The Washington Informer - February 11, 2016

I N S I D E

Flint Water Crisis Sparks Congressional Outrage Page 5

Virginia Pastor Honored with NAACP Award Page 13

VOL. 51, NO. 18 FEB. 11 - 17, 2016 First Lady Weighs in on Black Hogan’s State Budget includes County’s Hospital Project Page 18 History Page 33

We’re Celebrating Black History Month - Page 26

Sanders, Trump Romp to Victory in New Hampshire Primary

NNPA EXCLUSIVE

Voters Move Away from Establishment Candidates

By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer

Hillary Clinton Tours Troubled Flint, Michigan

After months of vigorous, boastful and – in the case of Donald Trump – vulgar campaigning, New Hampshire voters turned out in record numbers to vote in the nation’s first primary.

On the Democrat side, Bernie Sanders scored a victory over Hillary Clinton adding fuel to his fire while Trump easily outdistanced the field in the Republican primary.

At stake in New Hampshire were 32 delegates for Democrats and 23 for Republicans.

The Democrats now head to Nevada for that state’s caucus on Saturday, February 20, while the Republicans next square off in the South Carolina primary that same day.

Then, the parties flip-flop, with the GOP caucus held in Nevada on Tuesday, February 23 and Democrats heading to South Carolina on Saturday, Feb. 27.

Even before the polls closed in New Hampshire Tuesday night, CNN reported that Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook was working “to spin” what he said would be a loss, arguing that supporters should ignore the defeat,

not sweat Nevada and South Carolina too much, and look to March.

“The nomination will very likely be won in March, not February, and we believe that Hillary Clinton is well positioned to build a strong – potentially insurmountable – delegate lead next month,” Mook said in a memo released at 8 p.m. as the polls closed.

Clinton’s campaign said it’s focused on the 28 states that award 56 percent of the Democratic delegates in March.

In the memo, Mook touted “an analytics-based approach” to focus

PRIMARY Page 10

Lends Her Voice, Support for Federal Plan to Aid City

By D. Kevin McNeir WI Editor Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took a pause from campaigning on Sunday, Feb. 7 to visit Flint, Michigan at the invitation of the city’s mayor, Karen Weaver, following weeks of conver-

sations between the two leaders about the health crisis that citizens, particularly children, continue to face after several years of drinking and bathing in tainted water.

While on the campaign trail and even during interviews and

FLINT Page 11

Vincent Gray: ‘We have a lot of work to do’ Former Mayor to Challenge Ward 7’s Alexander

By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer Washington, D.C. voters have proven time and again, they are forgiving souls.

Particularly if a politician has done what’s right in for

District residents – ala Mayor for Life Marion Barry – or as Vincent Gray is seeking to discover, if an injustice has been done.

Gray officially announced that he’s on the comeback trail.

GRAY Page 9

5 Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia) autographs copies of his book “March” for Kiyon Pinkney, 9 and Charlee

Pinkney, 5 accompanied by their aunt Narrell Pinkney during Black History Month Family Day at the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Northwest on Saturday, Feb. 6. / Photo by Travis Riddick

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The CoLumn

Is Everywhere!

By Dr. Charles Vincent & “Mickey” Thompson Vincent

"Christmas for the Archousai"

The Beta Mu Boule of the Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, Inc presented its 34th anniversary dinner at the Bethesda Marriott North in Bethesda Md. in December. The immediate Past Sire Archon Reginald Felton and his Archousa Diane Felton presided along with the Sire Archon Elect Brian Johnson and his guest. It was a lovely affair.

2016 Beta Mu Boule Archon Officers with their Archousai

Current Sire Archon Dr. Brian Johnson & his guest

Archon Robert & Archousa Andrea Hagans

Archon Maurice Jourdain-Eart & Archousa Judith Jourdain-Earl

Archon Dr. Charles & Archousa Mickey Vincent

Past Sire Archon Atty. Donald Thigpen & guest Gwyneth Collins

ArchonsRichard Wallace & Joan Holton

Archon Leslie & Spencer Overton & Archon and Archousa Walter Morriss & Archon Haskell & Archousa Archon Dr. Mickey & ArFisher, Archon Donad chousa La Vera Burnim Thipen & Guest

Archon Dr. William & Anna Powell

Archon Knowlton & Archousa Rosalynne Atterbeary

Standing - Chuck Baron, Greg Ashby, Archon Dr. Charles Vincent & Archousa Mickey Vincent, Archon & Archon Haskell & Archousa Barbara Archousa guests, Arnold Archon Atty. Edward Gray & his Archou- Seated- Martha Baron, Lavern Chatman Brown, Atty Regina Dillard Ashby & Sandra Norman sa Atty. Sherri Blount Gray

Immediate Past Sire Archon Reginald & Diane Felton

Atty. Regina Dillard Ashby, Sandra Norman, Archousai Mickey Vincent & Lavern Chatman Brown

Archon Leonard & Archousa Mary Haynes

To Publish your event on the Social Sightings-the CoLumn Page and/or in the MagaZine

Archon Dwayne & Archousa Shaydra Robinson

Contact us at socialsightings@aol.com

Kurt Pommonths, Sr, Photographer * Photo Enhancer * Graphic Designer Social Sightings-The CoLumn is published in The Washington Informer Newspaper the Hill Rag, DC Mid-City, & East of the River Journals, 2003 © SOCIAL SIGHTINGS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED — DUPLICATION IN ANY FORM REQUIRES WRITTEN PERMISSION | E-mail SocialSightings@aol.com

2 FEB. 11 - 17, 2016

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contents

FEB. 11 - 17, 2016

Around the Region.................. 4-11 PG County............................... 12-14 Business...........................................15 National.....................................16-17 Health...............................................18 Education................................20-21 OpEd........................................23-25 Black History Month...........26-32 Lifestyle.................................. 33-36 Sports.......................................37-38 Religion...........................................39

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W I H OT TO P I C S COMPILED BY D. KEVIN MCNEIR / WI EDITOR

Trayon White Joins Ward 8 City Council Race

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PUBLISHER Denise Rolark Barnes STAFF D. Kevin McNeir, Editor Ron Burke, Advertising/ Marketing Director Shevry Lassiter, Photo Editor Lafayette Barnes, IV, Assistant Photo Editor John E. De Freitas, Sports Photo Editor Dorothy Rowley, Online Editor ZebraDesigns.net, Design & Layout Mable Neville, Bookkeeper Mickey Thompson, Social Sightings columnist Stacey Palmer, Social Media Specialist Angie Johnson, Circulation REPORTERS Stacy Brown (Senior Writer), Sam P.K. Collins, Eve Ferguson, Will Ford (Prince George’s County Writer), Elton Hayes, D. Kevin McNeir, Dorothy Rowley, Kia Croom, Joya Patel, Rachel Sudduth, Sarafina Wright (General Assignment Writer) PHOTOGRAPHERS John E. DeFreitas, Shevry Lassiter, Roy Lewis, Patricia Little, Corey Parrish, Travis Riddick, Nancy Shia

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The race for the Ward 8 council seat is heating up. Trayon White, the runner-up in the 2015 Ward 8 election, picked up petitions this week to challenge Ward 8 Councilmember LaRuby May, the incumbent, in the upcoming Democratic primary on June 14.

White, a former Ward 8 school board member and community activist, announced his campaign on Monday, February 8 on the corner of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X Avenues in Southeast. The sparse crowd and cold weather did not deter White and his supporters from soliciting signatures from passersby who greeted him with a sense of familiarity.

White, who calls himself “a fighter for the people [of Ward 8]” said, “I’m running because I believe D.C. is in a peculiar place, more specifically Ward 8 where a lot of the common people are getting left out of the equation. I feel like this opportunity presents itself at a time where I feel like I’ve got to step into the race and create a strong alternative.”

White will challenge LaRuby May who won the seat left open by Marion Barry who died while in office in November, 2013. May and White led a crowded field of 23 Ward 8 candidates including Stuart Anderson and Juahar Abraham, who dropped out to the race to support White. Anderson will serve as White’s campaign manager and Abraham said he will continue to support White’s candidacy.

“This time we have a lot of people that ran in the last election that will be supporting this campaign,” said White, but he would not reveal the names, but offered that they will be announced at a later date.

Councilmember May, announced her candidacy for reelection in January and, according to her January 31 campaign finance report, the Campaign to Reelect LaRuby May has received over $90,000 in campaign contributions.

Efforts to Rename Ballou High Gain Steam

The deadline for those who have once lived in the District to cast their vote for a name change for Frank W. Ballou Senior High in Southeast is drawing near. Voters have until February 29th.

Ballou, with an award-winning school band, remains a real source of pride for residents in the community.

However, one year after the death of Mayor Marion Barry, District officials listed among their recommendations to honor the beloved “Mayor for Life” to rename in his honor.

Now that move has gained a lot of steam. And while school district rules say a person must be dead two years before a school is renames, Bowser and the D.C. Council can override that rule.

It looks like they may be inclined to do just that.

Their biggest opposition may come from current students and their parents, many of whom seem to be reluctant to rename their school. They say it should retain the same name because it’s an historical school, despite the fact that reports have surfaced suggesting that Ballou, a school superintendent from the 1920s to the 1940s, was a racist.

Bowser Details Plan to Close DC General

It was last fall when the DC Council voted to support Mayor Muriel Bowser’s plan to close DC General – replacing it with short-term housing facilities across the District.

And earlier this week, she unveiled the next stage of her plan and the sites for new housing facilities in all eight wards.

“In a city as prosperous as ours, there is no reason we should keep families at DC General. The building is too big, too old and too far removed from the services that get families back on their feet,” she said. “I have been working with the Council on a plan that will create small, short-term family housing. These facilities will be modern, safe and dignified – and will bring us one step closer to our goal of ending homelessness in the District of Columbia.”

On Wednesday, Feb. 10, she cut the ribbon on a brand new women’s shelter in Ward 2 at 810 5th Street NW – a facility that will house up to 213 women and replace two outdated ones.

The housing facilities she’s planning will accommodate up to 50 families and have places for children of all ages to play and do homework. They’ll also include the kind of services and programming that helps families exit shelter and move to permanent housing as soon as possible.

