Obituary: Henry Marsh, Civil Rights Lawyer and First Black Mayor of Richmond, 91

 

Marsh became prominent as a young lawyer during the civil rights movement and helped mount the legal challenge to “Massive Resistance,” the concerted effort to subvert the integration of public school as mandated by the 1954 Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education.

“My heart is heavy with grief and full of gratitude that I had the chance to know Henry Marsh—a truly exceptional person,” U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) said in a statement Friday. “Any single one of Henry’s accomplishments would be enough cause to be proud, but he never stopped looking for new opportunities to serve. I’m honored to have called him a friend and mentor.”

While he was growing up in Virginia, the “daily affronts to my dignity" (such as being denied a seat at a lunch counter or forced to sit in the back of a bus because of the color of his skin),” he wrote in a memoir, “also motivated me to do something constructive.” Marsh entered politics and won a seat on the Richmond City Council in 1966. 

His Council service coincided with a shift in the politics of the state capital, once the seat of power in the slaveholding South and, a century after the end of the Civil War, remained dominated by a conservative White business class. At the time, Richmond’s mayor was selected by a city council of nine members elected at large. Following the city’s controversial annexation of White suburbs and a court challenge under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Richmond began a ward system that in 1977 produced the first Black majority on the city council. Marsh then was selected as mayor.

As mayor during 1977-1982, Marsh worked to improve the city’s housing; helped spearhead a partnership with the White business community to revitalize the city’s downtown; pushed to bring African Americans into key municipal positions and into civil service; and helped transform the city from a bastion of White power to one that really represented more equitably the population.

In 1991 he was elected to the state senate, serving until 2014. He was among those who pushed the legislature to reckon with Virginia’s role in slavery and segregation. In 2007, the General Assembly passed a resolution stating “profound regret” for Virginia’s slaveholding past.

As a member of a leading Black law firm in Richmond, with partners including the civil rights lawyers Oliver W. Hill, Sr. and Samuel Tucker, Marsh helped argue cases related to voting rights, school desegregation, and discrimination in employment. “We were constantly fighting against race prejudice,” he recalled. “For instance, in the case of Franklin v. Giles County, a local official fired all of the black public school teachers. We sued and got the (that) decision overruled.” The firm also worked on a variety of other fronts, ranging from housing and voting rights to employment issues.

Marsh's memoir The Memoirs of Hon. Henry L. Marsh, III: Civil Rights Champion, Public Servant, Lawyer was published in 2018 by GrantHouse Publishers (232 pages). It was edited by Jonathan K. Stubbs and Danielle Wingfield-Smith.

Read the January 28, 2025 Washington Post obituary.

Read the January 25, 2025 VPM article.

Read the March 22, 2018 Richmond Free Press article.

Save the CFPB Rally on February 8th 11-1 in DC

 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was formed in the wake of the Great Recession, after banks crashed the economy leaving millions of homeowners to face foreclosure and American taxpayers to bail out big banks. 

The CFPB was created to protect consumers from predatory and deceptive trick and traps. Since its creation, the CFPB has obtained over $21 billion in relief for over 200 million people in restitution and canceled debts. Under former Director Rohit Chopra’s tenure alone, bad corporate actors returned over $6 billion to wronged consumers and paid $3.2 billion in civil penalties.

Now, the CFPB is at risk. Unelected DOGE staff arrived at the CFPB's Washington DC office on Friday. These young men began to access CFPB’s sensitive personnel and financial records. Because the CFPB investigates banks, credit unions, debt collectors, and others, the Bureau has access to personal data including individuals social security numbers and bank accounts, as well as proprietary information of financial services and products. 

This entry and access of CFPB data is unprecedented. Make no mistake–it is also undemocratic. It is critical that the only government agency specifically tasked with protecting consumers from financial fraud, abuse, and scams be able to continue it’s vital work on behalf of working families across the country. 

Join staff, advocates, and others SATURDAY, 2/8 from 11 AM - 1 PM to defend and protect the CFPB. (Gather outside the CFPB headquarters, 1700 G Street NW, Washington DC).

Economic Action Maryland

2209 Maryland Avenue

Baltimore, MD 21218

410.220.0494

info@econaction.org

Happy Lunar New Year, Baltimore!

 

Happy Lunar New Year, Baltimore! May the Year of the Snake be filled with joy, prosperity, and good luck for you and your loved ones. Among others - such as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Harbor Point, Seeing Green Studio, Ekiben and Cafe Dear Leon, the Corner Pantry, Baltimore County Public Library, and MGM National Harbor - the Walters Art Museum annually holds a Lunar New Year celebration attended by visitors of all ages for a day of art-making, tours, story time sessions, photo booth fun, food, and more! On February 1, 2025, the Peabody Heights Brewery and the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP) Baltimore joined forces to celebrate Lunar New Year with a Beer Release: SALAK – Snake Fruit Inspired Beer; Activities: Money Tree, Snakes & Ladders, and Paper Chain Snakes; Performances: Dual Lion Dance and music by Steve Hung; Food: Ekiben; Vendors: Asian owned businesses; Asian-Themed Arcade Games; and Art by Reed Bmore & Jethro Patalinghug.

