June 15, 2014

Two Days After Death, Black Press Editor Wins Economic Justice Fight 
By Joey Matthews

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Raymond H. Boone has scored anothe rvictory. In the same week the Free Press editor/publisher died Richmond, Va. Mayor Dwight C. Jones, using the theme “A Taste of Richmond,” announced that two popular local black owned eateries would sell food and soft drinks inside the Washington professional football team’s training camp in Richmond this summer. They are the Croaker’s Spot and Big Herm’s Kitchen, both popular for their fish and chicken.

The mayor also said Friday that local vendors “offering a variety of food options” will be allowed to bid to set up six food trucks on Leigh Street outside the camp. The announcement was made the same day the mayor gave the D.C. team’s new coach Jay Gruden a tour of the $10 million training camp facility.

“This seems like a very, very positive opportunity,” Herman Baskerville, owner of Big Herm’s, told the Free Press. “Last year, it raised a stink when no local vendors could sell inside the camp. I’m glad I wasone of the ones who was chosen.”

The vendor deal was made public three days after Mr. Boone died Tuesday, June 3. It’s likely city officials had tired of being pounded for months by Mr. Boone in the Free Press. He decried the racist and discriminatory deal brokered by themayor and supported by Bon Secours Health Systems of Virginia that denied local vendors last summer from selling concessions inside the camp that bears the team’s racist nickname.Only national White-owned chains —Papa John’s, Johnny Rockets and Famous Dave’s — were allowed inside the camp,officials said, because they had contractswith the D.C. team that gave them sole rights inside the camp.

That infuriated local vendors, who said the city denied them the opportunity to compete for profits from the more than150,000 fans who attended last year’scamp. Byron Marshall, the city’s chief administrativeofficer, told the Free Press in February the city was negotiating with the D.C. team to allow local vendors inside the camp this summer. Baskerville said he is currently negotiating terms of the vending agreement with the D.C. team. He said he will have to give the team a percentage of his sales and did not know if he would have to pay a fee as well. He said he contacted the D.C. team when he heard they were looking for local vendors to sell inside the camp. He said D.C. officials responded, and dispatched employees to eat at his restaurant in Downtown.Calls to the owner of Croaker’s Spot for comment were not returned.

The mayor said the six other vendors would be required to pony up $2,500 in fees to set up trucks outside the training camp.Those fees would go toward the $547,685 local contribution the city and the Richmond Economic Development Authority are required to give the D.C. team in services, goods or cash each year as part of the eight-year training camp deal.

Richard Johnson, chair of the EDA’sboard, defended last year’s discriminatory deal that excluded local vendors from the camp.

“The city and EDA don’t control inside the gate,” he said, last Friday. “[The team has its] own relationships on both a national and regional basis. The (racist nickname) put their program together.”Mr. Johnson also said the fees are part of the cost of doing business at a high-profile location.

“There’s a significant cost to closing off the (Leigh) street and making that space available,” he said. “It costs to address safety concerns and barricade the street.” He praised the mayor and his administration for taking steps to open the camp to local vendors.

“I think it’s a case of extraordinary responsiveness,” he said. “This is only the second year, and the city worked to address the complaints from some local businesses. This thing has worked like a charm in my mind.” Boone also staked a claim against the D.C. team’s racist nickname last year. He announced the Free Press would no longer use the hateful nickname in the newspaper, joining a nationwide cry for billionaire owner Daniel Snyder to change the D.C. team’s mascot. Boone also called for the resignation of Roslyn M.Brock, the national NAACP chair and a Bon Secours vice president, for supporting the team’s racist nickname and the Bon Secours-sponsored discriminatory training camp deal.