Tag: Albemarle Charlottesville NAACP

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Coronavirus News

In brief: Deadly disparities, graduation guesses, and more

Deadly disparities

While the COVID-19 pandemic has affected people of all backgrounds across the globe, statistics show that it has had a disproportionate impact on black Americans. Data is limited, because only about 35 percent of U.S. cases specify a patient’s race, according to the CDC. But its numbers show that black people comprise nearly 34 percent of those infected with COVID-19, though they make up only 13 percent of the population. And African Americans make up nearly 30 percent of U.S. deaths from the virus, according to the latest Associated Press analysis.

Charlottesville is certainly not immune to this issue. In the Thomas Jefferson Health District, as of April 17, about 32 percent of people infected with coronavirus (and 25 percent of those who’ve died) are black, while black people make up only 13.9 percent of the district’s population.

Black communities in other parts of the state have been hit even harder by COVID-19. In Richmond, all eight people who’ve died from the virus were black. And while 48 percent of the city’s population is African American, black people make up about 62 percent of local cases.

Medical professionals, activists, and political leaders around the country have attributed these disparities to pre-existing inequities within our health care and economic systems. Blacks are more likely than whites to be uninsured and receive lower-quality health care, as well as have underlying conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease—all often caused or worsened by poverty. And due to unequal education, housing segregation, and other systemic inequalities, a significant portion of black Americans live in densely packed areas and do not have jobs that allow them to work from home, making social distancing more difficult.

To provide more black Virginians with adequate health care access, the Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP has sent a letter to Governor Ralph Northam asking him to use his “executive discretion” to speed up the Medicaid eligibility process using data available immediately from the Department of Taxation, along with other resources. Because there is currently a backlog of applications, those trying to be approved for Medicaid may have to wait as long as 45 days—which, for some people, “may be a death sentence.”

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Quote of the Week

“There was a housing crisis two months ago, and this entire community spent a number of years moving towards addressing that…And now we have an even bigger crisis.”

—Brandon Collins, Public Housing Association of Residents, addressing City Council on Monday

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In Brief

Gradual grads

UVA announced two tentative dates for graduation, after the original ceremony was canceled due to coronavirus. The class of 2020 will walk the Lawn on October 9-11, or, failing that, May 28-30, the weekend after the class of 2021 graduates. The university will still hold a digital ceremony to confer degrees this May, although it’s unclear if Zoom will have installed a virtual cap-flinging feature by then.

Sales are not on the menu

Seventy-eight percent of Virginia’s restaurant employees have been laid off since February, according to a new study from the National Restaurant Association. In the first week of April, the state’s restaurant sales declined 77 percent, compared to the same time period last year. That downturn has already forced longtime Charlottesville staple the Downtown Grille to permanently close its doors, while other beloved spots like Rapture, Tavola, and Oakheart Social have closed temporarily.      

Capital loss

Death penalty critic Jerry Givens died last Monday in Henrico County at age 67. His son, Terence Travers, did not reveal Givens’ cause of death, but said that he had pneumonia and had tested positive for COVID-19. Givens, who spoke with C-VILLE in February for a story about the fight against the death penalty in Virginia, served as the state’s chief executioner for 17 years, before becoming an outspoken opponent of capital punishment.

Out of the House

Legislators in the state capital won’t be able to meet in their regular chambers for this month’s short veto session. Instead, Democratic leadership reports that the Senate will gather in a convention center, with members seated at desks 10 feet apart from each other, and the House will convene in a huge tent on the lawn near the capital.

Updated 4/22: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Rapture had closed permanently; according to the restaurant’s Facebook page, it is closed “indefinitely.” 

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News

Tackling hate crimes: Attorney general, local leaders discuss new bills

It’s past time to acknowledge that hate crimes are on the rise in Virginia, said Attorney General Mark Herring at a roundtable discussion with approximately 20 local leaders. Photo by Eze Amos

Attorney General Mark Herring has spent the past few years studying the issue of hate crimes and white supremacist violence across the commonwealth and advocating for new legislation to combat it. On December 5—coincidentally during the state’s murder trial against the neo-Nazi who drove his car into a crowd on August 12, 2017—Herring hosted a roundtable discussion on both topics in Charlottesville.

Approximately 20 local leaders representing a bevy of faith communities, cultural groups, government, and law enforcement gathered in the basement of the First Baptist Church to participate.

Herring, who sat at the head of the table in front of a Christmas tree with big red bows, kicked off his discussion with a few statistics.

“It is past time to acknowledge that hate crimes are on the rise,” he said, noting that Virginia State Police have recorded a 64 percent increase in hate crimes since 2013. There were more than 200 committed in the state last year.

