Virginia Sports

Virginia is by far the most populous U.S. state without a major professional sports league franchise. The reasons for this include the lack of any dominant city or market within the state and the proximity of teams in Washington, D.C. Virginia is home to many minor league clubs, especially in baseball and soccer, and the Washington Redskins have Redskins Park, their headquarters and training facility, in Ashburn, Virginia. Virginia has many professional caliber golf courses including the Greg Norman course at Lansdowne Resort and Upper Cascades, Kingsmill Resort, home of the Michelob ULTRA Open.

The Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles also have followings due to their proximity to the state, and both are broadcast in the state on MASN. When the New York Mets ended their long affiliation with the Norfolk Tides in 2007, the Orioles adopted the minor league club as their top level (AAA) minor league affiliate. Additionally, the Nationals, Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Red Sox, Seattle Mariners, Chicago White Sox, and Atlanta Braves also have Single-A and Rookie-level farm teams in Virginia. From 1966 until 2008, Atlanta's AAA franchise was the Richmond Braves. However, the capital is now one of the largest markets in the country without any form of professional baseball.

Virginia is home to two NASCAR tracks currently on the Sprint Cup schedule, Martinsville Speedway and Richmond International Raceway. Norfolk born Joe Weatherly won the NASCAR Grand National in 1962 and 1963. Current Virginia drivers in the series include brothers Jeff Burton and Ward Burton, Ricky Rudd, Denny Hamlin, and Elliot Sadler. Former Cup tracks include South Boston Speedway, Langley Speedway, Southside Speedway, and Old Dominion Speedway.

Virginia does not allow state appropriated funds to be used for either operational or capital expenses for intercollegiate athletics. Despite this, both the University of Virginia Cavaliers and Virginia Tech Hokies have been able to field competitive teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference and maintain modern facilities. The Virginia-Virginia Tech rivalry is followed statewide. Several other universities compete in NCAA Division I, particularly in the Colonial Athletic Association. Three historically black schools compete in the Division II Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, and two others compete in Division I MEAC. Several smaller schools compete in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and the USA South Athletic Conference of NCAA Division III. The NCAA currently holds its Division III championships in football, men's basketball, volleyball and softball in Salem. Continue Reading

Virginia Economy

Virginia's economy is well balanced with diverse sources of income, made up of 4.1 million civilian workers. In 2006, Forbes Magazine named Virginia the best state in the nation for business. The Gross Domestic Product of Virginia was $383 billion in 2007. As of 2000, Virginia had the highest number of counties and independent cities, fifteen, in the top one-hundred wealthiest jurisdictions in the United States based upon median income. As of 2007, seven Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in the Richmond area. Virginia has seventeen total Fortune 500 companies, ranking the state tenth nationwide.

Virginia has the highest concentration of technology workers of any state. One-third of Virginia's jobs are in the service sector. Computer chips became the state's highest-grossing export in 2006, surpassing its traditional top exports of coal and tobacco, combined. Northern Virginia, once considered the state's dairy capital, now hosts software, communication technology, and consulting companies. The Dulles Technology Corridor near Dulles International Airport has a high concentration of Internet, communications and software engineering firms. Fairfax and Loudoun counties in Northern Virginia have the highest and second highest median household income, respectively, of all counties in the United States as of 2006.

In Southside Virginia from Hampton Roads to Richmond and to Lee County, the economy is based on military installations, and cattle, tobacco and peanut farming. About twenty percent of Virginian jobs are in agriculture, with 47,000 farms, averaging 181 acres (0.28 sq mi/0.73 km²). Tomatoes surpassed soy as the most profitable crop in Virginia in 2006, with peanuts and hay as other agricultural products. Oysters are an important part of the Chesapeake Bay economy, but declining populations due to disease, pollution, and overfishing have diminished catches. Wineries and vineyards in the Northern Neck and along the Blue Ridge Mountains also have begun to generate income and attract tourists.

Many of Northern Virginia's well-educated population work directly for Federal agencies. Many others work for government contractors, including defense and security contractors. Well-known government agencies headquartered in Northern Virginia include the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense, as well as the National Science Foundation, the United States Geological Survey and the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The Hampton Roads area has the largest concentration of military bases and facilities of any metropolitan area in the world. The largest of the bases is Naval Station Norfolk. The state is second only to Alaska in per capita defense spending.