Bowser’s plan has received accolades from Julian Castro, secretary of U.S. Housing & Urban Development, Matthew Doherty, executive director, U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, Nan Roman, president and CEO, National Alliance to End Homelessness and Brianne Nadeau, Ward 1 Councilmember.

But while Councilmember Kenyon McDuffie said he supports the decision to close DC General, he says he’s opposed to the proposed location of the Ward 5 shelter [2622 25th Place NE]. A meeting to discuss the proposed shelter has been scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 11 at 6:30 p.m. at New Canaan Baptist Church, 2826 Bladensburg Road.

Community Continues Support for Fauntroy Family

Former congressman and retired pastor, Walter E. Fauntroy remains somewhere overseas but his wife, Dorothy, still remains home here in D.C., waiting for his safe return.

In fact, she still resides in the home that the two first move into when they moved to the District. But it hasn’t been easy for the devoted wife, who’s been married to her husband for close to 60 years. Some reports say that he’s in Dubai. And from time to time she does speak with him.

But the bills have to be paid.

And to that end, leaders of his former church which Dorothy Fauntroy still attends, Mt. Zezreel Baptist Church in Silver Spring [formerly located in the District], now under the direction of the Rev. Eldridge Spearman, recently held a day of celebration and fundraising while recognizing the 83rd birthday of her husband.

The events, all held on Saturday, Feb. 6, included an essay contest for youth, a legacy luncheon, a roundtable discussion and a concert featuring choirs and soloists from around the DMV. Dr. Viola Bradford, who also donated copies of a memoir of Fauntroy for sale that she co-wrote and released in 2009, said $5,000 was raised to assist the family. She, along with the church’s minister of music, David Lindsey, planned the day’s events.

More fundraisers will be held in the future.

Those who wish to contribute can call Spearman at 301-573-3376 or contact Bradford at bebebradford3@gmail. com. In addition, supporters can mail checks to the Walter E. Fauntroy Family Fund, c/o the National Congress of Women, 1250 Fourth Street SW, Suite WG-1, Washington, D.C. 20024.

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Flint Water Crisis Sparks Congressional Outrage Vigil for Residents Held on Capitol Hill

ly responsible for the catastrophe.

“Emergency Managers in Michigan have absolute authority over local authorities,” he said. “The mayor and city council have zero authority.”

Kildee went on to say that it was the state Emergency Managers who made the decision to switch the city’s water source to the Flint River.

“Get to the facts, not just who should be fired and subpoenaed, but how do we make this right for the people of Flint,” he said. “The

state has a moral responsibility, not to just apologize, but if you have it in your power to make it right you need to stand up and make it right.”

“The governor should write a check tomorrow for $16 million to fix this,” he said. “He’s sitting on a billion dollar surplus.” WI

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5The Rev. Al Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network (NAN) with the Rev. Charles Williams, NAN Detroit Chapter president (left) and Flint resident Melissa Mays (right) and dozens of activists and supporters fight for the citizens of Flint, Michigan in the midst of an unprecedented water crisis during a prayer vigil at the U.S. Capitol in Southeast on Wednesday, Feb. 3. / Photo by Travis Riddick

By Sarafina Wright WI Staff Writer @dreamersexpress Advocates and protestors joined Flint, Michigan, residents on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Feb. 3 for a congressional hearing on the city’s water crisis to show solidarity and to call for the outing of Gov. Rick Snyder.

Busloads of concerned citizens and members of the National Action Network [NAN] from Michigan and the District packed the hearing, several of whom testified about the crisis that has sparked a nationwide backlash against the Republican governor.

“I am an American citizen and I am absolutely outraged,” Renla Session, a member of Detroit’s NAN chapter said. “Not only am I related by blood to half of Flint, they are human beings.”

“I’ve seen the injustices to poor people of all colors,” she said.

Sessions said that even though she doesn’t live in Flint, such a crisis could very well happen in Detroit.

“We are very concerned in Detroit that we could be next,” she said. “Based on what we know our dear Emergency Manager at the water plant use to have 40 chemists. Now we’re down to 12.”

Sessions was one of many to sit in on the congressional hearing where Rep. Elijah Cummings berated officials from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Michigan State Emergency office.

Noticeably absent from the hearing was Michigan Governor Snyder.

“The governor handpicked appointees to deal with this. Obviously [he] should have to answer for his decisions,” Cummings said.

“We asked for a meeting. He would not.”

“We want answers from everybody from the EPA to local officials. This is totally unacceptable to the people of Flint, Congress and American citizens,” he said.

Cummings asserted that he had a letter from a pediatrician in Flint stating that thousands of children under the age of six have been exposed to lead which could cause serious health and behavioral problems.

“The state has failed the people of Flint,” Cummings said. “If we act selectively for political reasons we become a part of the problem.

We don’t have the right to remain silent. We request testimony from Governor Snyder and the three emergency appointees.”

Rep. Dale Kildee of Michigan, whose hometown is Flint, said during the hearing he takes the water crisis very serious.

“It breaks my heart not just because of what has been inflicted, but because it was entirely avoidable,” he said. “Right now the water is still not safe to drink in Flint.

High loads of lead continue to show up.”

Kildee said despite the blame game, the state of Michigan is sole-

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February 1 – June 30, 2016 Be sure to apply soon as funds are not guaranteed and will be dispersed on a first come, first serve basis until they are exhausted.

Receive up to $10,000 in tuition assistance.

Eligible District of Columbia students can receive up to $10,000 in grant assistance toward the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition at public four-year colleges and universities. Additionally, collegebound students can apply for $2,500 in funding per academic year toward tuition at private colleges and universities in the District, private Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and two-year colleges nationwide.

District of Columbia Office of the State Superintendent of Education

Apply at dconeapp.dc.gov for school year 2016-17, using any mobile device or computer.

For more information, call (202) 727-2824

osse.dc.gov

@DC_TAG

THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA HOUSING AUTHORITY REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP) SOLICITATION NO.: 0011-2016 REAL ESTATE BROKERAGE SERVICES The District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA) requires qualified Real Estate Brokerage firms to provide complete Real Estate Brokerage Services for its Scattered Sites Portfolio located in various neighborhoods throughout the District of Columbia in accordance with the Scope of Services outlined in the solicitation.

SOLICITATION DOCUMENTS will be available at the Issuing Office at 1133 North Capitol Street, NE, Suite 300, Office of Administrative Services/Contracts and Procurement, Washington, DC 20002-7599, between the hours of 9:00am and 4:00pm, Monday through Friday, beginning on Monday, February 8, 2016; and on DCHA’s web site at www.dchousing.org SEALED PROPOSAL RESPONSES are due to the Issuing Office by 11:00am on Wednesday, March 9, 2016.

Contact the Issuing Office, LaShawn Mizzell-McLeod on (202) 535-1212 or by email at lmmcleod@ dchousing.org for additional information.

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FEB. 11 - 17, 2016 5

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FEB. 11

1971 – Whitney M. Young Jr. was executive director of the National Urban League from 1961 until his tragic, untimely death in 1971. He worked tireless to bring the races together, and joined the tenets of social work, of which he was an outstanding practitioner, to the social activism that brought the Urban League into the forefront of the civil rights arena.

1990 – Nelson Mandela is released from prison on Robben Island after 27 years. He had been jailed for his militant activities against the then White-ruled South African government and its system of rule known as Apartheid.

FEB. 12

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BUYING RECORDS

1793 – Congress passes the first Fugitive Slave Law. The law made it easier for a slave owner to re-take control of a slave who had escaped to freedom.

1865 – Henry Highland Garnett was an African American abolitionist and orator. He was the first Black minister to preach to the United States House of Representatives.

1900 – Legendary poet James Weldon Johnson writes the lyrics to the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as part of a birthday tribute to Abraham Lincoln.

1909 – A group of African American leaders joined together to form a new permanent civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

1923 – The first Black professional basketball team “The Renaissance” organized 1923.

1930 – The infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment is funded. Over 400 Black men from rural parts of Georgia and Alabama are lured into the program with the promise that they would be treated for syphilis. But the program was actually designed to study the effects of untreated syphilis on the body.

1934 – William Felton Russell, better known as “Bill” Russell, player-coach of the Boston Celtics basketball team in 1968 and 1969 was born in Monroe, Louisiana.

FEB. 13

can Buying Vinyl Records from 1950 to 1986, Jazz, Rock-n-Roll, R&B, Disco, Soul, Reggae, Blues, Gospel, and record format 33 1/3, 45s, and some of the older 78s.

Prefer larger collections of at least 100.

ing union

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1907 – Wendell P. Dabney establishes the groundbreaking Black newspaper known as The Union in Cincinnati, Ohio. The paper’s motto was “For no people become great without beunited, for in there is

Michael Jordan

strength.”

1920 – The first successful Negro League established at a YMCA in Kansas City, Missouri by Andrew “Rube” Foster who served as its president.

1991 – African American inventor Dr. Lonnie G. Johnson patents the Super Soaker toy that goes on to sell over 40 million units making it the top selling toy in the US in 1991 and 1992.

FEB. 14

1817 – The most likely birth date of abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass. Douglass purchased his freedom in 1845 and went on to become the most influential Black leader of his day. He did most of his work while living in Rochester, New York. But after the Civil War, he moved to Washington, D.C. 1867 – One of the nation’s most distinguished institutions of higher learning, Morehouse College, was founded on this day in Augusta, Georgia.

1936 – National Negro Congress organized at Chicago meeting attended by 817 delegates representing more than 500 organizations. Asa Phillip Randolph of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was elected president of the new organization.

FEB. 15

1848 – Sarah Roberts barred from White school in Boston. Her father, Benjamin Roberts, filed the first school integration suit on her behalf.

1965 – Great singer and Jazz pianist Nat King Cole dies of lung cancer in Santa Monica, California. He was only 45. Cole was the first Black entertainer with his own radio program and later he became the first with a nationally televised TV variety show.

FEB. 16

1923 – The “Empress of the Blues” Bessie Smith makes her first recording – “Downhearted Blues” – which immediately sells over 800,000 copies for Columbia Records and over 2,000,000 copies by the end of the year. She died in an automobile accident in 1937 in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

1951 – The City Council in New York City passes what is believed to be the first law barring racial discrimination in public assisted housing.

FEB. 17

1902 – Opera legend Marian Anderson is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Despite her fame she suffered from racist rejection. On Easter Sunday 1939, she performed an open air recital at the Lincoln Memorial because the all White Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow her to sing at Washington, D.C.’s Constitution Hall.