Leaders at every level should condemn the hate and bigotry that “we all sense in our own communities,” he said.

And “the state needs to pair those words with actions,” he added, as he introduced multiple bills already on the agenda for next year’s General Assembly session. Last year, he pushed two similar bills, including one that would punish white supremacists as domestic terrorists, but the Republican-led Committee for Courts of Justice declined to hear it.

One of the new bills would give localities the ability to ban firearms at permitted events, such as the 2017 Unite the Right rally in which paramilitary groups lined the streets of Charlottesville with semi-automatic rifles swung over their shoulders.

But that legislation, if passed, still won’t satisfy some local leaders.

“It’s not the permitted event. It’s the every day,” said Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney, who wants to be able to prohibit guns at any time or place within the city, regardless of whether a permitted event is taking place.

She noted that at the Key Recreation Center, for instance, the city doesn’t allow its employees to carry guns, but any guest is more than welcome to come in packing heat. Brackney then called Virginia a “very strong Second Amendment state.”

“I believe people’s minds are changing,” countered Herring. He promised the chief, “We’ll keep working on it.”

At this roundtable, and at three he previously held across the state, he asked participants to give examples of hate crimes that they or other folks in their communities have experienced.

“This year, we have just been flooded,” said Janette Martin, president of the Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP. She gave an example of a woman who keeps calling the police on her black neighbor for seemingly no reason. “It’s obvious what her motive is,” she added.

Rachel Schmelkin, the rabbi educator at Congregation Beth Israel, said their congregation has faced several anti-Semitic incidents over the past few years. She described an alert the synagogue received on August 12, 2017, in which white supremacists had sent out a message that said, “Let’s go toward those Jewish monsters at 3pm.”

Just a few weeks ago, on the anniversary of the Night of Broken Glass—when Nazis in Germany orchestrated a massive attack against Jews on November 9, 1938—Schmelkin said someone drew swastikas on a shop near the synagogue. At 8:30pm, she and her husband went to CBI to “check every inch of the building” to make sure they hadn’t gotten the same treatment.

“We have to bear the burden of that,” she said, and added that Deacon Don Gathers also walks around the synagogue late some Saturday nights just to check on it.

After the October mass shooting of 11 worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Schmelkin said she wanted to debrief with the high school students who attend CBI.

“They were all really quiet,” she told Herring. “A number of them said they were relieved because they expected it would have happened here. I think that’s indicative of how unsettled our children have felt since August 12.”

Schmelkin said they now have security outside the synagogue, “almost 24/7.”

At the local mosque, Islamic Center of Central Virginia outreach secretary Noor Khalidi said law enforcement is also present for major events, such as Friday night prayer sessions.

They haven’t received any threats. “We’re sort of holding our breath, though,” she said.

After meditating on that comment for a moment, Herring said, “No one in our commonwealth or our country should feel that way.”

What’s on the table

When Attorney General Mark Herring stopped by Charlottesville last week to talk about local hate crimes and white supremacist violence, he also wanted to offer details on five upcoming bills that address those topics. This is what they hope to accomplish.

  • Update Virginia’s definition of “hate crime” to include crimes committed on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability
  • Allow the attorney general to prosecute hate crimes through a network of multi-jurisdictional grand juries, instead of at the local level
  • Prohibit paramilitary activity
  • Give law enforcement better tools to identify and intervene in the actions of violent white supremacist and hate groups, making it harder for the groups to operate
  • Close the loophole that allows people convicted of hate crimes the right to possess a gun
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News

Still relevant? New NAACP president faces charged civil rights landscape

The Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP’s president, Janette Martin, took office about the same time as Donald Trump. Eze Amos

There were times in its century-long history that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was considered a militant organization. Today, not so much. Just last week, the national organization’s board ousted its president and called for a “systemwide refresh.”

Janette Martin took the helm of the Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP in January at the same time President Donald Trump took office, and her organization, like so many others, is struggling to cope in a new era of American politics that’s energized by activist groups like Black Lives Matter.

Has the NAACP been supplanted by such groups?

“No,” says Martin. “We’ve been around for 108 years, with over 2,200 chapters. We’re very careful.”

Perhaps that’s why Martin didn’t respond to white nationalists putting the city on the national stage over the Robert E. Lee statue until four days later, when she compared them to the KKK.

“When you read about how they came in the night,” says Martin, “this group—I’m not saying they’re the Klan—but I think they wanted to intimidate.” With the torches, the only thing missing was “the white sheets,” she said at a press conference.

