by WebPost | Oct 8, 2026 | Immigration, Letter to the Editor, Race and Racism, Racial Justice Team
Americans ignoring cruelty toward immigrants
Reading Etty Hillesum’s diary from World War II Amsterdam prompts chilling comparisons to modern America. Hillesum and her fellow Jews were branded with yellow stars. Here, Haitian refugees, legal until recently, must now wear clunky ankle monitors, symbols of exclusion and humiliation. The walls surrounding Hillesum’s ability to work, travel and participate in civic life caved steadily inward. Here, millions of undocumented immigrants, many of whom have built law-abiding, purposeful lives while properly seeking legal status, face similar banishment. For Hillesum, who later died in Auschwitz, the threat of deportation to a foreign county was an inescapable reality. Now, under the Trump administration, third-country deportations — in which human beings are sent to countries where they know no one and their futures are bleak to non-existent — have become commonplace.
Amidst these cruelties, many unaffected lives carry on with minimal awareness or disruption, consumed by day-to-day trivialities and concerns. My dear fellow Americans, what in God’s name are we doing?
Margaret Edds, Richmond, Virginia
by WebPost | Sep 23, 2026 | Activity, Current, Immigration, Proposal, Race and Racism, Racial Justice Team
A Meeting-Wide Project to Support the Legal Rights of the Immigrant Community, Approved at Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, 18 Tenth Month, 2026
It’s become routine for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to violate rights enshrined in the Constitution as they detain and deport immigrants, not only across the country, but right here in the Richmond area.
Many among us are already responding individually to help protect and support the local immigrant community. However, it seems imperative that the Meeting as a whole respond with clear resistance to the inhumane actions of ICE. Towards that end, the Immigrant Solidarity Informal Committee is proposing that RFM commit to actively supporting the Sacred Heart Center in its mission to lift up and minister to the Latino community by raising $15,000 to support the Center’s Immigration Legal Services. This would enable the Center to hire an additional legal assistant who would be authorized by the Department of Justice to practice immigration law, so they can represent immigrants before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services, the Immigration Courts, and the Board of Immigration Appeals.
There are many ways that deportations can be successfully challenged legally and the Center’s legal team uses such strategies to support immigrants in our area who are facing detention and deportation. The need far exceeds the Center’s capacity—and our job, if we take it on, is to help fund another legal assistant so more vulnerable immigrants can be served. The need for outside funding is for one year only, as the position would be self-supporting after the first year.
There are many reasons to take this project on. It’s an opportunity to do something big with and for a community in jeopardy and an opportunity to live our Quaker values. Also, a project like this provides unity and builds community for us. It could be a way to get newcomers involved and would help establish a Quaker presence in the larger community.
To carry out this project, an ad hoc committee under the care of the Race and Racial Justice Team will be appointed by Levi Goren, Clerk. Members of the current informal committee have already expressed interest in seeing the project through. We see many ways to fund raise that would involve the community inside and outside the Meeting, as well as the Sacred Heart community.
The Ad Hoc committee will develop a concrete fundraising plan utilizing a variety of fundraising strategies. Financial Stewardship will arrange for a fund for accepting donations and expenses. Please understand that this needs to be an additional gift, not a substitute for your regular donation to RFM.
Please contact members of the informal committee (Plum Cluverius, Diana Maxwell, Mary Moore, Rhonda Ligon, Lynda Perry, Ellen Arginteanu, Verna Boos, Barb Pedrotty, Margaret Edds) with questions about this project, which was approved at MWB on October 18, 2026. It is our desire to begin to raise the money soon with the completion by the end of 2027. The need to assist our neighbors legally fight ICE is NOW.
by WebPost | Sep 22, 2026 | Indigenous Affairs, Race and Racism, Social justice
Here are resources to learn more about indigenous peoples of Virginia and Turtle Island.
General information:
Quick Facts About Indigenous Americans:
Free digital resource compiled by Alexis Contreras (Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde) provides an overview of life circumstances of many American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians.
https://www.bym-rsf.org/file_download/inline/fa425927-0fe6-41df-946e-2b1c1937423d
Toward Right Relationship:
Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples is a program under the care of Friends Peace Teams. They have regular online workshops and many resources on respectful relationships with tribal members.
https://friendspeaceteams.org/trr/
Virginia Nations:
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/b3871a76ad4c4038b141e8765606f6b7
Information about the 7 Federally recognized Sovereign Nations of Virginia.