1942 – Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton is born. The Panthers were perhaps the most militant Black organization of the 1960’s.

1963 – Perhaps the greatest player to ever dribble a basketball, Michael Jordan, was born on this day in Brooklyn, New York. However, his family moved and he played high school basketball in Wilmington, North Carolina.

WI

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FINAL PITCH

Carolina Panthers’ quarterback Cam Newton has received a lot of negative attention for his celebratory dances after touchdowns.

He recently said he believes some of the criticism stems from the fact that he’s an “African-American QB that may scare people because they haven’t seen nothing they can compare me to.” Do you think some of Newton’s criticisms might stem from the fact that he is an African-American?

JAMAAL WILLIAMS WASHINGTON, D.C.

He’s taken a lot of heat for his celebratory end zone celebrations and those actions are seen a bit more unfavorably than his peers’. I think there’s a double standard for him that might be there because of his age or race. I’m sad that he lost the Super Bowl, but I’m sure it won’t be his last opportunity to win one.

CHRISTOPHER GOMES WASHINGTON, D.C.

I like his enthusiasm and his brashness. I think the Super Bowl this year was a great contradiction in styles between [Newton and Peyton Manning]. It was old school versus new school. And there were a couple of people who took issue with Newton’s interview where he said that he felt his Blackness contributed to some of the criticism he’s received. I think it’s a good thing he said because you can’t escape that phenomenon. I think Cam Newton represents the younger hip-hop culture that has a wider audience that people relate to. I do think that you have to change your message sometime and know your audience.

The Reality PITCH Competition

By Inez Kelley Kelley Media Marketing, Inc. www.finalpitchtv.com What started out as simple dialogue between myself and an associate (who shall remain nameless) quickly turned into a fierce debate... The subject; how beneficial has it been to have had a black president...? along with addressing a sentiment held by a few of President Obama’s failure to have done anything concrete for the causes of black people.

This after several notable black pundits (who’ve penned books on this topic) have voiced their displeasure, now brings on the critics...Had he really done all he could to better the lives of those who most resemble him?

My associate’s position; In this place of being Commander and Chief of the free world, President Obama has failed to change the plight of blacks. He furthered his argument in that with the authority afforded President Obama, he was in the prime position to make necessary changes in policy that would greatly impact black lives.

Counter thought is this thinking only negates the responsibility of each individual’s accountability to the advancement that is the human experience.

No matter who’s at the helm, there will always be those individuals who operate from the savior mentality, waiting on ‘that one’ designated to bear the consequences of the choices we lack the wisdom or courage to own.

Being President, whether of a country or corporation is a great undertaking. No one person is capable of singlehandedly elevating any group without the participation from the group itself. To the degree the people share in their own deliverance will determine its success.

And though we may debate over policy, what is not up for debate is President Obama’s term is history making.

He has altered the mind of generations both blacks/whites, that will know only a black president as being the ‘rule’ and everything else being the exception and for that reason alone, without policy he has successfully changed the trajectory for blacks, the rest is up to us.

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ANETTE BROWN WASHINGTON, D.C.

I think it’s been a little unfair. He’s still young and he’s always been positive. If you don’t toot your own horn, who will? Kids love him and I think that more or less he’s a good person. I think the Super Bowl loss will force him to accept losses and it will ultimately make him a better person and a better player.

JOHN MERCER BOWIE, MARYLAND

I don’t think he’s being treated fairly by the media. A lot of African-Americans are just more animated. I think the media is going too far. If he wants to dance and celebrate, let him do so. He’s playing football at the highest level. He isn’t hurting anyone or cheating. It makes no sense and it’s a problem for us as Blacks. The media and the people who are making an issue out of his actions need to stop.

DARRYL HARPER CHEVERLY, MARYLAND

I believe the attention he received about race was based on him playing against Manning in the Super Bowl. It’s not like he’s the first Black quarterback to go to the Super Bowl. In the Super Bowl, Denver’s defense was good, but if you look at the way Newton played, something was definitely wrong with him. They played a mind game with him with their questions and their disdain for him just being happy and playing football. I hate to say it, but it worked.

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AG Lynch: ‘Black History Month Vital for America’

By William J. Ford WI Staff Writer @jabariwill Attorney General Loretta Lynch outlined why Black History Month is important: to highlight the work African Americans have done to stamp out inequality, bolster civil rights for all Americans and that voting booths must be considered hollowed places.

The nation’s 83rd attorney general and the first Black woman to hold the position spoke to several hundred politicians, high school students and community leaders Saturday, Feb. 6 at the 35th annual 5th Congressional District Black History Month breakfast celebration at the Camelot

by Martin’s in Upper Marlboro. This year’s theme at the invitation-only event: “Hallowed Grounds: Sites of African-American Memories.”

“That is why commemorations like this one are so important because by looking to the challenges of the past, we find strength to meet the difficulties of the present,” she said. “Our history reminds us that the pursuit of justice, the struggle for liberty, the quest for equality – these things have never been easy and progress has never been certain.”

Lynch highlighted how the Justice Department headquarters, currently on Pennsylvania Avenue in Northwest with art deco and Greek features, was at various locations such as the Freedom’s National Bank building also in Northwest.

“Although it is not on the official list of Black History Month sites . . .

I like to think that spirit of that institution was absorbed into the bones of the Department of Justice,” she said. “I like to think that the hopes of equality and the dreams of full participation in American life were transmitted to those of us who work

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to make those hopes and dreams come true every day.”

Lynch, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland), who represents the 5th Congressional district, all praised the volunteers in an event that attracted hundreds of people to help celebrate the program’s 35th anniversary.

A 14-member committee began planning the event several months ago, but volunteers wanted to make this year’s event special. So everyone received a 2016 U.S. Capitol Historical Society calendar, the state of Maryland’s African-American Heritage travel guide, a passport of historical black sites in Prince George’s County and a poster completed by students at Bowie High School.

Attendees also took home a small poster of all 35 guest speakers who attended the Black History Month celebrations that included: the event’s first speaker in 1982, the late James Taylor, the first Black circuit court judge in the county; the late D.C. Mayor Marion Barry in 1987; President Barack Obama while serving as an Illinois senator in 2006; and Valerie Jarrett in 2010, a senior

advisor to the president.

“I was doing it with a few civic leaders when we first started, but now it’s become so big we have hundreds of people coming now,” said Betty Richardson of Landover, a retired staff member for Hoyer who chairs the committee and has been involved in the program every year.

“We want to bring a message to the people . . . and for our children to see what African Americans have accomplished,” she said. “This can be an inspiration for our young people that the jobs these people do can be done by them. All you have to do is dream.”

Dozens of high school students participated in the program such as the Suitland High School’s women’s choir. One choir member, 11th grader Brittany Lyles, said she was thrilled to perform before Lynch and other dignitaries.

“It was mind blowing. I’m just stoked right now,” Brittany, 16, said. “[Lynch] talked about all the great things [civil rights activists] do for us and the things they go through in the process. I learned something new.”

WI

WORDS TO LIVE BY

EMPLOYMENT LAWYERS

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5U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch serves as the keynote speaker at the Maryland 5th Congressional District 35th Anniversary Black History Month breakfast celebration at the Camelot in Upper Marlboro, Md. on Saturday, Feb. 6. / Photo

by Patricia Little

James Baldwin “I do not wish to see Negroes become the equal of their murderers. I wish us to become equal to ourselves. To become a people so free in themselves that they will have no need to – fear – others – and have no need to murder others.”

“Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone” [1968]

“Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

“As Much Truth As One Can Bear,” New York Times [Jan. 14, 1962]

jmccollum@jmlaw.net

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AROUND THE REGION said.

The January poll conducted

by Higher Ground PAC showed Gray leading the incumbent by 16 points. Gray’s support among likely Democratic voters was 48 percent; the incumbent received 32 percent.

The Democratic primary is June 14, 2016.

Carrie L. Thornhill, a longtime resident of Ward 7, will chair Gray’s campaign. For more than 40 years, Thorn-

hill has been actively engaged in public education reform, community development and social action.

Thornhill has served as chair of the Washington East Foundation, vice president for Youth Investment and Community Outreach with DC Agenda, president of the Committee on Strategies to Reduce Chronic Poverty, project manager for the DC Kids Count Collaborative, CEO of Pre-K for All

DC and a mayoral appointee to the District of Columbia Board of Education, the Board of Zoning Adjustment and the University of the District of Columbia.

Chuck Thies, Gray’s 2014 campaign manager, will serve as treasurer and communications director. The former mayor said other campaign officials and a campaign kickoff celebration will be announced soon. WI

5Ward 7 Council member candidate Vince Gray. / Photo by Patricia Little GRAY from Page 1 The former mayor is starting out in his home territory, Ward 7, where he’ll challenge incumbent Yvette Alexander in June for a seat on the council.

“The hope and promise of Ward 7 cannot slip away. Every day I see our accomplishments slowing or stalled. The people we’ve helped here in Ward 7 and across the District deserve better. If we work together as a community our voices will not be ignored,” Gray said.

And, it’s not like the ever-perceptive Gray is going into the race blindly.

Just last month, a poll partially commissioned by supporters, revealed that Gray, 73, was heavily favored by Democratic voters should he seek a Ward 7 bid.

The poll also gave Gray a slight edge over Vincent Orange’s At-Large seat. And, although a run for that chair would seem a bit more of a challenge, the support is there nonetheless.

“He’s still Mayor Gray to a lot of us,” Sean Stetson, a Ward 7 resident and supporter said.

“We’ll be there for him because we believe that he’ll always be here for us,” Stetson said.

Late last year, federal pros-

ecutors said they had dropped an investigation into Gray after looking into possible illegal campaign finance charges that effectively derailed the ex-mayor’s 2014 re-election bid.

“Based on a thorough review of the available evidence and applicable law, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has concluded that the admissible evidence is likely insufficient to obtain and sustain a criminal conviction” . . . the office said in a statement.

Gray had always maintained his innocence during the probe and he said he remains convinced that the investigation cost him the mayor’s office which he might seek another shot at later.

In announcing his campaign, Gray said, “When people ask why I am returning to the campaign trail, I tell them, ‘Because we have a lot of work to do. If we don’t do it, who will?’”