Virginia collects personal income tax in five income brackets, ranging from 3.0% to 5.75%. The sales and use tax rate is 5%. The tax rate on food is 2.5%. There is an additional 1% local tax, for a total of a 5% combined sales tax on most Virginia purchases and a combined tax rate of 2.5% on food. Virginia's property tax is set and collected at the local government level and varies throughout the commonwealth. Real estate is taxed at the local level based on one-hundred percent of fair market value. Tangible personal property also is taxed at the local level and is based on a percentage or percentages of original cost.
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Virginia Religion

Virginia is predominantly Protestant; Baptists are the largest single group with thirty percent of the population. Baptist denominational groups in Virginia include the Baptist General Association of Virginia, with about 1,400 member churches, which supports both the Southern Baptist Convention and the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship; and the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia with over five-hundred affiliated churches, which supports the Southern Baptist Convention. Roman Catholics are the second-largest religious group, and the group which grew the most between 1990 and 2000.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington includes most of Northern Virginia's Catholic churches, while the Diocese of Richmond covers the rest. The Virginia Synod is responsible for the congregations of the Lutheran Church. The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, Southern Virginia, and Southwestern Virginia support the various Episcopal churches. In November 2006, fifteen conservative Episcopal churches in the Diocese of Virginia voted to split from the diocese and the larger Anglican Communion church over the issue of sexuality and the ordination of openly gay bishops and clergy. Virginia law allows parishioners to determine their church's affiliation. The resulting property law case is a test for Episcopal churches nationwide, as the diocese claims the church properties of those congregations that want to secede.

Among other religions, adherents of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints constitute 0.75% of the population, while those of Buddhism and Hinduism each comprise one percent. While a small population in terms of the state overall, organized Jewish sites date to 1791. Muslims are a rapidly growing religious group, though have experienced certain prejudices. Megachurches in the state include Thomas Road Baptist Church, McLean Bible Church and Immanuel Bible Church. Continue Reading

Virginia Cities and Towns

Virginia is divided into independent cities and counties, which function in the same manner. According to the US Census Bureau, independent cities are considered county-equivalent. As of 2006, thirty-nine of the forty-two independent cities in the United States are in Virginia. Incorporated towns are recognized as part of the ninety-five counties in Virginia, but are not independent. There are also hundreds of other unincorporated communities in Virginia. Virginia does not have any further political subdivisions, such as villages or townships.

Virginia has eleven Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, and Richmond-Petersburg are the three most populated metropolitan areas of the state. Richmond is the capital of Virginia, and the its metropolitan area has a population of over 1.2 million people. Virginia Beach is the most populous city in the commonwealth, with Norfolk and Chesapeake second and third, respectively. Norfolk forms the urban core of this metropolitan area, which is home to over 1.7 million people and the world's largest naval base.

Although it is not incorporated as a city, Fairfax County is the most populous locality in Virginia, with over one million residents. Fairfax has a major urban business and shopping center in Tysons Corner, Virginia's largest office market. Neighboring Loudoun County, with the county seat at Leesburg, is the fastest-growing county in the United States. Arlington County, the smallest self-governing county in the United States by land area, is an urban community organized as a county. Roanoke, with a population of 292,983, is the largest Metropolitan Statistical Area in western Virginia. Suffolk, which includes a portion of the Great Dismal Swamp, is the largest city geographically. Continue Reading

Virginia Ethnicity

The five largest reported ancestry groups in Virginia are: African (19.6%), German (11.7%), unspecified American (11.4%), English (11.1%), and Irish or Scotch-Irish (9.8%). Most African-American Virginians are descendants of enslaved Africans who worked its tobacco, cotton, and hemp plantations. These men and women were brought from west central Africa, primarily from Angola and Igbo areas of the Niger Delta region. The twentieth century Great Migration of blacks from the rural South to the North reduced Virginia's black population; however, in the past forty years there has been a reverse migration of blacks returning to Virginia and the rest of the South.

The western mountains have many settlements founded by Scotch-Irish immigrants before the Revolution. There are also sizable numbers of people of German descent in the northwestern mountains and Shenandoah Valley. People of English heritage settled throughout the state during the colonial period, and others of British and Irish heritage have migrated there through the decades for work.

