There is no evidence that Mr. Myers pushed the sale of the property in the 500 block of Fleet Street to Mr. Phipps.

Petersburg council records also support Mr. Myers’ assertion that “I had no involvement” in the vote approving the sale.

Mr. Myers is listed as abstaining from the otherwise unanimous vote of support for the recommendation from City Manager William Johnson III to sell the Fleet Street property to Mr. Phipps without any strings attached.

But even if there was no connection to Mr. Myers, this sale exemplifies the shortcomings of the program whose goal is to rev up development and job creation in a city that

Virginia State University is heading into its biggest game of the season minus a key component — quarterback Tarian Ayres.

Mr. Ayres, a 20-year-old sophomore from Dillwyn, has been suspended from playing in the CIAA championship game Saturday against Winston-Salem State University, school officials announced.

The school-mandated suspension stems from Mr. Ayres’ arrest Sunday, Nov. 9, on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, underage possession of alcohol and speeding.

He was arrested 2:05 a.m. Sunday about 25 miles southeast of Ettrick in Waverly, where he was stopped on U.S. 460.

Mr. Ayres was clocked driving 52 mph in a 35 mph zone, and was spotted crossing the highway’s double solid line near Main Street.

Waverly Police Officer C.M. Washington said he determined Mr. Ayres was intoxicated after administering sobriety checks, including a breathalyzer test.

There were two passengers in Mr. Ayres’ car at the time of the arrest. He is scheduled to appear Nov. 18 in Sussex County General District Court.

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Petersburg man lost dream, but made $45,000 profit

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

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Quarterback sacked by DUI charge

Is gay the new black? lesbians the right to the majority do not get a Commentary marry. vote in the issue, regardIronically, it was less of their discomfort Virginia which, in 1967, had its ban on inter- about interracial relationships. racial marriage overturned. Loving v. Virginia Is gay the new black? No one can say with said that every citizen has the basic human right honesty that gays, like blacks, are not oppressed. to marry who they might choose. The state and Gays, though oppressed, were never enslaved,

Above, Martin “Marty” Cobb, 8, was killed while defending his beloved 12-year-old sister during a sexual assault on her last Thursday on South Side; right, grieving children comfort each other at Saturday evening’s community vigil to honor Marty.

8-year-old hero

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

‘Marty’ Cobb slain while defending 12-year-old sister

By Joey Matthews

Eight-year-old Martin “Marty” Cobb and his 12-year-old sister had a special bond.

They were by all accounts inseparable as siblings, best friends and playmates.

“They were never apart,” said the Rev. Theodore L. Hughey, the pastor at Abundant Life Church of God in Christ, the family’s church.

They would ride bikes and big wheelers together, play side by side with children in their South Side neighborhood and brag about their mother’s fine down-home cooking, he told the Free Press.

Marty had a special affinity for keys of any type, the pastor added.

In a tragic event that has captured the nation’s heart, Marty now is being fondly remembered as a courageous hero.

Local and national media are telling the heart-rending story of how Marty died last Thursday afternoon bravely trying to protect his beloved sister from a sexual predator as they played near railroad tracks behind the family’s home in the 200 block of Brandon Road.

A 16-year-old boy was arrested Saturday and charged with Marty’s murder and the attack on his sister, who sur-

vived and is recovering at a local hospital.

Marty died from severe head trauma, police later reported.

Neighbors reported the attacker struck Marty in the head with a brick.

Last Saturday evening, about 200 family members, friends, neighbors and other community members somberly gathered outside Abundant Life to honor the endearing child with the small frame, indomitable spirit and warm, loving smile.

Prior to the vigil, loved ones assembled around a sign in Marty’s yard that read: “Martin: A real hero lived, fought and died here.”

Ben Jealous in new position Free Press staff, wire reports

SAN JOSE, Calif.

Just months after stepping down as head of the nation’s largest civil rights organization, former NAACP President Benjamin Jealous is changing his career from an East Coast political activist to a West Coast venture capitalist. It’s a switch he hopes will help further his goal of growing opportunities for black people and Latinos in the booming tech economy.

“My life’s mission has been leveling the playing field and closing gaps in opportunity and success,” Mr. Jealous, 41, said. “I’m excited about trying a difMr. Jealous ferent approach.”

The Northern California native and selfconfessed computer geek will be joining entrepreneurs Mitchell Kapor and Freada Kapor Klein at their venture capital investment firm that backs information technology start-ups committed to making a positive social impact.

Fred Turner, who studies culture and technology as an associate professor at Stanford University, said it’s “fascinating that a person of his caliber and experience would move into this space.”

Mr. Turner said there’s a deep question going on in the U.S. about how to accomplish positive social change.

“In the Silicon Valley, they approach it entrepreneurially. In Washington, they approach it politically,” Mr. Turner said. “These are two very different modes.”

Mr. Jealous said he and his family will remain in Silver Spring, Md., but he’ll commute to the West Coast about once a month.

Mr. Jealous was named to the NAACP’s top post in 2008 after Free Press Editor/Publisher

Raymond H. Boone advocated on his behalf.

He replaced former Verizon executive Bruce Gordon, who resigned under pressure from the NAACP board of directors in 2007 after Mr. Boone led a campaign showing Mr. Gordon favored corporate interests over those of the NAACP. Mr. Jealous was widely credited with improving the NAACP’s finances, donor base and outreach.

He said he will never completely drop out Please turn to A4

“Little Marty is a hero,” stated City Council member Reva M. Trammell, who spoke at the vigil and represents the 8th District where the grieving family lives.

“He was there when his sister needed him the most,” she added in response to a Free Press query.

“Marty’s beautiful smile and his love for his sister will always be with us. Marty will always be in our hearts, and he will never, ever be forgotten.”

Charles Willis, executive director of the Citizens Against Crime group that has helped lead vigils for more than 20 years in the city, said the turnout reflects a caring community.

“Even though a crisis of this nature happens, this shows the strength of not only the city, but of the community,” Mr. Willis said. “When trouble comes to any community, we will respond in a positive fashion.”

He described Marty’s mother, Sharain Spruill, as “very, very, very upset as well as hurt and trying to wrap her mind around why this happened her son.”

Major Steve Drew, who directs Support Services with the Richmond Police Department, praised neighborhood residents

for providing information that resulted in the quick arrest.

“The community really came together to seek justice for little Marty, the hero,” he said.

Police said Marty’s sister first reported the attacker to be a white male, but later recanted and identified a black, 16-yearold neighbor as the attacker.

She told police the teenager had threatened to hurt her if she told on him.

It has been reported the suspect’s name is Mariese Washington. He has a history of violent behavior that includes a 2010 attack in the Mosby Court housing community on a 3-year-old boy. He hit the boy in the back of the head with a hammer.

Th attack required the child to receive 100 staples and a metal plate in his head. The boy has spent four years in recovery, according to his family.

The alleged killer of Marty made his first appearance in Richmond Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court on Monday in front of Judge Ashley K. Tunner.

Authorities have declined to identify the suspect because Please turn to A4

www.richmondfreepress.com

Jubilant couples head to courthouse for marriage licenses

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

By Joey Matthews

Will Mayor Dwight C. Jones be throwing out the first pitch at a new Shockoe Bottom baseball stadium two years from now?

Not likely, if a City Council revolt against the stadium succeeds.

Five members, led by Jonathan T. Baliles, the 1st District representative and potential 2016 mayoral candidate, undertook the revolt.

They did so by removing from the proposed budget $12.6 million that was considered essential to creating a new home for the minor league Richmond Flying Squirrels in the low-lying area of Downtown where the city was born and that later became infamous as the largest slave market north of New Orleans.

Sending shockwaves through City Hall, the five began the revolt against the stadium last Thursday as the nine council members worked to craft the next capital budget, the spending plan for city construction.

The stadium money was earmarked to redo underground piping for flood control. Without the money, the work to meet federal regulations for building in a flood plain could not be done.

The stadium site near 17th and East Broad streets is defined as being in the flood plain.

Mr. Baliles was joined in the decision to remove the $12.6 million and reallocate it to other city needs, such as improvements for aging school buildings, by Council President Charles R. Samuels, 2nd District; Chris A. Hilbert, 3rd District; and the two staunch stadium foes, Parker C. Agelasto, 5th District, and Reva M. Trammell, 8th District.

The four members who wanted to keep the stadium money in place included: Council Vice President Ellen F. Robertson, 6th District; Kathy C. Graziano, 4th District; Cynthia I. Newbille, 7th District, and Michelle R. Mosby, 9th District.

The move is the first clear evidence that the mayor and his legion of business supporters

Shamika Fauntleroy accompanied her father Tuesday morning from their hometown of Tappahannock to the VCU Medical Center, where he was to undergo surgery.

“My father looked at me when we got there and told me to go take care of my business first,” Ms. Fauntleroy told the Free Press.

She and her longtime partner, Kristea Thompson, then drove the short distance to the John Marshall Courts Building in Richmond’s Downtown, where they bought a marriage license around 10 a.m.

The two Tappahannock residents became the first African-American couple and 12th overall to purchase a marriage license from the Richmond Circuit Court Clerk’s Office after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriages in Virginia and four /A6 other states Monday.

They told the Free Press they plan to wed as soon as they can make the arrangements.

The partners of 10 years already had celebrated their union at a Sept. 6 commitment service with family and friends at a home off Riverside Drive on South Side.

“We already had that bond, but we wanted to take care of it legally as well,” Ms. Fauntleroy said.

On Monday, the Supreme Court effectively allowed same-sex marriage to proceed in Virginia when it refused to take up a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the same-sex marriage ban.

Gay and lesbian couples hurried to Virginia courthouses shortly after the news.

Edward F. Jewett, clerk of the Richmond Circuit Court, said his office anticipated the change and, in August, changed gender references on marriage licenses to refer instead to spouses rather than husband and wife.

Ms. Fauntleroy, 28, said she was on her job as an assistant manager at a Hardee’s restaurant in Warsaw when she heard the news that the marriage ban had been lifted.

“I was like this,” she said, gleefully raising her arms with a mile-wide smile. “We had waited so long for this moment.”

She called the Essex County Circuit Court about a license, “but they had no idea what had happened and could not help us,” she said.

That’s when she and Ms. Thompson formulated plan B — to buy a license in Richmond.

“This brings me the happiness I always wanted, to be able to legally say I’m going to share my life with her,” Ms. Fauntleroy said, sitting outside the John Marshall building with her future wife.

“It’s a blessing,” Ms. Thompson, 30, an employee at June Parker Oil Co. in Tappahannock, added. “This shows things are Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press changing in each and every way.”

Area ministers weigh in on gay marriage

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Shamika Fauntleroy, left, and Kristea Thompson are planning a wedding ceremony after obtaining a marriage license Tuesday at the John Marshall Courts Building in Downtown.

Court ruling moves Va. to historic change

By Jeremy M. Lazarus and Joey Matthews

Virginia joined the tidal wave of historic change this week, with the U.S. Supreme Court opening the door for same-sex marriage in the commonwealth.

The nation’s highest court at its opening session Monday refused to take up a ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that overturned Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban.

By leaving intact Virginia’s lower court ruling striking down a ban on gay marriage, as well Please turn to A6

Nicole Pries, left, and Lindsey Oliver kiss after an impromptu ceremony outside the Downtown courthouse Monday. They became the first same-sex couple to wed in Richmond.

LOS ANGELES R&B superstar Chris Brown finally got some good news.

A Los Angeles judge has said that the Tappahannock, Va., native could be released as early as this week from jail if attorneys can agree to terms for his release.

The news comes as the pop star deals with criminal cases on the East Coast and West Coast.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Brandlin had earlier indicated Mr. Brown could be facing anywhere from a few months to more than a year in jail.

Unfortunately for him, Mr. Please turn to A4

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Federal judges order redrawing of Scott’s district

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Two years ago, the Republican-controlled General Assembly was accused of creating new congressional districts that packed Democratic-leaning black voters into the 3rd House District, reducing the influence of black voters on congressional elections in adjacent districts.

This week, a divided federal court panel upheld critics’ complaints in finding that black voters were illegally overloaded into the district represented by

Free Press wire reports

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

OCTOBER 9-11, 2014

Virginia now for all lovers

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Latin Ballet members Monte Jones and Ana Ines King deliver a flashy dance move Saturday at the lively ¿Qué Pasa? Festival in Downtown. The event’s name translates to “what’s happening” in English, and there was plenty happening at this spring showcase of Latin American culture, music, art and food.

Location: The Canal Walk near 14th and Canal streets.

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RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

Chris gets better news

¿Qué Pasa? in Richmond

wrenched from their homelands, raped and abused, as Africans.

Being black is not a choice, and neither is being gay.

Our Constitution was intended to protect the rights of anyone to pursue the realization of any right given to them by birth.

If a person is born with the right from their

Richmond Free Press

VOL. 23 NO. 41

Council opposition threatens mayor’s dream

Hampton provost to take reins Pamela V. Hammond is on track to become the first woman to lead Virginia State University in the school’s 132-year history, the Free Press has learned.

School sources said Dr. Hammond, the current provost or chief academic officer at Hampton University, has emerged as the board of visitors’ choice to become interim president to replace Dr. Keith T. Miller, who submitted his resignation Oct. 31.

The sources said Dr. Hammond is scheduled to meet with the board this Thursday, Nov. 13 — the date the board set for choosing an interim leader for the university in Ettrick.

If all goes well, the board is expected to vote approval and introduce her as the choice for interim chief executive during the session, the sources said.

The sources said Dr. Hammond is expected to serve while the board conducts a national search for the school’s 14th president. She would be regarded as a potential candidate, sources said, depending on her work as interim.

Her start date could not be learned, but it could be soon after Jan. 1.

Dr. Miller is to officially leave the post Dec. 31.

A former nurse educator, Dr. Hammond will take over a public university grappling with major budget troubles as a result of an enrollment drop of more than 1,000 students. The problems led to cuts in student services and could force faculty and staff layoffs.

She will arrive as VSU experiments with a new schedule

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Richmond Free Press

VOL. 23 NO. 19

Is gay the new black? Have gays and lesbians supplanted African-Americans as the most oppressed American minority?

Several African-Americans have asked me if the recent opinions granting gays and lesbians the right to marry will have any impact upon African-American civil rights.

On Oct. 6, 2014, Virginia granted gays and

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By David P. Baugh

Don Sterling L.A. Clippers team owner

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Richmond Free Press

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NFL should follow NBA to end D.C. pro team’s racism

Dan Snyder Washington team owner

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‘Texas Tornado’ goes and goes

July 9-11, 2015

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Virginia’s lone black congressman, Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott.

Rep. Scott, a Democrat, has represented the district for 22 years. The district includes parts of Richmond, Newport News, Hampton and Norfolk and the counties of Henrico and Prince George, and all of Petersburg and Portsmouth and the counties of Rep. Scott Charles City and Surry.

In a 2-1 decision, the panel deemed the current map in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and ordered the state legislature to redraw the boundaries of the district by April 1. If not, the federal court panel will redraw the lines.

Tuesday’s decision is expected to have a ripple effect and require redrawing the boundaries of the adjacent 2nd and 4th House districts and possibly others to rebalance populations.

The 2nd and 4th districts are represented by Republican Reps. Scott Rigell and J. Randy Forbes, respectively.

But the upcoming congressional elections scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 4, will go forward with the current district lines.

Along with writing the opinion for the panel’s majority, Judge Allyson K. Duncan of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also issued a separate order allowing the November elections to “proceed as scheduled under the existing redistricting plan,” but she barred future elections until a new redistricting plan is adopted.

She and U.S. District Judge Liam O’ Grady, who joined her opinion, deemed it too late to do anything for the current round of elections.

The third member of the panel, U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne, found no reason to overturn the redistricting plan.

on a Richmond radio talk show.

“We’re going to work through the challenges we have today and come out of this a bigger, a better and a stronger university,” Dr. Miller told the audience of “The Jack Gravely Show.”

In addition, Dr. Miller has announced he will hold separate meetings for students and faculty to provide more information on the school’s fiscal outlook and on the steps the university is taking to overcome what it now lists as a $19 million shortfall in revenue.

He is slated to hold the town hall-style sessions

Free Press wire reports DALLAS The first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States died Wednesday morning in a hospital here.

The case of Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian who came to the United States on Sept.

20, put health authorities on alert for the deadly virus spreading outside of West Africa.

About 48 people who Mr. Duncan had direct or indirect contact with Mr. Duncan since his arrival were being monitored, but none have shown any symptoms as of Wednesday evening, according to health officials.

