RICHMOND – The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy (VICPP) held its Annual Meeting and Awards Celebration here Thursday night, honoring several individuals and groups, and looking back at the work accomplished in 2017.
VICPP also announced a weekend of action, “Healthcare for the Holidays,” Dec. 15-18. The Center is asking all its friends to call and write their legislators asking them to support healthcare expansion when the General Assembly convenes in January.
“Every person in this room is an essential part of the work of justice,” said VICPP Board chair Frank McKinney. “We are thrilled to have exemplary advocates awarded tonight.”
The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Sen. Henry L. Marsh III. The recently retired state senator was elected to represent the 16th District in 1991 and has had an illustrious career of public service. He was the first African American mayor of Richmond, and spent more than 20 years on the Richmond City Council. As an attorney, Marsh was involved in several key civil rights cases on both the state and national level, including Quarles v. Philip Morris, the first U.S. legal case involving racial discrimination in employment, which set the precedent for prohibiting department seniority systems and requiring equal pay for equal work, and Brewer v. School Board of City of Norfolk, the first of more than 50 school desegregation cases he handled, which established a precedent requiring jurisdictions to create a desegregation plan.
“This award is very special to me,” Marsh said Thursday night. “I’ve spent most of my like surrounded by people who supported me and worked for me and voted for me most of my career. And for you to give me a Lifetime Achievement Award, that’s one of the highest honors I’ve ever received.”
Marsh also noted that the site of the gathering, the Robinson Theater on Church Hill, was also a special site in his life. “Of all the places (who could have this program) you have it here. “ Marsh said. “This used to be the theater for blacks on Church Hill. The only place we could see a movie was up in the balcony here. So on Saturday mornings I’d be sitting up in that balcony watching Westerns, mostly.”
VICPP’s Nabra Student Award was presented to Rodrigo Velasquez, a graduate of George Mason University in Fairfax. When DACA was rescinded in September he returned to his alma mater to organize the Mason Dreamers in response. During the 2017 General Assembly session, Velasquez spoke out passionately (and successfully) against some of the more egregious anti-immigrant legislation. A native of Columbia, he is also the co-founder
In accepting the award, Velasquez praised the legacy of Nabra Hassanen, for whom the award is named, a young Muslim woman who was raped and murdered in Fairfax County in June.
He also spoke of the many undocumented immigrants all over the U.S. who are living in fear. “In times like this things like the Dream Act are taking up the news cycle day-in and day-out, but there are still undocumented immigrants that will not be covered by that legislation and will be affected,” Velasquez said. “And immigration is not just Latinos. There are people from all across the world, all different religions and faiths and income levels who all deserve just as much justice.”
The Community Leader Award was presented to community organizer Donna Waddell of Danville, the Central/Southwest Virginia Regional Director for the United Food Workers’ and Commercial Workers’ Local 400. She’s the Labor Chair for the Virginia NAACP and is on the national board of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Prior to that she worked in the sewing room as a quality auditor, temporary supervisor and shop steward at Dan River Mills Inc., in Danville for 18 years.
Waddell said the three most important decisions of her life were joining the church, marrying her husband (now of 40 years) and joining the union.
The Beacon of Light Award went to the Virginia Chapter, Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America – This group is comprised of physicians from all across Central Virginia who volunteer time and resources to help those who do not otherwise have access to healthcare. These doctors have set up a monthly free clinic in Petersburg with Pathways, which began in 1995 as Petersburg Urban Ministries. The doctors have also sponsored health screenings, food drives and other events, and have created a pharmacy ministry in conjunction with their free clinic.
“Thank you Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy for recognizing the work of APPNA,” said Dr. Rehan Kahn, president of the chapter. “We’ve had a loose association with Pathways for nine on ten years where we have been providing some kind of physician support to the clinic, but three years ago we decided we would work more officially in collaboration with Pathways. The situation is Petersburg is really bad; there is a lot of need for physicians. If we have anywhere to do a free clinic, Petersburg would be one of the places. But there are other similar places across Virginia and we invite any ideas as to ways we can help as an organization. Please contact us if you have a mosque, a church, a synagogue, it doesn’t matter. It’s all about humanity.”
The Distinguished Ally Award was given to Centreville Immigration Forum. Several years ago the Centreville Immigration Forum established a Labor Resource Center to help local immigrants find work as day laborers. As part of this effort, they have focuses on wage theft and have been quite successful in negotiating the repayment of lost wages. Using student researchers from George Mason University, the Center collected data on the real-life effects of wage theft, which the Forum determined was the biggest problem for immigrant laborers.
Forum executive director Terry Angelotti introduced organization founder Alice Foltz, “who had the vision that our community could be a welcoming one toward immigrants, and that the immigrants themselves could be a part of the discussion, a part of the leadership.”
And finally a Congregational Acknowledgement was presented to the Charlottesville Friends have been leaders in the sanctuary movement, swinging into action to protect Virginia immigrants before other faith groups mobilized. When white supremists came to Charlottesville in August, Meeting members were organized and ready to stand for love over hate.
Ida Barnes-May accepted the recognition for the Charlottesville Friends. “We first started the process of becoming a Sanctuary congregation almost a year ago, after a long period of discernment and consensus in our community, and to feel spirit-led to move forward. Since that time we have formed a Sanctuary committee to be ready to respond when needed for anyone who may need safe harbor there. Disturbing recent events in Charlottesville and nationally illustrate more clearly than ever why we and communities of faith are called to this witness to be active in our love for our neighbors.”
The keynote speaker was Dr. John Kinney, recently retired Dean of the Samuel Dewitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University and the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Beaver Dam.
“No speech is necessary,’ Kinney said. “The speech has been made by those who have been honored. If there was a speech it could come from creation narratives. The creator created, and looked at the world and it was good. If you look at all the creation stories, all of them begin with the narrative that creation was good. … The sense that something good has been done. We spend too much time arguing the facts and overlooking the core organizing principles that hold creation together. One of those core principles in creation narratives around the world in all religions is that we are made for relationships. There can be no flourishing outside of connectivity and connection; that anything that exist in isolation is dying.”
Founded in 1982, the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy is the advocacy voice for the faith community in Virginia. The organization has focused primarily on issues of economic and racial justice. The organization’s grassroots work has primarily been through local chapters, although the organization is deepening its legislative district organizing as well as its chapter work. VICPP is well respected and well known statewide as the largest faith-based economic and social justice organization.
Rodrigo Velasquez