Richmond, Virginia, took center stage globally in the summer of 2020 as an epicenter of antiracist protests in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd. In a period of just a few weeks, overwhelming public support grew for removing Richmond’s Confederate monuments. Activists then transformed the remaining statue of Robert E. Lee into a shrine to African American resolve, to the Black Lives Matter movement, and to Black victims of police brutality. Coming to terms with Richmond’s tortured racial history, however, is much more difficult than toppling symbols of white supremacy.

This book explores these dynamics via a multidisciplinary framework of historical research, public policy analysis, and political analysis, showing the inner dynamics of politics and governance in Richmond. The authors reveal why change and progress has often been so difficult to achieve and why that matters, with a focus on three fundamental policy areas: education, economic development, and housing. The result is a comprehensive assessment of urban governance in a major southern city in the early twenty-first century, as well as an accounting of the policy and human consequences of both its limited successes and its recurring failures.