Mr. Duncan’s case has led to expanded efforts by U.S. authorities to combat the spread of Ebola at its source in West Africa — and raised questions about the effectiveness of airport screening and hospital preparedness.

Mr. Duncan, 42, became ill after arriving in Dallas to visit family. He went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on Sept. 25, but initially was sent home with antibiotics. His

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VSU president sets town hall meetings

Miller fighting to retain control

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Paulette Singleton/Richmond Free Press

Happy face Leoné Brunswick parties Saturday with balloon character SpongeBob SquarePants at the 26th annual 2nd Street Festival in Jackson Ward.

Thousands of people turned out to enjoy the twoday festival. Please turn to B2 for more photos.

Dr. Keith T. Miller is pushing back against perceptions that he has been secretive and lacks the leadership skills to overcome Virginia State University’s financial woes.

Facing student protests, faculty grumbling and alumni concerns about the university’s money troubles, Dr. Miller is taking fresh steps to open lines of communication and to quell efforts to force him to resign.

Last week, he appeared with Hyisheem Calier, president of VSU’s Student Government Association,

First Ebola patient dies in Dallas

Don't Miss One Word Celebrating Mother’s Day

RRHA Leadership Somanath in

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Richmond Public Schools is on track to gain an extra $9 million to help meet critical needs in the coming year.

Police officers and firefighters also are on track to gain bigger raises of roughly 2.5 percent to help reduce turnover in public safety.

But Richmond City Council’s efforts to pay for those priorities are expected to have an impact on other city services.

Leaf collection and Sunday openings of the city’s public libraries could be wiped out, according to Mayor Dwight C. Jones’administration. And there could be a slowdown in obtaining permits and inspections for

■

construction projects and in repairing broken streetlights, administration officials have told the council.

So far, the mayor remains mum on whether he would consider vetoing some or all of council’s changes to his spending plan.

The full list of changes that the council plans to make to Mayor Jones’ proposed twoyear budget will be on view Friday, May 8.

That’s when the governing body will hold a special meeting to formally introduce its amendments to the mayor’s budget for the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years that will begin July 1. Council is to vote on its proposals Friday, May 15, at another special meeting.

Christopher L. Beschler, the city’s acting chief administrative officer (CAO), said the council’s proposals “will have a impact,” but he said he and his staff would need more time to understand the effects that council’s changes will cause.

For Selena Cuffee-Glenn, Please turn to A4

Federal appeals court gives workers greater protection against racial harassment

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Richmond Free Press

A Maryland waitress who was fired after reporting that a manager twice called her “a porch monkey” has become a key figure in bolstering protections for workers who face racial harassment and abuse on the job.

A federal appeals court in Richmond is using the civil rights lawsuit that Reya C. Boyer-Liberto filed against the resort hotel where she worked in 2010 to bolster efforts of workers who seek legal redress for a hostile workplace — even when their

complaint involves only one or two incidents.

In a decision issued May 7, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that even isolated incidents of racial abuse such as the one Ms. Boyer-Liberto faced can be enough to allow workers to seek damages and also to create a cause of action against employers who terminate a worker for reporting such abuse.

Essentially, the court sent a message that racial bigotry has no place in the workplace.

All 15 sitting judges of the court participated in hearing the

case that dismantles a requirement that employees must show a persistent pattern of racial hostility in order to get their day in court and protection from being fired.

Twelve judges joined in the majority opinion, which revived Ms. Boyer-Liberto’s lawsuit against the Clarion Resort Fontainebleau Hotel in Ocean City, Md., and its owner who fired her.

A lower court and a panel of the 4th Circuit had tossed out her lawsuit on the grounds the racial slur she was subjected Please turn to A4

Richmond Free Press End the inconvenience of empty newspaper boxes, fighting School success the weather and hunting down back copies.Stop the violence Also, support the Free Press. We’re always working for you. www.richmondfreepress.com

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MAY 14-16, 2015

Don't Miss volunteer subscription Don't Miss One Word One Word Carver Elementary teamwork fosters rewards for students

Community leaders, residents march in Mosby Court for peace

By Joey Matthews

James Haskins/Richmond Free Press

Deputy Chief Durham

A new top cop in town

By Joey Matthews

Rayvon Owen hometown ‘Idol’ He sang o R chmond Boys Cho ook a en o na ona s age

By Joey Matthews

Rayvon Owen’s eyes sparkled with delight.

When the limousine carrying Rayvon and his mother, Patrice Fitzgerald, pulled up to the James Center in Downtown last Friday, about 1,000 cheering fans were waiting for him in the rain.

“It’s crazy! It’s an insane feeling! I’m overwhelmed by happiness!” he told a Free Press reporter.

Rayvon, who attended the Center for the Arts at Henrico High School and sang in the Richmond Boys Choir, returned home to a hero’s welcome after earning a spot in the Top 4 in the popular “American Idol” nationally televised singing competition. It is broadcast locally on Fox’s WRLH-TV Channel 35 in the Richmond area.

While he was eliminated Wednesday night, he elicited

cheers from audience members in the California studio and brought a positive spotlight to Richmond.

“He has made our city and our region so very proud,” Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones told the cheering audience of fans of all ages gathered for his homecoming celebration — from adoring teens to joyous office workers, including a Chesterfield County mom who presented Rayvon with a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

Rayvon was joined by 2006 “American Idol” finalist Elliott Yamin of Richmond, who congratulated him with a big bear hug.

The mayor called Rayvon “a positive role model” for young people from the area.

Ready to sing, Rayvon took the microphone and bellowed,

The Richmond Police Department has stayed free of public accusations of police brutality as “Black Lives Matter” demonstrations grow locally and across the nation to protest atrocities by white police officers in the black community.

The nearly 740-officer force has garnered mostly praise for its community policing efforts to gain closer ties with neighborhoods in the city it serves.

Incoming Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham vows to take those efforts up a notch.

“There’s always room for improvement,” the 51-year-old Washington native and current Richmond Police deputy chief of administration said Monday after he was introduced by Major Dwight C. Jones as the city’s next police chief in a news conference at City Hall.

The mayor named his new top cop as a national furor grows over killings by white police officers of unarmed black men such as Eric Garner in New York City in July; Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson, Mo., in August; and Rumain Brisbon in Phoenix in December.

In Richmond, young people in recent weeks have demonstrated and staged “die-ins” in Downtown and in the Fan District to draw attention to the police killings and the overall neglect of the black community.

“I want to acknowledge that

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Carver Principal Kiwana yates gives kindergarten student Jajuan Dickerson a high-five for a job well done.

“We take an all-hands-on-deck approach to educating our children.”

That’s how George Washington Carver Elementary School Principal Kiwana Yates enthusiastically describes the full community involvement approach she and her staff utilize.

With it, they have achieved academic success against tall odds in the largely impoverished community served by the school at 1110 W. Leigh St. “Each school faces different challenges,” the third-year Carver principal told the Free Press. “A kid is a kid, and it doesn’t really matter where they come from. It takes a level of excellence from the teacher and the ability of the school to meet the needs of each child.”

Carver is among only 11 of Richmond’s 44 public schools to earn full accreditation from the Virginia Department of Education after surpassing state standards in four core Standards of Learning tests administered last spring.

Carver, with 95 percent of its 592 students in kindergarten through fifth grade being African-American, scored an average of 90 in science, 88 in English and 84 each in math and history.

At least 75 percent of a school’s students must pass English and at least 70 percent must pass the other three tests in order for the school to be fully accredited.

Carver also has been recognized as a Title I Distinguished School by the Virginia Department of Education. To qualify, a disadvantaged school receiving additional federal aid must meet all state and federal accountability requirements for two years and achieve average reading and mathematic SOL scores at the 60th percentile or higher.

The school’s theme this year is “The Jewel of the Carver Community.”

Early in the school year, Ms. Yates and her staff organized an “SOLabration,” a day of creative learning activities capped by a family fun night to recognize their accreditation. Staff wore “SOLabration” shirts to mark the day.

Please turn to A4

Mayor touts anti-poverty efforts in city address

By Joey Matthews

Mayor Dwight C. Jones spoke of “a tale of two cities” in his State of the City address.

“Right now, one part of town is vibrant, prosperous and forward-looking,” he told an attentive audience of about 300 people Jan. 29 in the auditorium at Huguenot High School on South Side. “And then when you cross the Martin Luther King Bridge, you find another Richmond — one that has largely been ignored, overlooked and shunned.

“The old Richmond allowed a generation of Richmonders to believe that they don’t have a chance to succeed,” he added. “Leaders made a decision to create public housing projects and push thousands of poor people into them.”

The mayor spoke of a “resurgent” city early and often in his 22-minute speech that was greeted with

applause about a dozen times.

However, he bluntly told the audience of city officials, politicos, community advocates and ordinary citizens, “We’ll reach our full potential only when we move beyond the tale of two cities.”

He cited some of his administration’s povertyfighting efforts.

Among those: • Opening the new Office of Community Wealth Building last June to spearhead the city’s anti-poverty initiatives.

• Building new schools such as the $63 million Huguenot High School, the first new high school in the city since 1968.

• Reducing concentrated pockets of poverty in the East End by transforming public housing communities into mixed-income neighborhoods.

• Attracting new businesses, such as Stone Brewing Company in the Fulton neighborhood, to expand the city’s tax base and provide jobs.

• Increasing workforce training.

• Landing a $25 million federal grant for bus rapid transit along Broad Street from Rocketts Landing in the East End to Willow Lawn so people can get to jobs.

• Opening the new Richmond Justice Center in Shockoe Valley and the Day Reporting Center in Downtown to provide more opportunities for offenders to gain rehabilitative services and decrease their prospects of returning to jail.

By Joey Matthews

Photos by Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Joyce Kenney holds an image of her grandson, Ra’Keem Adkins, 22, who was shot and killed in the Mosby Court public housing community May 7. Right, more than 200 people, including Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham, march from Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School to Mosby Court calling for an end to the violence.

New city CAO gets $5,700 raise before job start

For most of her adult life, Joyce Kenney has been an advocate for people living in the Mosby Court public housing community and other poor neighborhoods in the city.

In that time, she has lobbied for more resources for people in disadvantaged communities. She also has attended countless vigils to comfort those mourning the deaths of their loved ones due to violence in the streets.

On Tuesday night, it was Ms. Kenney’s turn to be consoled by community members.

Her grandson, Ra’Keem Adkins, 22, was one of five shooting victims in Richmond May 7. He was shot multiple times and died on the sidewalk in the 1900 block of Redd Street shortly after 10 p.m. in Mosby Court in the city’s East End. Earlier in the day, Sylvester Nichols, 24, was fatally shot in the parking lot of the Family Dollar Store in the 6500 block of Midlothian Turnpike on South Side. A third man also was shot that night about three miles away and taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Angered by the ongoing black-on-black violence in the city, community activist J.J. Minor said he began planning an anti-violence rally last Saturday with the Mosby Court Tenant Council and fellow activist Charles Willis, who grew up in Mosby Court.

“I’m tired and frustrated by the blackon-black crime,” Mr. Minor told the Free Press prior to the rally as he and other volunteers prepared hamburgers and hot dogs to serve along with potato chips, soft drinks and water to rally attendees.

He pointed to a decrepit basketball court a few yards from where Mr. Adkins was killed. The baskets had bent rims and no nets.

“Look at that,” he said, shaking his head.

“The city needs to step up to the plate and put more resources in impoverished communities.”

He said he plans to contact community members, city officials, educators, business leaders and faith leaders to convene Please turn to A5

No charges filed against Wisconsin police officer in teen’s death Free Press wire reports

MADISON, Wis. A Wisconsin police officer who fatally shot an unarmed biracial teenager in March, prompting several days of peaceful protests, will not be charged, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Officer Matt Kenny used justified lethal force in the March 6 shooting of Tony Robinson, 19, Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said.

Mr. Ozanne said Officer Kenny shot Mr. Robinson after the teen struck him in the head and tried to knock the officer down a staircase.

“I conclude that this tragic and unfortunate death was the result of a lawful Please turn to A5

Advocacy groups plan housing, services safety net for foster youths

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Jus ce Dep opens nves ga on n o G ay s dea h o fice s cha ged Free Press wire reports

BALTIMORE There’s an uneasy quiet in Baltimore after six police officers were charged last week in the mysterious death of Freddie Gray while he was in their custody.

Underneath the calm simmers apprehension and anger in the African-American community — ready to erupt again at any moment — if there’s another incident of police brutality against a black man in the town known as “Charm City.”

That grim reality was clear Monday afternoon when angry community members

and officers in riot gear quickly converged in West Baltimore after an erroneous TV report stated police had shot and perhaps fatally injured a young African-American man who was seen running away from pursuing officers.

The volatile scene was near where Mr. Gray, 25, was arrested by Baltimore police on April 12 and later hospitalized with severe spinal and larynx injuries suffered

after being handcuffed and tossed into a police van. He died April 19.

But on T

Please turn to A4

Petersburg jail to close

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

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until the Petersburg City Council decides whether to build a new The Petersburg City Jail is holding facility at a projected going to be shut down in March cost of $5 million.

— forcing Petersburg Sheriff Sheriff Crawford, who has Vanessa Crawford to lay off the been fighting the decision, almajority of her staff of 98 depuready has warned that Petersburg ties and civilian employees. would have to pay Riverside Petersburg Mayor W. Howard nearly $3 million a year to house Myers announced Monday that the city’s inmates. That’s about the decision is final. as much as the city now spends Sheriff Crawford Saying Petersburg cannot afto operate its own jail. ford the $22 million to replace its antiquated The city also would incur a bigger bill for jail, Mayor Myers said that effective March prisoner transportation expenses and would 1, all new arrestees would be housed at the tie up police officers who will have to travel Riverside Regional Jail, located about 10 farther to book prisoners, she said. miles away in Prince George County.

Sheriff Crawford said the decision would Current inmates would be transferred on force her to lay off at least 55 of her 78 or about March 15 to the regional facility deputies. She also will have to eliminate a that opened in 1997, was expanded in 2010 major share of the department’s 20 civiland can house up to 2,000 inmates. ian employees.

The Petersburg jail, which houses about She and the remaining staff would be 200 inmates, dates to 1968. limited to providing security at the holding Petersburg is one of seven localities facility and the courthouse and serving civil that built and manages Riverside Regional papers. She noted that salaries of the half Jail. The city’s women prisoners already dozen deputies she would need to staff are housed there. the lockup would have to be paid by the After the transfer is complete, the city. The state only picks up the salaries mayor said the jail’s only use would be of deputies assigned to a jail. as a temporary lockup for inmates going Please turn to A4 to court or awaiting transfer to Riverside

Just take a minute

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

James Haskins/Richmond Free Press

Mayor Jones at State of the City address.

“It’s new for all of us,” Mayor Jones said. “It’s never happened in my lifetime or yours. But I know this: If we unite together and look forward, and invite our neighbors to join us, then we’ll continue to shape the city and the region we all want to call home.”

The mayor kicked off his address touting the RichPlease turn to A4

State Dems hit with voting rights suit

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Did the Democratic Party of Virginia violate the U.S. Constitution and the federal Voting Rights Act in choosing its nominee to compete in a recent special election for a House of Delegates seat?

Yes, say three African-Americans, who are taking their case to federal court.

The trio allege the party trampled on their voting rights and those of thousands of Democrats like them in its zeal to eliminate Henrico Delegate Joseph D. “Joe” Morrissey as a nominee in the election he went on to win Jan. 13 as an independent.

David M. Lambert, Gary G. Hill Sr. and his sister-in-law, Linda D. Hill, filed the suit Friday.

According to their suit, the Democrats’ method of nomination intentionally excluded them and other African-American voters living in the majority-black 74th House of Delegates District, which includes Charles City County, 26 precincts

in eastern Henrico County and a single precinct in Richmond’s North Side.

The lawsuit charges that the party, fearing such voters “might use their First Amendment rights to support a candidate the DPVA and other local party officials didn’t want to win the Democratic nomination,” imposed rules that “intentionally disenfranchised them all.”

The suit seeks to bar the party from ever using any procedure to “disenfranchise and discriminate” against African-Americans and other party members in the selection of its nominees, which the suit describes as “a critical element of the electoral process.”

The case, which is assigned to senior U.S. Judge Robert E. Payne, is one of the most significant involving voting rights in recent years in Virginia.

The suit also is a huge embarrassment for

Selena Cuffee-Glenn just received a $5,700 salary bump — from $203,000 a year to $208,700 — though she will not start work as the city’s top administrator until Monday, May 18.

Her benefits package also has been sweetened with a $5,700 increase in a retirement benefit paid by the city.