Because of more recent immigration in the late 20th century and early 21st century, there are rapidly growing populations of Hispanics, particularly Central Americans, and Asians. As of 2007, 6.3% of Virginians are Hispanic, 5.5% are Asian, and 1.8% are American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. The Hispanic population of the state tripled from 1990 to 2006, with two-thirds of Hispanics living in Northern Virginia. In contrast to Hispanics nationally, those in Virginia have higher median household incomes and educational attainment than the general United States or Virginia population.

Northern Virginia has the largest Vietnamese population on the East Coast, with slightly more than 99,000 Vietnamese residents, whose major wave of immigration followed the Vietnam War. Due to their ties to the U.S. Navy, Hampton Roads has a sizable Filipino population, numbering about 45,000. Virginia also continues to be the home to eight federally recognized Native American tribes, with six other tribes recognized by the state. Continue Reading

Virginia Statehood

Virginians were instrumental in writing the United States Constitution. James Madison drafted the Virginia Plan in 1787 and the Bill of Rights in 1789. Virginia ratified the Constitution on June 25, 1788. The three-fifths compromise ensured that Virginia initially had the largest bloc in the House of Representatives, which with the Virginia dynasty of presidents gave the commonwealth national importance. In 1790, both Virginia and Maryland ceded territory to form the new District of Columbia, though in 1847 the Virginian area was retroceded. Virginia is sometimes called "Mother of States" because of its role in being carved into several mid-western states.

Nat Turner's slave rebellion in 1831 and John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859 showed deep social discontent over the issue of slavery in Virginia and its role in the plantation economy. Besides agriculture, slave labor was also increasingly used in mining, shipbuilding and other industries. By 1860, almost half a million people, roughly thirty-one percent of the total population of Virginia, were enslaved.

Virginia seceded from the Union on April 17, 1861 after the Battle of Fort Sumter. Virginia turned over its military and ratified the Confederate States of America (CSA) constitution in June 1861. The CSA then moved its capitol to Richmond. In 1863 forty-eight counties in the northwest of the state separated from Virginia to form the State of West Virginia. Virginia in the American Civil War saw more battles fought than anywhere else, including the Battles of Bull Run, the Seven Days Battles, the Battle of Chancellorsville, and the concluding Battle of Appomattox Courthouse. After the capture of Richmond, the Confederate capitol was moved to Danville, Virginia. With the work of the Committee of Nine during post-war Reconstruction, Virginia formally rejoined the Union on January 26, 1870, and adopted a constitution which should have provided for Negro suffrage, a system of free public schools, and guarantee civil and political rights.
The Virginia Civil Rights Memorial was erected in 2008 to commemorate the protests which led to school desegregation.
The Virginia Civil Rights Memorial was erected in 2008 to commemorate the protests which led to school desegregation.

However during the culmination of the Jim Crow era, legislators rewrote the Constitution of Virginia to include a poll tax and other measures on voter registration that effectively disfranchised African Americans, leading to underfunding for segregated schools and services, and a lack of representation. African Americans still created vibrant communities and made progress. The first black students attended the University of Virginia School of Law in 1950, and Virginia Tech in 1953. Protests in Farmville started by Barbara Rose Johns led to the lawsuit Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County by Richmond natives Spottswood Robinson and Oliver Hill. This case was decided with Brown v. Board of Education. Virginia however declared in 1958 that desegregated schools would not receive state funding, under the policy of "massive resistance" spearheaded by the powerful segregationist Senator Harry F. Byrd. In 1959 Prince Edward County closed their schools rather than integrate them.

The Civil Rights Movement gained many participants in the 1960s and achieved the moral force to gain national legislation for protection of suffrage and civil rights for African Americans. In 1971, state legislators rewrote the constitution, after goals such as legal integration and the repeal of Jim Crow laws had been achieved. In 1989, Douglas Wilder became the first African American elected as governor in the United States.