“I have dedicated my entire career to serving and uplifting District residents, especially those with the greatest needs.

Today, too many of our neighbors are living without jobs, the security of a stable home, or the certainty of a warm meal. Our streets feel less safe.

A young generation seeking direction is looking to us to lead.

Our work is not finished,” he

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FEB. 11 - 17, 2016 9

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on March states that will yield the most delegates, large-scale voter contact operations already in place and an advertising strategy using “a range of optimization tools to ensure that messages are reaching the right voters in the key media markets in the most cost-efficient way.”

“The March states represent an opportunity to build a coalition of support that’s as diverse as the Democratic Party itself,” Mook wrote. “[Latinos] and African Americans play a critical role in who we are as a party and who we are as a nation,” he said. “Many of the most delegate-rich states also have some of the largest minority and urban populations – states like Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Illinois and Florida.”

Still, political watchers at CNN, MSNBC and the New York Times said the Sanders and Trump victories represented major blows to both the Democratic and Republican establishments.

While Trump has led in New Hampshire polls since July, and Sanders has been ahead for the last month, the wave of support for both men was nonetheless stunning to leaders of both parties who believed that in the end, voters would embrace more experienced candidates like Clinton or one of the Republican governors in the race, according to the New York Times which also projected the primary winners just as the polls closed.

Yet the two men won significant support from voters who felt betrayed by their respective parties and were dissatisfied or angry with the federal government, the newspaper reported.

By winning so handily, Trump, the billionaire New Yorker and Sanders, the senator who hails from Vermont, asserted themselves as political forces with whom their parties and their opponents must quickly reckon.

5(l)Republican candidate Donald Trump. (r)Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders.

On the Republican side, with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas winning the Iowa caucuses and Trump prevailing in New Hampshire, the political establishment is now confronted with two leading candidates running well-funded campaigns, both explicitly against the leadership of the party whose nomination they seek. Their success in the two early nominating states suggests that a long, costly and unusually turbulent primary campaign will follow.

The Times noted that Trump’s candidacy, in particular, represents a potential takeover of a party in which he has scant ties. Leveraging celebrity and a ubiquitous presence across both traditional and social media, Trump has embraced a style of populism on trade, foreign policy and immigration closer to the European nationalist parties than to American conservatism.

He has never held elected office and was not even a registered Republican this time four years ago.

For the Democrats, Sanders’s popularity with liberals, young people and some women and working-class white men has underscored potential vulnerabilities for Clinton in the nominating contests ahead. She is now under enormous pressure to prove that her message can inspire and rally voters, and

she has gone so far as to promise to rethink and adjust her campaign strategy in hopes of connecting better with Democrats, including women, whom she has long viewed as her base.

“A big win in Nevada is really important for her to show she represents the changing face of America and can build on that,” Jim Manley, a Clinton backer and a former senior aide to Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the minority leader, told the New York Times. “Nevada and South Carolina are where she needs to regain her footing after New Hampshire.”

A win for Sanders in the Nevada caucuses would raise additional doubts about Clinton.

“New Hampshire will have a real impact in Nevada for Bernie, and Nevada will have a real impact in South Carolina,” said Tick Segerblom, a Nevada state senator supporting Sanders.

New Hampshire’s Republican leaders, whom the Times said jealously guard their first-in-the-nation status, were as perplexed as they were horrified.

“By name, I only know five people supporting Donald Trump,” John H. Sununu, a former governor of New Hampshire, said Tuesday.

“So I say I cannot understand this electorate.”WI

Who’s Reading the Informer?

4Gwen Ofield reading the

Washington Informer while attending the NBC4 Health & Fitness EXPO on January 9. / Photo by Roy Lewis 10 FEB. 11 - 17, 2016

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AROUND THE REGION FLINT from Page 1 private speaking engagements, Clinton has referred frequently to the challenges facing the residents of the lead-poisoned city – a once bustling factory town long in decline that in addition to widespread poverty and unprecedented unemployment now faces a state-declared man-made emergency because of undrinkable tap water.

Former secretary of state and first lady Clinton, scheduled to tour the city with Mayor Weaver, spoke to Flint residents at the House of Prayer Missionary Baptist Church, and then traversed the city listening to personal testimonies, requests and complaints in order to learn more about the state of the crisis.

Weaver, during an MSNBC televised interview on Sunday, said Clinton has promised to help in every way possible including adding pressure on Congress to approve a bill that would allow for federal funding to help the city deal with its water crisis.

“We’ve been waiting for the state [of Michigan] for almost two years to come in here and fix this problem,” Weaver said.

“We can’t wait any longer.”

Clinton spoke with the Washington Informer from Flint by telephone following her tour and a host of meetings with clergy, elected officials, the mayor and residents of the city.

“I was honored to be asked to come to Flint by the city’s mayor as she continues her valiant effort to draw national attention to the tragedy here,” Clinton said. “This is not merely unacceptable and wrong but also immoral. The children of Flint are just as precious as children in any other place and they’re deserving of health care and a quality education.”

“We still don’t know how many will be effected or the challenges that they will face in the future. But we do know that action is needed immediately. During my visit here, I had the opportunity to address a large congregation at the House of Prayer where their pastor and others remain committed to bringing about positive change.”

“I hear that both senators from Michigan are proposing a $200 million bill and Congress should pass that bill. Then we

need to figure out how to initiate more medical testing and also institute educational support so that everyone, especially the children here, are better equipped to cope with the long term effects of lead poisoning.

The state of Michigan also needs to step up to the plate.”

Clinton added that it’s vital that a bright line be shined on Flint.

“What happened here was so egregious – officials knew what was going on and they ignored it, they remained indifferent to it – this particular crisis deserves as much attention as possible. First things first – everyone deserves clean air and clean water,” she said as she prepared to return to New Hampshire in order to campaign for the final days before the state holds its presidential primary elections.

Weaver has recently begun promoting a private-public partnership that would fund a complete pipe system replacement but she also remains highly critical of state officials, particularly Governor Rick Snyder, who she says knew about the foul, lead-poisoned water but chose to look the other way because of the costs related to overhauling the pipe system.

Clinton campaign chairman, John Podesta, in an earlier statement, said, “We should use the spotlight of the presidential campaign to keep the focus on Flint and to lift up the historic underlying issues that Flint and too many other predominantly low-income communities of color across American are struggling with each day.”

During the latest Democratic presidential debate, held a week ago and aired by MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, who served as the moderator, asked Clinton if she would launch a federal response. Clinton said she would “absolutely” while also seeking remedies to the myriad of burdens now faced

by Flint residents.

“That includes fixing their pipes, it includes guaranteeing whatever health care and educational embellishments they may need going forward and I think the federal government has ways where it can bill the state of Michigan,” Clinton told Maddow. “If Michigan won’t do it, there have to be ways that we can begin to move, and then make them pay for it and hold them accountable.” WI

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NOTICE OF DISCOUNT SALE OF TAX DELINQUENT REAL PROPERTIES GOVERNMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA OFFICE OF THE CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER OFFICE OF TAX AND REVENUE Notice is hereby given that all real properties, which were bid back to the District of Columbia during the July 2015 Real Property Tax Sale and were not sold at the subsequent special deed sale and have not been redeemed, will be offered for sale by the Office of Tax and Revenue (“OTR”) to the highest bidder at public auction (“Discount Sale”). The Discount Sale will be conducted pursuant to DC Official Code § 47-1353(b), which permits OTR to sell a real property for less than the total amount of delinquent taxes.

The Discount Sale will begin on March 14, 2016, from 8:30 AM until 12:00 PM and from 1:00 PM until 4:30 PM, and will continue every day thereafter (legal holidays excepted) at the stated times until all real properties are sold. The sale will occur at 1101 4th Street, SW, Suite W250, Washington, DC. A list of all real properties arranged in ascending square, suffix, and lot, and parcel and lot, number orders may be found on OTR’s Web site www. taxpayerservicecenter.com by clicking on “Real Property” and then “Real Property Tax Sale.” The name of the owner of record of each real property is stated. The specific amount of delinquent real property tax is indicated for each specified period (delinquent special assessments may be viewed in the real property assessment database search page of this Web site).

Certain real properties on this list do not have street addresses; therefore, none can be provided. A real property without a street address is generally stated on this list as having a “0” as a street address number. The best description of a real property typically is its square, suffix and lot, or parcel and lot, numbers, viewed on a property map (e.g. DC Atlas Plus, found at http:// atlasplus.dcgis.dc.gov). Real properties may be removed from this list at the discretion of OTR. At the Discount Sale, the opening bid for each real property will be $300, regardless of the amount of delinquent taxes owing by the real property. Each real property will be sold to the highest bidder. After successfully foreclosing the right of redemption in the Superior Court, and after having paid all taxes and liabilities becoming liens after March 11, 2016, the successful purchaser will be awarded a tax deed to the respective real property. The real property will be free and clear of all prior taxes owing by the real property to a District taxing agency. A purchaser at the Discount Sale acts at his or her own risk, and must exercise due diligence in selecting real properties upon which to bid.

After the Discount Sale, a listing of successful purchasers, the corresponding real property descriptions, the total amounts of taxes owing for which the real properties were sold, and the purchase amounts shall be published on OTR’s Web site www. taxpayerservicecenter.com. The purchaser shall monitor tax payment schedules provided by OTR on its Web site, and shall surrender the certificate of sale to receive a refund if the real property taxes, vault rents, BID taxes, liens certified pursuant to D.C. Code § 47-1340, and fees and charges payable to OTR on account of the real property are paid.

Registration for the Discount Sale, which is mandatory, begins March 7, 2016 and continues until all the real properties are sold. The registration form must be completed and filed with OTR. To register, visit OTR’s Customer Service Administration – Walk-In Center at: 1101 4th Street, SW, 2nd Floor, Washington, DC. Prior to bidding on a real property at the Discount Sale, a purchaser must have made a deposit with the Cashier’s Office of the D.C. Treasurer of at least 20% of the real property’s purchase price. Purchasers are also required to complete Form FR-500, Combined Business Tax Registration Application, prior to registering. This form can be found on OTR’s Web site www.taxpayerservicecenter.com under “Tax Forms/Publications.”

A purchaser who registered for the cancelled January 25, 2016 Discount Sale and who has not requested a refund of the deposit is considered registered for this Discount Sale.

