Another year, another chance to CELEBRATE the successes and accomplishments of a people who rise and do great things in the face of challenge and adversity. Keep moving forward.
Virginia Commonwealth University students staged a rally Wednesday to show support for students at the University of Missouri.
"We want them to know we're fighting with you", said an organizer of the rally.
University of Missouri (MIZZOU) students cited claims of racism on their campus that they say went unaddressed by university officials, most notably the university's president Timothy Wolfe. The students' protest led by members of the university's football team, and others at the school, led to Wolfe's resignation.
The VCU rally bought out representatives from the office of the president who addressed student concerns that they say include the lack of teacher diversity at the school.
"I have no Black teachers", one student at the rally said.
Wanda Mitchell, Vice President of Inclusive Excellence serving as the Chief Diversity Officer at VCU, said her office has been "working to ensure there is teacher diversity at the school" citing that her office has "strategies surround recruitment retention, graduation and promotion of faculty of color."
"We have plans", she said.
Wanda Mitchell, Vice President of Inclusive Excellence serving as the Chief Diversity Officer at VCU speaks to the assembled students over their concerns of lack of teacher diversity at the university.
The university held a speaking engagement headlined by Dr. Fred Bonner who Mitchell said "has done research on Black faculty and faculty of color to look at strategies to increase inclusion in higher education."
In addition to lack of diversity at the teacher level, and other concerns, the students also shared their experiences and encounters with campus police.
"I've been to a lot of rallies where there have been rallies for student debt and and homosexual rights, a student said. "Why is there no police presence for that, but whenever there's a rally with a lot of people of color, the Feds come out of, like, the woodwork?", asked the student of VCU Chief of Police John Venuti who was also in attendance to address the student's concerns.
Venuti, who said he was at the rally because he "wanted to be there" and not because he "had to be there", said the police presence is there "to make sure you are allowed and afforded the opportunity to your right to free speech."
An emotional student (left) is being consoled by another student after VCU police chief John Venuti referred to the mostly African American students and rally organizers as "you people." He later apologized for the comment.
Another student shared his experience where he said a VCU police officer asked him for his ID while he and friends were standing on the front porch of a residence. The student said the officer told him to put his hands on the patrol car and offered no answer as to why he was being detained.
Venuti said he didn't know why the officer acted that way, but told the students they could report any acts of bias or profiling to the police at either the VCU police web site or by calling the VCU police station.
In the wake of the events at the University of Missouri VCU president Michael Rao issued a campus-wide email to students on Wednesday supporting the students for taking a stand with Missouri students.
Though other universities have made national headlines, I am mindful that these issues are no less important here. And I urge the VCU community to remember that these are not issues for only some of us, but for all of us. Every single member of our university must always feel free, empowered, engaged and respected—and when even one of us isn’t, then we all lose. That is because we lose the chance to learn from and to be inspired by the experiences of all members of our community.
We must always stand together as one VCU, with one mission: to advance the human experience for all people, through teaching, research, creativity, engagement, and care.
VCU students hold handmade signs to show solidarity with University of Missouri students' plight with campus racism.
Rao's email states that his office is planning a Presidential Forum on Diversity and Inclusion (PFLD&I) on Wednesday, November 18 in the Student Commons that will include senior members of his leadership team along with student leaders and members of VCU's Board of Visitors, "for whom diversity and inclusion remain paramount."
Rao did not attend Wednesday's rally, and his email to students did not make clear whether he will attend the November 18th scheduled event which is slated to be both live streamed and live Tweeted, the email states.
Organizers of Wednesday's student rally say they also plan to take a group photo and send a letter of support to MIZZOU's Black student leadership organizations to show their solidarity.
The words fitting, and worth remembering, at this time.
We have tomorrow
Bright before us
Like a flame.
Yesterday
A night-gone thing,
A sun-down name.
And dawn-today. Broad arch above the road we came.
We march.
The president said, referring to the hurricane that ravaged the city of Joplin that same year:
"The road has been hard. The day has been long. But we have tomorrow, and so we march. We march, together, and you are leading the way. Congratulations. May God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America."
A VCU World Studies graduate with a penchant for history and foreign language finds a piece of her family's history during an excavation at the Montpelier slave grounds of president James Madison.
Michelle Taylor pieced together family photos and her Gilmore family name to make an astounding genealogical connection.
If you've traveled over Richmond's roads lately, you've probably hit a pot hole, or two.
Richmond's road, in certain areas, have reached an all time embarrassment for the Capital of Virginia.
On Richmond's North side, we witnessed parts of Chamberlayne Avenue in need of completed repair. During the summer, road work began on a mile-long stretch of the avenue, giving the impression that the road was being repaired. Road crews blocked much of the left side of the northbound lane, interrupting traffic flow for weeks. The assignment was never completed and still remains a hazard to drive on.
