All results / Stories / Jeanne Theismann
‘I Will Always Refuse’
Display chronicles historic library protest
It was a peaceful protest, virtually ignored by newspapers across the country.
‘Hanged by a Mob’
City remembers 1897 lynching victim Joseph McCoy
It was April 23, 1897, and the front page of newspapers across the region carried the news of the latest lynching in the area – the slaying of 18-year-old Joseph McCoy, who had been accused of assaulting the 9-year-old daughter of his employer.
Journey to Freedom
Holocaust survivor recalls flight from ‘Warsaw Ghetto’ and occupied Poland
Sam Ponczak was just shy of two years old when Nazi Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939.
Alexandria Police Department K-9 Czekaj Dies; Served from 2012-2019
Retired Alexandria Police Department K-9 Czekaj has died.
Obituary: Bernard ‘Bernie’ Cohen
Trailblazing attorney dies at 86
In 1963, Bernie Cohen was barely out of law school, practicing on King Street in Alexandria and doing pro bono work for the American Civil Liberties Union.
For (Some) Women, Right to Vote Came 100 Years Ago
City marks centennial of 19th amendment
Harry Burn was a staunch anti-suffragist.
‘Not Again’: Tavares Floyd Mourns Loss of His Cousin George
“Not again” is the first thing that went through the mind of Tavares Floyd, a local Civil Rights attorney, when an aunt called him with the news of the death of his cousin George while in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.
Alexandria Protests Continue
Hundreds gather at Charles Houston for George Floyd rally.
One by one the names were read aloud. For eight minutes and 46 seconds – the time that George Floyd suffered with the knee of a police officer on his neck during an arrest in Minneapolis – the names of African Americans who died at the hands of law enforcement rang through the crowd gathered June 4 at the Charles Houston Recreation Center.
Alexandria Obituary: Remembering Dorothy Evans Turner
Public housing, Civil Rights activist dies at 87.
To her friends, she was affectionately known as “Peaches.” But the tender moniker belied the fierce, unyielding spirit of Dorothy Turner, a descendant of one of Alexandria’s oldest African American families, when she was fighting for equal rights for public housing tenants.
Thousands Gather for Laboy
$80,000 raised; Biden pays visit to APD.
One by one, more than 3,000 people from throughout the region slowly passed by the motorcycle of wounded Alexandria Police Officer Peter Laboy as they waited in line March 10 to attend an Old Town fundraiser that raised more than $80,000 on his behalf. “We were expecting hundreds and got thousands,” said Capt. Shahram Fard, a trustee with the Alexandria Police Association that co-hosted the event at Virtue Feed and Grain Restaurant.