PAYMENT OF THE ENTIRE BID AMOUNT IS DUE BY MARCH 21, 2016 (DATE OF CONCLUSION OF THE SALE). IF FINAL PAYMENT IS NOT TIMELY RECEIVED, THE SALE OF THE REAL PROPERTY WILL BE VOIDED. ALL PAYMENTS MUST BE MADE TO THE D.C. TREASURER BY CASH, CERTIFIED CHECK, CASHIER’S CHECK, OR POSTAL MONEY ORDER. (PERSONAL AND BUSINESS CHECKS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED). THE CASHIER’S OFFICE OF THE D.C. TREASURER IS LOCATED AT: 1101 4TH STREET, SW, 1ST FLOOR, WASHINGTON, DC 20024. The Cashier’s Office is open Monday through Friday, 8:15 AM to 4:30 PM. The tax sale procedures are explained in OTR’s brochure, District of Columbia 2016 Discount Tax Sale Frequently Asked Questions. This brochure may be found on OTR’s Web site www.taxpayerservicecenter.com under “Real Property” and by clicking on “Real Property Tax Sale.”

A person with a communication impairment requiring an interpreter for the Discount Sale shall notify OTR of the need for an interpreter no later than March 7, 2016. Please contact OTR at (202) 727-4TAX(829) or via email at taxsale@dc.gov, or visit our Customer Service Center at 1101 4th St., SW, 2nd Floor, Washington, DC.

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FEB. 11 - 17, 2016 11

PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY

County, MD Officials Push Hogan for Future Investments

By William J. Ford WI Staff Writer @jabariwill ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND – During parts of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s 30-minute State of the State address remarks, he received a standing ovation when he mentioned about Pope Francis and cancer patients. Hogan was diagnosed with the disease last year.

The Republican governor did receive a rousing applause from fellow conservatives when he mentioned about being the first Maryland governor in his first year to add money into the Geographic Cost of Education Index, a formula that enables districts to

receive equitable funding where the cost of education is more expensive.

However, many of the Democratic politicians sat quietly in their seats.

“Where’s that $20 million in the GCEI in education for Prince George’s County? We still don’t have that in the budget,” Delegate Diana Fennell (D-District 47A) of Colmar Manor, said Friday, Feb. 5. “The governor mentioned bipartisanship. Just stay tuned and see what happens.”

Delegate Darryl Barnes (D-District 25) of Upper Marlboro said he’s heard the same rhetoric before from the governor. For instance, about $46 million in school construction for Prince George’s isn’t

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5Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (center) talks about bipartisanship, job growth and other topics during his State of the State address in Annapolis on Wednesday, Feb. 3. / Contributed photo by Office of the Governor

included in the proposed fiscal year 2017 budget.

“We have heard the promises and kumbaya,” he said. “We need to put those words into actions and do the right thing for the people of Prince George’s County.”

Other officials from the county also noticed how Hogan’s second State of the State address Wednesday, Feb. 3 didn’t highlight many accomplishments, or future investments in the county.

When Hogan did talk about transportation, he mentioned the

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

Purple Line light-rail project as a long-term investment for the state.

His speech talked about the work with Democrats on a variety of topics such as last month’s snowstorm, tax relief for veterans and helping small businesses. He said that can continue in the future.

“In the days ahead, I extend my hand to you – incorporation and in devotion to our duty – and I ask each of you, and all Marylanders, to seek that middle ground where we can all stand together,” he said.

Hogan mentioned Baltimore several times in the address such as the state’s $135 million investment in the city’s transit system, closing the city jail and education programs for the youth.

Hogan said the entire country focused on the “riots and lawlessness that threatened to tear Baltimore City apart” in April when 25-year-old Freddie Gray died after being in police custody. Six officers were charged in his death and the second trial for one of the officers, Edward Niro, is scheduled to begin Feb. 22.

An hour before Hogan’s speech, dozens of state lawmakers held a press conference in the House of Delegates wanting the governor to help the three million Marylanders they represent.

“I can’t tell you have greatly I

was when the governor saw that Baltimore was burning. He felt compelled to come and save us,” said Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. “But we have problems in education. You can’t save us when you are withholding $70 million from education.”

Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz simply asked, “Where’s the beef?”

In regards to Prince George’s, Hogan’s press secretary Shareese Churchill outlined in an email hours after Hogan’s speech how the state gave more than $350 million in county road improvements in College Park, Greenbelt and a new interchange at Suitland Parkway.

In addition, the county receives $1.3 billion in state aid, the most of any jurisdiction in Maryland.

Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III said the residents pay state taxes and still don’t receive enough state money to hire more teachers and renovate schools.

“You talk about helping all Marylanders. The biggest chunk of Marylanders are in Prince George’s County,” Baker said after Hogan’s speech. “He didn’t talk about the regional hospital (proposed to open in Largo in 2019).

We were looking for the governor to talk about future investments. I didn’t hear that.”

WI

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PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY

Virginia Pastor Honored with NAACP Award

By William J. Ford WI Staff Writer @jabariwill The Rev. Howard-John Wesley says kindness and philanthropy should be done just to put a smile on people’s faces.

The 43-year-old pastor and his congregants at Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, paid for drivers to get their cars washed, delivered steaks to a local fire department and pledged $1 million in November to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Northwest.

Wesley was honored Friday, Feb. 5, at the 47th annual NAACP Image Awards televised on TV One at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California. He stood on stage with seven other recipients holding their right fists in the air to receive the “NAACP Chairman’s” award.

Besides Wesley’s community service endeavors, his sermon on July 14, 2013, one day after George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida, received national attention by Time Magazine.

Here’s an excerpt of Wesley’s 27-minute sermon: “There is a racial consciousness about this that angers me.

I want to live in a world where we’re not separate but equal, but were unified regardless of race and creed. The reality is that I have to look at this

through the eyes of a Black man. I struggle with this. The reverend doctor doesn’t, but the Howard-John does in wondering what do you when a verdict comes down that hurts like this? The lord reminded me that this is not the first time we’ve had to live with a verdict that hurts.”

Wesley, who resides at the National Harbor in neighboring Prince George’s County, Maryland, spoke to The Washington Informer on Tuesday before he headed out the next day on his cross-country flight to the West Coast.

Here are some of his thoughts in his own words.

justice in the world. Without fear, we must address the killing of innocent lives. Being a proponent of [Black Lives Matter], I want to make people aware about violence, our criminal justice system and continue to find ways to address these issues. When was the last time a White life was taking by police officer? We don’t hear that. It’s not just only to police officers, but black on black crime. That leads to a conversation about gun reform and that leads to a change to our criminal justice system. Our system cannot be great until everyone is giving an opportunity in our land.

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO RECEIVE SUCH AS PRESTIGIOUS AWARD?

WHY IS THE BLACK CHURCH SUCH A HUGE IMPORTANCE IN THE COMMUNITY?

I am really humbled, but I also feel unworthy. It makes me realize I still have so much work to do. I am really honored, too. I can take my sons (ages 9 and 12) with me and experience this moment. I hope this will inspire them to do great work. They are my motivation for what I do. Someone asked me what I want my sons to be? I said, ‘Alive.’ I want every opportunity for them to be successful.

WHAT ABOUT THE IMPACT OF THE BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT?

There is a need for social

The Black church has always played a critical role in the lives of African-Americans. It starts from the civil rights movement to schools to businesses. They have always been uprooted in the church. You find faith and motivation in the church.

One of the things I hope to do is reclaim the position of the church and reclaim to change the world. When a pastor is doing his job correctly, he is not getting an award, but his members are. It is more than one voice and one person. It’s not just about me. It’s about all of us doing our part for the love of Jesus.

WI

5The Rev. Howard-John Wesley, pastor of Alfred Street Baptist Church in

Alexandria, Virginia, received the NAACP Chairman’s award Friday, Feb. 5 at the 47th annual NAACP Image Awards in Pasadena, California. / Contributed photo by Alfred Street Baptist Church

What are Black reparations?

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How can contemporary Blacks gain reparations?

Why aren’t more Blacks imploring for their reparations?

How much money is currently due the descendants of slaves?

Want to “Get Paid”?

Join The Reparations Study Group Thursday February 18, 2016 From 6 pm to 8 pm At the Southeast Public Library 403 7th Street, Southeast, 20003 And get answers to the aforementioned questions This is an educational seminar on “how to get paid” and why?

RSVP To (202) 547-4125 The Southeast Library is located on Capitol Hill across from the Eastern Market subway stop.

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FEB. 11 - 17, 2016 13

PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY

Glenarden Man Charged with Child Pornography, Sex Abuse

By WI Staff Prince George’s County Police announced Monday, Feb. 8 that a Glenarden man has been charged with child pornography and sex charges for allegedly abusing at least 10 children.

Police said Deonte Carraway, 22, was arrested Friday, Feb. 5 after detectives spoke with a victim’s relative who called police a day earlier and found a nude picture of Carraway on the child’s cell phone.

A preliminary investigation revealed Carraway, who worked at Glenarden Woods and Judge Syl-

vania Woods elementary schools in Glenarden, targeted children ages 9 to 13. He was also the director of the Glenarden Voices of Youth Choir.

Police said he may have recorded sex acts at the school, the Glenarden Municipal Center, the Theresa Banks Memorial Aquatic Center in Glenarden and inside various homes.

Police recovered 40 videos that show the youth performed sexual acts on each other, or alone. According to police, Carraway sexually abused some of the victims.

Carraway is charged with 10 counts of felony child pornogra-

phy, sexual abuse of a minor and second degree sexual offense. Additional charges are pending. He admitted to his involvement and is at the Prince George’s County Correctional Facility on $1 million bond, police said.

For those concerned their child has been a victim, call the Child and Vulnerable Adult Abuse Unit at 301-772-4930.

Police said the department will work with school system CEO Kevin Maxwell during the investigation that may take several months to complete.

Meanwhile, the school system released a statement Monday

Its Black History Month! Let’s Create Tomorrow’s Story!

By Aimee Griffin, Esq. Black History month was created as an effort to bring to light the great impact of Black People in the United States that had traditionally been ignored in the telling of the stories that shaped this country. During this month we share the highlights of great History Makers like Carter G. Woodson, historian, who is credited as the Founder of Black History Month. He was one of the first Black Americans to graduate from Harvard. He authored many books including The Miseducation of the Negro. Justice Thurgood Marshall is one of my professional heroes. While denied entry into the University of Maryland Law School based upon race, that rejection enabled him to attend Howard Law School.

