Virginia
Road Tripping Through Virginia to Understand America’s Complex Past
This difficult history became even clearer in Richmond, our ultimate destination. Iconic Monument Avenue stretches for five miles, reminiscent of the National Mall and lined in parts with distinguished homes and beautiful historic architecture. It is marked by circular flowerbeds and enclosures where Confederate monuments once stood, including the twelve-ton bronze and marble statue of Robert E. Lee, who led the defeated Southern troops, was stripped of his American citizenship as a traitor, and has been venerated to this day in public spaces too numerous to count. The Monument Avenue statues that were graffitied during the summer 2020 protests are now laid out meticulously in Richmond’s water treatment facility, the only municipal space large enough to hold them. That is where I saw them. They form a graveyard of Confederate monuments.
While in Richmond, I met Devon Henry, whose general contracting company took down the Lee monument. During our conversation, I learned he was the same general contractor who built the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the Jefferson-designed University of Virginia during 2019 and 2020. It honors the 4,000 enslaved people who worked on the campus.
Henry and I talked next to the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground, the biggest Black cemetery I have ever seen. It lies in the leafy neighborhood of Gilpin, but was divided from the historic Black community of Jackson Ward by construction of I-95. Henry had joined me because he will be working there with Richmond sisters Enjoli J. Moon and Sesha Joi Moon and their JXN Project, which is reconstructing a building—the Skipwith-Roper Cottage—to commemorate Jackson Ward Founding Father Abraham Peyton Skipwith. The original cottage, owned by the formerly enslaved Skipwith in the 18th century and left in his will to his descendants, was forcibly condemned in the 1950s and relocated to the Sabot Hill Plantation, which once belonged to Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon. It’s a reminder that we can’t assume the landscapes we see reflect undisturbed history, or that the structures we encounter convey true stories.
I asked Henry how long it took to remove the Lee monument. He told me he and his contractors studied it for more than a year, with resources ranging from archeologists’ analysis to drone footage. They received death threats; he knew they would have to move fast once the removal began. Ultimately, they lifted the massive statue off its granite pedestal in less than an hour. “From here on, I want to use my talents for this reparative work,” Henry told me, gesturing towards the site where the Skipwith-Roper cottage will stand.
Listening, I considered how even at the magnitude of Richmond’s Monument Avenue, the scale of the UVA campus, or the open space of this cemetery tended by generations of Black families, change cannot happen without the human hand. Through my work with the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project, I know American monuments today are part of a collective effort of re-thinking, re-working, and re-imagining: we take some down, we build others up, and in the process, we tell the ever-evolving American story. In this contractor, I met a Virginian who was doing it all.
Throughout the road trip, I meditated deeply on how we think about our dead, and how they inform our beliefs about who we are as a country. At Richmond’s African Burial Ground, I saw again why our choices about who we formally commemorate are important to understand. An unknown number of Black Americans lie on the site of Richmond’s former slave market, where more than 300,000 Black people were tortured, stolen, and sold. An installation will soon mark its history, but the African Burial Ground has always existed in the memory of Richmond’s Black community. Some of the Black Richmonders spoke familiarly, for example, of a man they call Gabriel. Gabriel Prosser was an enslaved blacksmith who in 1800 planned one of the most extensive slave revolts in American history. Betrayed by other enslaved Black people to white slave-owners, he was hung at Richmond’s city gallows, which also stood on the African Burial Ground. The site’s new installation will share Prosser’s story with a broader public, but his descendants and community have never forgotten it.
Leaving Virginia, I thought back on the beautiful Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground, with its trees in fragrant flower. All throughout the cemetery families honor their loved ones, whose stories make up the dynamic history of this country. Its power lies not only in the people it holds and the descendants who remember them, but also in what it reveals to anyone who travels to Virginia.
Elizabeth Alexander is a poet, scholar, and the president of the Mellon Foundation.
A day after nudging his Notre Dame football team another step in the College Football Playoff chase for the school’s first national title since 1988, third-year Irish coach Marcus Freeman spent Saturday multi-tasking.
With an eye toward 2025.
On Monday afternoon, his finishing touches on the recruitment of Virginia grad transfer wide receiver Malachi Fields and Freeman’s clandestine groundwork before that paid off. The third-team All-ACC selection has committed to joining the Irish for his final season of eligibility.
“There’s time you’ve got to wear different hats,” said Freeman on Monday, after his seventh-seeded Irish (12-1) advanced to a CFP quarterfinal matchup with 2 seed Georgia (11-2), Jan. 1 in New Orleans with a 27-17 dismissal of 10 seed Indiana on Friday night.
“Up until Friday was preparation for Indiana. Saturday, you kind of put on a different hat and said, ‘OK, hey, let’s look at a couple different portal situations.’ Now, we’re back to preparing for Georgia.
“We try to eliminate as many distractions as we can for our current players and our program and what we’re trying to do. But we also know the transfer portal is a part of college football right now.”
And now Fields will be part of a Notre Dame receiving corps that loses minimally leading receiver Beaux Collins (36 receptions, 445 yards, 2 TDs) as well as fellow 2024 grad transfers Kris Mitchell (19/201/2) and Jayden Harrison (17/211/1) from the wide receiver corps. All three of them have expiring eligibility.
