VOL. 54, NO. 20 • FEBRUARY 28 - MARCH 6, 2019 Teen Violence Awareness Month’s Lessons Challenge Ballou Youth / See Editorial, pg. 24
This Month’s WI Bridge Center Section
Remembering Trayvon Martin (Feb. 5, 1995 – Feb. 26, 2012)
Black Lives Matter Activist Pressures MPD for Surveillance Data
Black Boys Deserve the Chance to Become Men, Too
By Sam P.K. Collins WI Contributing Writer @SamPKCollins
By D. Kevin McNeir, WI Editor @dkevinmcneir The word stunned might best describe how U.S. citizens, particularly Blacks, felt after hearing that a six-member jury, following two days of deliberation in a Florida courthouse, found George Zimmerman not guilty in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Since then, other defendants would follow Zimmerman, using the controversial “stand your ground” law to avoid prosecution
TRAYVON Page 32
5 Over 16,000 high school students and parents were at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Northwest on Saturday, Feb. 23 visiting over 71 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) during the 17th Annual HBCU Festival presented by the Alfred Street Baptist Church. (See story on page 16) (Shevry Lassiter/The Washington Informer)
NE Residents Sue Over Proposed Fire Station By James Wright WI Contributing Writer The D.C. residents who live close to the intersection of Minnesota Avenue and Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue in Northeast want affordable housing in their neighborhood — not a fire station — and they recently went to court to make that point. Fifteen plaintiffs who live in the city’s Deanwood section on Minnesota Avenue’s northern end made an appearance at D.C. Superior Court on Feb. 19 to stop the city government and a de-
SURVEILLANCE Page 48
Chicago Poised to Elect First Black Female Mayor
velopment company, Valor Minnesota LLC, from building a fire station on the property of 4409 Minnesota Avenue NE. Dorothy Douglas, the advisory neighborhood commissioner for District 7D03 in Ward 7, lives several feet from the 4409 property and is not happy about what is going on with it. “I am a long-term homeowner of 4401 Minnesota Avenue NE, where I have been a resident for over 35 years,” said Douglas, who once served on the D.C. State
FIRE STATION Page 42
Years ago, as Black Lives Matter DC railed against the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), core organizer April Goggans often posted online about a marked police car parked in front of her home and other instances of alleged intimidation. Her lawsuit against MPD, two years in the making, revolves around a 9,000-page dossier that police department officials refuse to release. The outcome of the civil suit, predicted to end in early April, boils down to the question of
5 Lori Lightfoot (left) and Toni Preckwinkle (right) will compete in a runoff for the Chicago mayoral election on April 2. (Photos courtesy)
A field sporting 14 mayoral candidates has been reduced to two with Lori Lightfoot (17.5 percent of the vote) and Toni Preckwinkle (16 percent) advancing to an April runoff – the second in the city’s history, after voters went to the polls Tuesday, Feb. 26. When the smoke clears this spring, Chicago will elect its first African-American female mayor with either Lightfoot, a former prosecutor and a first-time candidate or Preckwinkle, the current Cook County Board president and a former, longtime alderman taking over the reign. The winner will also become the city’s second female mayor, following Jane Byrne, who served one term from 1979 to 1983. And if Lightfoot is elected, she will become the city’s first openly-gay mayor. Both would become the second African American elected Chicago mayor after Harold Washington, who served from 1983 until his death in 1987. WI
Celebrating 54 Years of Service / Serving More Than 50,000 Readers Throughout The Metropolitan Area