His professional achievements included ending legalized segregation with Brown v. Board of Education.

He was the first Black Supreme Court Justice. His life changed the world.

My favorite (s) hero outside of my mother is Osceola McCarty. I have many times referenced this woman who was conceived in rape and did not receive more than a sixth grade education but created an incredible legacy. Her “profession” was that of a washer woman in Mississippi. Before she passed away she was able to donate $150,000 to create a scholarship for the University of Southern Mississippi. By living her values and well below her means she was able to create a legacy that should be an example to all.

This Sunday’s message at my church was based on “the parable of the talents.” The story in Matthew describes a man who was going away and entrusted his servants with his property. To one he gave five talents. A talent was a monetary unit worth about twenty years’ wages for a laborer to another two talents, to another one talent, to each according to his ability. The servants who were given five and two talents doubled the investment. The servant who received just one talent buried it and returned it just as received to the owner. The owner was angry stating that the very least that could have been done was to deposit for meager interest into a savings account.

We each are given talents according to our own ability. The talents are wide and varied. We are each called to be stewards of the talent. We make a commitment to invest or we hide our talents and gifts. I believe that to whom much is given much is required. I also believe that we each have been given much.

The gift of life is much. Therefore, we commit or hide our talents and gifts to leave a legacy and be history makers for the people we love.

I encourage us each to create a legacy that is impactful. We can do that with substantial treasure, time and/or talent. Yet we have a great capacity to leave the world better than we found it by employing our talents. Our legacy will not be the first Black Supreme Court Justice or the Father of Black History because they have already come. But we were each created for a specific purpose and this specific time. Let’s make our contribution to the History books (be it the family bible, the local community newspaper or the Washington Post/New York Times. We can create a legacy of greatness once we make the decision; employ the discipline and determination to do so.

Aimee D. Griffin, Esq., The Griffin Firm, PLLC 5335 Wisconsin Ave NW, Suite 440 Washington DC 20015 www.thegriffinfirm-PLLC.com 202-379-4738

14 FEB. 11 - 17, 2016

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

5Deonte Carraway, 22, of Glenarden, has been charged with child pornography and sex abuse charges. / Photo courtesy of Prince George’s County Police Department

“It’s important to note that every PGCPS employee goes through a proper screening process before they are hired. The safety of our students is a top priority for PGCPS.” PG County School System / that outlined Carraway’s dates of employment: • Nov. 5 - 20, 2014, as a school secretary at Glenarden Woods; • Nov. 21, 2014, to Sept.

17, 2015 as a classroom aide at Judge Sylvania Woods.

“Prince George’s County Public Schools is shocked by the recent allegations. We will cooperate fully with law enforcement in this investigation,” according to the statement. “It’s important to note that every PGCPS employee goes through a proper screening process before they are hired. The safety of our students is a top priority for PGCPS. We will have counselors available to help victims in their recovery process.”

In other recent news, the school system continues to deal with a fatal tragedy on Feb. 2 after police announced NeShanté Davis, 26, and her two-year-old daughter, Chloe Nichole Davis-Green, were shot and killed in Fort Washington.

A day later on Feb. 3, police

arrested the child’s father, Daron Maurice Boswell-Johnson, 25, of Forestville.

Police said Boswell-Johnson confronted Davis about child support. He faces two counts of first and second degree murder.

On Feb. 5, staff at Bradbury Heights Elementary in Capitol Heights held a candlelight vigil for Davis. Davis, who graduated from Bowie State University in Bowie last year, taught second-grade at Bradbury Heights.

The school system’s Crisis Team has been at the school to talk with students and staff.

Some of the individuals on a school’s crisis team consist of counselors, school nurse and other officials.

For more information on mental health services in the county, call the Health Department’s Children and Parent Program (CAP) at 301- 324-2872.

You may also visit http://www. princegeorgescountymd.gov/ sites/Health/Resources/Find-DR/ Pages/Behavioral-Health-Providers.aspx. WI

WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

BUSINESS

Business Exchange

What about the Charter/Time Warner Deal?

Many say that “it’s time to kick Andrew Jackson off the $20 bill and replace him with a caricature of Harriett Tubman. What say

with William Reed Just 50 years ago, the tools we use today to communicate were only science fiction. As the communications industry grows these days, what role are Blacks playing these days? The question for Blacks should be asking is “How can we benefit?” from the Charter Communications Time Warner merger?

By following news of this industry Blacks can pay attention to the telecommunications infrastructure and the way communication technology is being shared among telecom service providers. Charter Communications Inc.’s $67.1 billion deal for Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks definitely will realign the industry. When approved by federal regulators, this merger will create the country’s second-largest cable operator with about 24 million customers in 41 states.

This latest transaction follows Comcast’s collapsed April, $45 billion bid for the same Time Warner Cable. The Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department are now vetting the Char-

ter/Time Warner/Bright House deal for its effect on competition and consumers in the industry.

This new deal includes Charter’s investors’ sanctioned buyout of Bright House – the sixth-largest U.S. cable operator – for $10.4 billion. Privately held Bright House is the sixth-largest cable operator with has 2.5 million subscribers.

Charter Communications sells monthly telecom services such as high-speed Internet access, video on demand, high-definition and interactive television, and VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) to residential and business customers. Charter is the 10th-largest telephone provider of residential subscriber lines. Charter’s economic niche is threatened by a growing number of telecommunications companies like Verizon, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, and Bell South. These firms are expanding into video and internet services by partnering with Satellite TV companies like DirecTV and Dish Network.

This gambit has been made before. The FCC rejected Comcast Corp’s. earlier attempt to take over Time Warner as the combined entity would have controlled 35 percent of the U.S. pay-TV market (exceeding the FCC limit of 30 percent market share). The merged entity of Charter, Time Warner Cable and Bright House will jointly serve 23.9 million customers across 41 states.

Most Black leaders endorse the merger and say that if the deal is approval it can “produce viable opportunities.” Charter CEO Thomas M. Rutledge said, “We are pleased to have reached an important memorandum of understanding

WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

that reflects our commitment to the fundamental values of diversity and inclusion.” The memorandum of understanding (MOU) with leading organizations serving communities of color will take effect upon Charter’s closing with Time Warner Cable and acquisition of Bright House Networks. Rutledge says the Charter is committed to continuing diversity and inclusion practices and plans to build upon existing diversity efforts specifically in corporate governance, employment and workforce recruitment, procurement, programming, and philanthropy and community investment.”

“Diversity” is the catchword these days. Often it means “affirmative actions.” The New Charter MOU identifies “specific diversity initiatives” and specifies a commitment to appoint an African-American, an Asian American/Pacific Islander and Latino American to its new board of directors within two years of the transaction’s close. New Charter will also appoint a chief diversity officer to lead diversity and inclusion efforts. The MOU specifies steps to increase diversity among its workforce, improve diversity in procurement of goods and services, expand programming targeting diverse audiences and enhance involvement and investment in communities of color.

Washington Informer publish-

er Denise Rolark-Barnes and is also chair of the National Newspaper Publishers Association. Rolark-Barnes said the merger “needs to benefit Blacks’ businesses and potential” and urged Black leaders to strive to educate, empower and inform Blacks about opportunities in the industry. The Rev. Al Sharpton, president of National Action Network, said, “This agreement affirms Charter’s commitment to greater inclusion and diversity.”

National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial encouraged

federal authorities to afford the proposed transactions “expedited consideration.”

Opponents say that the merger could create a cable giant that would control the “overwhelming majority” of high-speed broadband homes in the country. But we believe that if the deal materializes, it will be a win-win situation. New Charter will foster competition, technological advancement and economic synergies in the industry that will benefit the public as well as African-Americans. WI

SCHOLARS ACADEMIES CONSORTIA REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR WAN, VOICE AND INTERNET Notice is hereby given by Scholar Academies Consortia: Request for Proposal (RFP) for multi-year WAN, Voice and Internet services. E-rate SPIN number and abidance by the response directions in accordance with the RFPs and supporting documentation required. Responses due 10:00 A.M. E.S.T. on 2/26/2016. To receive a copy of the RFPs and/or MTM services pricing quote requests, view www.intelafunds.net , select the “E-Rate” tab, “Bid Opportunities,” RFP/service quote requests documents of interest posted.

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

FEB. 11 - 17, 2016 15

NATIONAL

Couple Relies on Faith in Adopting Children

By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer

Adoption was something Derwin Penson and his wife Wendy considered only in passing a long time ago.

For about a quarter of a century, the couple had enjoyed a marriage that included a lot of fun together, travel and their work as state-side missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators USA in Florida.

“Then, one day, my husband turned on the television and saw this little girl crying out to her father; begging him to stop as he was beating a police officer nearly to death. She was crying stop and he said, ‘I’m sorry baby but I’m not going to jail.’ And, of course, he was going to jail and we thought, ‘Who was her mother to leave her with this man and who was going to take care of her now?’” Penson said.

“That just stayed with me,” she said.

Later, Derwin Penson read an article about African-American children growing past the age of when most individuals are reluctant to adopt. So, they reached out to a friend who suggested they contact Community Based Care of Central Florida, an organization that provides an adoption training class.

“We thought that it was time for us to open up our homes,” Wendy Penson said.

“Everybody deserves a chance at life and when you take the class you realize it’s not for everybody but everybody can help by giving, by mentoring and in other ways.”

The class the couple enrolled in was designed to weed out those who may not make good parents and to prepare those who will.

“There were so many of us there but on the first day they told us that many of us wouldn’t stick it out,

we’d be gone,” Penson said. “I remember after the first break when everyone came back there were so many missing. They didn’t stick it out and we kept noticing each day, attendance dwindled.”

But, the Pensons would fist-bump each other each day for added encouragement as the intense 12-week program involved homework and constant internal and external assessment that included telling their life story, background checks and examining relationships with family members and co-workers.

“The classes are designed to assess how you’re living, what your lifestyle is, what your influences are and to determine your readiness,” Derwin Penson said. “The goals of foster care are to foster until a permanent home is found; to stabilize until an adopted or biological family is found, and again, to weed out those individuals who are not

5The Penson family: Derwin and Wendy Penson with their adopted children Ebony, Skylar and Nevaeh. / Courtesy photo

ready,” he added.