The 6-4, 220-pound Fields would plug right into Collins’ boundary receiver spot, with big numbers at Virginia — 55 catches for 805 yards and 5 TDs. Four of those receptions for 81 yards came against the Irish in a 35-14 ND Senior Day home win back on Nov. 16. He had similar numbers as a junior in 2023 — 58/811/5.
The Cavaliers lost six of their last seven games to finish 5-7.
The former two-star prospect from Monticello High in Charlottesville, Va., is the second incoming transfer to commit to Notre Dame in this cycle, joining Alabama defensive back Devonta Smith, who’s expected to replace Jordan Clark at nickel.
Fields had considered entering the 2025 NFL Draft, to be held this spring, and already had an invite to play in the East-West Shrine Game, a showcase for pro scouts.
Instead, he’ll showcase his 2025 season in a Notre Dame uniform.
He was a quarterback and cornerback in high school, who converted to wide receiver at Virginia. He was also a track standout, qualifying as a state finalist in the 2021 VHSL Class 3 state meet in the 200-meter dash, 4×100 relay, shot put, discus, long jump, high jump and triple jump. His best finish at that meet was third in the high jump.
Fields gained a fifth collegiate season by missing most of his sophomore season (2022) with a broken foot and taking a medical redshirt year.
The transfer portal opened for all FBS players on Dec. 9 and closes on Saturday. The eight teams still playing in the CFP and those with bowl games after Saturday, will have an additional five-day transfer window after their respective teams conclude play in the postseason.
So far, just three players have entered the transfer portal from Notre Dame, two of whom had medically retired last summer — defensive linemen Tyson Ford and Aiden Gobaira — and one who left the Irish roster after four games to preserve a redshirt year — junior cornerback Jaden Mickey.
Ford and Mickey have since committed to Cal, with Mickey making his decision the day of the ND-IU game on Friday. Gobaira is still looking.
The Irish will likely have more incoming transfers this offseason and definitely more outgoing transfers at some point — and there’s another 10-day transfer portal window in the spring — but so far they have stated those intentions publicly.
“Our current guys have been great,” Freeman said. “They’re ready to prepare the right way, and I haven’t heard anything about a guy trying to go to the portal right now.”
UVA Health’s Neeral Shah, MD, is one of 12 recipients of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia’s 2025 Outstanding Faculty Awards.
UVA Health’s Neeral Shah, MD, is one of 12 recipients of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia’s 2025 Outstanding Faculty Awards for faculty “who exemplify the highest standards of teaching, scholarship and service.”
Shah’s passion for learning and teaching came from his parents, who immigrated to the United States from India with just two suitcases and $8.
“Their philosophy was, ‘Knowledge is something that nobody can ever take from you,’ a belief they deeply instilled in me,” he said.
During his 15 years at the University of Virginia, where he serves as a professor of medicine in the gastrointestinal/hepatology division, Shah has used his knowledge and skills to care for patients, research ways to improve care and educate thousands of future physicians and healthcare providers.
As a gastroenterologist and digestive health specialist, Shah has performed thousands of colonoscopies and now specializes in liver disease, caring for patients with chronic liver disease and those in need of a liver transplant.
As a researcher, Shah helped develop a better way to care for patients with liver disease who experience bleeding problems. The innovative work by Shah and collaboration with biomedical engineers led to a National Institutes of Health grant and the eventual creation of the Quantra Hemosonics machine, widely adopted by anesthesiologists to best use blood products during patient care.
As an educator, Shah played a key role in creating the UVA School of Medicine’s NxGen pre-clerkship medical education curriculum, which prepares students to be lifelong learners who provide patient-centered, evidence-based medical care. He has won every major teaching award at UVA while also developing a series of medical education infographics now used in 98% of American medical schools and 70 countries around the world.
UVA School of Medicine graduate Katie Webb, MD, described Shah in a letter of recommendation as a teacher who was committed not only to providing excellent medical education but to connecting with his students and his patients.
“In a room of over 100 people, he took the time to make each of us feel valued. He asked us our names, inquired about our weekend activities, and got to know not only our academic interests but our interests outside of school as well,” Webb wrote. “During the final week of the [gastrointestinal coursework], we had the opportunity to see Dr. Shah interview one of his patients. … The patient praised Dr. Shah for the time he devoted to their care, explaining the disease process in terms they could understand, exploring treatment options in the broader context of the patient’s lifestyle and wishes and being compassionate yet straightforward in discussing outcome and prognosis. That patient interaction highlighted to me that Dr. Shah is not only an educator that would do anything for his students, he is also a clinician who would do anything for his patients.”
West Virginia has landed its second commitment out of the transfer portal, and its first on the offensive side of the ball.
Sunday evening, Eastern Michigan wide receiver transfer Oran Singleton Jr. announced his pledge to the Mountaineers.
This past season for the Eagles, Singleton caught a team-high 64 passes for 639 yards and two touchdowns. Prior to arriving at Eastern Michigan, Singleton played one year at Akron and then made the move to the junior college level to play for Hutchinson CC. There, he led the team in receptions (31) and was second in yards (419).
West Virginia will continue to add to the wide receiver room in the coming days and weeks as they look to replace the departure of Justin Robinson along with the potential departures of Traylon Ray Ric’Darious Farmer and Hudson Clement.
Singleton will have one year of eligibility remaining.
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