In two sessions - a
luncheon at the Downtown Campus and an evening presentation in Lipman
Auditorium on the Parham Campus - Campbell traced 400 years of state and city
policy designed to suppress opportunities for African Americans. Richmond’s
unhealed history includes a slave market, a series of urban renewal projects
that destroyed African American neighborhoods, and a public transportation
system that mostly does not cross into neighboring counties - limiting access to
jobs and higher education.
“This is not flat land we are living on,” he said.
“It is crooked land, and we cannot rest until it is flat.” Campbell works with
RVA Rapid Transit, a grassroots organization serving Metro Richmond, which
promotes a regional transit system (rvarapidtransit.org); he asked the audience
to visit the website and support the cause.
Around the World through Books is sponsored by the Reynolds
Multicultural Enrichment Council.