In the fall of 2015, the Pensons were approved by a family court judge to officially adopt and provide a permanent home for three children.

“We were asked to think of a child we know and love and ask ourselves what we would want to know if we had to give this child away. Week after week class sizes dwindled, quite a few people dropped out from about 80 down to 20 people,” she said.

Finally, the Pensons were approved for adoption and last year their three new children, a five-yearold boy and 10-year-old and sevenyear-old girls.

“People have been praying us along this journey and for that, we are truly grateful,” Wendy Penson said, noting that the need to adopt children, particularly African Americans remains profound. Studies examined by the National Black Caucus of State Legislators reveal that African-American children who come into contact with the child

welfare system are disproportionately represented in foster care and are less likely than children of other racial and ethnic groups to move to permanent placement.

Further, African-American children account for 15 percent of the U.S. child population but as of September 2011, were 27 percent of the 400,540 children in foster care and have lower rates of adoption than those of other races and ethnicities.

“There are kids out there who will never get adopted who just want love and care. You don’t have to be superhuman. These kids just want a consistent place to live,” Penson said. “When you hear them speak, you realize they know what they’re missing and it breaks your heart. If everyone who ever thought about adoption would just explore it and pursue it we could probably get all of our children out of foster homes.”

Visit www.cbccfl.org, www.

AdoptUSKids.com, or www.africanamericanadoptionsonline.com for more information. WI

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16 FEB. 11 - 17, 2016

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

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CBC Backs President Obama on Juvenile Confinement

NATIONAL

By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer Congressional Black Caucus Chairman G.K. Butterfield is backing President Barack Obama’s decision to ban the solitary confinement of juveniles in federal prisons and the Supreme Court’s decision that recognized the requirement of sentencing courts to consider a child’s diminished culpability and heightened capacity for change before condemning him or her to die behind bars.

Butterfield, the North Carolina Democrat, said the president and the Supreme Court did the right thing.

“Members of the Congressional Black Caucus applaud President Obama’s bold executive action to prohibit the use of solitary confinement for some of the country’s low-level offenders and to ban the practice as punishment for the youngest offenders and the mentally ill,” Butterfield said.

In announcing his actions in a newspaper editorial, Obama said the change, along with expanded mental health treatment, would affect as many as 10,000 federal inmates of which about 1,000 are being held in solitary confinement in the United States, including in state prisons.

“Research suggests that solitary confinement has the potential to lead to devastating, lasting psychological consequences. It has been linked to depression, alienation, withdrawal, a reduced ability to interact with others and the potential for violent behavior,” Obama said.

“Some studies indicate that it can worsen existing mental illnesses and even trigger new ones.”

Obama’s decision follows similar actions in some states, as leaders rethink the practice for the first time in generations, the New York Times reported. California settled a landmark lawsuit last year by agreeing to an overhaul of its prison system that included strict limits on the prolonged isolation of inmates. Colorado and New Mexico have reduced the number of people in solitary confinement.

In September, the Association of State Correctional Administrators called on its members to

5Many youth will benefit from changes in laws that once placed them in solitary confinement for extended periods of time. / Courtesy photo

limit or even end the use of solitary confinement for extended periods.

The president took action after a six-month evaluation of the practice by Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, who examined more broadly whether it was overused in prisons across the United States. Obama said that he was adopting the recommendations of the Justice Department review.

Obama said the practice of holding prisoners in cells with no human contact for extended periods was counterproductive in many cases.

“How can we subject prisoners to unnecessary solitary confinement, knowing its effects, and then expect them to return to our communities as whole people?” Obama asked. “It doesn’t make us safer. It’s an affront to our common humanity.”

In the Justice Department report, Lynch recommended what the report called “guiding principles” for all correctional systems. Among them: that inmates should be housed in the least restrictive setting necessary to ensure safety, and that placement in restrictive housing should be regularly reviewed.

At facilities run by the federal Bureau of Prisons, the report said that inmates with serious mental illnesses would be increasingly moved to “secure mental health units” instead of solitary confinement. And it urged that inmates who face legitimate threats to their lives be put in a “protective custody” that is less restrictive than solitary confinement.

“In those cases, the practice should be limited, applied with constraints and used only as a

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measure of last resort,” Obama said.

The president cited the case of a 16-year-old boy from the Bronx, New York, who was accused of stealing a backpack in 2010. The president said the boy, Kalief Browder, was sent to New York’s Rikers Island jail to wait for his trial and was put in solitary confinement for nearly two years.

Obama said Browder was released in 2013 without having stood trial, but committed suicide after struggling to deal with the trauma of being locked up alone for 23 hours a day. “He was just 22 years old,” Obama said.

Solitary confinement has been used throughout American history, but the results have proven to be devastating and often unfitting of the crime, Butterfield said. “The CBC has long held that such confinement is a human rights issue, and we commend Obama for taking another strong and significant step to reform our criminal justice system.

“We also applaud the Supreme Court’s decision that now requires sentencing courts to consider the immaturity of youth and the possibility of change, diminishing the justifications for imposing harsh sentences on juvenile offenders,” he said.

“We cannot simply lock up our young people and throw away the key. While there must be an appropriate penalty for wrongdoing, not recognizing the immaturity of youth and the ability to change can do irreparable harm to individuals who, in later years, have the potential to be a productive member of our society.”

WI

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

FEB. 11 - 17, 2016 17

HEALTH

Hogan’s State Budget includes County’s Hospital Project

By William J. Ford WI Staff Writer @jabariwill Two days after Prince George’s County officials participated in a joint news conference in Annapolis to request state money go toward a $651 million regional hospital in Largo, they got their wish.

According to a statement from Gov. Larry Hogan on Friday, Feb. 5, he introduced a supplemental fiscal year 2017 budget to provide $15 million in operating funds toward the Prince George’s Hospital System. About $55 million will be received between fiscal year 2017 and fiscal year 2021 to allow for the closure of the more than 70-yearold Prince George’s Hospital Center in Cheverly.

The state proposes to contribute an additional $135 million to con-

struct the state-of-the-art hospital in Largo and become part of the University of Maryland Medical System.

“For years, Maryland has been forced to fund the Prince George’s Hospital to keep the system functional and out of bankruptcy. The state cannot act as the perpetual backstop for the hospital and the taxpayers deserve a lasting solution and an assurance the bailouts will come to an end,” Hogan said. “By transitioning operational responsibility for the county’s primary medical facility to an established health care leader – the University of Maryland Medical System – we can finally get control of the problem. I am pleased to be able to deliver the financing to bring about this important change and finally end the county’s reliance on state subsidies to deliver basic health care services.”

The governor’s statement mentions

5Maryland State President Thomas V. Mike Miller (left) introduces legislation

during a Budget and Taxation committee hearing Wednesday, Feb. 3 in Annapolis to require the governor to put money into the fiscal year 2017 budget for a new regional hospital center in Largo. Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III, second right, testifies during the hearing. / Photo by William J. Ford

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the state included $27.5 million for the hospital next year, but that money is in the capital budget and cannot be used for operating expenses.

County Executive Rushern L. Baker III said that isn’t good enough.

Baker said the county is due another $15 million from this fiscal year originally approved through a memorandum of understanding by the Martin O’Malley administration in July 2011.

When asked by a reporter about his relationship with Hogan, Baker said, “It’s not good.”

Baker offered two suggestions for Hogan: sign a memorandum of understanding between the county, state, University of Maryland Medical System and Dimensions Healthcare System; or agree to legislation in the state House and Senate that mandates funding for the hospital project in Largo.

“Just do what the previous administration did: sign an MOU and then release the $15 million today.

That would be progress,” Baker said.

State Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-District 26) of Fort Washington said the previous MOU under O’Malley expired and Hogan isn’t required to endorse a similar one.

Muse said the $15 million Hogan dispersed Friday is necessary for the county.

“We need the money and we need the hospital,” he said. “Let’s see if the administration is going to work and have the same goals.”

Meanwhile, he said there’s no update from the Maryland Health

Care Commission on the hospital project. An application was submitted by Dimensions Healthcare, which needs a “certificate of need” to determine whether a new hospital would be applicable in Prince George’s based on need, cost effectiveness and other factors.

The review process includes opposition from two hospitals within 25 miles of the Largo location – Doctors Community Hospital of Lanham and Anne Arundel Medical Center of Annapolis.

Officials from those hospitals submitted letters to the commission in May opposing the plan. Some of those objections include the viability of cardiac surgery programs, a faulty business plan and the removal of patients from its facilities that offer similar service.

Back in Annapolis on Feb. 3, Baker and several others testified before the state’s Budget and Taxation committee on why the regional hospital in Largo, which plans to house 231 beds, cancer and trauma centers and offer behavioral heath services, would benefit the county.

Orlan Johnson of Bowie said he’s lived in the county for more than 30 years, but all three of his children were born in Virginia.

“It’s the truth. I wanted to make sure my children got quality care.

That’s why the regional hospital center in Largo is so important,” Johnson said after the hearing. “The hospital will benefit not only Prince George’s County, but most of the (D.C.) region.” WI

WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

February Greetings From DC Office on Aging Laura Newland DC Office on Aging Acting Executive Director We survived Winter Storm Jonas! More than 20 inches of snow fell in the District, but we didn’t let that stop us from making sure seniors and people with disabilities were safe.

This was my first emergency event as Acting Executive Director of the DC Office on Aging, and I am proud to be a part of such a strong, committed District government team that is so responsive to those who need us the most.

Before the storm, the Bowser Administration prepared extensively to minimize the disruption to the District. Under Mayor Bowser’s leadership, the District’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA) worked around the clock to coordinate the District’s emergency response across District agencies, including the DC Office on Aging.

DCOA relies on its sister agencies to do our work effectively, and this storm was no different. Prior to the storm, DCOA helped advertise the services of the DC Resident Snow Team coordinated by Serve DC, which deployed hundreds of volunteers after the storm to shovel sidewalks for District seniors and people with disabilities. During the storm, 311 and the Office of Unified Communications fielded thousands of calls from District residents and were able to route them to the appropriate agencies as needed. DCOA received several calls about heating and food access concerns, and I’m proud to say that our agency stepped up to the challenge and assisted as needed.

