AUTUMN ISSUE OF THE VIRGINIA DEFENDER!
Phil Wilayto
Dear friends,
We invite you to check out the Autumn issue of The Virginia Defender.
And please make plans to join us Saturday, Dec. 7, at “Truth & Conciliation in the 400th Year: A Public History Symposium on Shockoe Bottom.”
This all-day event, co-sponsored by the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project of the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality and the Library of Virginia, will take an in-depth look into the history of Black people in Richmond and why it is so important to reclaim and properly memorialize Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom distirct, once the epicenter of the U.S. domestic slave trade.
The symposium will take place from 9 am to 4 pm at the Library of Virginia. The centerpiece of the day will be the presentation of the Community Proposal for a nine-acre Shockoe Bottom Memorial Park. And we are inviting Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney to attend and declare his support for this proposal.
More information is being posted at: www.dec7symposium.blogspot.com.
Also in this issue of the Defender:
The mass evictions hitting residents of public housing in Richmond
An update on the situation of Abbie Arevalo-Herrera, an immigrant from Honduras now in her 17th month of taking sanctuary in a Richmond church
An in-depth look at what climate change means for Virginia
Reports on prison struggles in Virginia
The developing struggle over Confederate monuments in Pittsboro, N.C.
The U.S. foreign policies that are at the heart of today’s immigration crisis
The ongoing demand for an international investigation into the Odessa Massacre of May 2, 2014
And much more!
Finally, if you value this all-volunteer source of news and analysis from a working-class perspective, please think about helping us distribute it to the community. If you can spare just an hour or two every three months, please email us at Defend...@hotmail.com or text or call us at 804-644-5834.
For a World of Justice & Peace for All,
Phil Wilayto
Editor
The Virginia Defender