We tried to avoid this tactless display of road repair at the intersection of Brook Road and Bellevue, also on Richmond's North side.
Take a look at the view at the intersection, and again at the close-up view.
Intersection of Bellevue and Brook Road. Photos/ CD Brown.
Intersection of Bellevue and Brook Road. Photo/ CD Brown.
The downtown district doesn't fair much better. We thought only the roads in Shockoe Slip were supposed to be bumpy and rocky because of the cobble stone roads, and don't expect the same on asphalted roads.
If you'd like to see the roads-of-Richmond in much better condition, join us by emailing the representative in your district and tell them the roads where you live and work need to be repaired (professionally) as soon as possible, and definitely by the upcoming November 5th election.
You may also contact the Mayor's office by clicking here, and selecting the 'Citizen's Request' tab.
Call the Mayor's office at 646-7970, or fax your pot hole concern to 646-7987, or email the mayor at askthemayor@richmondgov.com.
-- Join our RVA pothole campaign on Twitter!
Use hash tag #RoadsInRichmond on Twitter. Tweet your pothole sighting to help get it repaired!
You could not have asked for a better summer evening to kick off Richmond's Jazz weekend celebration; and what better indoor venue to do so than the newly renovated Hippodrome Theatre in the city's Jackson Ward area.
Washington, D.C.'s own jazz piano extraordinaire, Marcus Johnson, performed to a sold out and nearly standing-room-only crowd in the theatre's stately Mansion 26 room where he eloquently serenaded (and funk-ti-fied) a deserving crowd of nearly 800 MJ fans.
With his mellow blend of signature jazz staples and funky, upbeat contemporary songs Johnson remains a crowd pleaser.
With 17 albums (and a line of bottled wines) to his credit, one can see why this man is one of the hardest working jazz artists in the country.
Add in an amazing band to boot, complete with saxophone great Brian LeNair who left the crowd still wondering how he can hold a note for that long (seemingly three minutes), good food, a chic and stylish crowd, and you got a night on the town not soon to be forgotten.
The historic Hippodrome Theatre, home to vaudeville acts of the 1914s era, and acts of the 1940s that showcased the likes of James Brown, Ella Fitzgerald and Ray Charles, is located at 528 N. Second Street.
If you're looking for a good time and great performances, then The Hipp is it.
PRACTICE SESSIONS CAN BE CANCELED WITHOUT NOTICE***
2013 BON SECOURS WASHINGTON REDSKINS TRAINING CENTER FAN SCHEDULE
The practices listed below are open to the public free of charge. Practice dates are subject to change without notice (especially in the event of inclement weather). Gates will open at 9 a.m. and close at 5 p.m.
On March 15, 1963, the Ramblers played Mississippi State in a regional semifinal game known as the Game of Change.
The year: 1963, right in the midst of the Civil Rights movement. The team: The Loyola Ramblers, coached by George Ireland. The controversy: The Ramblers started four African-American players on the “Iron Five” lineup, even though the unwritten rules of college basketball allowed only two African-American players to start, and an unwritten law in Mississippi wouldn’t allow play against integrated teams.
Earlier in the year, the Ramblers had won 20 consecutive games and earned a tournament berth. The Game of Change took place in East Lansing, Michigan. The all-white Mississippi State team snuck into Michigan in defiance of an injunction issued by the Governor of Mississippi that was intended to prohibit the game.
President Barack Obama greets members of the 1963 Loyola University Chicago Ramblers NCAA Championship men's basketball team in the Oval Office, July 11, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) LINK
Judy Van Dyck, the daughter of the Head Coach, George Ireland, accompanied the team today. She told me that she remembered her father saying, with tears in his eyes, that the time had come for change,that these were his kids, and he wanted to make a difference so that no other kids would have to go through what they went through.
And that’s just what happened.
The Ramblers won 61-51. Before tip-off, photographers captured one of the great moments in college sports history when Loyola captain Jerry Harkness, and Mississippi State captain Joe Dan Gold shook hands at center court. The team gave President Obama a framed copy of that famous photo today.
The Ramblers went on to eventually win the 1963 NCAA Championship, by beating the Cincinnati Bearcats in overtime, 60-58, denying the Bearcats their third consecutive national title.
All nine players from the 1963 Ramblers graduated from Loyola, and many went on to excel in graduate studies. And this November, the Ramblers will become the first team to be inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
Their induction coincides with several major 50th year anniversaries of the Civil Rights movement—from the murder of Medgar Evers, to the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, to the Children’s March, to the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door in Alabama, to the March on Washington and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
The Ramblers broke barriers by refusing to give in to prejudice, and simply playing their best. As I watched President Obama speak with the players in the Oval Office, I thought of just how far we’ve come.
In 1963, a governor refused to let them play. But today, a President welcomed them to the White House with open arms.
Valerie B. Jarrett is a Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama. She oversees the Offices of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs.
