“The Making of Twenty-First-Century Richmond”

I’ve read 2 fascinating (and very different) books this year that get into Richmond politics and governance over the last 50 years or so: Chuck and Monte Richardson’s Cease Fire! Cease Fire!: Councilman Chuck, A Hero(in) Addiction (2021) and The Politics of Annexation: Oligarchic Power in a Southern City by John V. Moeser and Rutledge M. Dennis (1982).

Set for release in December, The Making of Twenty-First-Century Richmond
Politics, Policy, and Governance, 1988-2016 by Thad Williamson, Julian M. Hayter, and Amy L. Howard looks to be next up, connecting the dots through some of Richmond’s darkest days to just a few years ago:

Richmond, Virginia, took center stage globally in the summer of 2020 as an epicenter of antiracist protests in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd. In a period of just a few weeks, overwhelming public support grew for removing Richmond’s Confederate monuments. Activists then transformed the remaining statue of Robert E. Lee into a shrine to African American resolve, to the Black Lives Matter movement, and to Black victims of police brutality. Coming to terms with Richmond’s tortured racial history, however, is much more difficult than toppling symbols of white supremacy.

This book explores these dynamics via a multidisciplinary framework of historical research, public policy analysis, and political analysis, showing the inner dynamics of politics and governance in Richmond. The authors reveal why change and progress has often been so difficult to achieve and why that matters, with a focus on three fundamental policy areas: education, economic development, and housing. The result is a comprehensive assessment of urban governance in a major southern city in the early twenty-first century, as well as an accounting of the policy and human consequences of both its limited successes and its recurring failures.

The book is available for pre-order, and I’m sure will make its way to the Richmond Room at the main Richmond Public Library.