Lunar New Year is a celebration of the arrival of spring and the beginning of a new year on the lunisolar calendar. It is the most important holiday in China, and it is also widely celebrated in South Korea, Vietnam, and countries with a significant overseas Chinese population. While the official dates encompassing the holiday vary by culture, those celebrating consider it the time of the year to reunite with immediate and extended family.

Lunar New Year is the beginning of a new year based on lunar calendars or, informally but more widely, lunisolar calendars. Typically, both types of calendar begin with a new moon but, whilst a lunar calendar year has a fixed number (usually twelve) of lunar months, lunisolar calendars have a variable number of lunar months, resetting the count periodically to resynchronise with the solar year. The event is celebrated by numerous cultures in various ways at diverse dates. The determination of the first day of a new lunar or lunisolar year varies by culture.

Commonly known as the Spring Festival in China, Lunar New Year is a fifteen-day celebration marked by many traditions. At home, families decorate windows with red paper cuttings and adorn doors with couplets expressing auspicious wishes for the new year. Shopping for holiday sundries in open-air markets and cleaning the house are also traditions. The Lunar New Year’s Eve reunion dinner is the highlight that begins the holiday, a feast with a spread of symbolic dishes, such as a whole fish representing abundance, that bring good luck and fortune. The fifteenth and final day of the holiday is the Lantern Festival, during which people have tangyuan, or sweet glutinous rice balls, and children carry lanterns around the neighborhood at night to mark the end of the celebration.

In the Chinese zodiac, 2025 is the year of the snake. Different regions across Asia celebrate Lunar New Year in many ways and may follow a different zodiac. However, many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders do not observe the Chinese/lunar zodiac.

After 10 years of advocating for its inclusion by China and other countries in Asia, the United Nations unanimously passed a resolution in 2023 to recognize Lunar New Year (based on the lunisolar Chinese calendar), as a floating holiday, at the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly. This meant that starting in 2024, UN bodies were encouraged to avoid holding meetings during that day, marking Lunar New Year as the eighth floating holiday that is observed by UN staff internationally.

Go to the Walters Art Museum's Lunar New Year page.

Go to the National Museum of Asian Art.

Upcoming ICJS Events on Religious Bias and Hate

"Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.” 

- Coretta Scott King.

Major religious holidays converge this spring as Muslims observe Ramadan, Christians mark Lent and Easter, and Jews observe Passover. This convergence doesn’t happen every year, as these holidays follow different calendars. But it offers us a golden opportunity for interreligious learning about religious traditions and rituals, an opportunity the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies (ICJS) takes with its original video, Lived Diversity: How We Observe and Celebrate Passover, Easter, and Ramadan.

But these observances also remind us that throughout history into the present day, some of our brothers and sisters have been the targets of hate because of their religious identities. In this environment of political polarization, exacerbated by violence in the Middle East, incidents of both antisemitism and Islamophobia are on the rise. Dismantling religious bias and bigotry lies at the heart of ICJS’ mission. 

This month, ICJS offer several events and resources that address religious bias and hate, including:

• A February 24, 2025 Event (noon-1 p.m. online) about multifaith coalitions opposing Islamophobia: Shoulder to Shoulder: Building Coalitions to Challenge Islamophobia. Join Nina M. Fernando, Executive Director of Shoulder to Shoulder, as she speaks with ICJS Muslim Scholar Zeyneb Sayilgan  about her organization's efforts to challenge Islamophobia and its shared commitment with ICJS to foster greater interreligious understanding. Register Now.

• A Presentation by Matthew D. Taylor about addressing anti-Judaism in Christian ritual and tradition entitled Journeying Through Lent with an Interreligious Lens: A Workshop. Taylor examines the passion narrative in the Gospel of Mark, reading it in its proper Jewish context that has too often been stripped away. “The consequence of that [reading] is ‘the Jews’ have become this abstracted, monolithic community that is treated as guilty, or at least complicit, in killing the Jewish Messiah. Watch video.

• A February 26, 2025 Panel (7 p.m. online), that includes Heather Miller Rubens and Celene Ibrahim, marking the 60th anniversary of the Vatican document, Nostra Aetate, that advanced interfaith relations: Nostra Aetate at 60: Imagining Muslim-Christian Relations for the Next 60 Years. Nostra Aetate is often cited as a landmark document in Catholic-Jewish relations, but it also commented on other non-Christian religions, including Islam. Nostra Aetate expressed respect for Muslims, called for dialogue and cooperation between Christians and Muslims, and  condemned discrimination and hatred based on religion. 