Decolonizing Quakers (decolonizingquakers.org) website is being updated on a new platform but one of those involved, Nia Ininiwok, has her own website: https://niatgt.org/
Reparations information & Opportunities:
National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition:
National organization dedicated to advocating on behalf of Native peoples impacted by U.S. Indian boarding school policies. Seeking truth through education and research, justice through advocacy and policy, and healing through Indigenous teaching and traditional gatherings.
https://boardingschoolhealing.org/
Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women:
National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center provides leadership in promoting safety for Native women and communities through supporting culturally grounded grassroots advocacy.
https://www.niwrc.org/about
Decolonizing Wealth Project:
Indigenous-led organization that accepts donations and funds indigenous projects.
https://www.decolonizingwealth.com/
Every Child Matters: Orange Shirt Day:
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/every-child-matters-september-30-orange-shirt-day?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=1442219742&gbraid=0AAAAAD9zhqxgDmfWdDvW–y4Ouglabnea&gclid=CjwKCAjw2aPVBhBkEiwA0CpttyTSC_F032L6HmB0YCj0l9c56Wdp-9VDrWu1Ry_JKobt-fejO-ytVBoCl4cQAvD_BwE
by WebPost | Sep 22, 2026 | Indigenous Affairs, Race and Racism, Social justice
Ad Hoc Working Group on Indigenous Reparations – Report to Meeting September 2026
The Ad Hoc Working Group on Indigenous Reparations, created in early 2025, is currently composed of Barb Adams, Fran Brokaw, and Katy Rugg, and meets regularly.
We will bring a proposal to Meeting in October or November. This report acts as a foundation in preparation for that proposal.
In review:
Below are the 5 charges of the working group, along with our findings/determinations, to date: ,
1) Research evidence of possible harms committed by Richmond Friends Meeting members, Virginia quakers or their forebears.
With considerable time exploring historical records and beginning conversations with local tribes, we have not yet found evidence of direct harm caused by our Meeting or by Quakers in our area. That does not mean it did not occur. Even so, we recognize that we live on land stewarded by sovereign indigenous nations for millennia. Quakers were complicit in forming and operating Indian Industrial Schools aimed at cultural erasure. We all benefit from the harms (stolen land, genocide, cultural erasure) inflicted on these peoples by European and American settlers, including Quakers.
2) Explore the possibility of a Land Acknowledgement Statement.
With our investigation so far, consideration of a land acknowledgement for RFM is complicated and will need significant discernment by the committee and the Meeting. If done, these statements must be crafted in concert with native peoples, or risk becoming empty and performative if not accompanied by informed concrete actions and ongoing relationship as allies and sincere review of possible return of land.
3) Inform our Meeting of educational opportunities for Meeting members and attenders.
We have done some of this and continue to work on what more we would recommend.
Some suggestions of note: Encouraged attending the 2025 Pocahontas Reframed Film Festival and Nov 2026; About 12 Quakers have signed up for the upcoming 4 Seasons of Indigenous Learning program; e shared dates and times of 2026 powwows and other indigenous gatherings on the list serve; Quakers from our Meeting attended a film screening about Virginia tribes at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture and panel discussion by the filmmaker and tribal elders; Working group members just attended the 2026 Sovereign Nations of Virginia Conference. A rich learning experience which will inform us going forward. We recommended a $500 conference sponsorship donation, which was given by Meeting, via the Race & Racial Justice team; A member of our group attended a forum on the controversial new large development proposed for the Tree Hill Farm site on Rt 5 in Henrico County, ancestral land of the Powhatan Nation and believed birthplace of Chief Powhatan – there will be a program on this issue at the VMFA for museum members and we are working on bringing a speaker program for our Meeting; We will bring information to Meeting and ways for us to participate in Orange Shirt Day on September 30th, joining native communities in mourning the deaths and abuse of generations of Indigenous children at residential and boarding schools, as well as honoring their stories and the healing of survivors
4) Recommend to RFM how to disburse $5000 as reparations.
We will bring specific recommendations for disbursement of the $5000 budgeted funds in with our proposal at Business Meeting in October or November. Under consideration are indigenous-led landback programs, language reclamation, efforts to save significant native lands from development, healing wounds of Indian Industrial schools, and investigations into missing and murdered indigenous women and children.
5) In August 2025 RFM Meeting for Business added the charge to make recommendations on continued living in right relationship with Native tribes in Virginia and beyond, once the Ad Hoc committee is laid down.
