Established in 2005 as The Richmond Defender, The Virginia Defender is a free community newspaper, published quarterly for the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality. Print distribution is currently 12,000 and statewide. The online publication launched in Summer 2020.
Despite threatening weather forecasts, cold temperatures and the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 90 people still turned out Jan. 22 for the 5th Annual Virginia Prison Justice Rally.
An essay on mental health by Shaka Shakur.
The book that Jan Meck and Virginia Refo have written is the first study of the life of Emily Winfree, a Virginia-born African woman who lived from 1834 to 1865 enslaved in Petersburg and Chesterfield Country and, after Emancipation, in Manchester until her death in 1919.
In January 2020, Weluna Finley and a group of like-minded Black mothers, birth workers, mental health professionals and healers founded the United Black Birth Collective.
The Winter 2022 edition of News U Can Use includes information about free at-home COVID tests and an online map tool to monitor sewage overflow into the James River.
On Jan. 21, the United Arab Emirates, as a part of the U.S.-backed Saudi war on Yemen, launched a military attack, targeting civilian homes, hospitals, sports facilities and a detention center, resulting in more than 300 casualties. In a deliberate attempt to prevent international media coverage of the assault, the UAE also destroyed Yemen’s Internet cables, creating a nationwide Internet blackout that has yet to end.
The Virginia Defenders’ statement supporting Palestinian hunger striker Hisham Abu Hawash. Hawash, who will now be released in late February, resorted to a hunger strike in order to protest his imprisonment under administrative detention. Administrative detention is a tool by which Israeli military courts imprison Palestinians without charge or trial, for indefinite periods.
The Virginia Defender 