City Council asked no questions about the unexpected pay hike in voting 9-0 Monday to confirm the former Suffolk city manager as Richmond’s new chief administrative officer.

In mid-April when Mayor Dwight C. Jones announced Ms. Cuffee-Glenn Ms. Cuffee-Glenn as his choice for the No. 2 post at City Hall, he said she would start at $203,000 a year.

His staff even produced the offer letter she signed stipulating her salary and a host of other benefits, including a $950 monthly car allowance and $15,000 a year in deferred compensation, essentially a retirement savings plan.

Her new starting pay of $208,700 is listed in the ordinance that council members approved without public comment. Her deferred pay now is shown as $20,700 a year, with a $1,000 increase for each year of service, according to the ordinance.

One thing that was eliminated in the altered package is the $950 monthly car allowance, which would have totaled to $11,400 a year.

Apparently, Ms. Cuffee-Glenn traded the car allowance for improved starting pay and an increase in deferred compensation.

Asked about the changes, Tammy Hawley, the press secretary for Mayor Jones, responded that the mayor and Ms. Cuffee-Glenn “ended up renegotiating some things.”

By Joey Matthews

Janeva Smith has seen many of her friends in foster care suddenly become homeless when they turn 18. They have nowhere to go, few life skills and little hope for the future.

“I’ve had many friends who tried to commit suicide,” said Ms. Smith, who was 18 months old when she initially was placed in foster care in Plainfield, N.J. She was 14 when she entered foster care in Virginia, moving between foster families, group homes and shelters.

Related story on B3

“I’ve tried to commit suicide multiple times,” she said. “I’ve had many friends who face homelessness, have been incarcerated, many who don’t graduate from high school and others who got pregnant.

“Life’s rough when you don’t have any support,” she continued. “Imagine not having anybody to call on Mother’s Day.” Now 22, Ms. Smith lives in Hillside Court in South Richmond. She spoke with a Free Press reporter last week at the West End headquarters of the Children’s Home Society of Virginia, an organization that she credits with providing her with services and guidance.

The organization is collaborating with the Better Housing Coalition in Richmond to provide housing and supportive services to young adults being booted out of foster care on their 18th birthday.

The Possibilities Project, as the collaboration is called, would start by housing 20 young people early next year, then add more

young adults as the project develops.

In Virginia, children automatically “age out” of foster care when they reach age 18. According to the Children’s Home Society, about 700 young people fall into that category Ms. Smith each year in Virginia.

Within two years, according to the organization, one in four of those young people will be incarcerated, one in five will be homeless and fewer than one in six will graduate from high school.

Advocates point out that housing is an

especially critical need for this young and vulnerable population. They provided sad and gripping accounts of how some teens in foster care are packed up and taken to homeless shelters when they turn 18.

One available option is independent living programs that are coordinated through local social services departments in Virginia.

Youths no longer eligible for foster care can get housing until age 21 as long as they adhere to a contract requiring they are enrolled in school, working or in a counseling or treatment program. The contracts are personalized, designed to meet the specific needs of the young person.

While under contract, they can receive Please turn to A4

Like father, like son

Justin White holds two of his proud accomplishments — his son, Jeremiah, and his newly earned degree from Virginia Union University. The father and son celebrated in cap and gown Saturday at the university’s 117th commencement ceremony at Hovey Field. Please see article, more photos on Page B4.

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Celebration of hip-hop film and music at Gallery 5 in Jackson Ward/B2

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July 9-11, 2015

A just outcome Here’s good news: A big hotel in Charlotte, N.C., that ripped off people attending the 2015 CIAA basketball tournament in the spring is being forced to return its ill-gotten gains.

In other words, the Ritz-Carlton is going to pay for imposing a “black tax.”

According to news reports, the Ritz-Carlton has agreed to make restitution in a settlement with the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the nation’s oldest African-American athletic conference.

As you may recall, the problem cropped up during the big sports tournament in Charlotte in late February.

African-American patrons who enjoyed food and drink in the hotel’s lobby lounge during the tournament found themselves hit with an extra 15 percent service charge.

The hotel even put “CIAA service charge” on the bill.

It was shameful and infuriating. The CIAA tournament attracts tens of thousands of fans and alumni of the mostly historically black member colleges. The multiday tournament ranks among Charlotte’s largest events. Other cities would love to host it. But this hotel saw the event as a way to exploit African-Americans. Apparently, it never has added a similar service fee to fans attending ACC basketball tournaments or NASCAR races.

In the wake of complaints and public exposure, the embarrassed hotel officials initially tried to get away with just words.

A few days after the tournament, the hotel offered a public apology “to any guests we may have offended by the addition of a service charge we implemented at a recent event in our lobby lounge.”

The settlement goes beyond words. First, the hotel has agreed to donate $75,000 to the CIAA Scholarship Fund.

In addition, the hotel has agreed to refund surcharges imposed on any customers who bought meals or had drinks in the hotel’s lounge during the tournament.

According to the North Carolina Attorney General’s office, people seeking a refund can apply within 90 days by letter or online with the North Carolina Consumer Protection Division at ncdoj.gov. Requests for refunds need to be accompanied by a copy of the bill or a credit card or bank statement.

We applaud the consumers who raised a stink, bringing this to the attention of authorities. It’s a lesson that speaking up against unjust practices is the right way to go.

We also applaud North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper for taking action to hold this outlaw hotel accountable. As part of the settlement, the Ritz-Carlton must pay an additional $5,000 to the North Carolina Department of Justice for consumer protection efforts.

In announcing the settlement, Mr. Cooper said the real problem was the hotel’s failure to publicly post a notice and have servers explain the surcharge to guests. “Being upfront with consumers about fees is always the best way to do business. The principle of fairness is important; what happened is bad business.”

To that, we say amen.

Real innovation?

Last week, we published articles about two promising programs involving Richmond Public Schools.

First, Mayor Dwight C. Jones shone a spotlight on the “Future Centers” that are to be opened at three of Richmond’s high schools.

Their purpose: To help students better connect with college and career opportunities.

As proposed, these centers are to help students better plan for life after high school. Among other things, the centers are to aid students in seeking scholarships to pay for college or assist them in seeking employment.

Second, Richmond is teaming up with nine other school districts, including Chesterfield, Henrico and Hanover counties, to create a regional high school to train students in computer programming and open the door for careers in computer science.

According to the plan, this school represents thinking outside the box.

Instead of a traditional brick-and-mortar building and courses driven by state Standards of Learning tests, students would take courses online and be assessed for mastery and competence. They also would race through high school in two years and spend the final two years gaining experience by working on computer programming projects for a private company that would pay them.

And once done, according to the proposal, students could graduate with both a high school degree and an associate degree from a community college and have a guarantee of employment if they do not want to go on to college.

If this program works, then similar programs could be tried in other career areas, such as health care and finance.

Organizers hope to open the school by September 2016.

On paper, both programs sound like winners that could have a real impact on the lives of our children.

But as the old saying goes, “the proof is in the pudding.”

Too many times we have been told that one new program or another will usher in a big change. Alas, the results too often have been less than advertised.

At this point, we can only hope these new programs live up to their billing.

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Free Press exposé propelled fight against racist flag

It was mid-summer 1992.

A black airman with the Virginia Air National Guard walked into the Richmond Free Press newsroom and asked to see a reporter.

After he placed a stack of photos on my desk, asked for anonymity and detailed his complaint, I literally ran up the stairs to the office of Raymond H. Boone, the founder and now late editor of the Richmond Free Press. I showed Mr. Boone what the airman had revealed. In the next edition of the Free Press, July 23-25, 1992, the banner headline was clear: “Confederate flags on state planes.”

Debates now raging over the removal of Confederate flags by retailers and from public properties in South Carolina and other states call to mind this specific moment in black press history.

The lead paragraph told the story: “The Confederate flag — the symbol of slavery and banner of hate groups in America — is emblazoned on 149th Fighter Squadron planes of the Virginia Air National Guard, based at Richmond International Airport.”

The article contained a photograph as proof.

The article further stated that the “emblem was adopted by the unit when it was first formed in 1947,” that some airmen had worn it on their uniforms

and that there were “imminent plans to put the hate symbol on all of the new planes of this squadron, as well as on the squadron’s Air National Guard uniforms.”

Hazel Trice Edney With only six African-Americans among the squadron’s 50 members, there was little empathy for the offended black airmen — even when they complained and took action by refusing to serve people wearing the emblem in the cafeteria. The emblems had in fact been approved for use on the military planes and uniforms by the U. S. Department of Defense. They had also been copyrighted.

Maj. Stewart MacInnis, a white public affairs officer, defiantly said in a Free Press interview for the story, “Anybody who’s offended by it, I’m surprised that they’d even join the unit … Nobody’s forced to join.”

On the other hand, the African-Americans in the unit feared for their jobs if they consistently complained. But help was on the way. Then-Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, America’s first-elected black governor, had read the story and a scathing editorial written by Mr. Boone.

The very next Free Press edition, July 30-Aug. 1, 1992, published an epic headline: “Governor wipes out rebel flag/Free Press story gets quick results.”

Under the headline was a photo of Gov. Wilder, commander-in-chief of the Virginia

Air National Guard, sitting behind his desk with a clinched fist, as well as a photo of the Executive Order he signed.

It stated: “I hereby direct you to take all measures necessary to replace the flag being employed in the emblem of the 149th Fighter Squadron, 192nd Fighter Group, Virginia Air National Guard, with the flag of the United States of America.

This replacement shall be carried out on all equipment and uniforms of this unit, effective immediately.”

The order was met with compliance. Maj. Gen. John G. Castles ordered the removals, stating, “I answer to the governor. I am a soldier.”

The Confederate flag emblem was removed, but not the racism for which it stood.

In the weeks following, Staff Sgt. Leon Brooks, a black airman who had spoken openly against the flag, was fired by the Virginia Air National Guard “not for cause,” according to the termination letter.

Although Sgt. Brooks was not the airman who initially had come to the Free Press about the unit’s Confederate emblem, he became the unit’s scapegoat.

Again, Gov. Wilder flexed his gubernatorial powers as Air Guard commander-in-chief.

He reinstated Sgt. Brooks, who later retired and eventually became president of the King William County Branch NAACP in Virginia.

In the wake of the horrific actions by domestic terrorist and white supremacist Dylann Roof, who confessed to killing

Mobility in more ways than one If you had to guess the single strongest factor in determining who escapes poverty, what do you think it would be?

Perhaps surprisingly, the answer is transportation.

We m a y not think about it every day, but access to buses, trains and metros is a crucial link to opportunity and economic mobility.

In fact, a recent Harvard University study found the single strongest factor in determining economic mobility was commuting time. A lack of transportation options can keep a struggling community treading water. It is bad enough when a neighborhood lacks access to fresh produce; it is even worse when the closest grocery store is only accessible by a bus that only shows up occasionally or not at all.

If there is a personal equiva-

lent to this public policy problem, it would have to be the struggle of catching a cab as a person of color, especially as a black man. Nearly every person of color I know has a first- or

Ben Jealous second-hand story about a time when a taxi refused to pick him or her up or even drive to their neighborhood. Even President Obama has recalled experiencing discrimination when he was a young man.

The vexing experience of trying to hail a taxi is a powerful incentive for many people of color to seek alternative methods of transportation.

The most exciting alternative is ridesharing. Ridesharing companies, such as Uber and Lyft, manage to be more efficient than traditional taxi services and also more colorblind. When a driver selects a customer for pickup, he or she is completely blind to what that customer looks like or

where that customer is going.

Using an app, anyone can get a reliable ride, whenever and wherever they are.

The added bonus of ridesharing services is that they serve as a form of economic empowerment. As these services ramp up across the country, they are providing tens of thousands of flexible and easily accessible jobs.

When these drivers come from the communities they serve, it essentially creates a new market for transportation services. Everybody wins, from the passengers to the drivers to the local economy.

We often think about how technology and smartphones make our lives more convenient and easier. It’s important to remember that technology has the power to protect our dignity and make our society fairer as well.

Ben Jealous is former president and CEO of the NAACP and a partner at Kapor Capital, an early investor in Uber.

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.

nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, all eyes remain on South Carolina. This week, the state continued to fly a Confederate flag on its State Capitol grounds despite a vote Tuesday by the state Senate to remove the flag. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has called for the flag’s removal, but she does not have the same authority in this situation as Gov. Wilder did in Virginia 23 years ago.

Nevertheless, perhaps America can learn from an eloquent media statement made

by Rep. Mia McLeod as she pressed for the South Carolina House to follow the Senate’s vote for the Confederate flag’s removal. She said her greatest hope is for the flag’s removal to come, not begrudgingly, but by honest change in “attitudes, hearts and minds.”

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Richmond Free Press

July 9-11, 2015

A7

Letters to the Editor

Protest those who support neo-Confederates The Sons of Confederate Veterans claims the Confederate flag is heritage. The United Daughters of the Confederacy makes similar claims. They claim not to be racist and to be against extremist groups.

From my 23-year investigative study of these neo-Confederate groups, I know this is not true. The Sons of Confederate Veterans praises the Ku Klux Klan of Reconstruction and sells pro-slavery books claiming that slavery is justified by the Bible. The United Daughters of the Confederacy in a recent issue of the organization’s magazine asserts that newly freed African-American slaves during Reconstruction weren’t ready to vote and that the passage of the 14th Amendment was misguided. They don’t expel members who are members of the Council of Conservative Citizens.

Numerous other examples could be given.

My research about the neo-Confederate movement and its racism have been collected into books published by university presses, peer reviewed academic journals and Black Commentator.

The neo-Confederate movement recently has gotten knocked down across the nation.

But make no mistake, it is still there. These people don’t fit the stereotype of who a racist

is. They have advanced college degrees and are middle class. Their agenda, which is hostile to equality of any type and to democracy, is still moving along.

One reason the neo-Confederate movement is able to advance its agenda is that the public is not aware of their agenda. The fact that the neo-Confederates are racist isn’t getting before the public. Another reason is that they are enabled by mainstream institutions, or those that purport to be mainstream.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans is having

Re: Letter to the editor “Free Press founder was right about Monument Avenue,” July 2-4 edition: I agree that Confederate flags should not adorn any government property, although I beg to differ with the opinion of the letter writer, Ben Ragsdale, and the opinion previously expressed

to same-sex couples. Surely, no same-sex couples should want to oblige a private enterprise to provide its services for important occasions when so many alternative, willing entities exist.

Government employees should not have the option of not performing their duties and remaining. While a same-sex couple may demand an official service, such as the issuance of a marriage license, why would they want an oppositional officiant to participate in their solemn commitment of marriage? Clergy known to oppose same-sex marriage will not be asked to perform a marriage ceremony by an informed same-sex couple.

God understands loneliness.

What greater loneliness can there be than to abide with an inappropriate life companion?

To the clergy: God alone — without your attendance or approbation — joined Adam and Eve as the ideal couple.

And, likewise, God alone has

the power to bind other couples — with or without you. “What God binds, let no man put asunder.”

I ask any Christian to cite from New Testament Scripture any condemnation made by Jesus about same-sex anything.

AUDREY FREEMAN jaCOBS Richmond

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The School Board of the City of Richmond, Virginia Will be having a Surplus Warehouse Sale July 14th – 15th, 2015 from 8:00 am – 12:00 noon at 2395 Hermitage Road (VATEX BLDG.), Richmond, VA 23220.

This event is open to the Public. All Sales are Final. Cash Only.

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Mail to: P.O. Box 4595, Richmond, VA 23220 422 E. Franklin St., Suite 301, Richmond, VA 23219 (Franklin & 5th Sts.) 119 N. Sycamore St., 1st Flr., Petersburg, VA 23803 (Sycamore off Washington St.) We are a federally designated Debt Relief Agency under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and we help people file for bankruptcy.

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Free Information Session July 14, 2015 10:30-11:30am

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Additionally, there will be protests at the DoubleTree Richmond-Midlothian hotel during the convention.

I appeal to Richmond to join the campaign against neo-Confederacy and join the protest against the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Museum of the Confederacy. Our Facebook Event Page is https://www.facebook.com/ events/1586690974922773/ or Protest at the Museum of the Confederacy.

EDWARD SEBESTA Mountain Top, Pa.

Relocating rebel statues doesn’t change memory or attitude

‘God alone has the power to bind couples’ Re “Go further,” July 2-4 edition: The Confederate flag must go from government grounds, but states need not ban any symbol, even the Confederate flag, from license plates. Such symbols are important identifiers, especially when such symbols have been definitively defined. Individuals should be permitted to self identify and express themselves.

