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In Memoriam Dr. Calvin W. Rolark, Sr. Wilhelmina J. Rolark THE WASHINGTON INFORMER NEWSPAPER (ISSN#0741-9414) is published weekly on each Thursday. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C. and additional mailing offices. News and advertising deadline is Monday prior to publication. Announcements must be received two weeks prior to event. Copyright 2013 by The Washington Informer. All rights reserved. POSTMASTER: Send change of addresses to The Washington Informer, 3117 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave., S.E. Washington, D.C. 20032. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. The Informer Newspaper cannot guarantee the return of photographs. Subscription rates are $45 per year, two years $60. Papers will be received not more than a week after publication. Make checks payable to:
PUBLISHER Denise Rolark Barnes
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STAFF Denise W. Barnes, Editor Shantella Y. Sherman, Assistant Editor Ron Burke, Advertising/ Marketing Director Lafayette Barnes, IV, Assistant Photo Editor Khalid Naji-Allah, Staff Photographer John E. De Freitas, Sports Photo Editor Dorothy Rowley, Online Editor Brian Young, Design & Layout Mable Neville, Bookkeeper Mickey Thompson, Social Sightings columnist Stacey Palmer, Social Media Specialist Angie Johnson, Circulation
Stacy Brown, Sam P.K. Collins, Michelle Phipps-Evans, Eve Ferguson, Gale Horton Gay, Elton J. Hayes, Njunga Kabugi, Stacey Palmer, Dorothy Rowley, Barrington Salmon, Margaret Summers, Charles E. Sutton, James Wright
It Starts With You!
T
welve years ago, as the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation kicked off its Annual Legislative Conference, the nation moved slowly through the grieving process and loss of innocence that lay in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Performers Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson (Ashford and Simpson) began their performance at the conference, but suddenly stopped to address the collective grief hovering about the room. They asked each person to take the hand of a stranger, look them in the face for a full thirty seconds, and then embrace them. As the room filled with sobs, the duo implored the audience to think of themselves as the healers their neighbors needed; the comfort, the fresh start, the little bit of kindness, the world required to move to a better place. As the CBCF’s 43rd Annual Legislative Conference welcomes more than 10,000 people this year, the Informer challenges attendees similarly, to actively seek ways to positively impact the world around them and carry those action plans back to their own communities. In the face of continued racial and social inequities, including aggressive attempts at voter suppression and the George Zimmerman verdict, many activists have felt discouraged and disillusioned, making this year’s Conference that much more important. The call for active engagement and planning at the CBCF ALC is hardly new. In fact, from its infancy, the Caucus has aided Black communities around the world through hosting issues forums, brain trusts, town hall meetings, networking sessions, and providing health assessments. The late-actor and activist Ossie Davis said in a 1971 speech before the Caucus that it was an imperative of the legislative body to devise and disseminate a plan that would become second-nature to all Blacks and disenfranchised people. Noting the subdued nature of the civil rights movement following the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Davis proclaimed, when one of our leaders is killed or falls in battle, there should be a plan of action where the next man can pick up the baton and continue the plan. In this supplement, political scientist Dr. Wilmer Leon explores Davis’ call for an action plan “so simple, so easy to remember that we carry it in our heads, so that if the storm of oppression should wipe us out, all but one family, and that family was crouching somewhere in the dark, one brother could reach out to another and say, “Hey, hey man, what’s the plan?” Denise Rolark Barnes also provides readers with insight into the future of the Caucus foundation in her interview with CBCF president, A. Shuanise Washington. This year’s ALC theme, “It Starts with You,” also urges individuals to champion much-needed change in public policy by seizing individual opportunities to improve the world around them. Harkening participants back to comedian Bill Cosby’s 1972 Caucus speech, in which he said, “You’ve got to tighten up your ship; tighten up your game because it just doesn’t end here. You don’t need speakers every day to tell you who you are and where you need to be,” it is time to put shoulders to boulders and push forward. The Washington Informer’s founder Dr. Calvin Rolark understood that the battle for equality sometimes meant pushing forward aggressively, and other times, planning economic, legislative, and social strategy. Insisting, as Dr. Rolark did, “If it is to be, it is up to me,” the Informer encourages each individual among the 10,000 that gather, to own and cultivate their own piece of progress. Read & Enjoy,
PHOTOGRAPHERS John E. De Freitas, Roy Lewis, Khalid Naji-Allah, Shevry Lassiter
Shantella Y. Sherman Editor, Special Editions
cbcf-2 THE WASHINGTON INFORMER | 43RD ANNUAL LEGISLATIVE CAUCUS SPECIAL ISSUE | SEPTEMBER 2013
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