By Jeremy M. Lazarus
After seven years and five months leading Virginia Union University and having a campus building named in his honor, Dr. Claude G. Perkins is ready to retire. VUU announced Dr. Perkins, 74, would take a yearlong paid sabbatical beginning July 1. His contract expires in July 2017.
The announcement of the planned departure of the university’s 12th president came Monday, just two days after Dr. Perkins presided over the 2016 commencement ceremonies and a year after he guided the school through the celebration of its 150th anniversary. Dr. Perkins will remain president during the sabbatical, Please turn to A5
Richmond Free Press © 2016 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
VOL. 25 NO. 20
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
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VUU president to retire
MAY 12-14, 2016
Sisters act to save home Nuns rally support to block sale of historic St. Emma’s, St. Francis property By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
Sister Maureen Carroll, left, is seeking to rally public support to prevent the sale of a historic Powhatan property with help from volunteers like Joyce Johnson. The women talked about their plans in front of Belmead, the mansion that was once home to St. Emma Military Academy for Boys and has been headquarters for the nonprofit FrancisEmma Inc. that has sought to preserve and protect the property and its history.
City Council to strip Mayor Jones’ detail By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Will Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones have to handle his own commute to and from City Hall rather than being chauffeured by a police officer when the new budget year begins July 1? Richmond City Council is following through on its threat to strip the mayor of most of his security detail in the budget that is expected to be approved Friday, May 13. The council also is expected to limit when the security detail can be used. An amendment that will accompany the general fund budget states that the mayor will be restricted to having “one sworn police officer … assigned to provide security” and then only “during the times when the mayor is conducting official business within the Richmond region,” which includes the city and the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico.
Defying their superiors, four nuns are fighting to save the historic 2,265-acre property in Powhatan County that was once home to two Catholic boarding schools for African-American youths. The nuns, who manage the property, are mounting a campaign to reverse the decision by the leaders of their order, Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, to sell the land — although the prospects for upending the decision appear extremely slim for the nuns who are losing their authority to impact events. The Free Press broke the story last week that the SBS, the religious order of nuns who ran the historic, but long-closed St. Francis de Sales School for Girls and St. Emma Military Academy for Boys, was putting the property on the market after 117 years of ownership. The move shocked and surprised the order’s four nuns who live and work on the property, as well as the board of FrancisEmma Inc., the 12-year-old nonprofit that has worked to restore the property. “We were blindsided,” said Sister Maureen Carroll, whom the SBS removed Tuesday as executive director of the nonprofit. In response to the SBS’s sale decision, Sister Carroll said she and the three sisters have begun a petition campaign on Change. org and are using Facebook and sending email blasts to generate “an outpouring of support” to overturn the sale. “This is very significant African-American history, and we need a big community response to help preserve it,” said Sister Carroll, who announced Wednesday that the nuns also would hold a rally 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 14, at the property at 5004 Cartersville Road that overlooks the James River. She believes popular support represents the only chance to get SBS leaders to reconsider disposing of the property that the order has long considered “sacred land.” Opened in the 1890s, the two schools together educated and trained in practical skills at least 12,000 African-American students before both closed by 1972, Sister Carroll said. “FrancisEmma wants to become independent and to buy the property, and we just need (the SBS leadership) to give us three to five years to come up with the money,” Sister Carroll said. “I know we could raise it.” Please turn to A4
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The city rundown:
$1.2B needed to maintain infrastructure By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
The worn exterior of the City of Richmond’s former Public Safety Building is a prime example of the city’s failure to invest in maintenance. The city now faces a huge bill to cover costs for improving public buildings, streets and other infrastructure, as well as for modernizing schools.
The City of Richmond needs to borrow $1.2 billion during the next 10 years to maintain its streets, provide sidewalks, ensure dozens of bridges remain usable and keep its 84 buildings in good shape, according a mayoral task force examining the future borrowing needs of the city government. That doesn’t count $650 million needed in the next 10 years to provide quality school buildings — either new or renovated, according to Richmond Public Schools, which is participating in the task force. The only problem: The city doesn’t have the capacity to borrow that kind of money. According to a report David Rose, the city’s financial adviser, provided to Richmond City Council, Richmond would be able to borrow a total of $329 million in the 10-year period between 2018 and 2027 under current policies. Please turn to A4
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
So proud! Christine Turner of Chesapeake gets a huge hug of congratulations from her niece, Nijah Roberson, as she and other Virginia Union University candidates for graduation march toward Hovey Field last Saturday for the commencement ceremony. Please turn to B3 for additional photo coverage.
Area groups mobilize to register former inmates to vote By Malik Russell
Groups throughout the Richmond region are taking steps to get formerly incarcerated individuals registered to vote and, ultimately, to the polls. Their efforts are in response to Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s recent executive order restoring the civil and voting rights to more than 200,000 felons who have finished serving their time and completed parole and probation. “We know that it is important to not only support the governor in returning civil rights to people who have served their time, but also to make sure that
we both increase the voter rolls and get folks to the polls,” said Lillie BranchKennedy, founder of Resources, Information and Help for the Ms. BranchDisadvantaged Kennedy (RIHD), a Richmond-based group advocating for the rights of incarcerated individuals and their families. Last weekend, RIHD helped create the Mid-Atlantic Cornerstone Civic
Engagement Coalition, a collection of organizations from Richmond, Washington and Baltimore pooling resources to conduct grassroots outreach aimed particularly at people who previously were imprisoned. RIHD is teaming with Richard Walker, a former felon and founder of Bridging the Gap in Virginia, another Richmond-based advocacy group committed to restoration of rights, to kick off its 5th Annual Mobile Justice Tour in Virginia, a regional tour with stops in 10 to 15 places to push for sentencing reforms and to register former inmates to vote.
“What we realized is that the people in D.C. and Baltimore are facing the same problems we are and that there is little to no funding for Mr. Hicks the work we do in grassroots communities,” said Mr. Walker. “We realized that we’ve got to pool our resources and unite in sharing information and strategies.” Since Gov. McAuliffe announced the executive order April 22, Repub-
lican leaders in the General Assembly have threatened a lawsuit challenging the order, and have questioned why violent offenders now should be eligible to serve on juries because their rights are restored. On Wednesday, Gov. McAuliffe’s office released data from an analysis of the more than 200,000 individuals whose rights were restored. The results show that more than 79 percent of the former inmates had been convicted of nonviolent offenses. The data also shows that 51.5 Please turn to A4