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MARCH 28, 2022

Saturday, April 2: NO Defenders’ monthly clean-up in Shockoe Bottom

Because of the many Richmond Liberation Day events happening over the April 2-3 weekend, the Defenders are suspending our monthly clean-up at the Devil’s Half-Acre and African Burial Ground in Shockoe Bottom. We usually do this on the first Saturday of every month to show respect for the sites and “encourage” the City to do a better job of caring for this sacred ground. The next clean-up will be on Saturday, May 6. We meet at 11 a.m. at the site of Lumpkin’s jail, which is just behind the Main Street Station, between I-95 and the CSX railroad tracks, just south of East Broad Street. (See HERE on Google Maps.) Please bring gloves. We’ll provide the trash bags.

Sunday, April 3, will mark the 157th anniversary of the day Union troops, led by Black soldiers and cavalry, marched into Richmond, which for more than three years had been the capital of the slavery-defending Confederacy. They tore open the slave jails, held a mass rally on Broad Street and restored freedom to the city. For many years, Richmond’s Black community and its allies held an annual Liberation Day celebration, at times marching in the thousands.

This year, the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality and the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project will celebrate the occasion by gathering at 8 a.m. at the spot where the Union soldiers entered the city. We invite you to join us to hear eyewitness accounts of the events and share your thoughts about what Liberation Day means to you.

We’ll meet at the state highway marker “Union Army Enters Richmond” (# SA-41), located at the Richmond-Henrico County line at the intersection of Old Main and East Main streets. (For GPS directions, enter “4400 E. Main St., Henrico, VA 23231.”)

For more information, see the Facebook event page here; call or text the Defenders at 804.644.5834; or email us at DefendersFJE@hotmail.com.

For more events happening on April 2 and 3, see this link.

Wednesday, April 20: The Spring 2022 edition of The Virginia Defender!

We’re working now on the Spring edition of The Virginia Defender, which will hit the streets Wednesday, April 20. We need a few more volunteers to help deliver the newspaper to stores, restaurants, community centers, places of worship and all the other places that carry it. If you have a vehicle and can spare an hour or two, please call or text us at 804-644-5834 or email DefendersFJE@hotmail.com. And thanks!

New from The Virginia Defender: Political Repression in Ukraine

The U.S. media is full of stories about what it calls political repression in other countries, but it’s strangely silent when it comes to Ukraine. Check out our new story “Political Repression in Ukraine.”