MLK in RVA; Fighting for Richmond; Be A Witness; Offering No Quarter, No Compassion; Delivering Kindness.

RVA 5x5 - January 15, 2024

No algorithms. No content filters. Honest and insightful analysis.
You can find the 5 main stories from Saturday’s edition here, and today features the “ALT 5” stories for a nice, leisurely, read. Enjoy!

This week check out our five stories on:

• Life sized photos on display that offer a chance to be a witness a horrible chapter of history

• A string of quotes from the ongoing tragic opera that highlights the city’s inability to properly collect tax revenue and not blame the taxpayers for the failures of City Hall (and the post office).

• A look at the stop that Martin Luther King, Jr. was going to make in Richmond after visiting Memphis in 1968, and a few of his other visits.

• A double dose of history this week with a look back at a book about the “Fighting Editor” John Mitchell, Jr., who did just about everything and is one of the most prominent figures in the city’s history.

• A great story about strangers coming together to help someone who was so determined to work and was making large grocery deliveries on a bike…

THE ALT 5

ALT #1 — OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Be A Witness
Charles W. Sydnor Jr. has been well known in Richmond for many decades. He was former President of Emory & Henry University, author of Soldiers of Destruction - The SS Death's Head Division, 1933-1945, was the former CEO of Commonwealth Public Broadcasting (WCVE), and also served as the Executive Director of the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Shockoe Bottom.

That museum is where you can see his ongoing exhibit of photographs entitled “Memorial Without Witness” that he took when visiting Auschwitz more than 30 years ago that will be at the museum through November of this year. The museum frames the exhibit as a powerful experience that millions of people visit every year.

“Memorial Without Witness” features a curated collection of Sydnor's images, enlarged to wall-size panels so that the visitor can see and feel what it is like to walk alone among the rubble and decay of the Nazi's most notorious death camp, Auschwitz.

…on a warm afternoon in July of 1987, Dr. Charles Syndor walked the sacred grounds alone capturing a Memorial Without Witness...and now you can be a witness too.

The Times Dispatch spoke with Sydnor about his experiences and memories.