For example, President Obama, speaking at the funeral for Rev. Clementa Pinckney in Charleston, S.C., gave a poignant description of the Confederate flag as the symbol of the lost cause for slavery and oppression. Hereinafter, the symbol of the Confederate flag on a license plate or anywhere else, other than in a museum or history books, may identify a racist oppressor or a potential racist terrorist.

Perhaps there should be a symbol that identifies commercial establishments that do not wish to provide services

its 2015 national convention at the DoubleTree Richmond-Midlothian hotel on Koger Center Boulevard July 15-19. The Museum of the Confederacy has leased its space to the Sons of Confederate Veterans for a reception the evening of July 15.

Writing another academic article isn’t enough.

So to bring before the public the real agenda of the neo-Confederates, and to protest the enabling of the neo-Confederates by the museum, a protest is planned in front of the Museum of the Confederacy at 1201 E. Clay St. from 5 to 9 p.m. July 15.

7/2/15 1:07 PM

by Free Press founder, the late Raymond H. Boone, about Monument Avenue.

Removing historic statues might be a temporary solution to historic animus, but it is not the answer for crafting a better future for us all.

Relocating them does little to change memory about them or attitudes toward them. That seems neither practical nor prudent.

Conversely, as with the statue of Arthur Ashe, lets add historic citizens of great accomplishments and good will to Monument Avenue, thus gradually transforming “the used to be.”

I perceive that the greatest challenge before us all now is whether we can continue to become better people within a nation that is multiethnic, multiracial, multireligious and multicultural, which these generals never experienced. Ain’t none of us going anywhere. So how do we survive such a past and thrive in a future that we must create together?

The Civil War is over. Are we too impotent

to grow beyond it into a country that is beloved by disparate people?

Family members of The Charleston Nine demonstrated the power and impact within the transforming love of Jesus Christ. Can those of us who sit on church pews Sunday after Sunday, or who preach from our pulpits, endeavor to reflect such love? Can we create a path forward instead of jerking one another backward?

Jesus declared, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he (or she) who does the will of my Father.”

Culture demands “losers.” Faith paves the path to the winners’ circle! C’mon Richmond, we have a community to build — not tear down — a country to save and a world to transform.

It’s tough, but somebody’s got to do it.

PAIGE LANIER CHARGOIS Richmond

GRTC PULSE PUBLIC MEETING: JULY 27 & 28, 2015 The GRTC Pulse (Bus Rapid Transit) Project team will present a status update, ongoing activities and long-range timeline for the Project at Public Meetings, conducted on an informal basis. Members of the public are encouraged to share their feedback and discuss their ideas with Project team members.

Members of the Media are invited to attend.

GRTC Pulse will serve a 7.6 mile route through the high-density and high-ridership areas along Broad Street, on 14th Street to Main Street in the City of Richmond, with two Henrico County terminus points at Rocketts Landing in the east and Willow Lawn in the west. This route will have 14 stop locations within the public right-of-way selected based on activity centers, population density and expected growth, existing and future transit ridership, below-ground utilities, and access to employment, healthcare, retail, dining, food and education centers. This high quality, high capacity rapid transit system will offer service at each stop every 10 minutes during peak and every 15 minutes off-peak. Transit trips are more frequent, efficient and reliable than fixed route and express service, and will ultimately save travel time for riders.

This convenient service will meet the needs of many types of travelers, including serving as a companion transit option to other modes of transportation. For example, all GRTC Pulse buses will have bike racks on the front. GRTC Pulse will improve transit service, increase quality of life, enhance economic opportunity, revitalize commercial properties, improve environmental sustainability and stimulate economic development in Richmond, Henrico County and the greater region.

Overall cost of the Project will be supported by a $24.9M TIGER grant from the U.S. Dept. of Transportation (DOT) with matching funds from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT), the City of Richmond and Henrico County. Phase I engineering and conceptual design activities are nearing completion in July 2015. Phase II engineering and design activities are scheduled to occur from August 2015 through April 2016. During Phase II, there are a wide variety of topics on which detailed public and project partner input is both welcomed and encouraged. Construction is expected to occur in sections between June 2016 and August 2017. On-the-street operation of GRTC Pulse service is scheduled to start in October 2017.

Learn more about this project online at www.ridegrtc.com/brt/ and through the GRTC Pulse Blog http://grtcpulse.blogspot.com/ The informal public meetings are identical in content and location.

Please plan to attend the one convenient for your schedule.

Monday, July 27, 2015 at 12:00 – 1:30 pm and Tuesday, July 28, 2015 at 6:00 – 7:30 pm University of Richmond Downtown 626 E. Broad Street, Suite 100 (Please use the Broad Street entrance at the corner of 7th and Broad Streets) This location is conveniently accessible via the GRTC Bus System and is near the Downtown Transfer Plaza.

There is also nearby street parking and meteredparking available. Several parking decks are located nearby, including a deck adjacent to the UR Downtown building on 7th and Marshall Streets.

These meeting times were selected based on public requests to offer a mid-day and an early-evening meeting Downtown where many people work and live, and also be conveniently near the Transfer Plaza for bus riders.

Based on positive feedback received from the April Public Meetings, GRTC will follow a similar meeting format to include a presentation and topical breakout sessions followed by a meeting summary. Meeting topics will include, but are not limited to, how the new spine of GRTC Pulse service will interface with the local fixed route service and also a preview of construction.

If you require an American Sign Language interpreter, please contact Carrie Rose Pace at least 3 days prior to the meeting you wish to attend, either by phone 804-358-3871 EXT. 354 or by e-mail: crosepace@ridegrtc.com.

If you require Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) paratransit services, please schedule a reservation with GRTC’s CARE or CARE Plus. You may contact us by phone (804) 782-CARE (2273), email grtc.cvan@ mvtransit.com, or fax (804) 474-9993. Please note that all GRTC buses are ADA-compliant with kneeling capability, wheelchair ramps and mobility device space.

Anyone unable to attend one of these meetings may submit comments to: e-mail: brt@ridegrtc.com Mail: Stephen McNally Director, Engineering and Construction GRTC Transit System 301 East Belt Boulevard Richmond, VA 23224 804-358-3871

Richmond Free Press

A8 July 9-11, 2015

Sports

U.S. women win World Cup Reuters

Vancouver The United States returned to the pinnacle of women’s soccer with a 5-2 crushing of Japan in Sunday’s Women’s World Cup final. It was the end of a riveting tournament that pushed the sport into new territory.

The U.S. team last triumphed in 1999, but women’s soccer is a vastly different sport than it was a decade-and-a-half ago, with new nations forging their way into the elite amid an unprecedented level of global interest.

As Golden Ball winner Carli Lloyd demonstrated with her astonishing 16 minute hat-trick in the final, including a goal from the halfway line, the women’s game is delivering a level of excitement and quality that was non-existent in the 1990s.

Prior to the final, all that was missing from the tournament in Canada was a star individual, a player who could symbolize the new status of women’s soccer.

Once play had started in Vancouver, it took a little more than a quarter of an hour for Lloyd to emerge as the flag bearer for a new generation.

On Sunday, 53,341 fans packed into BC Place and millions more tuned in around the

world to witness the U.S. team annihilate the defending champions by storming to a 4-0 lead inside 16 minutes.

The onslaught was a cue for the overwhelmingly American crowd to start the party early with the U.S. flag able to fly high and proud for the remaining 74 minutes.

For Japan, the final was a painful jolt back down to earth after their triumph over the U.S. team in the 2011 Women’s World Cup, and their run to the Olympic silver medal a year later.

The “Nadeshiko” may well have to undergo a change of generation — and perhaps look at evolving their tactics further from the shortpassing approach that brought them so much success under coach Norio Sasaki.

But globally, all the signs point to continued growth for women’s soccer.

England, which considers itself the traditional home of soccer, had been slow to warm to the women’s game. But the success of the Lionesses in securing third place catapulted them to prominence at home and abroad.

Australia, beaten by Japan in the quarterfinals, are growing an impressive women’s program and hope to challenge Asian rivals for regional dominance.

The Matildas showed their growing promise

Fans drive Squirrels to 2nd place for attendance in Eastern League

By Fred Jeter

The Richmond Flying Squirrels have four Eastern League all-stars, but the real stars of the team, as usual, are its fans.

On July 4, a sellout crowd of 9,560 fans showed up for the Squirrels’ 7-3 win over Akron. Then on July 5, another 7,799 fans were present for the Squirrels’ 2-1 victory over the Rubber Ducks.

Both games, though rain plagued, were followed by fireworks celebrations. The Squirrels surely lead the Eastern League in crowd-friendly fireworks.

Every Thursday and Saturday game offers post game fireworks. There are special promotions for all games.

The added “treats” are working.

Through 41 dates, Richmond (42-38 starting the work week) was averaging 5,726 fans per game, and was second in the 12-franchise Eastern League to Reading’s 5,859 average draw.

Since the Squirrels moved to Richmond in 2010, here are attendance figures and the Squirrels’ rank for attendance in the Eastern League: 2014: 6,336 average, first in the Eastern League 2013: 6,689 average, first place 2012: 6,257 average, second place 2011: 6,679 average, second place 2010: 6,626 average, first place

Richmond’s got talent These Flying Squirrels were selected to play in the Eastern League All-Star Game on July 15 in Portland, Maine: Joe Biagini (age 25, pitcher): 7-5 record, 1.86 earned run average Ricky Oropesa (age 25, first base): hitting .279 with nine homers, 46 runs batted in Rando Moreno (age 23, shortstop): .306 with 12 doubles Kelvin Marte (age 27, pitcher): 7-1, 2.39 ERA The Flying Squirrels return to The Diamond on July 16 to face Altoona, the Pittsburgh farm club. Richmond plays Altoona through July 19, then Cleveland affiliate Akron July 20 through 22.

Richmond is a Class AA affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. Prior to arrival in Richmond, the franchise played as the Connecticut Defenders.

In Norwich, Conn., the team drew an average of 3,076 fans per game in 2009 (last place in the Eastern League), 3,015 fans in 2008 (next to last place), 3,004 fans in 2007 (last place) and 2,755 fans in 2006 (also last place).

Squirrels CEO Todd “Parney” Parnell has found the winning box office combination on The Boulevard with family oriented fun. It helps that Richmond is part of the pipeline to a classy Giants organization that won the World Series in 2010, 2012 and 2014. Many former Squirrels now play regularly with the Giants.

The River City to San Fran connection includes shortstop Brandon Crawford, second baseman Joe Panik, first baseman Brandon Belt, catcher Andrew Susac and pitcher Chris Heston, who fired a no-hitter June 8 against the Mets.

Va. Interscholastic Association heritage meeting July 18 The VIA Heritage Association will hold its next meeting noon Saturday, July 18, at First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Manassas, 10313 S. Grant Ave., in Manassas.

Organizers are working to preserve the history of the Virginia Interscholastic Association, which coordinated sports and extracurricular activities at black schools throughout Virginia before merging with the Virginia High School League in the late 1960s.

Plans include creating a museum and Hall of Fame at Virginia State University, where VIA was headquartered.

Armstrong and Maggie L. Walker high schools in Richmond were local VIA schools.

Elaine Thompson/Associated Press

The U.S. Women’s National Team celebrates with the trophy Sunday after they beat Japan 5-2 in the FIFA Women’s World Cup soccer championship in Canada.

by beating Brazil in the second round, but South America also is displaying signs of improvement with Colombia impressing many by reaching the last 16.

France played some exhilarating football before their quarterfinal exit and the Netherlands

are also catching up, while there are signs of African teams such as Nigeria and Cameroon closing the gap.

“Women’s football is a global game now, we have seen that at this tournament,” England Coach Mark Sampson said.

Serena beats Venus, continues streak Free Press wire reports

LONDON The heavy hitting shook the ground and the volume would have raised the Centre Court roof had it been closed, as Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka traded blows like a couple of prizefighters at Wimbledon on Tuesday.

A women’s tournament that has seen title contenders fall feebly on the All England Club lawns finally witnessed two grand slam champions going toe-to-toe. It was a thunderous encounter more befitting a final match rather than a quarterfinal match like Tuesday.

No. 1 seed Serena eventually won 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 with her best tennis at this year’s tournament so far to stay in line for a sixth Wimbledon title. Winning the title would complete the “Serena Slam,” which is holding all four majors concurrently.

“I feel really vulnerable. I feel really vulnerable in a third set,” Serena told reporters.

“At that point I kind of relax and

whatever happens, happens.”

Blocking her path to a first Wimbledon final since 2012 is Maria Sharapova after the Russian fought off feisty American CoCo Vandeweghe — the only unseeded player in a quarterSerena Williams final lineup feww would have predicted at the start.

Sharapova won 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-2 to set up another crack at Serena who she has lost to 16 times in a row since 2004 — the year she beat the American to win her only Wimbledon title.

The two are scheduled to play 1 p.m.

Thursday, July 9, on ESPN. The women’s finals are scheduled to start 9 a.m. Saturday, July 11, also on ESPN. “I haven’t played Serena here in 11 years,” fourth seed Sharapova, who famously beat Serena as a 17-year-old, told reporters.

“That will be an incredible moment for

me to step out on Centre Court against her again.”

Serena reached the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-3 fourth round triumph Monday over older sister Venus.

“It’s hard to feel excited about (beating) someone you root for all the time no matter what and you love so much and is your best friend in the world,” Serena said as she inched closer to a 21st major.

“It’s never easy, but you just play for the competition and enjoy the moment.”

Venus, the No. 16 seed, praised her sister. “She’s a champion. What else could you say about that? The ultimate.”

Their mother, Oracene, a regular in the players’ box for all of her daughters’ battles, was missing from Centre Court.

And the match lacked the usual roars and swinging fist pumps that have long been Serena’s hallmark.

Instead, the 68-minute blur started with Serena rattling through the first eight points, which prompted one male voice to shout, “Come on Williams” to laughter from the Centre Court crowd.

40 years later

Ashe’s shining win at Wimbledon

By Fred Jeter

The late Arthur Ashe Jr.’s iconic tennis career reached a summit 40 years ago on the pristine grass of Centre Court at the All-England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club in London.

The occasion was the 89th staging of the Wimbledon tennis championships.

And on this Fourth of July weekend in 1975, the Richmonder — just a week from his 32nd birthday — stunned tempestuous, heavily favored defending champion Jimmy Connors in a tense final.

By ousting Connors, his longtime nemesis, Ashe became the first black man to win the men’s singles championship at Wimbledon.

Previously, Ashe was the first AfricanAmerican selected to the U.S. Davis Cup team in 1963. He went on to become the first black man to win the U.S. Open championship in 1968, then as an amateur.

And he was the first black person to win the Australian Open in 1970.

Wimbledon would be the third and final Grand Slam title for the amazing athlete who grew up swinging a racquet at Richmond’s segregated Brookfield Park under mentor Ron Charity, then a Virginia Union University student.

He later honed his considerable talent under the tutelage of Coach Robert Walter Johnson in Lynchburg. He went on to star at UCLA before launching his pro career in 1970.

The 1975 Wimbledon — one of four stops on the Grand Slam circuit — was oozing with drama.

An underdog, Ashe entered the event seeded No. 6 and needed to defeat Bjorn Borg and Tony Roche to reach the finals.

Southpaw Connors was 6-0 previously against Ashe, never having dropped a set to the former Maggie Walker High School student.

Connors, with his “bad boy” image, was the antithesis of Ashe. Connors was known almost as much for his acrimonious relationships with peers and lack of respect for officials as for his off-the-

Associated Press

Arthur Ashe became the first African-American player to win at Wimbledon when he defeated his rival Jimmy Connors.

charts talent. From 1974 to 1978, with a villainous image, Connors was the world’s No. 1 ranked player.

In 1974, Connors was 99-4 and won 15 tournaments.

The Ashe vs. Connors title match at Wimbledon became personal because Connors earlier had sued both the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Ashe, who was ATP president.

Connors alleged “restraint of trade” after being denied by ATP entry into the 1974 French Open because of his decision to play with the Baltimore Banners of the maverick World Team Tennis (WTT).

There was more.

Connors boycotted the 1972 U.S. Davis Cup, demanding, in vain, that team captain Dennis Ralston be fired.

That resulted in Ashe, who proudly played on U.S. Davis Cup victories in 1963, 1968, 1969 and 1970, writing a letter to the ATP accusing Connors of being “unpatriotic.”

That letter was delivered by Ashe prior to becoming ATP president in 1974.

Connors’ suit against Ashe, though later dropped, was still on the table when the two rivals met on tennis’ brightest stage at Wimbledon in 1975.

