Michael Paul Williams
October 2022
Michael Paul Williams
Richmond Times-Dispatch Columnist and 2021 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Commentary Michael Paul Williams.
The Question Remains: Liberty or Death?
Michael Paul Williams (born 1958) is an American journalist and a regular columnist at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Williams joined the Times-Dispatch in 1982 and became a columnist for the paper in 1992, becoming the first African-American to hold this position. In 2021, Williams was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his writing about the protest movements in Richmond in the wake of the murder of George Floyd leading to the removal of many Confederate monuments.
Williams is a graduate of Virginia Union University in Richmond. He earned a graduate degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. While at Northwestern, Williams contemplated a career in sports journalism, but ultimately pursued hard news. He worked for 10 years as a news reporter at the Times-Dispatch, but stated in an interview that he "did not really find my true sense of mission until I started writing opinion."From 1999 to 2000, he was Neiman Fellow at Harvard University. He has won several Virginia Press Association awards for his journalism.
Williams spent his early years in the Byrd Park area of Richmond and attended Hermitage High School. He lives in Richmond, Virginia.
[from Wikipedia]
Francis Gary Powers, Jr.
May 2022
Francis Gary Powers, Jr.
A Leading Authority on the Cold War as Seen on C_SPAN, the History, Discovery, and A&E Channels
St. John’s Church Foundation is pleased to announce its second 2022 Walter W. Craigie Speaker Series speaker, author and historian Francis Gary Powers, Jr.
Above: Gary Powers, Sr., the U-2 pilot whose plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960.
Mr. Powers is the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of The Cold War Museum in Warrenton, VA and is an Honorary Board member of The International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. He lectures internationally and appears regularly on C-SPAN, the History, Discovery, and A&E channels.
He is the son of Gary Powers, Sr., the U-2 pilot whose plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, triggering an international incident during the Cold War.
He is the author of Letters from a Soviet Prison (2017) and Spy Pilot: Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 Incident, and a Controversial Cold War Legacy (2019), the latter of which will be the basis for his talk.
former Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder
Feb 2022
former Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder
Governor Wilder was born in Richmond and raised in Church Hill. He graduated from Virginia Union University and served in the United States Army during the Korean War. He established a legal practice in Church Hill after graduating from the Howard University School of Law. Wilder was elected to the Virginia Senate in 1969 and remained in that chamber until 1986, when he took office as Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, becoming the first African American to hold statewide office in Virginia. In the 1989 Virginia gubernatorial election, he became the first African American elected as Governor in United States history. In 2004 he was elected as Mayor of Richmond.
“We are delighted to host the 66th Governor of Virginia, the Honorable L. Douglas Wilder, at Historic St. John’s Church,” said St. John’s Church Foundation Executive Director Stephen Wilson. “He is a leader among leaders and an icon in Virginia politics.”