Also in our proposal, we will recommend that RFM form a standing working group under the care of either Peace & Social Concerns, or the Race & Racial Justice team, whose charges would include:
- To prepare and recommend opportunities to RFM for education and deeper understanding
- To continue to cultivate ongoing relationships with local tribes, which could lead to uncovering information about further cultural connections
- To explore the appropriateness/process of creating a Meeting land acknowledgement.
- To explore making future recommendations for financial and/ or other reparations.
by WebPost | Aug 29, 2026 | Activity, Current, Race and Racism, Racial Justice Team
The Race and Racial Justice Team is presenting a program, “Four Asian Quakers Share Their Stories.” It will take place in the community room at the meetinghouse on Saturday, November 7, 9 am to Noon (8:30 am for bagels).
Monti Datta, Eunkyung Ahn, Danette Kong, and Allen Lee will take turns sharing their stories about being Asian, being a Quaker, and how being each of these contributes to the other.
Please direct questions to Allen Lee.
by WebPost | Aug 17, 2026 | Activity, Current, Election, Race and Racism, VICPP Working Group
Tuesday, November 3, 2026, is Election Day, the final date to vote in person.
Here are other DEADLINES:
- Register to vote/Update registration: 10/22/2026
- Early in-person voting: 9/18/2026 through 10/31/2026
- Apply for mail-in ballot through 10/23/2026
All of the above plus finding your polling place is at:
https://vote.elections.virginia.gov/VoterInformation
On The Ballot:
Three Virginia Constitutional Amendments:
- Will provide a constitutional right to reproductive freedom, often called the right-to-abortion amendment.
- Will repeal the provision defining marriage as between one man and one woman and prohibits the state from denying a marriage license to two adult persons based on sex, gender or race.
- Will provide that persons convicted of felonies have their voting rights restored upon release from incarceration.
Vote for your U.S. Senator from Virginia:
Mark Warner (D, Incumbent) vs. Bert Mizusawa (R)
Vote for your U.S. House Representative:
Find your district https://www.vpap.org/localpolitics/
District 1: Shannon Taylor (D) vs. Rob Wittman (R, Incumbent)
District 4: Jason Brown II (I), vs. Andre Odell Kersey (I), vs. Jennifer McClellan (D, Incumbent)
District 5: Cooke Costa Harvey (I) vs. John McGuire (R, Incumbent) vs. Tom Perriello (D) vs. Chris Register (I)
Want To Work at the Polls or Have a Concern?
Prepared by Monica Shaw, clerk of the VICPP Working Group.
by WebPost | Jun 23, 2026 | Immigration, Race and Racism, Racial Justice Team
If you have been looking for ways to stand with our immigrant neighbors as they face harassment and possible arrest and deportation, the Immigrant Solidarity Informal Committee (under the care of the Race and Racial Justice Team) has developed this guide to help you find volunteer opportunities in the Richmond area in immigrant-led and immigrant-facing organizations. Contact information is provided if you are led to pursue one of these opportunities.
by WebPost | Feb 11, 2026 | Race and Racism
The Race and Racial Justice Team is a catalyst for inspiring an ongoing, Meeting-wide focus on issues related to race and racism. The work—from selecting race-conscious library books to hiring minority contractors to improving skills in talking about race–belongs to the entire community, not just the team.
In 2024, Richmond Friends Meeting adopted a Minute making understanding and acting on issues related to race and racism “a strong, clear priority” for our community. That work began in earnest with the adoption of an action plan in early 2025. A newly created Racial Justice Team consisting of Plum Cluverius, Margaret Edds, and Levi Goren was charged with oversight. The action plan made clear that addressing racial issues is a communal commitment and responsibility. As the plan advises, “Each standing committee will make racial justice a priority in doing its work.”
In assessing the first year of action under the plan, the Race and Racial Justice Team believes that a commitment to racial justice became a stronger and more visible priority for Richmond Friends Meeting during 2025. Team members feel that the community has engaged broadly with the commitments made in 2024. Multiple committees have accepted the challenge to better understand racial differences and find ways of addressing racial injustice. (See Below) As recommended by the ad hoc Committee on Race and Racism, which developed the action plan, we have engaged with other faith communities doing similar work through the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy. We have served less privileged children through a mentoring program at Redd Elementary School in South Richmond. And we have encouraged deeper personal growth through connection with Coming Together Virginia, a multi-racial group focused on better communication across race.