Ashe seized the moment.

It was not by accident he was introduced at Centre Court in his bright Davis Cup jacket, or that he wore red, white and blue wristbands.

Once the match began, Ashe offset the 23-year-old Connors’ prodigious power with precision. Employing a flawless tactical strategy, Ashe frustrated his harderhitting foe and prevailed in four lessonteaching sets, 6-1, 6-1, 5-7 and 6-1.

When it was over, on a hot day, Ashe donned his Davis Cup jacket to be presented the trophy and first place check of $23,000.

In his own tasteful manner, Ashe made his point minus any harsh words or outward display of contempt.

Since then, there has been only one other black male champion at a Grand Slam event. That was Frenchman Yannick Noah, who won the 1983 French Open.

In his illustrious pro career from 1970 to 1980, the son of Arthur Ashe Sr. and Mattie Cordell Cunningham Ashe of Richmond won 818 matches, 35 tournaments and was ranked No. 1 in the world in 1968.

Combining uncommon levels of skill and graciousness, he was cheered worldwide, but never more enthusiastically than in 1975 in London.

July 9-11, 2015 B1

Richmond Free Press

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Personality: Jenny J. Jones Spotlight on founder of nonprofit Beds for Kids Inc.

More than 4,000 children in the Greater Richmond community sleep better at night, thanks to the efforts of Jenny J. Jones and a legion of other volunteers at Beds for Kids Inc. Ms. Jones founded the nonprofit organization that provides beds for children in 2006 and serves as its CEO. She says she was inspired to start it after she began mentoring young, single mothers in job hunting and maintaining finances.

“I found that none of their children had beds to sleep on,” she recalls. “Some were on the floor, some were sleeping on sofas and multiple adults and children (were sleeping) in the same bed.

“Beds for Kids bridges the gap between a child’s needs and a family’s means by providing safe, comfortable beds to children,” Ms. Jones adds.

“A bed can make a decade of difference in a child’s life and impact their future forever.”

She notes that data show that a child who gets a good night’s sleep does better in school, is more secure, less angry, less anxious and better able to handle life situations.

“There are also statistics show a large number of infants deaths are due to a lack of proper bedding and co-sleeping,” she says. “We are attempting to lower the number of co-sleeping suffocations by providing every child a bed.”

Ms. Jones says everyone at Beds for Kids serves on a volunteer basis.

The organization helps between 400 and 600 children each year. She says there is a waiting list of about 230 children who need beds.

Each bed costs $250, she says, which includes a twin mattress, box spring, frame, comforter, sheets and pillows.

“The average life of a mattress is 10 to 15 years,” she says. “When we provide a bed to a child, it solves an issue in that family’s life for 10 years or beyond.”

She says the group is holding its annual fundraiser — The Dream Chasers Bed Race and Festival — from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1, at The Diamond parking lot. For more information: www.dreamchasersbedrace.com.

bed he was in allowed his tube to get hooked on a netting that was around the bed and pulled it out at night. We felt a full-size bed would give him a safe space to roll around while he slept with preventive guards.

How Beds for Kids is financed: 100 percent by donations from the community.

Number of volunteers: 1,000 volunteers a year.

Here’s a look at this week’s Personality, Jenny J. Jones: Date and place of birth: October 1964 in Richmond.

Current home: Midlothian.

Education: Studied music education and accounting at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Family: Husband, Keith, and two adult children and two grandchildren, ages 6 and 9.

No. 1 objective: To provide as many children a bed as possible by the resources that we are afforded by the community.

What Beds for Kids does for families: If a child needs a bed, we provide it if we have the means to do so. We provide beds to children from 1 month to 18 years of age.

How program works: We deliver beds to children on the waiting list as soon as we have resources available. We have volunteers that will pick up donations and deliver to the clients. We have large groups that will have a community service day and deliver multiple beds in one day as a team-building exercise and collect donations to help offset the cost of the beds they are delivering.

Types of beds children have received: The majority of our deliveries is a twin bed. We occasionally receive bunk beds, but it is a rarity. We provided a full-size bed to a 3-year-old who had a feeding tube. He was hospitalized because the small

How volunteers can become involved: Volunteers can go to our website, www.bedsforkids. us, or email volunteers@ bedsforkidsinc.com and let us know if they are looking for office work, delivery of beds, corporate or large group volunteering.

How I start the day: I take a half hour each day to reflect and meditate. At this point in my life, it is important to me to let go of the stresses of life and help as many people as possible.

A perfect evening: We have four generations of family still alive and living close. We frequently have family gatherings at our house. My husband and I also have friends that we have had since high school. So I cook for my family and friends. In the chaos is the perfect evening. Too many people in the kitchen, the grandkids running and screaming through the house, the noise of 35 people laughing, talking and having a good time and then, at the end of the evening, sitting down as our children sit down inside and socialize. The grandkids are playing somewhere in the house and my husband and friends are outside relaxing and talking about the past.

I place top value on: Human life and respect.

Favorite late-night snack: Chocolate.

Prized possession: My family.

The one thing I can’t stand: A human being who is making another human being feel abused,

Matthew Morton graduated June 10, 2015 from Thomas Jefferson HS having completed 12 years of school without missing a day. He joins his older brother Jonathan who graduated in 2006 from the Maggie Walker Governors School. Matthew completed Fisher Elementary School, Lucille Brown Middle School and the Thomas Jefferson High School International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme. Matthew earned a 4.49 cumulative GPA and completed over 100 hours of community service. Matthew Jonathan Morton Matthew Morton is a member of the Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Cartersville, VA. This year Matthew served as the Drum Major for the acclaimed Thomas Jefferson Vikings Marching Band having brought home many 1st place team and individual awards in regional competitions. In his sophomore year Matthew was the overall citywide winner in the annual Science Fair having won 1st place honors in engineering by designing and creating the “Knee Brace Generator” to power a cellphone while walking. Matthew enjoys international cultures and has studied Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese. He has traveled extensively, visiting Canada, Costa Rica, China, Japan, Turkey, Dubai and Egypt. ln the fall Matthew will attend the University of Virginia majoring in aerospace engineering. Jonathan graduated from Temple University with a major in Computer Science and a minor in Japanese. Jonathan is an English instrutor in Japan and also works as a programmer for a technology startup company in Tokyo.

Their parents, lvan and Yvonne Cochran-Morton are proud of the boys’ accomplishments and wish them success in their future endeavors.

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My friends like me because: It is my hope that my friends like me (laugh out loud), but I think they do because they know I will be there for them.

MULTIPLE

POLICIES.

When people first meet me they think: I am direct. I really never play games. I am never dramatic because I do not like drama. But I smile at a stranger because they deserve it and I hope that people see a reflection of a loving person.

Person who influenced me the most: My clients. They give me the strength to keep going when things do not go well or we can barely make ends meet with our debts.

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Save the Date

Upcoming Free Health Seminars VCU Medical Center will be offering the following free seminars about heart health at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden’s Education and Library Complex, located at 1800 Lakeside Avenue.

Registration is recommended. Free parking available.

Register online at vcuhealth.org/seminars or call (804) 828-0123 for more information.

Thursday, July 16, 2015 | 5:30 p.m.

New Treatment for Atrial Fibrillation Despite the fact that atrial fibrillation, or a-fib, is the most common heart rhythm disorder, it remains complicated to treat. Join Drs. Kenneth Ellenbogen and Vigneshwar Kasirajan who will talk about the benefits of a new procedure called hybrid ablation, that combines a surgical procedure and catheter ablation to treat a-fib.

Thursday, July 23, 2015 | 5:30 p.m.

Treating Liver Fibrosis: No More Biopsies Anything that damages the liver over many years can lead the liver to form scar tissue. Fibrosis is the first stage of liver scarring, and may lead to cirrhosis. Join Dr. Richard Sterling to learn more about the causes and treatment options for liver fibrosis — including a new noninvasive technology, FibroScan, which makes the assessment of liver disease simpler without a biopsy.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015 | 5:30 p.m.

Ouch! My Aching Back!

If you have lower back pain, you are not alone. About 80 percent of adults experience low back pain at some point in their lifetimes. Join Dr. William Carter to learn what causes lower back pain and how to adequately treat it.

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Richmond Free Press

B2 July 9-11, 2015

Happenings

African-Americans need ‘psychological healing’

By Joey Matthews

“We are all racists.”

That’s the contention of Dr. Allen Lewis, a Henrico County resident and James Madison University professor.

It’s also the provocative name of a book he has written with the subtitle, “The Truth About Cultural Bias.”

In the 2014 book, Dr. Lewis says whether one is African-American, Caucasian, Latino, Asian, Native-American or of another ethnicity, we all harbor racial prejudices, whether they are conscious or subconscious.

And he says those prejudices likely will exist in mankind until the end of time.

“Perhaps it’s time to face the truth that race and cultural differences may always be the defining prisms through which we all experience our respective realities,” Dr. Lewis, the head of JMU’s Department of Health Sciences, writes in the preface to his book.

“Human beings, like other animal species, seem particularly inclined to prefer their own kind in terms of cultural characteristics,” he says.

Dr. Lewis has more than 30 years of experience as a clinician, administrator and educator and has been on the faculty of four universities, including Virginia Commonwealth University, where he served as chair of the Department of Rehabilitative Counseling.

In an interview with the Free Press, Dr. Lewis, 54, said, “It’s not an indictment” that people of different ethnicities mostly have friends that look like them and think like them.

“We all have our biases,” he said. “We tend to gravitate to people like us. We’re creatures of habit, unless we make a conscious effort to step outside our comfort zone.”

He adds, “I don’t think it’s ever going to

change. Race and cultural differences are always going to be an issue.”

He said two key factors led him to that conclusion.

First, he said, is “our history,” noting that black people were enslaved for hundreds of years in this country.

Dr. Lewis Secondly, he said, “race and ethnicity are very visible” parts of society.

“Everybody can make a judgment on that.”

Dr. Lewis said he decided to write the book after George Zimmerman was acquitted in July 2013 of second degree murder after he shot and killed Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. “The nation’s polarized reaction to the verdict makes it clear that race is still a defining factor for Americans in the 21st century,” Dr. Lewis wrote.

Due to prejudices, Dr. Lewis said throughout the country’s post-Civil War history, every time African-Americans begin to make civil rights gains, some white Americans feel threatened and attempt to tighten the clamps on those rights.

He says the latest efforts to turn back the clock began with President Obama’s election.

“All presidents have their naysayers, but the time spent to thwart Mr. Obama has been unparalleled,” Dr. Lewis wrote.

“He’s just one example of a broader sentiment represented by a subgroup of Americans that perceive the country is going to hell in a handbasket because of African-Americans,” he told the Free Press.

Dr. Lewis said efforts by Republicans and others to halt the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, and to pass new laws designed to make it more difficult for African-Americans and

other minorities to vote and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate a key part of the Voting Rights Act illustrate his point.

In his book, Dr. Lewis also addresses the black community and how he believes it should confront issues such as lower life expectancy, poverty, homelessness, unemployment, disparate educational achievement, pregnancy rates, health and incarceration.

“The black community needs macro level psychological healing,” he wrote. “I believe that psychological healing will naturally occur when the black community begins, through empowerment and self-determination, to take steps to improve its own condition,” he wrote.

He said his ultimate solution is a four-pronged proposal of fixes.

“The first strategy,” he said, “is to maximize education levels throughout the black community,” encouraging each member of the black community to “acquire the optimal level of formal training needed to reach the top of their chosen profession.”

He also called for more education on black history and financial matters and said the black community must look inward sometimes rather than labeling things as racist.

Second, he said young people should be taught about entrepreneurship and that black people must support black-owned businesses, the black press and other black institutions.

“Sometimes, supporting black-owned businesses requires some sacrifices,” he wrote. “Often, the merchandise is more expensive because black businesses do not have the inroads to the best wholesalers or suppliers.”

Third, in an idea he acknowledged would be

Latin jazz festival at Dogwood Dell Latin jazz is set to take over Byrd Park this Saturday, July 11.

The big event: The 8th Annual Latin Jazz & Salsa Festival, which is to run from 3 to 8 p.m. at the park’s Dogwood Dell amphitheatre.

The free music show — part of the

city’s summer Festival of the Arts — is expected to draw more than 7,000 people if the weather cooperates.

Featured performers are expected to include well-known artists from the genre, including Carlos Mojica, David Gonzalez, Wito Rodriguez, Herbie Martinez & the Mid-

Atlantic Salsa Orchestra and Kevin Davis and Ban Caribe, according to organizers.

Luis Hidalgo, host of WCLM radio’s long-running Latin jazz show and a key figure in staging this event, is to be the master of ceremonies.

Further details: (804) 337-0750.

Fundraiser set to send girls to Brazil

Twenty girls from the Richmond area have high hopes they’ll be able to travel to Brazil in August to participate in the “Essence of a Goddess” cultural study program.

The girls, ages 12 to 18, have held car washes, bake sales and bowl-a-thons during the past year and are selling flip-flops at a Richmond flea market to help fund the trip slated for Aug. 6 through 21.

In Brazil, the girls will spend time in various regions, including Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and other historical sites and engage in social justice proj-

ects, workshops and various hands-on activities, said Angela Patton, CEO of “Girls for a Change,” one of five nonprofit organizations seeking to help make the dream trip come true for the girls.

They also will attend a festival celebrating a highly active spiritual society of African-Brazilian women, the oldest sisterhood in the Western Hemisphere, she said.

So far, the girls have raised about $25,000 of the $50,000 needed to make the trip, Ms. Patton said.

The nonprofits have sched-

uled two more fundraisers under the theme “Get Active for Brazil.” Both will be held at Trinity Family Life Center, 3601 Dill Road, on North Side.

At a cost of $25, one can choose a full body workout by instructor Maria Jones of “Body by Maria” from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, July 19, or a Zumba dance party by instructor Kimberley Reese of “Keeping You Moving” from 1 to 5 p.m.

Sunday, July 26.

Both events will feature a fitness class, a healthy vending market and door prizes.

Anyone who purchases

Shop for Success set for July 18 Dress for Success Central Virginia is holding its signature shopping event for the public Saturday, July 18, at its boutique in the basement of Boulevard United Methodist Church, 321 N. Boulevard, it has been announced.

It is called “Shop for Success.”

The event is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is designed to raise money for the Richmond-based nonprofit organization, whose mission is to “promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life,” according to

Support

its website.

The event also is to include an array of vendors, food and entertainment, according to organizers.

Proceeds will benefit Dress for Success Central Virginia, which has helped more than 350 women since it was founded in 2012, according to event organizers.

Dress for Success stylist Jonathan Copeland also will host a styling event Sunday, July 19, at the boutique, where he will assist shoppers who reserve a space for 30 minutes.

Cost: $5.

For more information on the two events: www.facebook. com/DressForSuccessCVA or (757) 202-7513.

passes to both workout sessions will be entered in a chance to win a 2015 Kia Sol automobile, Ms. Patton said.

For more information on the events: www.girlsforachange. org or (804) 852-4385.

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controversial to some, he expressed his belief that black people should marry other black people, not “for racial purity,” but to make a concerted effort “to begin to keep dollars generated by black families in the black community.”

Black people also ought to move back into cities from the suburbs or remain in the cities if they’re thinking of leaving “to take back the cities and have a positive presence,” he said.

Lastly, he proposes the “1-300 Plan.” In it, the top 1 percent of the most affluent black people in the nation would donate 1 percent of their gross annual income, or at least $8,000 apiece, to reach a total of $3.12 billion.

“This money would be allocated to the top 300 cities in the United States,” he said. Split up, that would break down to about $10.4 million per city, he said. The money would be put aside in a black education/training and entrepreneurship fund, he said.

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Richmond Free Press

July 9-11, 2015

B3

Happenings

Fireworks over Richmond Photos by James Haskins/Richmond Free Press

Thousands of spectators gathered to see the skies painted in spectacular colors last Friday at the city’s annual fireworks show at Brown’s Island in Downtown. Many sat in chairs and on blankets on the lawn next to the Lee Bridge to view the aerial show.

Others watched the fireworks from the Virginia War Memorial on South Belvidere Street.

Photos by Clement Britt

In the spirit Thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses attend the first of the annual district conventions last Saturday at the Richmond Coliseum in Downtown. More than 20 people were baptized during the convention, which has the theme “Imitate Jesus!” From left, Wayne Rhodes, James Haney and James Rhodes perform a baptism ceremony. Four

more Jehovah’s Witnesses conventions are scheduled at the Coliseum July 10-12, July 17-19, July 24-26 and July 31-Aug. 2. An American Sign Language Convention will be held Aug. 7-9 at the Assembly Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses at 5607 Midlothian Turnpike on South Side.

