Lizzie Armitstead September 13-28, 2015 Tears streamed down Lizzie Armitstead’s cheeks as she crossed the finish line and won gold in the UCI Road World Championships on September 26, 2015. At only 26 years old, hers was a meteoric rise, and it culminated in Richmond. Though Armitstead took time to enjoy the city — dining at the Daily Kitchen and Bar and socializing at the … Continue reading LIZZIE ARMITSTEAD
By Sharon Lim, ’16 Solomon Northrup’s and Charles Dickens’ visit to Richmond, and subsequent personal testimonies shed insight into the institution of slavery, through the very different eyes of a freeborn African American and an acclaimed British author. Their vastly different social standing affected how they documented their experiences with slavery, and on what they chose to focus. Northrup’s testimony about slavery is based on … Continue reading Abolition as an Interracial Fight in Richmond, Virginia
MARIAN ANDERSON AND ELEANOR ROOSEVELT July 2, 1939 When the Daughters of the American Revolution refused opera star Marian Anderson a place on stage in segregated Washington, D.C., First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the all-white organization and arranged for Anderson to deliver an outdoor concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Anderson sung to an audience of 75,000 on Easter Sunday, 1939. Three months … Continue reading MARIAN ANDERSON AND ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
THEODORE ROOSEVELT October 18, 1905 Black and white Richmonders alike greeted Republican President Teddy Roosevelt with fervor on his swing through the Southern States in 1905. Richmond’s African Americans had served as a core constituency of the “Party of Lincoln” since they gained the right to vote. With the disenfranchisement of blacks after Reconstruction, Republican leaders like TR began to romance white Southerners into the … Continue reading THEODORE ROOSEVELT
SIDNEY POITIER October 23, 1971 The first black actor to win the Academy Award, Sidney Poitier, is pictured here inside Richmond’s Loew’s Theater at a benefit screening of Buck and the Preacher, a western in which he co-produced, directed, and starred. Buck and the Preacher told the story of African-Americans’ struggles in the American West after the Civil War. Their freedom continued to be contested … Continue reading SIDNEY POITIER
