On Indigenous Peoples’ Day during America’s 250th anniversary, Virginia’s Indigenous tribes — and the Pamunkey Tribe’s return to ancestral land — underscore a history that began thousands of years bef...

I had followed the formula I went to school, earned a scholarship, built a career, went to church and tithed Then I lost my job, and I discovered I had been a quid pro quo believer

I am tired of pretending this makes sense.

The Washington Commanders do not need a new franchise quarterback. They need to protect the one they already have.

What began as an ordinary day during my senior year of high school became the moment that reshaped my family, my friends and the trajectory of a generation, writes Jeff

On Saturday night, Virginia Tech and Virginia Military Institute met on a football field for the first time in 42 years.

Benjamin Thomas was denied his future at 16. Today, his name helps another Alexandria teenager build one, guest columnist Jeff Bennett writes.

Public safety is not measured only by the number of people sent to prison.

" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/cardinalnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/176449_Mamon_20260811_Jeff-Bennett-book-talk-e1787183868351.jpg?fit=780%2C515&ssl=1" /> Author Jeff Bennett, a Danville native, writes about the Black history that he didn’t learn in school. The post ‘The Black Belt of Virginia’ details untold African American history appeared first on Cardinal News.

Nearly 20 years after the Virginia Tech massacre transformed campus safety, Virginia's newest college students are the first generation raised on lockdown drills, raising a harder question: not how sc...

Artificial intelligence requires physical infrastructure. The question is how Virginia chooses to build it, writer Jeff Bennett argues in a guest column.

This August marks five centuries since the first recorded enslaved Africans arrived in what would become the United States; 81 years before Jamestown and nearly 250 years before the Declaration of …

Growth, by itself, is not the same as shared prosperity, writes Jeff Bennett.

When my great aunt Ann Cannon began applying to colleges in the 1950s, she and a white friend applied to the same school: Averett College in Danville, Virginia.

Correctional officers are often absent from our public conversations about criminal justice.

Arthur Adams — Appalachian bootlegger, two-war Army veteran, Great Migration trailblazer, and this columnist's ancestor — shattered Jim Crow’s racial, social and sexual barriers to build a fiercely independent life

My family story — born of an enslaved man of towering height forced to reproduce and a Confederate captain who fought to keep men like him in chains — reveals

Jeffery Bennett and The Black Belt of VA: The Untold Stories of African American History

Amazon’s arrival reshaped Northern Virginia as promised — with cranes, capital and a booming tech economy — but in Arlandria, also known as Chirilagua, the same growth unleashed soaring rents,

Everyone committed to democracy, intellectual freedom, and the rule of law should be alarmed at what is happening—and prepared to act.

The distance between our founding ideals and our reality is the central question of American identity, Jeff Bennett writes in a guest column.

In Virginia and other rural areas of America, data centers are building the future, often by displacing the past.

By ending tax breaks, specialty plates and reviewing Virginia Military Institute’s traditions, Virginia is redefining its relationship to the Confederacy and the structures that preserved it.

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We are living in the final years when Americans who knew people born into slavery are still alive, writes Jeff Bennett.

Join us for an evening with Jeffrey Bennett as he discusses his new book, The Black Belt of Virginia: Untold Stories of African American History , which contains powerful stories left out of most his...

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, universities across the country are reexamining the histories beneath their campuses. Today, the town of Blacksburg is known almost entirely thro...

In quiet irony, former VMI Superintendent Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins, who left amid controversy in 2025, has been appointed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger to the Virginia Commission on Higher Education

Join us on Saturday, March 21 for an in-depth lecture on The Black Belt of Virginia with author Jeffrey Bennett!

Discover The Dogeared Page Bookshop, a cozy independent bookstore in Danville, VA, offering books, events, online shopping, and community engagement for all book lovers.

Jeffrey Bennett will be talking about his newest book The Black Belt of Virginia: Untold Stories of African American History (American Heritage). In celebration of African American...

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. The books included are on a wide variety of subjects and present many differen...

Relocating Black cemeteries in Virginia reveals how America has long denied full humanity, and how to reclaim it.

Piney Grove Primitive Baptist Church: A Black Founding Site of Pittsylvania County

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The Black Belt of Virginia: Untold Stories of African American History (American Heritage) [Bennett, Jeffrey] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Black Belt of Virginia: Untold Stories of African American History (American Heritage)