In 1926, Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin, rector of Williamsburg's Bruton Parish Church, began restoration of colonial era buildings in the historic district with financial backing of John D. Rockefeller Jr. resulting in Colonial Williamsburg. World War II and the Cold War led to massive expansion of government programs in the areas near Washington. The Pentagon in Northern Virginia, was targeted in the September 11, 2001 attacks. In that attack, one hundred and eighty-five people died. Tragedy again struck Virginia in 2007 when thirty-two students were murdered in the Virginia Tech massacre. Continue Reading

Virginia Colony

At the time of the English colonization of Virginia, Native American people were living in what now is Virginia. Native American tribes in Virginia included the Cherokee, Chesepian, Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Meherrin, Monacan, Nansemond, Nottoway, Pamunkey, Powhatan, Rappahannock, Saponi and others. The natives are often divided into three groups, based to a large extent upon language differences. The largest group was known as the Algonquian led by Chief Powhatan. In 1607, the native Tidewater population was between 13,000 to 14,000. Powhatan controlled more than thirty tribes and over 150 settlements, speaking Virginia Algonquian. Two other large groups, the Nottoway and Meherrin, spoke dialects of Iroquois, and others in the piedmont used Sioux dialects.

In 1583, Queen Elizabeth I of England granted Sir Walter Raleigh a charter to explore and plant a colony north of Florida. In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh explored the Atlantic coast of North America. Raleigh, or possibly the Queen herself, named the area "Virginia" after Queen Elizabeth, known as the "Virgin Queen" because she never married. The name eventually applied to the whole coast from South Carolina to Maine, and included Bermuda. The London Virginia Company was incorporated as a joint stock company by the proprietary Charter of 1606, which granted land rights to this area. The Company financed the first permanent English settlement in the New World. Jamestown, named for King James I, was founded on May 13, 1607 by Captains Christopher Newport and John Smith. In 1609 many colonists died during the "starving time" after the loss of the Third Supply's flagship, the Sea Venture.

The House of Burgesses was established in 1619 as the colony's elected governance. During this early period Virginia's population grew with the introduction of settlers and servants into the burgeoning plantation economy. In 1619, African servants were first introduced, with slavery being codified in 1661. After 1618 the headright system led to more indentured servants from Europe. In this system, settlers received land for each servant they transported. Land from the Native Americans was appropriated by force and treaty, including the Treaty of 1677, which made the signatory tribes tributary states. The colonial capital was moved in 1699 to Williamsburg, where the College of William and Mary had been founded in 1693.

The House of Burgesses was temporarily dissolved in 1769 by the Royal governor Lord Botetourt, after Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee led speeches on the distresses of the British taxation without representation. In 1773, Henry and Lee formed a committee of correspondence, and in 1774 Virginia sent delegates to the Continental Congress. On May 15, 1776, the Virginia Convention declared independence from the British Empire. Shortly after, the Virginia Convention adopted the Virginia Declaration of Rights written by George Mason, a document that influenced the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Then on June 29, 1776, the convention enacted a constitution, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, that formally declared Virginia as an independent commonwealth.

During the American Revolutionary War, the capital was moved to Richmond at the urging of Governor Thomas Jefferson, fearing Williamsburg's location made it vulnerable to British attack. In 1781, the combined action of Continental and French land and naval forces trapped the British on the Yorktown peninsula, where troops under George Washington and French Comte de Rochambeau defeated British General Cornwallis in the Battle of Yorktown. The British surrender on October 19, 1781 so shifted British public opinion that it led to the end of major hostilities and secured the independence of the colonies. Continue Reading

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is an American state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. It is known as Virginia for short. The state is named after Queen Elizabeth I of England, who was known as the 'Virgin Queen' because she never married. The state is also known as the "Old Dominion" and sometimes "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. The state is geographically shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay. The capital of the commonwealth is Richmond, Virginia Beach is the most populous city, and Fairfax County is the most populous political subdivision.

The roots of modern Virginia trace back to the founding of the Virginia Colony in 1607 by the Virginia Company of London as the first permanent New World English colony. Slavery played significant roles in Virginia's early economy and politics. Virginia became one of the thirteen colonies in the American Revolution and subsequently joined the Confederacy in the American Civil War. Although traditionally conservative and historically part of the South, modern Virginia is a politically competitive state for both major national parties.

Virginia has an economy with several sectors, including agricultural production, military bases in Hampton Roads, and federal agencies, such as The Pentagon, in Northern Virginia. The Historic Triangle includes the popular heritage tourism destinations of Jamestown, Yorktown and the living museum of Colonial Williamsburg. The growth of the technology sector has made computer chips the state's leading export, with the industry based on the strength of Virginia's public schools and universities. Areas where the state has lagged behind include health care and environmental protection. Continue Reading