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.
President Donald J. Trump spoke today in Jamestown at Virginia’s official event marking the 400th anniversary of the founding of the House of Burgesses. The colonial-era institution later morphed into the present-day Virginia General Assembly, giving rise to the claim that the state’s legislature is the Western Hemisphere’s oldest continuing representative body. Bullcrap.
The struggle to defend the Embassy of Venezuela from supporters of the U.S.-backed coup has been one of the most dynamic antiwar actions in recent years. Showing up or supporting it in some way has been a litmus test for any organization that says it stands for Justice.
An update on the Venezuelan Embassy situation.
With the permission of the government of Venezuela, volunteer members of the Embassy Protection Collective are living in the building that houses the Embassy of Venezuela in Washington, D.C. They are doing this because the U.S. government has expelled all embassy staff and have allowed supporters of coup leader Juan Guaido to mass outside the building.
Both grief and determination hung over a rally yesterday outside the Virginia State Capitol to support the family of a man killed by a Portsmouth police officer.
At a time when the eyes of the country and much of the world is focused on Virginia and its sorry history of racial oppression, Richmond City Council took a step this evening in the right direction: it voted to rename the street known as The Boulevard to honor Richmond’s native son Arthur Ashe.
An editorial by Virginia Defender editor Phil Wilayto on Ralph Northam’s history of racism and the deeper problems this reveals about Virginia’s Democratic Party.
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