Misty Copeland breaks barrier in ballet Reuters

Gene Schiavone/American Ballet Theater via Associated Press

Misty Copeland and James Whiteside perform “Swan Lake” last month at the Metropolitan Opera House. It was Ms. Copeland’s New York debut in the lead role.

“At the same time, it made me so hungry NEW YORK to push through to carry the next generation.

Misty Copeland is the first AfricanIt is not me up here,” she said. “It is for American female principal ballerina with everyone who came before me, that got me the American Ballet Theatre in the dance to this position, and all the little girls who company’s 75-year history. can see themselves through me. It is giving Ms. Copeland, 32, joined the Amerithem a brighter future.” can Ballet Theatre in 2001 and has been Ms. Copeland is the author of a besta soloist with the prestigious company selling memoir, “Life in Motion: An Unlikely since 2007. Earlier this year, she took on Ballerina” and the subject of a documentary the lead role in the ABT’s production of film, “A Ballerina’s Tale.” She has been a Ms. Copeland “Swan Lake.” supporter of diversity in ballet. She also “I am so honored to be a principal dancer, to be had been open about her goal to be the lead dancer an African-American and to be in this position,” an with the ABT. emotional Ms. Copeland, who started ballet at age 13, “My dream has been ABT since I was 13,” she said told a news conference. fighting back tears. “I’m excited to continue to grow The Kansas City-born dancer follows in the foot- as an artist and hopefully see more brown dancers steps of Desmond Richardson, a black male dancer come into the company in my lifetime.” who was made principal with the American Ballet Ms. Copeland already has been credited for beTheatre in 1997. ing an inspiration to younger dancers and bringing Ms. Copeland admitted having moments of doubt more diverse audiences to ballet. In her memoir, she when she wanted to quit because she was not sure recounted how weird it was for minorities just to buy an African-American woman could make it to the tickets to the ballet. top level in the world of classical ballet, which is “It’s been a long journey, but it is just the begindominated by white dancers. ning,” she said.

Richmond Free Press

B4 July 9-11, 2015

Obituary/Faith Directory

Photos by Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Above, audience members capture poignant moments on their cell phones during the homegoing service for Maggie Ingram, the revered gospel performer who led Maggie Ingram and The Ingramettes for more than six decades. Left, The Ingramettes pay a final tribute to Mrs. Ingram at the service at Saint Paul’s Baptist Church in Henrico County.

Musical homegoing for Maggie Ingram

By Sandra Sellars

Richmond Metro Mass Choir, directed by Dr. Johnny J. Branch, filled the church sanctuary with a gospel essence that can only be described as awesome. The choir featured such local favorites as Larry Bland and Harold Lilly Jr. A host of speakers talked about the life and legacy of Mrs. Ingram, including the Rev. Roscoe D. Cooper Jr., senior pastor of Metropolitan African-American Baptist Church; Levar Stoney, Virginia’s secretary of the commonwealth; and radio personality Dr. Cavell Phillips.

Mrs. Ingram was buried in a powder blue casket with a microphone and a Bible. While her singing ministry allowed her to travel throughout the country, Mrs. Ingram also became an ordained evangelist by the Church of God

The Ingramettes delivered a powerful farewell to Mother Maggie Ingram at her homegoing service Thursday, July 2, at Saint Paul’s Baptist Church in Henrico County.

The funeral service was a musical celebration of the life of Mrs. Ingram, whose evangelism through song and music has been a staple in the Richmond community and beyond for more than six decades. As the matriarch of The Ingramettes, Mrs. Ingram and her spirit will continue with the gospel group comprised of several generations of her family.

The talented voices of more than 100 singers and musicians — all dressed in white — with the Greater

St. Peter Baptist Church

Sixth Baptist Church Theme for 2015: Becoming a Five-Star Church of Excellence I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil. 4:13

We Are Growing In The Kingdom As We Grow The Kingdom with Word, Worship and Witness

in Christ in the 1980s. The self-taught musician instilled her gift in her children, who traveled with her performing in churches, music festivals and concert halls.

Everyone in the church rose to their feet as The Ingramettes paid tribute to Mrs. Ingram by performing two songs, including an upbeat rendition of “Until I Die.” The song usually closed out The Ingramettes’ concerts. And it was fitting that they would perform this song at the close of funeral as Mrs. Ingram’s casket was taken out of the church and gently put into the waiting hearse. The harmony line, “I’m gonna keep on working for Jesus until I die,” filled the sanctuary.

Mrs. Ingram was laid to rest at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Henrico County.

SUNDAY, July 12, 2015 Youth Day 9AM The Family Altar

Dr. Kirkland R. Walton, Pastor

Worship Opportunities Sundays:

Morning Worship Church School Morning Worship

Church School Morning Worship

8:30 A.M. 10 A.M.

(A time for meditation, healing, and deliverance)

Vacation Bible School

10:40AM Worship & Praise

July 13-17, 2015 ~ 5:30 p.m. - 8:15 p.m.

Everyone from preschool aged children to adults are encouraged to join us!

There will be lots of fun with snacks, teaching crafts and games!

11AM Divine Worship Message by Rev. Joe Young Vacation Bible School: July 13 - 17, 6 p.m.

With Fifth and Mount Vernon Churches Twitter sixthbaptistrva

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. Yvonne Jones Bibbs, Pastor

Ebenezer Baptist Church 1858

“The People’s Church”

216 W. Leigh St. • Richmond, Va. 23220 • Tel: 804-643-3366 Fax: 804-643-3367 • Email: ebcoffice1@comcast.net • web: ebcrichmond.org Sunday Worship Sunday Church School Service of Holy Communion Service of Baptism Life Application Bible Class Mid-Week Senior Adult Fellowship Wednesday Meditation & Bible Study Homework & Tutoring Scouting Program Thursday Bible Study



11:00 a.m.

9:30 a.m.

Every 3rd Sunday 2nd Sunday, 11 a.m.

Mon. 6:30 p.m.

Tues. 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Wed. 7:45 p.m.

Wed. 4:30 p.m.

Wed. 6:00 p.m.

Thurs., 11:45 a.m.

2015 Theme: “Shining Star: You are the light of the world!” Matthew 5:14. Everyone wants to be a Star, and with the Shining Light of Jesus Christ, they can do it!

2040 Mountain Road • Glen Allen, Virginia 23060 www.stpeterbaptist.net

Mount Olive Baptist Church Rev. Darryl G. Thompson, Pastor

2015 Theme: The Year of Moving Forward



8775 Mount Olive Avenue Glen Allen, Virginia 23060 (804) 262-9614 Phone (804) 262-2397 Fax www.mobcva.org

Summer Worship Schedule

Sunday, June 7, 2015 Sunday, September 13, 2015

Worship Service 10:00 AM Sunday School and New Members Class 8:30 AM

13800 Westfield Dr., Midlothian,VA 23113 804-794-5583 • www.fbcm1846.com

Sunday

Church School 9:45AM Worship 11:00AM

Tuesday

Bible Study 12 Noon

Wednesday Youth & Adult Bible Study 7:00PM Prayer & Praise 8:15PM

Van Transportation Available, Call 804-794-5583

Rev. Pernell J. Johnson, Pastor

“The Church With A Welcome”

Sharon Baptist Church 22 E. Leigh Street, Richmond, VA 23219 • 643-3825 thesharonbaptistchurch.com • Rev. Dr. Paul A. Coles

Annual Seniors’ Recognition Weekend ConCert and dinner

Saturday

Worship Leader: Rodney L. Greene (Trinity Baptist Church)

Featuring: Cheryl Maroney-Beaver

(Granddaughter of Late Evangelist Maggie Ingram) Ticket Donation ($10.00) Deadline for purchase July 19, 2015 For More Information, Please No Tickets Sold At Door.

Contact Dot Johnson at (804) 240-0892

July 25, 2015 - 2:00 p.m.

Good Shepherd Baptist Church 1127 North 28th St., Richmond, VA 23223-6624 • Office: (804) 644-1402 Dr. Sylvester T. Smith, Pastor “There’s A Place for You” Tuesday Sunday 10:30 AM Bible Study 9:30 AM Church School 6:30 PM Church-wide Bible Study 11:00 AM Worship Service 6:30 PM Men's Bible Study (Each 2nd and 4th) (Holy Communion Thursday each 2nd Sunday) Wednesday (Following 2nd Sunday)

Dr. Levy M. Armwood, Pastor  Dr. Wallace J. Cook, Pastor Emeritus

“Lifting God Up Through It All”

FirstM iBaptist Church dlothian Service Times

Unity Sundays (2nd Sundays)

8 A.M. 9:30 A.M. 11 A.M.

Mrs. Ingram

6:30 PM Prayer Meeting

11:00 AM Mid-day Meditation

Psalm 134:2

P ILGRIM J OURNEY B APTIST C HURCH R EV. ANGELO V. C HATMON, P ASTOR 7204 Bethlehem Road • Henrico, VA 23228 • (804) 672-9319 HOMECOMING CELEBRATION SUNDAY JULY 12, 2015

REVIVAL

JULY 14 - JULY 17, 2015

Praise & Worship 7 p.m.; Service 7:30 p.m.

MORNING

TUESDAY:

Service: 10:00 a.m.

Rev. Angelo V. Chatmon

Rev. F. Todd Gray, Pastor Fifth Street Baptist Church, Richmond, VA

WEDNESDAY:

Revs. Dwight & Jennell W. Riddick, Pastors First Baptist Church, Franklin, VA

AFTERNOON

Praise & Worship: 2:00 p.m.

Service: 2:30 p.m.

THURSDAY:

Speaker: Rev. Ralph S. Hodge Second Baptist Church - Southside http://ustream.tv/channel/pjbc-tv

Dr. Steven G. Blunt, Pastor First Baptist Church-Mahan, Suffolk, VA

FRIDAY:

Rev. Jeffrey L. Reaves, Sr., Pastor Good Shepherd Baptist Church, Petersburg, VA www.pjbcrichmond.org

“Working For You In This Difficult Hour” 6144 Derwent Road, Richmond VA

PASTORAL INSTALLATION SERVICE

k

REV. DR. WILLIAM H. WHITAKER, II Sunday, July 12, 2015, 3:00 p.m.

United and Purposed To Do God’s Will Philippians 1:3-6, 9-11

Pastor Derik Jones and First Baptist Church South Richmond Special Guests

Thirty-first Street Baptist Church

everence e with elevanc R ing Dr. Morris Henderson, Senior Pastor bin m o ❖ C SUNDAYS Church School 9:30 a.m.

Morning Worship 10:30 a.m. ❖

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

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

WEDNESDAYS Bible Study 12:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m. ❖

MONDAY-FRIDAY Nutrition Center and Clothes Closet 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

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

Richmond Free Press

July 9-11, 2015

B5

Faith News/Directory

Good Samaritan Ministries opens summer camp

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Pastor Michael D. McClary has spent nearly 30 years helping alcoholics and drug users in Richmond follow the Christian road to recovery that transformed him from an addict to a minister.

The 65-year-old minister has undertaken the effort as the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Good Samaritan Ministries on South Side.

Today, the program helps more than 70 people a year to get back on their feet, providing participants with food, shelter and job training along with prayer, services and Bible study.

Pastor McClary, who also leads Community Bainbridge Baptist Church and a K-12 school based at the church called the Commonwealth Christian Academy, just added a new component to the multifaceted operation — a summer camp.

Called Camp GoodSam, the new operation opened in June in the picturesque Goshen area of Rockbridge County, taking over an established campground.

The 62-acre waterfront prop-

erty includes 13 buildings that can sleep 200 people, Pastor McClary said, as well courts and fields to play tennis, soccer, baseball and basketball.

In the shadow of the Alleghany Pastor McClary Mountains, the camp provides a place where youths and adults can escape from “drugs, gangs and violence” to a Christian oasis where they can fish, swim, canoe, enjoy sports and “gain a deeper understanding of what Christ can do for them,” he said.

The camp is offering its own programs and welcoming other churches and groups seeking to rent the camp for retreats and camp meetings, he said.

He said Good Samaritan does not yet own the property. To avoid debt, he said the charity has taken a two-year lease on the property while it seeks to raise $1.5 million to buy it. “We are stepping out on faith as we have in the past,” he said, in the belief “God

will provide.”

He sees the camp as the next step for the Richmond-based rehab center that the Alexandria native and his late wife, Janet, founded in 1986. Good Samaritan is based in the 2300 block of Hull Street.

In the years since the charity opened, Good Samaritan has relied heavily on community support. The lion’s share of the annual $2.3 million operating budget comes from donations.

Pastor McClary, once a homeless addict himself, understands the challenges people are facing when they come to Good Samaritan, which he has developed to provide “a hand up, not a handout.”

He lost his parents when he was 7 and was raised by his grandmother. By his own testimony, he was a willful youth who was drinking by age 13.

After later serving in the Army, he said he became addicted to drugs, was mostly homeless and went to jail repeatedly for drug possession and petty larceny. “I would steal so I could put a needle in my arm,” he recalled.

He said his life changed when he was 33. Then homeless, he remembers

being dropped off at the Union Mission Ministries in Norfolk, where he found food, shelter and the faith that he said has carried him ever since.

He said he was touched by a pastor’s sermon about God’s love and redemption while staying at the shelter. That night, he said he prayed to be saved. “There were no lightning bolts or ringing bells,” he said, “ but I had peace. I never took a drink or used drugs again.”

He ended up working at the shelter for three years, marrying and studying for the ministry. After being ordained and starting a church in Norfolk, he and his wife moved to Richmond. He and his second wife, Nita, now head the programs.

Over time, Good Samaritan has grown into a yearlong residential rehabilitation and discipleship program that serves the addicted, the homeless or otherwise impaired individuals who need to be transformed, he said.

The program provides food, shelter and job training without charge for up to 30 people in the program’s first phase. There is a program for women and for men.

Good Samaritan operates a thrift

store, where program participants can learn basic skills in retail services and repair of donated goods.

There also is an auto repair shop where residents learn to fix donated cars under the supervision of a mechanic.

The cars are then either sold to graduates of the program or others who need affordable transportation.

Good Samaritan also owns two apartment complexes that have 100 units to provide affordable rents. Pastor McClary said 44 tenants currently are in the second phase of Good Samaritan’s recovery program. The remaining units are rented to area residents.

Good Samaritan also collects and distributes food, clothing and financial aid to needy families and offers food baskets during the holidays.

Separately, Pastor McClary founded Community Bainbridge Baptist Church in 1991 in the 1100 block of Bainbridge Street, a few blocks east of Good Samaritan. He served as pastor for 12 years and recently returned to the church’s pulpit.

He opened the Christian school at the church’s location in 1997. Currently, 35 students are enrolled, he said.

In some churches, guns are the answer to a prayer

By James Oliphant Reuters

Jackson, Mich.

The Sunday service was winding down, but before it ended, Bishop Ira Combs led the congregation of 300 at the Greater Bible Way Temple in prayer. The violence that killed nine people in a Charleston, S.C., church could not happen here, he reassured his flock.

“If they had security, the assailant would not have been able to reload,” Bishop Combs declared. “All of us here are not going to turn the other cheek while you shoot us.”

As he preached, Bishop Combs was flanked by a man on each side of the pulpit, each armed with handguns beneath their suit coats. Other members of the church’s security team were scattered among the crowd.

Congregants did not know who was armed and who was not — an undercover approach that is part of the security plan.

“We aren’t looking to engage people in violence, but we are going to practice law enforcement,” Bishop Combs said before the service. “And we are going to interdict if someone comes in with a weapon.”

The June 17 church shootings in Charleston have ignited fierce debates across the country over hate crimes, the Confederate flag and gun control.

They also have laid bare an uncomfortable truth for religious leaders: Churches and other houses of worship, among the most open and welcoming of American institutions, can also be among the most vulnerable.

In 2013, a gunman shot Ronald Harris, a pastor in Lake Charles, La., while he preached

Riverview

Baptist Church 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

a sermon. A year earlier, a gunman at a Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wis., killed six people.

In 2009, another small-town pastor, Fred Winters, was shot in the pulpit during a morning service in Maryville, Ill. Many churches do not take security seriously enough, said John Ojeisekhoba, who runs a security consulting firm in California that works with churches, schools and camps.

“Church is supposed to be a sacred place. Telling your congregation that we need to have armed security during the service, it’s not something that is easy to do,” he said.

The Rev. Theron Wiggins, a pastor in Flint, Mich., and a former police detective, is one of the preachers trying to change the mindset.

