Richmond Planet documentary will be preserved as history

• Richmond-based Tilt Creative + Production, which self-produced the 26-minute documentary, announced this week that it's donating the film and its findings to the Black History Museum, the Library of Virginia and the Culture Center of Virginia.
• "Birth of a Planet — Richmond on Paper," which is available on PBS, took two years of researching, writing and filming.

Flashback: Mitchell became the paper's legendary editor in 1884, at 21 years old.

• He also owned a bank, served on City Council representing Jackson Ward and was the first Black man in Virginia to run for governor in 1921.
• In 2023, the DMV launched a Virginia license plate commemorating the Richmond Planet with a QR code that would direct users to the documentary.

What they're saying: Reginald Carter, who proposed and designed the license plate, told the Times-Dispatch that, "You can't tell Virginia's story without telling John Mitchell and The Richmond Planet's story."

• "Just like you can't tell American history without telling Black history."