Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has asked the Virginia Department of Education to examine claims of racial disparities among students in gifted education programs in Virginia. While African-Americans make up 26 percent of the statewide student population, 12 percent of students identified as gifted are black, according to Education Department statistics.

Samuel Moore, the Club Velvet owner who served a brief stint in jail for having sex with a minor, probably wouldn’t be any political movement’s first choice for poster child. But the strip-club owner is becoming a minor crusader for free expression. Moore already has stared down the City of Richmond in a dispute over a sign he erected opposing a baseball stadium proposal for Shockoe Bottom. Monday he drew a small crowd of protesters from the NAACP who object to an anti-Obama sign Moore has put up. The protesters say the large Obama/Joker poster is disrespectful and racist.

The Virginia NAACP called it an abomination and a sign of disrespect. The owner of a downtown Richmond strip club called it exercising his right to free speech.

The chairmen of the Democratic and Republican national committees spoke last night to more than 200 people at an event held by the Chesterfield County chapter of the NAACP. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, spoke first during the 24th Annual Freedom Fund Banquet, giving a speech that praised the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People but focused largely on touting President Barack Obama’s work in office.

Attempting to reach a different—and hopefully wider—audience for its annual fundraiser, the Chesterfield branch of the NAACP has lined up a nationally prominent speaker for its September Freedom Fund Banquet. The choice isn’t sitting well with some state leaders, in large part because it could put the group at risk of compromising its nonprofit status.

As the NAACP marks 100 years, some young leaders seek to re-examine the group’s mission As President Barack Obama was challenging the NAACP late last month to maintain its relevance on issues of national importance, a group of young leaders in the Richmond area was challenging the state chapter of the civil-rights organization to re-examine its place in a changing world.

A disputed tract of land in downtown Richmond that may be the site of a centuries-old burial ground for slaves and freed blacks attracted a flurry of attention yesterday. About 20 student and community activists protested the repaving of a Virginia Commonwealth University-owned parking lot at 15th and Broad streets, saying a historic black burial ground was being desecrated.

As U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th, was considering how to vote on an important piece of climate-change legislation in June, the freshman congressman’s office received at least six letters from two Charlottesville-based minority organizations voicing opposition to the measure. The letters, as it turns out, were forgeries. And now, a top congressman has launched an investigation into the matter.

One of Jack W. Gravely’s favorite new lunch spots is Ambiance Bar & Grill, a stylish little eatery in the heart of Richmond’s Jackson Ward. But he knows the place from another time in his life when it had another name and another look—and he can almost taste the salmon cakes, eggs, fried apples and biscuits from the old days. “This was one of the spots,“ said Gravely, recalling not just the good food but the images of local leaders hunched over cups of coffee discussing issues and strategies. “You could come in and run into anybody of any renown in the black community.“

“I think the difference now is foundation and roots. The people I worked with in the’70s and’80s in Virginia had solid foundations and deep roots in the community. They grew up here, went to school here, or they moved here at a very early age. “The second thing is you’re seeing the ascendancy of a younger, very well-educated group of young leaders coming up in the city of Richmond. I’m very impressed with the young group, but I don’t think they know the community and the issues like the old guys did.“

When his daughter was in the eighth grade, Harmon White took her out of an all-black school in Ruthville in 1965 and enrolled her in nearby Charles City County School, which had integrated just the year before. “I didn’t understand why he was moving me. He said, ‘Trust me. It’s a good thing.‘ I didn’t want to go,“ said his daughter, Saundra Quiero of Hampton.

The Albemarle County school system has too few black educators and administrators, and it is failing to make adequate progress toward remedying the problem, the president of the local NAACP said. “This is ridiculous,“ M. Rick Turner said Friday of what he sees as a poor effort to recruit black teachers and administrators. “The mind-set is akin to Massive Resistance.“

Richmond’s top prosecutor will not pursue a case against a woman who was arrested after filming police as they performed crowd control in Shockoe Bottom last year. Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael N. Herring said yesterday that he is withdrawing a charge of impeding traffic against Joanne Jefferson because the statute is meant as a traffic-safety law, not as a measure to enforce crowd control.

State and local NAACP leaders want a Powhatan County judge to set aside involuntary-manslaughter verdicts today in Tahliek Taliaferro’s slaying and elevate them to convictions for first-degree murder. “The Powhatan community, people throughout the commonwealth and even nationwide are outraged at what is perceived as a miscarriage of justice in Powhatan,“ said King Salim Khalfani, state NAACP executive director.

A Powhatan County judge will be asked tomorrow to set aside guilty verdicts of involuntary manslaughter and assault against the younger of two men convicted in last summer’s shooting death of Tahliek Taliaferro. Attorney Craig S. Cooley, who represents 18-year-old Joseph L. Parrish Jr., says he will argue that there was insufficient evidence in the case to establish that Parrish aided or in any way abetted his cousin’s reckless, unpremeditated actions in Taliaferro’s death.