“They believe the angels will protect us,” Rev. Wiggins said about his congregation. “Well, I’m one of the angels.”

Churches in Michigan have ample reason to take the message seriously. A year ago at the Citadel of Praise church in Detroit, a man wielding an ax was shot by an off-duty police officer. In 2012, Pastor Marvin Winans, a member of the famous gospel singing group, was carjacked and robbed at a Detroit intersection.

“Nobody should have to

worship in fear or be looking over their shoulder,” said the Rev. Charles Ellis, pastor of the Greater Grace Temple, a Pentecostal megachurch in Detroit with 6,000 members.

Rev. Ellis’ church has a trained, armed, 25-man security force, nicknamed “The Ministers of Defense.” Many have backgrounds in law enforcement. Some are stationed conspicuously on the stage, while others blend in with the crowd.

Not everyone supports the presence of guns in sanctuaries that are supposed to be devoted to peace and reflection.

In April, church leaders criticized a Catholic priest in Ann Arbor, Mich., after he advised worshipers to arm themselves for protection and offered a class in obtaining a concealed

carry permit. The priest, the Rev. Edward Fride, canceled the class after the local diocese said it had no place on church property.

In North Carolina, the CrossPointe Church in Fayetteville is reconsidering its use of armed security guards after a news story on them prompted angry emails from across the country.

“The criticism came from people who thought guns, even concealed by church security, were a mockery of people who claimed faith in God to meet all their needs in life,” said Franklin Pounders, a minister at the church.

“My philosophy is a bit different. The Bible says, ‘In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.’”

Remember...

At New Deliverance, You Are Home!

See you there and bring a friend.



Early Morning Worship ~ 8 a.m.

Sunday School ~ 9:30 a.m.

Morning Worship ~ 11 a.m.

4th Sunday Unified Worship Service ~ 9:30 a.m.

Bible Study: Wednesdays, 11:30 a.m. & 7 p.m.

Radio Ministry: Sunday: 9:30 a.m. {1540 AM}

“MAKE IT HAPPEN” Pastor Kevin Cook

Sunday Morning Worship 11:00 a.m.

Come Join Us! … and Listen to our Radio Broadcast Sundays at 10:15 a.m. on WCLM 1450 AM

Sunday

Baptist Church

To empower people of God spiritually, mentally and emotionally for successful living.

SUNDAY SCHOOL - 9:45 A.M. SUNDAY WORSHIP SERVICE 11:00 A.M.

Tune in on Sunday Morning to WTVR - Channel 6 - 8:30 a.m.

8 a.m. Sunday School 9:30 a.m. Worship Service

Sunday TV Broadcast WTVZ 9 a.m. Norfolk/Tidewater

Wednesday Services Senior Citizens

Thursday & Friday Radio Broadcast WREJ 1540 AM Radio - 8:15 a.m.- 8:30 a.m.

Noonday Bible Study Every Wed. 12noon -1 p.m.

Bible Study Count: noonday Wednesday night 7 p.m. Prayer 7:15 p.m. Bible Teaching

1408 W. Leigh Street • 358-6403

Dr. Alonza Lawrence Pastor

Sundays

THE NEW DELIVERANCE CHRISTIAN ACADEMY (NDCA)

ENROLL NOW!!!

Accepting applications for children 2 yrs. old to 3rd Grade

Sanctuary - All Are Welcome!

Church School 8:30 A.M. Morning Worship 10:00 A.M.

Saturday

8:30 a.m. Intercessory Prayer

Tuesdays

Bible Study 12 noon

Wednesdays

Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

- Matthew 4:23

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Hebrew 12:14 (KJV)

Bishop G. O. Glenn D. Min., Founder Mother Marcietia S. Glenn First Lady

Missionary

Pastor and Founder

1701 Turner Road, North Chesterfield, Virginia 23225 (804) 276-0791 office (804)276-5272 fax www.ndec.net

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

2300 Cool Lane, Richmond, Virginia 23223 804-795-5784 (Armstrong High School Auditorium)

“People think churches have money,” Mr. Williams said. Moments after the pastor blesses proceeds from the collection, one of the armed ushers escorts the box into a locked office for the remainder of the service.

Congregants have mixed reactions to the security presence in church.

“In the times we live in today, it’s necessary,” said Joshua Webb, a church member from nearby Lansing.

Rose Phillips, of Jackson, said the armed security detail made her feel no safer. “God is my gun,” she said.

New Deliverance Evangelistic Church

Broad Rock Baptist Church

Moore Street

Reverend Dr. Lester D. Frye

While Bishop Combs preaches, the church’s security coordinator, Calvin Williams, keeps watch. Mr. Williams listens to chatter from other security members on a Secret Service-style earpiece and totes a Taurus .45 caliber pistol tucked under his jacket.

Eighteen cameras scattered on the grounds of the small church monitor people as they come and go. The church sits in a hardscrabble section of Jackson, so the security measures are aimed also at carjackings, property theft and attempts to steal the church’s collection box.

New Mercies Ministry 6:00 A.M. Youth Bible Study 6:00 P.M. Adult Bible Study 6:30 P.M.

You can now view Sunday Morning Service “AS IT HAPPENS” online!

Also, for your convenience, we now offer “full online giving.”

Come Visit www.ndec.net.

Our NDCA curriculum also consists of a Before and After program.

Now Enrolling for our Nursery Ages 6 weeks - 2yrs. old.

For more information Please call (804) 276-4433 Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm

Come Join Join Us Us For For Vacation Bible School 2015 ComeBible Join Us For2015 Vacation School Come Vacation Bible School 2015

Join Us Come Funeral Service, Inc. For Join Dr. Jeffery O. Smith, Pastor Brian V. Wilson Monthly Obituary Column • June 2015 Vacation Bible Us Schoo Owner Thank you to the following bereaved families for allowing us to serve you Dr. Jeffery O. Smith, Pastor For during the month of June 2015. You are still in our prayers and thoughts.

Garland Avenue Baptist Church View full obituaries online at www.wilsonafs.com 2700-2704 Garland Avenue Vacation Bible Schoo Richmond, Virginia 23222-3602 Garland Avenue Baptist Church

Wilson & Associates’

Joel R. Williams Michael Jefferson Raeford Lee McLean Evangelist Maggie Ingram Fred M. Johnson, Jr. Avanti T. Tillery Willis F. Davis III Raymond L. “Rev” Redd, Sr.

Yvonne E. Norman Valetta B. Crockett Katrina N. Chambers Sandra M. Mayafield Robert H. Wilson Clinton T.D. Gibbs Sherry M. Perretty James E. Tyler

Jesse Hutchings Robert L. Jefferson, Jr. Carol R. Shelton Semaj T. Brunson William R. Barnes, Sr. Lothar H. Metz

5008 Nine Mile Road, Richmond, VA 23223 • 804-222-1720, Fax 804-222-1745 Remembering those we love ... Remembering those we serve.

Garland Dates: Wednesday, July 15, 2015 –2700-2704 Friday July 17,Avenue 2015

Dinner: 6:00 p.m.Richmond, – 6:30 p.m. Virginia 23222-3602 Session Start: 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Dates: Wednesday, July 15, 2015 – Friday July 17, 2015

Theme: What’s Love

Got To Do With It?

Dinner: 6:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.Dr. Jeffery O. Smith, Pastor Session Fellowship with Us Start: 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Garland Avenue Baptist Ch Garland Avenue Baptist Ch Dates: Wednesday, July 15, 2015 – Friday July 17, 201

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Theme: What’s Love 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p. m.

Got To Do With It?

At Our Fellowship with Us Community Picnic Saturday, July 18, 2015 Location: 2700 Block of Garland 2:00Avenue p.m. - 5:00 p. m.

Dr. Jeffery O. Smith, Pastor 2700-2704 Garland Avenue Richmond, Virginia 23222-3602

2700-2704 Garland Avenue At Our Dinner: 6:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Richmond, Virginia 23222-3602 Community Picnic Session Start: 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Location: 2700 Dates: Block of Wednesday, Garland Avenue July 15, 2015 – Friday July 17, 201

Theme: What’s Love

Got To Do With It?

Dinner: 6:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Richmond Free Press

B6 July 9-11, 2015

Legal Notices/Employment Opportunities City of Richmond, Virginia CITY COUNCIL 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, July 20, 2015 at 1:30 p.m. in the Fifth Floor Conference Room of City Hall and the Council of the City of Richmond has scheduled a public hearing on Monday, July 27, 2015 at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber on the Second Floor of City Hall, located at 900 East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia, to consider the following ordinances: Ordinance No. 2015-147 To amend Ord. No. 2013135-131, adopted Jul. 8, 2013, which closes to public use and travel, a portion of right-of-way known as the 8th Street Connector located in the block bounded by South 8th Street, Basin Bank Street, South 9th Street and East Canal Street, consisting of 16,337± square feet, upon certain terms and conditions, to extend the time period within which the conditions of the closing must be fulfilled.

Ordinance No. 2015-148 To amend and reordain City Code §§ 114-456.11, 114-1045.13, 114-1050.5, and 114-1140, concerning the requirements for the posting of public notices on property related to community unit plans, conditional use permits, special use permits and changes in the boundaries of a zoning district, for the purpose of making the Department of Planning and Development Review responsible for such posting instead of the applicant.

Interested citizens who wish to speak will be given an opportunity to do so.

Copies of the full text of all ordinances are available by visiting the City Clerk’s page on the City’s Website at www.Richmondgov. com and in the Office of the City Clerk, City Hall, 900 East Broad Street, Suite 200, Richmond, VA 23219, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Jean V. Capel City Clerk City of Richmond, Virginia CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given that the Council of the City of Richmond has scheduled a public hearing, open to all interested citizens, on Monday, July 27, 2015 at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber on the Second Floor of City Hall, located at 900 East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia, to consider the following ordinances: Ordinance No. 2015-134 To amend Ord. No. 201557-83, adopted May 15, 2015, which adopted the Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Special Fund Budget, and to appropriate funds in the amount of $1,408,034 to the Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Special Fund Budget by increasing the estimated revenues and the amount appropriated to the Department of Economic and Community Development’s Special Assessment Districts special fund by $1,408,034 for the purpose of providing services in the Downtown Richmond Special Service and Assessment Districts.

Ordinance No. 2015-137 To authorize the special use of the property known as 3022 3rd Avenue for the purpose of a twofamily detached dwelling, upon certain terms and conditions. Such a use is permitted in the R-6 district; however the subject property does not meet the minimum lot area or minimum lot width requirements for a two-family detached dwelling in the R-6 district. The City of Richmond’s Master Plan designates the subject property along 3rd Avenue for Single-Family (Medium Density) land use. Typical zoning classifications that may accommodate this land use category are R-5A, R-6 and R-7.

Primary uses in this category are single-family and two-family dwelling units, both detached and attached, at densities of 8 to 20 units per acre.

The proposed development would establish a residential density of approximately 24 units per acre.

Continued from previous column

Law Enforcement Mutual Aid Agreement between the City of Richmond and the County of Henrico for the purpose of providing law enforcement aid across jurisdictional lines.

Ordinance No. 2015-141 To authorize the Chief Administrative Officer to accept grant funds in the amount of $300,000 from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and to appropriate the increase to the Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Special Fund Budget by increasing estimated revenues and the amount appropriated to the Office of the Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for Human Services by $300,000 for the purpose of providing funds to support early childhood education. (Committee: Education and Human Services, Thursday, July 9, 2015, 5:00 p.m., Council Chamber) Ordinance No. 2015-142 To authorize the Chief Administrative Officer to accept a gift, valued at approximately $6,000,000, from the Enrichmond Foundation of materials, construction, and other services needed to complete Phase 1A of the Kanawha Plaza Improvements project on City-owned real estate at 701 East Canal Street.

(Committee: Education and Human Services, Thursday, July 9, 2015, 5:00 p.m., Council Chamber) Ordinance No. 2015-143 To authorize the Director of Procurement Services, for and on behalf of the City of Richmond, to execute a Goods and Services Contract between the City of Richmond and Grant Thornton LLP for auditing services. (Committee: Finance and Economic Development, Thursday, July 16, 2015, 3:00 p.m., Council Chamber) Ordinance No. 2015-144 To amend and reordain ch.

2, art. IV, div. 3 of the City Code by adding therein new §§ 2-305—2-308 for the purpose requiring that fiscal impact statements and economic impact statements be submitted to the Council upon the introduction of ordinances authorizing certain economic development projects to be funded or supported by the City. (Committee: Finance and Economic Development, Thursday, July 16, 2015, 3:00 p.m., Council Chamber) Ordinance No. 2015-145 To amend Ord. No. 2013133-121, adopted Jun. 24, 2013, which authorizes the Chief Administrative Officer, for and on behalf of the City of Richmond, to execute an Economic Development Cooperation Agreement between the City of Richmond and the Economic Development Authority of the City of Richmond for the purpose of developing and managing a 16-story, class A office building located on a site generally bounded

by East Cary Street to the north, South 9th Street to the east, East Canal Street to the south and South 8th Street to the west, for the purpose of modifying the basis upon which the amount of the grant administered by the Authority is calculated.

(Committee: Finance and Economic Development, Thursday, July 16, 2015, 3:00 p.m., Council Chamber) Ordinance No. 2015-146 To amend Ord. No. 2013134-122, adopted Jun. 24, 2013, which authorizes the Chief Administrative Officer, for and on behalf of the City of Richmond, to execute a Master Development Agreement between the City of Richmond and Clayco, Inc., doing business in Virginia as Clayco Construction Company, Inc., for the purpose of developing and managing a 16-story, class A office building located on a site generally bounded by East Cary Street to the north, South 9th Street to the east, East Canal Street to the south and South 8th Street to the west, for the purpose of modifying the basis upon which the amount of the grant administered by the Economic Development Authority is calculated.

(Committee: Finance and Economic Development, Thursday, July 16, 2015, 3:00 p.m., Council Chamber)

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HANOVER THOMAS KYLE, Plaintiff v.

MONIQUE KYLE, Defendant.

Case No.: CL15001514-00 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 26th day of August, 2015 at 9:00 a.m. and protect her interests.

A Copy, Teste: FRANK D. HARGROVE, JR., Clerk I ask for this: Dorothy M. Eure Counsel for Plaintiff VSB# 27724 8460 Mount Eagle Road Ashland, VA 23005 (804) 798-9667

a.m.

Sherry A. Fox, Esq. Thompson McMullan, PC 100 Shockoe Slip Richmond, Virginia 23219 804-698-6231

ascertain such names and addresses without effect: THE ESTATE OF RAYMOND L. LAWLESS STEVEN LAWLESS THE UNKNOWN HEIRS AT LAW OF THE ESTATE OF RAYMOND L. LAWLESS UNKNOWN OWNERS It is ORDERED that the aforesaid owners appear within ten (10) days after due publication of this Order in the clerk’s office of the Circuit Court of Chesterfield County, Virginia and do what is necessary to protect their interests; and it is further ordered that if the above named owners desire to assert any objection or defense to the taking or damaging of their property or to the jurisdiction of the Court to hear the case and to proceed with the appointment of commissioners or the empanelment of a jury, they shall file their answer and grounds of defense designating the property in which they claim to be interested, the grounds of any objection or defense to the taking or damaging of their property or to the jurisdiction of the Court to hear the case and to proceed with the appointment of commissioners or the empanelment of a jury for the determination of just compensation.

Should an owner fail to file their answer and grounds of defense as hereinabove provided, such failure shall not preclude the owner from appearing on the date set for the appointment of commissioners or the empanelment of a jury nor from presenting evidence as to valuation and damage nor from sharing in the award of just compensation according to their interest therein or otherwise protecting their rights, but such failure shall preclude such owner from any other defense by way of pleas in bar, abatement or otherwise.

Dated: June 19, 2015 An Extract, Teste: Wendy S. Hughes I ask for this: Godfrey T. Pinn, Jr. VSB No.: 43106 Harrell & Chambliss LLP Eighth and Main Building 707 East Main Street, Suite 1000 Richmond, Virginia 23219 (804) 915-3220 (direct dial) (804) 915-3240 (direct fax) gpinn@hclawfirm.com Counsel for Petitioner Commissioner of Highways

January 18, 2008, with respect to said property, recorded January 22, 2008, in Instrument Number 08-1738, has not been personally located and has not filed a response to this action, or her heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title; that SHERRIE BECKER, PATRICK BECKER, JAY S. SCHWARTZ, JAY S. SCHWARTZ, As Trustee for the JAY SCHWARTZ TRUST U/A 11/6/1992, and RICHARD D. KRIDER, who may be creditors with an interest in said property, have not been personally located and have not filed a response to this action; that THEODORE SELLMAN, Who May Be Deceased, and the Heirs, Devisees, Assignees or Successors in Interest of THEODORE SELLMAN, who may be creditor/s with an interest in said property, have not been located and have not filed a response to this matter; that DAVID F. KATZ and SHELLY A. KATZ, who may be creditors with an interest in said property, who are not residents of the Commonwealth of Virginia, have not filed a response to this matter; and that any heirs, devisees, assignees, successors in interest, successors in title and/or any creditors with a current or future interest in said property, have not been identified and/or served despite diligent efforts to do so and are defendants to this suit by the general description of “Parties Unknown.”

