Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality

  Updates & Announcements A service of  THE VIRGINIA DEFENDER   newspaper.  Editorial Board: Ana Edwards & Phil Wilayto Nov. 10, 2025 Nov. 10 - On this day in 1898, white police officers and soldiers participated in the murder of at least 60 Black men in Wilmington, N.C. The Wilmington Massacre was a carefully orchestrated coup that toppled a multiracial government in what at that time was the South’s most progressive majority-Black city. (See  Wilmington Massacre .) On Nov. 9 and 10 in 1938, the Nazis launched a massive pogrom against Jews in Germany and Austria.  Kristallnacht , or Night of Broken Glass, was a state-sponsored campaign of terror in which the fascists burned more than 1,000 synagogues, vandalized thousands of Jewish-owned businesses, desecrated Jewish religious objects and assaulted and killed Jewish people. Meanwhile, the German police arrested tens of thousands of Jewish men and boys. It took a world war to turn back the fasc...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition  Dr. Marsha-Coleman Adebayo - 240-731-9577 This Memorial Day: Montgomery County Builds Storage Units on Black Soldiers’ Graves Bethesda, MD. 05/26/25 Memorial Day is meant to honor the fallen. But in Montgomery County, Maryland, Black veterans lie buried beneath a parking lot and a high-rise apartment building. Now, a self-storage facility is being built over them. At Moses African Cemetery in Bethesda, Black soldiers like Pvt. H.H. Brown, a U.S. Colored Troops veteran, was laid to rest with dignity by the River Road community a once-thriving Black settlement post emancipation.Their service to this nation is undeniable. Their sacrifice is recorded. But their graves have been paved over, built on, and desecrated with the full knowledge and permission of County and the State of Maryland.  The apartment complex known as Westwood Towers sits directly atop the graves of these men, women, and children. A parking lot ...

 A good friend and historian, Chris Graham, just posted this nice bit of background for the laying of the cornerstone of the spanking new Richmond city hall building in 1887: about the man who gave the speech and his apologies to Whites for the burden of slavery in the wake of the crushing of an attempt at Black and White labor and political unity. I love context, it gives the chatter mill around a controversy (or a seemingly non-controversy) a little grist and grit.  Tonight, 6:30 pm at VMHC, Coming Together Virginia will host a panel,  " Richmond City Hall: The Untold Story ,"  Tickets are $20. Registration: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/akgzv2y The 1880s were a bubbling cauldron of struggles over the racial character of Richmond's society and future of Reconstruction's progress toward creating a multiracial society. Jim Crow would win that battle and hold it for the next 100 years, but every victory for the side of unity and equity contributed t...

Updates & Announcements A service of  THE VIRGINIA DEFENDER   newspaper.  Editorial Board: Ana Edwards & Phil Wilayto Jan. 13, 2025 Jan. 13, 2025  - On this day in 1968, country singer/ songwriter Johnny Cash recorded the album “Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison” in front of an audience of some 2,000 prisoners at California's Folsom Prison. His music was noted for its focus on the working poor and social and political issues. Cash, who typically wore black clothes and had a rebellious persona, became known as the “Man in Black.” Virginia Defender Ana Edwards opens the rally held Jan. 8 at Capitol Square. Speaking at the rally were Delegates Michael J. Jones (second from left) and Holly M. Seibold (to Jones’ right.)  Photo by Phil Wilayto Prison Justice activists demand ‘Shut Down Red Onion!’ The temperature was freezing and a municipal water crisis had many people scrambling to find bottled water, but more than 50 people still showed up at Virginia’s Cap...

Headlines from the latest edition of Updates & Announcements: HUNDREDS OF VCU GRADS WALK OUT ON GOVERNOR YOUNGKIN PROTESTERS MARCH ON VIRGINIA-ISRAEL ADVISORY BOARD PALESTINE SUPPORTERS AGAIN PACK RICHMOND CITY COUNCIL, DEMANDING A CEASEFIRE RESOLUTION AS ASSAULT ON RAFAH INTENSIFIES, ‘GENOCIDE JOE’ PREPARES TO SEND ISRAEL $1 BILLION IN TANK AMMO, TACTICAL VEHICLES & MORTAR ROUNDS ANTI-GENOCIDE ACTIVISTS DELIVER OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR TIM KAINE VCU CALLS IN COPS AGAINST PEACEFUL PROTESTERS - Monday, April 29, 2024: Pro-Palestine protesters stand firm after VCU, city and state police broke up their tent encampment. Minutes after this photo was taken, the police - unprovoked - attacked the protesters. Many people were hit with chemical substances, several were injured and 13 were arrested. See photo above by Ana Edwards. VCU BOWS TO YOUNGKIN PRESSURE ON RACE LITERACY COURSES Click here to read the full edition !

 The Odessa Solidarity Campaign, launched in 2016 by the Virginia Defenders, will host a webinar at noon EST on THURSDAY, May 2, to mark the 10th anniversary of the Odessa Massacre.  That atrocity took place a few months after the 2014 right-wing coup that overthrew the elected president of Ukraine and replaced him with a pro-U.S, pro-EU, pro-NATO regime. On May 2, in Odessa, a mob led by openly fascist organizations drove opponents of the coup into the House of Trade Unions, set it on fire and murdered at least 42 people. The massacre has never been properly investigated and no one has ever been punished for the crime.  Join us to take a deep look into the reality of the Ukrainian state today and who is really responsible for the present war. 1:15 pm UPDATE: Stay tuned for the recording from the  Facebook live stream  of this informative webinar.