Racial Justice in Richmond

"Politicians, the media, and pundits love to use the term systemic racism to describe what is going on to generalize the problems of being black in America. While this is true, we must address the causes of systemic racism and not allow them to generalize and describe the system they are complicit in maintaining."
Rodney Robinson

"Confederate statuary isn't the only relic to the Lost Cause and segregation."
Jepson School of Leadership Studies professor Julian Hayter on NPR, Richmond To Remove Confederate Statues from Monument Avenue

"Tearing down is easy. The real work is in realizing a dream deferred and mending a fractured nation."
Michael Paul Williams in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, America is battling two lethal adversaries, COVID-19 and racism. One is deadlier.

The history of Richmond is intertwined with legacies of racial injustice that are deeply felt in our city today. There are many organizations working to address this history of injustice and to promote racial justice in Richmond. Listed below are organizations furthering racial justice in the Richmond region with ongoing volunteer opportunities and other resources for learning. This is a running list, and we welcome suggestions for additions.

Organizations Furthering Racial Justice

• Alternate Roots
• Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia
• Initiatives of Change
• Richmond Peace Education Center
• Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities
• Legal Aid Justice Center
• Mending Walls
• Performing Statistics
• SONG
• Southern Poverty Law Center
• Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project
• The American Civil War Museum
• The Valentine

Campus Initiatives

• Common Ground and Black Lives Matter
• Race & Racism at the University of Richmond
• Report on the Westham Burying Ground at the University of Richmond

Additional Resources for Learning

• Anti-Racist Reading List from the Richmond Public Library
• The Hopeful Neuroscience of Unlearning Prejudice from the Science Museum of Virginia
• Race Capitol (a podcast with Chelsea Higgs Wise)
• An Antiracist Reading List from Ibram X. Kendi
• Affirming Black Lives Without Inducing Trauma from Teaching Tolerance
• Turning the Lens from Scene on Radio (a podcast of Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies)
• Talking About Race from the National Museum of African American History & Culture
• How to Talk about Race & Racism (a podcast of the Aspen Institute)
• Redlining Richmond (a project of the Digital Scholarship Lab)
• Unpacking the Census