IT IS ORDERED that TOWER BUILDING PROPERTIES, L. L. C., A Cancelled Virginia Limited Liability Company, OLD DOMINION FINANCIAL SERVICE, INC. a/k/a OLD DOMINION FINANCIAL SERVICES, INC., A Terminated Virginia Corporation, which may be the holder of a certain Note secured by a Balloon Deed of Trust dated January 7, 2008, with respect to said property, recorded January 9, 2008, in Instrument Number 08-791, or its devisees, assignees or successors in title, OLD DOMINION FINANCIAL SERVICE, INC. a/k/a OLD DOMINION FINANCIAL SERVICES, INC., A Terminated Virginia Corporation, which may be the holder of a certain Note secured by a Balloon Deed of Trust dated January 18, 2008, with respect to said property, recorded January 22, 2008, in Instrument Number 08-1738, or its devisees, assignees or successors in title, BARRY WEISS, As to part of a $50,000.00 Interest and ELIZABETH N. PULLY, As to part of a $50,000.00 Interest, who may be the be the holders of a $50,000.00 Interest in a certain Note secured by a Balloon Deed of Trust dated January 18, 2008, with respect to said property, recorded January 22, 2008, in Instrument Number 08-1738, or their heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title, DAVID GROSSMAN, Who May Be Deceased, and the Heirs, Devisees, Assignees or Successors in Interest of DAVID GROSSMAN, As to $10,000.00 Interest, who may be the be the holder/s of a $10,000.00 Interest in a certain Note secured by a Balloon Deed of Trust dated January 18, 2008, with respect to said property, recorded January 22, 2008, in Instrument Number 08-1738, SHIRLEY GROSSMAN, As P/O/D for $10,000.00 Interest, who may be the be the holder of a P/O/D for $10,000.00 Interest in a certain Note secured by a Balloon Deed of Trust dated January 18, 2008, with respect to said property, recorded January 22, 2008, in Instrument Number 081738, or her heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title, SHERRIE BECKER, PATRICK BECKER, JAY S. SCHWARTZ, JAY S. SCHWARTZ, As Trustee for the JAY SCHWARTZ TRUST U/A 11/6/1992, RICHARD D. KRIDER, THEODORE SELLMAN, Who May Be Deceased, and the Heirs, Devisees, Assignees or Successors in Interest of THEODORE SELLMAN, DAVID F. KATZ, SHELLY A. KATZ, and Parties Unknown, come forward to appear on or before AUGUST 14, 2015, and

do what is necessary to protect their interests in this matter.

An Extract, Teste: Edward F. Jewett, Clerk Gregory A. Lukanuski, Esq. City of Richmond, Office of the City Attorney 900 E. Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219 804-646-7940

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF HANOVER SHANDRA ROBINSON, Plaintiff v.

RUDOLPH ROBINSON, SR., Defendant.

Case No.: CL15001376-00 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 14th day of August, 2015 at 9:00 a.m. and protect his interests.

A Copy, Teste: FRANK D. HARGROVE, JR., Clerk I ask for this: Dorothy M. Eure Counsel for Plaintiff VSB# 27724 8460 Mount Eagle Road Ashland, VA 23005 (804) 798-9667 VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF HANOVER PATINA SHARPE, Plaintiff v.

ROBERT GRAVES, Defendant.

Case No.: CL15001377-00 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 14th day of August, 2015 at 9:00 a.m. and protect his interests.

A Copy, Teste: FRANK D. HARGROVE, JR., Clerk I ask for this: Dorothy M. Eure Counsel for Plaintiff VSB# 27724 8460 Mount Eagle Road Ashland, VA 23005 (804) 798-9667 VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF HANOVER JENNIFER MCGARVEY, Plaintiff v.

ZACHARY MCGARVEY, Defendant.

Case No.: CL15000952-00 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 has been served with the Complaint by posted service appear here on or before the 19th day of August, 2015 at 9:00 a.m. and protect his interests.

A Copy, Teste: FRANK D. HARGROVE, JR., Clerk I ask for this: Dorothy M. Eure Counsel for Plaintiff VSB# 27724 8460 Mount Eagle Road Ashland, VA 23005 (804) 798-9667

CUSTODY

Ordinance No. 2015-138 To reduce the speed limit on Floyd Avenue between North Laurel Street and North Thompson Street from 25 miles per hour to 20 miles per hour.

(Committee: Land Use, Housing and Transportation, Tuesday, July 21, 2015, 3:00 p.m., Council Chamber)

Interested citizens who wish to speak will be given an opportunity to do so.

Copies of the full text of all ordinances are available by visiting the City Clerk’s page on the City’s Website at www.Richmondgov. com and in the Office of the City Clerk, City Hall, 900 East Broad Street, Suite 200, Richmond, VA 23219, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Jean V. Capel City Clerk

Ordinance No. 2015-140 To authorize the Chief Administrative Officer, for and on behalf of the City of Richmond, to execute a

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF

virgiNia: iN thE JuvENiLE aND DOmEstic rELatiONs District cOurt Of thE city Of richmOND iN rE: Baby Boy Barrett a/k/a Jackson barrett Children’s home society of virginia v. unknown birth father OrDEr Of puBLicatiON The object of this suit is to: Pursuant to VA Code § 16.1277.01, the Children’s Home Society of Virginia is requesting that the Court terminate the parental rights of the unknown birth father, whose identity and whereabouts are unknown and transfer custody of the infant. Baby Boy Barrett a/k/a Jackson Barrett, d/o/b 04/13/15 to the Children’s Home Society of Virginia with the right to place the infant for adoption.

It is ORDERED that the defendant Unknown Birth Father appear at the abovenamed Court and protect his/ or her interests on or before September 8, 2015 at 10:00

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Divorce

virgiNia: iN thE JuvENiLE aND DOmEstic rELatiONs District cOurt Of thE city Of richmOND iN rE: destini monique parker OrDEr Of puBLicatiON The object of this suit is to: Terminate the residual parental rights (“RPR”) of Tiffany Lorraine Parker (Mother), Robert Turner (Father), and Unknown Father (Father) of Destini Monique Parker, child, DOB 5/15/2014, “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 defendant Tiffany Lorraine Parker, Robert Turner, and Unknown Father appear at the above-named Court and protect his/her interest on or before August, 17, 2015 at 11:00 a.m.

Kate D. O’Leary, Esq. 730 E. Broad St., 8th Floor Richmond, Virginia 23219 804-646-3493 virgiNia: iN thE JuvENiLE aND DOmEstic rELatiONs District cOurt Of Chesterfield Commonwealth of Virginia, in re AMELIA LYNN Roberson; CHRISTY LEE WILSON v. TRACY LYNN ROBERSON UNKNOWN FATHER AKA “MARIO” Case No. JJ085932-01-00; JJ085932-02-00 OrDEr Of puBLicatiON

The object of this suit is to: Determine custody and visitation of Amelia Lynn Roberson (DOB: 12/12/06), whose mother is Tracy Lynn Roberson, pursuant to Va. Code 16.1-241 (A3).

It is ordered that the defendant Unknown Father AKA “Mario” appear at the above-named Court and protect his or her interests on or before September 23, 2015 at 12:00 p.m.

Stephen Bloomquest, Esq. 5913 Harbour Park Drive Midlothian, Virginia 23112 804-396-3329

PROPERTY VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF CHESTERFIELD COMMISSIONER OF HIGHWAYS, Petitioner, v.

Case No.: CL15001509-00 THE ESTATE OF RAYMOND L. LAWLESS, Deceased, BETTY SUSAN PRON, GLORIA WARD LOWERY, BRENDA JESSIE, STEVEN LAWLESS, THE UNKNOWN HEIRS AT LAW OF THE ESTATE OF RAYMOND L. LAWLESS, Deceased, UNKNOWN OWNERS, and a permanent utility easement and two temporary construction easements comprising 11,284 square feet, more or less, situated on those two certain lots, pieces or parcels of land, lying and being in Bermuda District, C h e s t e r f i e l d C o u n t y, Virginia, and designated as Lots Nos. Three (3) and Four (4) in Block “A” on the plan of Mid-City Farms, a plat of which is of record in the Clerk’s Office of the Circuit Court of Chesterfield County, Virginia in Plat Book 3, pages 242 and 243.

Defendants.

ORDER OF PUBLICATION In this proceeding Petitioner, Commissioner of Highways, seeks to acquire by condemnation easement rights to certain pieces or parcels of land situated in the County of Chesterfield, Virginia, for the uses and purposes of the Petitioner, namely for the construction, reconstruction, alteration, maintenance and repair of Route 1 and for all other purposes incidental thereto, all of which is described more particularly in the Petition for Condemnation and exhibits attached thereto on file in the office of the Clerk of this Court, to which reference is hereby made for a full and accurate description thereof; and for the appointment of commissioners or the empanelment of a jury to ascertain just compensation to the owners of any estate or interest in the property to be taken or affected as a result of the taking and use thereof by the Petitioner.

For such purposes, the Petitioner will apply to the court, sitting at Chesterfield County, Virginia, on the 24th day of July, 2015, at 8:30 a.m., or as soon thereafter as Petitioner may be heard, for the appointment of commissioners or the empanelment of a jury to ascertain just compensation as aforesaid.

And it appearing by affidavit filed according to law that the following persons are record owners or otherwise may have interest in the property disclosed in the Petition for Condemnation and that they are not residents of the Commonwealth and/or their names and/or addresses are not known and that diligence has been used by and on behalf of the Petitioner to Continued on next column

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING CITY OF RICHMOND, Plaintiff, v.

Case No.: CL14-3356-1 TOWER BUILDING PROPERTIES, L. L. C., a Cancelled Virginia Limited Liability Company, et al., Defendants.

ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as “919 Chimborazo Boulevard (formerly 34th Street), TaxMap/GPIN# E000-0965/018, to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owner of record, TOWER BUILDING PROPERTIES, L. L. C.

An Affidavit having been filed that said owner, TOWER BUILDING PROPERTIES, L. L. C., A Cancelled Virginia Limited Liability Company, has not been located and has not filed a response to this action; that OLD DOMINION FINANCIAL SERVICE, INC. a/k/a OLD DOMINION FINANCIAL SERVICES, INC., A Terminated Virginia Corporation, which may be the holder of a certain Note secured by a Balloon Deed of Trust dated January 7, 2008, with respect to said property, recorded January 9, 2008, in Instrument Number 08-791, has not been and has not filed a response to this action, or its devisees, assignees or successors in title; that OLD DOMINION FINANCIAL SERVICE, INC. a/k/a OLD DOMINION FINANCIAL SERVICES, INC., A Terminated Virginia Corporation, which may be the holder of a certain Note secured by a Balloon Deed of Trust dated January 18, 2008, with respect to said property, recorded January 22, 2008, in Instrument Number 08-1738, has not been and has not filed a response to this action, or its devisees, assignees or successors in title; that BARRY WEISS, As to part of a $50,000.00 Interest and ELIZABETH N. PULLY, As to part of a $50,000.00 Interest, who may be the be the holders of a $50,000.00 Interest in a certain Note secured by a Balloon Deed of Trust dated January 18, 2008, with respect to said property, recorded January 22, 2008, in Instrument Number 08-1738, have not been personally located and have not filed a response to this action, or their heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title; that DAVID GROSSMAN, Who May Be Deceased, and the Heirs, Devisees, Assignees or Successors in Interest of DAVID GROSSMAN, As to $10,000.00 Interest, who may be the be the holder/s of a $10,000.00 Interest in a certain Note secured by a Balloon Deed of Trust dated January 18, 2008, with respect to said property, recorded January 22, 2008, in Instrument Number 08-1738, have not been located and have not filed a response to this action; that SHIRLEY GROSSMAN, As P/O/D for $10,000.00 Interest, who may be the be the holder of a P/O/D for $10,000.00 Interest in a certain Note secured by a Balloon Deed of Trust dated Continued on next column

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL The University of Virginia seeks a firm to provide: Parking Garage Washdown To view a copy of RFP # JG063015 go to Procurement Services Site: http://www.procurement. virginia.edu/main/ publicpostings/RFP.html, or email: jeg5y@virginia.edu

DRIVER’S: Quality Home time!

Earn over $1250+ per wk. + Monthly Bonuses!

Excellent Benefits.

No-Touch!

CDL-A 1yr exp.

To advertise in the

Richmond Free Press call

644-0496

855-454-0392

ANNOUNCEMENT FOR PULPIT VACANCY: FULL-TIME PASTOR Opening Date: June 20, 2015 Closing Date: August 20, 2015

An application can be obtained from www.graylandbaptist.org

IT/General Cigar seeks Sr Web Developer to design, develop & modify websites used for brand marketing & e-commerce using C#, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, HTML, XML, AJAX, Web Services. Analyze requirements for design & develop solns.

Maintain DB objects for websites & web apps using SQL Server 2005. Requires (i) B.S. in Computer Apps or related IT field; (ii) 5 yrs developing web apps using C#, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, HTML, XML, AJAX & MS SQL Server 2005; and, (iii) MCAD certification. Send cvr ltr, CV, & salary reqs to Steve Bowman, 10900 Nuckols Rd, Suite 100, Glen Allen, VA 23060. Cigar smoking work environment. EOE M/F/D/V

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Richmond Regional Planning District Commission The Richmond Regional Planning District Commission (RRPDC), a regional planning agency with major emphasis in the areas of transportation, local technical assistance and information services including demographic, economic and geographic information systems, is seeking an Executive Director to lead the agency. A Bachelor’s degree in Planning or Public Administration, or related field (Master’s degree is highly preferred) and a minimum of 10 yrs. experience in a responsible position in a comparably sized regional planning district commission or council, local government, or in a state or federal government agency is required. Experience in the private sector or with nonprofit organizations is a plus. Background investigation including fingerprinting for an FBI criminal check is required. The deadline is July 31, 2015, at 5 p.m. A full job ad and required online application may be found at www.hanovercountyjobs.com. EOE

The City of Richmond is seeking to fill the following positions: Commercial Meter Technician 35M00000514 Department of Public Utilities Apply by 7/19/2015 Cross-Connection Specialist I 35M00000485 Department of Public Utilities Continuous Gas & Water Service Technician 35M00000541 Department of Public Utilities Apply by 7/19/2015 Paralegal 10M000000037 City Attorney Apply by 7/19/2015 ****************** For an exciting career with the City of Richmond, visit our website for additional information and apply today! www.richmondgov.com EOE M/F/D/V

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Assistant Director, Records Management FAD510

The Development and Alumni Relations office at Virginia Commonwealth University has a position open for the Assistant Director, Records Management.

The Assistant Director, Records Management is a Professional Faculty position reporting to the Director, Gifts and Records Management. The Assistant Director is on the leadership development team that makes sure that information tracked and monitored on every VCU constituent is relevant and accurate for fundraising purposes. This professional serves as the lead business intelligence person for the university's philanthropic campaign, partnering with prospect research, alumni relations, campaign leadership, and development professionals to build the best possible development environment for perpetuity of the institution. The position oversees a team of business intelligence professionals who ensure the accuracy and consistency of constituent and charitable giving data recorded in RADAR, the Development and Alumni Relations constituent database of record. The Assistant Director will oversee all processes and compliance with prevailing university and department policies and procedures. Demonstrated experience working in and fostering a diverse faculty, staff and student environment or commitment to do so as a faculty member at VCU, required. An advanced degree or comparable training and work experience in a philanthropic setting is required. A minimum of three years’ experience working in an Advancement Services or fundraising operation department; and, a minimum of three years’ experience working with a complex constituent database management application, required. Outstanding communications skills, both written and verbal, required.

For more information contact jwstringer@vcu.edu.

Applicants should submit a resume, cover letter, and (under the “other documents” section) the names and contact information of three professional references via VCU eJobs at www.vcujobs.com.

Virginia Commonwealth University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. Women, minorities and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.