Martin, a teacher for 30 years, is a lifetime member of the NAACP, and admits she’s more of a “behind-the-scenes person.” She said she’d been asked several times by former president Rick Turner, who was often controversial and confrontational, to take the job and had declined—until she was thrust into the position with his resignation late last year shortly after he won a heated re-election.

Moving to Charlottesville as a young woman, she was a member of First Baptist Church, where the Reverend Benjamin Bunn founded the local chapter in 1947. “People were really into the NAACP,” she recalls. “They pulled us in.” And she’s risen through the ranks, starting with passing out programs at banquets, to serving as secretary and then vice president.

She touts the venerable organization’s conferences, education programs and structure, with its 19 standing committees to deal with issues. She’d like to have six active committees here, such as education, to get people engaged rather than waiting until a crisis to act, and she needs chairs for the health, political action and membership committees, according to the chapter’s website.

Since the election, she says the local chapter has 100 new members and attendance at meetings is up. But to get anything done, the NAACP needs commitment and “people power,” she says.

The NAACP “is still relevant,” she says—and continues to battle some of the same issues. “They fought for voting rights, and now we’re right back to it.”

Says Martin, “We’d like to be the face of civil rights in the community.”

Correction: Martin moved to Charlottesville as a young woman and did not grow up here, as originally reported.

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Living

Local restaurant openings and closings in April

Once Kathyrn Matthews, who grew up in England, got a taste of American-style breakfast, she set out to capture those flavors with a puff pastry-waffle hybrid known as the paffle. Photo by Tom McGovern

In April, six food places in Charlottesville opened their doors: Found. Market Co., Vu Noodles and Pearl Island Catering in the Jefferson School Café, Iron Paffles and Coffee, Snowing in Space Coffee Co., Mama Meals at Charlottesville Cooking School and Oliva.


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News

In brief: Major demolition, pruning presidential grapes and more

Fate of the Republic

The 1980s Republic Plaza on West Main has been brought to its knees over the past month to make way for luxury student apartments. By Christmas, a claw had relentlessly chomped away its top two floors. In its place will be The Standard, a six-story, mixed-use structure with 189 apartments and a 499-space parking garage.

More tweetstorm fallout

Wes Bellamy. Photo: Mina Pirasteh
Photo: Mina Pirasteh

Beleaguered Bellamy resigned from his teaching job December 26 after going on leave November 29 when a  local blogger dug up vulgar tweets Bellamy made between 2009 and 2014 before being elected to City Council. Signatures are now being collected for a petition to remove Bellamy from City Council. Luckily for the vice mayor, Virginia does not make it easy to remove elected officials.

Turner turnaround

Dr. Rick Turner, president of the Albemarle-Charlottesville Chapter of the NAACP, addresses the crowd at last week’s rally in remembrance of Trayvon Martin. Photo: Annalee Grant
Dr. Rick Turner addressed the crowd at a rally in remembrance of Trayvon Martin. Photo: Annalee Grant

Little more than a month ago, Rick Turner fended off a challenge to his presidency of the Albemarle Charlottesville NAACP, a position he’s held for 12 years, and accused some white members of “deviousness.” He says he’ll resign December 31. “Now is the time for new and vibrant leadership!” he says in a December 20 release.

Trump’s migrant workers

Donald Trump has tweeted his objections about the affirmation that must be signed to vote in Virginia's March 1 Republican primary. Photo: Amanda Maglione
Photo: Amanda Maglione

BuzzFeed reports Trump Vineyard Estates applied for six H-2 visas to bring in foreign workers to prune grapevines for $10.72 an hour. Workers are provided lodging at no cost, must be able to bend over for long periods, work in weather as cold as 10 degrees and lift up to 60 pounds, according to the application.

City staff swelling

Charlottesville hired its first redevelopment manager: Brenda Kelley from Clarksville, Tennessee. And at its last meeting of the year December 19, City Council discussed whether it should hire a city architect and a person dedicated to the arts community, according to Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Good look at William Taylor Plaza

On December 20, the Board of Architectural Review approved most exterior design plans for a new 120,000-square-foot plaza located at the corner of Cherry Avenue and Ridge Street and named after—you guessed it—colonial landowner William Taylor. The board did, however, ask developers to revisit paint color options for the back of the building and said the rustic-looking garden element in front isn’t in line with the rest of the design. The plaza will be built in two phases: The first will include a Fairfield Inn by Marriott, and the second will include apartments and condos.

Quote of the Week: “I’m not leaving nor am I going anywhere, just starting a new chapter. We all need to use this time to think about how we heal, how we band together as a community, and how we create solutions to the issues in this community.” —Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy in his statement announcing his resignation Monday as a teacher at Albemarle High