Meanwhile, the newly formed ad hoc Committee on Reparations to Indigenous Peoples has delved deeply into the history and current status of Virginia’s indigenous tribes. At their request, RFM expanded the ad hoc’s mission to one of seeking out ways to live in right relationship with those tribes. This is deep and ongoing work.
We welcome the enthusiasm and depth of commitment applied to these and other initiatives, even as discernment to find a right way forward sometimes entailed struggle and conflicting viewpoints. Ironically, we realize that RFM’s deeper connection to racial justice has occurred as much of the nation is dialing back on its commitment to equity and diversity, due to both pressure and coercion from the current administration in Washington. Awareness of that retrenchment deepens our resolve to spread Quaker messages of love and non-violence as we strive for a world freed of injustice and oppression.
Even as we celebrate progress on those aims, we remain attuned to unanswered questions: how deeply has the work saturated Meeting as a whole? Are we engaging with each other honestly and personally around issues of race, particularly when they involve members and attenders of our own Meeting? How do we confront racial wounding both within Richmond Friends Meeting and the larger community? What more might we be doing to address structural racism in our city and state? And, finally, how do more members of the Meeting community become engaged in this vital work?
We see that there is much work to be done in arriving at shared understandings and answers to these questions. We view our 2025 efforts as a beginning, far from an end. As one Friend put it, “We’ve started the conversation. We’ve lived into it, but I don’t think we’ve lived up to it completely.” We recognize that, as cruelty toward immigrants and migrants accelerates and anger flares, we will be challenged in new and difficult ways to follow the teaching, drawn from John Woolman, to “let love be the first motion.”
A two-day workshop (rescheduled to March 7 and 14), facilitated by Coming Together Virginia, will focus on having “Courageous Conversations in Multi-Racial Settings.” The Racial Justice Team is heartened by garnering capacity sign-ups for the workshop and hopes that this event might kickstart a deeper focus on a communal, internal awareness of race-related matters in 2026, even as we continue to grow a more visible and engaged outward focus.
The team remains aware that the action plan approved by Meeting calls for programs related to Asian and Latino Americans. It is our intention to move forward with those programs once the Courageous Conversations workshop is complete.
A brief (and incomplete) overview of some of the race and racial-justice-related actions within Richmond Friends Meeting during 2025:
- A new page on Race and Racism was added to the website. It highlights extensive information (both visual and written) about the history of our Meeting as it relates to race. Also, it provides a vehicle for regular updates—visible to both ourselves and the broader Richmond community—on our race-related work.
- The Peace & Social Concerns Committee this year raised money for the Ramallah Friends School, the Health Brigade, Friends Association for Children, and the Healing Place–organizations grounded in deep concern for social justice. With Meeting backing, the committee directed donations to more than 30 local organizations which provide services to marginalized communities. Additionally, the committee publicized the NAACP Black Consumer Advisory, which encourages consumers to support businesses that uphold DEI values.
- The Religious Education Committee sponsored a well-attended workshop led by weighty Quaker Marcy Seitel on ridding ourselves and our families of racist behaviors and thoughts. The committee also guided teachers to include books and other material related to racial justice in lesson plans.
- In conjunction with the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, our newly formed VICPP working group led us to approve congregational support for the Virginia Consensus for Higher Education in Prisons and to become a 100 percent voting congregation in the 2025 elections. It has also led Meeting in collecting food for people served by Feedmore.
- Working with Communities in Schools, a newly formed volunteer group provided mentoring for more than half-a-dozen children at Redd Elementary School. The vast majority of children at Redd come from financially impoverished families, many of them immigrant.
- The Financial Stewardship Committee distributed more than $46,000 to an assortment of public service organizations, many of them doing work related to issues of racial justice. The committee joined Peace & Social Concerns in directing donations to Assisting Families of Inmates, Circles RVA, Friends Association for Children, HomeAgain (Emergency Shelter), the Virginia Poverty Law Center, and other justice-related groups.
- Buildings & Grounds sought to be intentional in seeking out minority contractors when accepting bids for work projects.
- Several committees sought to keep race and racial justice as “top of mind” by beginning meetings with related queries.
This is an incomplete listing of race-related activities, but it suggests the depth of commitment within Richmond Friends Meeting to engaging with matters related to race and racial justice. It is our hope and expectation that the work will expand and deepen as we move forward into 2026 and beyond. As Levi Goren departs to become Clerk of Meeting, we welcome Monti Datta to the Race and Racial Justice team.