racism | ALXnow

Alexandria honors lynching victim 124 years after death in Old Town

Published April 23, 2021 at 9:30AM

A wreath honoring Joseph McCoy in Old Town. (Photo via Justin Wilson/Twitter)

Joseph McCoy was lynched at the corner of Lee Street and Cameron Street in Old Town 124 years ago today. The incident was recognized in a small ceremony Friday morning with a group of residents and Mayor Justin Wilson.

This weekend, City Hall will be lit in purple in memory of the 19-year-old McCoy, who was arrested without a warrant and then murdered on April 23, 1897. A mob of white residents stormed the Police House (now City Hall), where McCoy was being held after being accused of sexually assaulting three women. He was shot, stabbed and hanged from a lamppost.

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ALXnow’s top stories this week in Alexandria

By James Cullum

Published April 16, 2021 at 3:35PM | Updated April 16, 2021 at 10:05PM

It was another busy week in Alexandria. Here are some of the highlights.

This week, ALXnow profiled Mayor Justin Wilson and his opponent, former Mayor Allison Silberberg. The pair are facing off in the June 8 Democratic primary, and have vastly different ideas on city governance.

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JUST IN: T.C. Williams JV football team walks off field after alleged racial slur, spitting incident

By James Cullum

Published April 7, 2021 at 12:45PM | Updated April 7, 2021 at 1:55PM

The T.C. Williams High School Junior Varsity football team played the Robinson Rams on April 5, 2021. (Photo via T.C. Williams Football Boosters/Facebook)

(Updated at 1:45 p.m.) Alexandria City Public Schools and Fairfax County Public Schools are investigating allegations that members of the Robinson Rams junior varsity football team spit at and made a racial slur against T.C. Williams High School football players in a game on Monday, April 5.

“Yes, I am aware of these reports,” Mayor Justin Wilson told ALXnow. “It is horrifying that our students were the victims of this abuse and assault. I have been in contact with the School Board Chair, Vice Chair and Superintendent about this incident. I have also connected with my counterpart in Fairfax County, Jeff McKay. I believe it is being investigated by both school systems and I hope it will be addressed promptly.”

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Council candidate Kevin Harris wants to connect minority residents to city services

By James Cullum

Published April 1, 2021 at 3:55PM | Updated April 1, 2021 at 4:43PM

Kevin Harris is running as a Democrat for the Alexandria City Council (photo via Kevin Harris/Facebook)

Kevin Harris sees himself as a man of the people, someone residents can confide in to help solve their problems.

The 40-year-old local business owner says he decided on March 1 to run for City Council as a democrat in the June 8 primary.

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Public hearing on T.C. Williams High School and Matthew Maury Elementary School on Thursday

By James Cullum

Published March 17, 2021 at 3:40PM

The Alexandria School Board on Thursday, March 18, will conduct a public hearing on the proposed new names for T.C. Williams High School and Matthew Maury Elementary School.

The 5 p.m. public hearing will allow testimony from residents on what they think about proposals by Superintendent Dr. Gregory Hutchings to respectively rename them “Alexandria High School” and “Naomi Brooks Elementary School”. The two finalist names were chosen from a list that ACPS released last month.

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ALXnow’s Top Stories This Week in Alexandria

By James Cullum

Published March 5, 2021 at 3:30PM | Updated March 6, 2021 at 10:32PM

Danielle Romanetti (left) and Vice President Kamala Harris (right) (photo via Peter Velz/Twitter)

What a busy week in Alexandria.

Our top story this week was on Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to Old Town shop fibre space on March 3. It was Harris’ first official visit outside of the White House since she was inaugurated, and she spoke about the American Rescue Plan with shop owner Danielle Romanetti.

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City Councilman’s Virtual Super Bowl Party Ambushed by Racists and Nazi Trolls

By Vernon Miles

Published February 8, 2021 at 2:30PM

What was meant to be a fun, wholesome Super Bowl watch-party with City Councilman John Chapman this weekend was briefly derailed as the meeting was stormed by newcomers with Nazi profile pictures spouting racist slurs.

The meeting was hosted as part of Chapman’s reelection campaign. The event was open to the public and had fairly lax restrictions on who could speak.

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ACPS Releases Semifinalist Names for T.C. Williams High School and Matthew Maury Elementary School Renaming

By James Cullum

Published February 8, 2021 at 1:15PM

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Congressman John Lewis and 1972 Titan Petey Jones are just a few names that have made the latest cut in the rename process for T.C. Williams High School and Matthew Maury Elementary School.

The semifinalist names for the schools have been selected, and ACPS has launched another set of polls to further slim down the selection. The polls close on Feb. 19 and the top three names from each poll will be presented to the School Board for final consideration on March 4. There will be a public hearing on March 18, and then the Board will vote on the names on April 8.

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Next Agenda Alexandria Tackles Racial Inequality in Alexandria

By Vernon Miles

Published January 14, 2021 at 12:45PM

Every month, Agenda Alexandria tackles a topic of significance to the public. This month, the organization is hitting two of the biggest talking points of 2020 in one fell swoop: how is Alexandria influenced and impacted by institutional racism.

A discussion with Bernadette Onyenaka, co-founder of the O&G Racial Equity Collaborative, and Sara VanderGoot, co-owner of Mind the Mat, is scheduled Monday, Jan. 25, from 6:30-8 p.m. The program will be streamed live.

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Goodbye ‘T.C. Williams’ High School and ‘Matthew Maury’ Elementary School

By Vernon Miles

Published November 24, 2020 at 10:30AM

After a unanimous vote at the Alexandria School Board meeting last night, the names T.C. Williams High School and Matthew Maury Elementary School were voted out — with the replacements still to be decided.

Over the next few months, the School Board will seek public feedback before settling on a new pair of names. The new names will be chosen by the Board in the spring and go into effect at the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year.

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Superintendent Backs T.C. Williams Name Change Ahead of School Board Vote

By Vernon Miles

Published November 18, 2020 at 3:45PM

Heading into a School Board vote on Nov. 23, Superintendent Gregory Hutchings had thrown his support in with those supporting changing the names of T.C. Williams High School and Matthew Maury Elementary School.

Hutchings explained his support for the name change in an opinion piece in Tes, an educator trade magazine.