Please join us as we redouble our commitment to counter religious bias and bigotry. And whatever holiday you are celebrating or observing this season, may it be meaningful and joyous.

Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies

956 Dulaney Valley Road, Towson, MD 21204

410.494.7161 / info@icjs.org

Vote YES on SB107/HB392 to Expand Housing Justice in Maryland

 

In 2023, there were 198 fair housing complaints in the Baltimore Metro region. Economic Action MD received many fair housing complaints based on access to reasonable accommodations to assist residents with a disability. Testing is legal in Maryland to help determine if discrimination exists.

To determine whether housing providers are discriminating against Marylanders because of race, gender, ethnicity, how someone pays for their rent, or other legally-protected reasons, fair housing organizations conduct tests to see if discrimination exists. In 39 states including Virginia and the District of Columbia, fair housing testers use an audio recording to accurately capture the conversation with the housing provider, which can later be used as evidence if the provider violates civil rights law. However, in Maryland, taping a conversation to root out discrimination is illegal.

SB107/HB392 sponsored by Sen. Charles Sydnor and Del. Sandy Bartlett gives fair housing organizations and programs in Maryland the tools needed to more accurately document discrimination by allowing audio recordings. These recordings, when used as evidence in a housing discrimination are irrefutable, especially compared to the option of using only the handwritten notes taken by testers, which ultimately comes down to a "he said/she said" debate.

Using  recorded evidence of fair housing testing often leads to early resolution and settlement, rather than protracted litigation. It also helps protect testers and housing providers since there are clear audio recordings which act as quality control. Finally, using audio recordings provides the best evidence in court and is recommended by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Read more about SB107/HB392 here.

Please take 2 minutes to urge your senator and delegates to Vote YES on SB107/HB392 and expand housing justice in Maryland!

Celebrate Black History Month 2025

 

Happy Black History Month from OECR! Join in on the celebration of Black History Month via social media. Facebook | Instagram | Twitter/X 7 E. Redwood Street Baltimore, MD 21202 Phone: 410-396-3141

D.C. Sues Landlord Alleging Housing Discrimination Against Non-Voucher Holders

In a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, the D.C. attorney general’s office has accused the major developer Petra Management Group of skirting rent control by renting only to voucher holders. In a lawsuit filed January 30th in D.C. Superior Court, the office of Attorney General Brian Schwalb contends that Petra is guilty of source-of-income discrimination at three D.C. buildings with over 100 apartments. This is the first time the city has sued a landlord for discrimination against non-voucher holders. At the three buildings cited in the lawsuit - just a portion of Petra’s portfolio - Petra rents exclusively to tenants with vouchers, the suit alleges. Rashid Salem, Petra’s founder and a named defendant in the suit, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Petra’s alleged scheme follows a shift in D.C.’s incentives for housing vouchers, under which low-income residents pay 30% of their income toward rent and the government covers the balance. A decade ago, in an effort to deconcentrate poverty, the D.C. Housing Authority began raising the rent limits for homes subsidized with vouchers - allowing many voucher holders to move to neighborhoods with better schools and less crime. But not only was the Housing Authority frequently overpaying for apartments, D.C.’s rent-control law granted an exemption for units rented to voucher holders, so landlords could get out from strict rent caps and collect far more money.

Petra began buying up residential buildings and filling them with as many voucher holders as possible, a Washington Post investigation found. As some of the buildings filled with people struggling with addiction or mental illness, neighbors complained of a lack of case workers and security and drug dealers operated out of the properties. Upscale apartment buildings along Connecticut Avenue NW managed by one property company began filling up with formerly homeless voucher holders, leading some residents (both longtime tenants and new voucher holders) to complain that there was not adequate support or security services.

Rent control in D.C. typically applies to all apartment buildings constructed before 1976. In 2020, the median rent was $1,442 per month in rent-controlled units, compared with $2,554 for units not subject to rent control. That makes these apartments substantially more affordable to residents of moderate means, but it also makes them less profitable for landlords.

A landlord can get an exemption from rent-control caps for voucher holders only after getting city approval, according to the attorney general’s office. But at the three Petra buildings, the suit alleges, Petra advertised the higher, non-rent-controlled rate both to lenders and to prospective tenants, violating the law and making the apartments unaffordable to many people without vouchers. At one of the buildings, the Adams on North Capitol Street NE, one three-bedroom unit would be capped at $1,000.25 under rent control, but Petra advertised and rented it at $3,131 per month, according to the attorney general’s office.

Read the January 30, 2025 Washington Post article.