When we were concerned about whether or not our vehicles would be able to navigate the streets to deliver meals to seniors who are enrolled in our home delivered meals program, HSEMA immediately connected with the Office of Contracting and Procurement to help us get an emergency contract in place that would allow us to maintain continuity of services. The Department of Public Works (DPW) also worked with us to ensure that we could access streets for people who needed transportation to life-sustaining medical appointments. DPW worked tirelessly to make sure our most vulnerable seniors and people with disabilities had uninterrupted emergency transportation services.

When there were concerns about home health aides leaving early or not being able to get to the homes of seniors and people with disabilities who rely on assistance for daily activities, we worked closely with the Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF), which ensured that all of their contracting home health agencies had emergency plans and followed through in providing the services that District residents who are most at risk need.

Mayor Bowser coordinated a city-wide effort, #DCDigOut, to ensure streets were cleared as quickly as soon as possible, and after the snow finally stopped, she continued to encourage residents to clear sidewalks to accommodate wheelchairs and strollers. We’re proud to say that the District was the first local government in the DMV to dig out and open its doors – Mayor Bowser knows that many people rely on District government being open to receive much needed services. Not everyone needed it, but for those who did, it was worth it for us at DCOA to dig out and make our way in.

Through all of this, I was in constant touch with the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, Brenda Donald, to ensure DCOA had everything we needed to take care of our seniors and people with WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

disabilities.

All of this coordination is just a glimpse of the coordination it took to weather Winter Storm Jonas. I want to personally thank my sister agencies, essential and emergency personnel, volunteers, National Guard, and Mayor Bowser for helping us ensure the health and safety of District seniors and disabled residents. I’ve seen enough snow this winter, but I know that if we get another storm, we’ll be ready to be there for our District residents, just like we were during Winter Storm Jonas.

2016 Saturday Respite Program Program Overview The D.C. Office on Aging (DCOA) is happy to announce DCOA’s Saturday Respite program dates for 2016! This program gives a 4-hour break to caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, and related disorders. Participants engage in interactive stimulating activities promoting social interaction. Please see scheduled program dates, program site, contact information, and hours of operation below.

Program Operation Dates January 2, 2016 January 9, 2016

January 23, 2016

February 6, 2016

February 20, 2016

March 5, 2016

March 19, 2016 March 26, 2016 April 2, 2016

June 11, 2016 June 25, 2016 July 9, 2016

July 23, 2016

August 6, 2016

August 20, 2016

Location and Time: Washington Seniors Wellness Center 3001 Alabama Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20020

Respite Program: 10am - 2pm

September 3, 2016

September 17, 2016

April 16, 2016 April 30, 2016 May 14, 2016 May 28, 2016

Program Coordinator: Aisha Bailey Email: aisha.bailey@dc.gov Phone: (202) 341-5883

Enrollment Eligibility:  Age 60 years or older

 Low to moderate income

 Has mild to moderate dementia and/or memory loss

 D.C. resident (Priority given to residents of Wards 7 or 8)

 Needs minimal assistance with prompting and/or cueing

For questions or to make a referral, please contact DCOA’s Aging and Disability Resource Center at: (202) 724-5626. We look forward to hearing from you!

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

FEB. 11 - 17, 2016 19

EDUCATION

DCPS BRIEFS

Compiled by Dorothy Rowley WI Staff Writer

PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS: ‘SIGNING DAY’ AT FRIENDSHIP

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5Thirteen students took part in “Signing Day” on Feb. 3 at Friendship Collegiate Academy in Northeast D.C. / Photo courtesy DC PCS

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The Feb. 3 event brought the total students to have received the scholarships to well over 100 from this one school.

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Long-Term Locations for a handful of public charter schools were announced by Mayor Muriel Bowser during remarks Feb. 5 at 5 Ingenuity Preparatory Public Charter School in Southeast D.C. Bowser noted in her comments that officials have found several innovative ways to turn warehouses and church basements into schools.

“While we applaud their creativity, far too many public charter schools are educating students in buildings that were not meant to be schools,” Bowser said.

Bowser’s announcement means that four public charter schools will be able to stay in the buildings in which they’re currently located.

“Instead of the worry that comes from being in a year-toyear lease, they can instead plan for the future, invest in upgrading the buildings and focus on what really matters: ensuring that their students achieve. And that’s good for everyone,” Bowser said. She added that allowing public charter schools to occupy

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unused buildings is a good thing.

“It removes a neighborhood blight. It saves the city maintenance money and generates lease revenue for the city,” she said.

“Most importantly, it will ensure more families have access to choose the school that is the right fit for their children.”

DISTRICT PUBLIC SCHOOLS SYSTEM ‘STANDING OVATION!’

DCPS celebrated the 6th annual Standing Ovation on Feb. 1, recognizing the best teachers, administrators and staff.

The event brought together city officials and the business, education, arts, and philanthropic communities at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts where Tim Gunn, fashion expert and mentor on Project Runway, served as host.

Fik-shun, winner of “So You Think You Can Dance,” was the opening performer, and surprise guests included singer Ginuwine, Sesame Street’s Alan Muraoka, Nova Payton, actress and DCPS graduate Samira Wiley, the National Broadway Chorus and the American Pops Orchestra.

‘CORNERTONES’ PRESENTATION

More than 60 middle school students shared their stories at a Jan. 12 celebration of their “Cornerstones” lessons.

The students’ presentations included questions such as, “What Does it Mean to Grow Up?,” “What is the American Dream?,” and “Who are Our Community Warriors?”

The presentations took place before an audience of the students’ classmates, teachers and parents at the Pepco Gallery in downtown DC.

EXTENDED LEARNING

Ten DCPS schools will move to an extended-year calendar at the beginning of the 2016-17 term.

The extension will provide students the opportunity to excel in core subjects that include reading and math as well as to express their interest in art, music, physical education and advanced placement courses.

In addition to allowing more time for knowledge through the elimination of summer learning loss, the upcoming school year will also include more professional-collaboration time for teachers.

The 10 new elementary and middle schools with extended

year in academic year 2016-17 are: Garfield Elementary School, H.D. Cooke Elementary School, Hart Middle School, Hendley Elementary School, Johnson Middle School, Kelly Miller Middle School, King Elementary School, Randle Highlands Elementary School, Thomas Elementary School and Turner Elementary School Raymond Education Campus, which listed as the first DC public school to try the extended-year calendar, has already seen improvement in the classroom, including a 96 percent student attendance for the optional intersession days.

TUITION ASSISTANCE

Eligible D.C. students can receive up to $10,000 in grant assistance toward the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition at public four-year colleges and universities.

Additionally, college-bound students can apply for $2,500 in funding per academic year toward tuition at private colleges and universities in the District, private Historically Black Colleges and Universities and twoyear colleges nationwide.

Apply at dconeapp.dc.gov for school year 2016-17, using any mobile device or computer.

For more information, call 202-727-2824.

‘TURNAROUND ARTS’

5Turner Elementary School students performing an original song with Kid Pan Alley. / Photo courtesy DCPS

Three “Turnaround Arts” schools – Savoy Elementary, Moten Elementary and Turner Elementary – held a concert at THEARC with local arts organization Kid Pan Alley.

During the Jan. 13 event, students from all grade levels sang familiar tunes as well as original songs before joining at the end for a grand finale.

While students learned how to respect others during a performance and how to conduct themselves on stage, parents were educated on the Turnaround Arts program at their neighborhood schools. WI

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EDUCATION

McDuffie Bill on Crime Passes Goal: Teaching Violent Offenders New Ways to Live

By Sarafina Wright WI Staff Writer City council passed Councilman Kenyan R. McDuffie’s (D-Ward 5) Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results Amendment Act of 2016 [NEAR] on the first reading during their monthly legislative meeting on Monday, Feb. 1 at the John A. Wilson Building in Northwest.

McDuffie touts the NEAR Act as a bill that will approach public safety, by not just addressing crime after it occurs, but also working to prevent crime by treating its root causes for the long-term.

“This critical legislation is a step in the right direction and will address the root causes of violent crime in an effective and sustainable way,” McDuffie said. “One homicide in the District is too many. This bill addresses crime no matter where it happens in the District whether on the street, train, or in a home.”

The act will use a public health approach to address crime using the collaboration of the Metropolitan Police Department and health and human services agencies.

Establishing the Office of Violence Prevention and Health Equity [OVPHE] will be the first order of business for this new approach.

The OVPHE will require the city to develop and implement a public health strategy using risk assessment tools, cognitive and family-based therapy and service coordination to combat the spread of violence.

This includes placing clinicians in every hospital’s emergency department to respond to victims of crime immediately and to prevent violence from escalating.

The Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement [ONSE] will be another office created based on what McDuffie believes to be a successful model adopted in Richmond, Calif.

The purpose of the office will

be to identify teenagers and young adults at the highest risk for committing or being a victim of violent crimes for participation in a stipend-based program involving life planning, trauma­informed therapy and mentorship.

They will be required to create and execute a successful life­plan, moving them away from the pitfalls of violent crime.

McDuffie, in a printed statement, said, “Evidencing the potential success of ONSE, between 2007 and 2014, Richmond experienced a 76 percent reduction in firearm­related homicides.”

He went on to say, “We also know that those impacted by homelessness, mental health disorders and substance abuse are often in regular contact with the police due to unmet healthcare and housing needs.”

In addition, the bill will establish a Community Crime Prevention Team Program to pair mental

5Ward 5 Council member Kenyan McDuffie. / WI Archive

health clinicians and housing outreach specialists from the Department of Behavioral Health and Human Services with police officers to identify individuals in need of assistance and to connect them with wrap-around services.

As for the MPD, the legislation will require yearly training on preventing biased-based profiling, community policing and the use of force in their mandatory continuing education and training.

District police officers will also be required to collect stop and frisk and use of force data in an effort to promote transparency and improve relations between the police and the community.

“We know that we cannot simply arrest our way out of crime – we have to take bold and innovative steps like those in the NEAR Act to help prevent crime,” McDuffie said.

WI

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OPINIONS/EDITORIALS EDITORIAL

Love American Style – The Evolution Continues Valentine’s Day will be celebrated on Sunday, Feb. 14 – a holiday known here in the U.S. as one of the most romantic days of the year.

Many of you will celebrate your love for your partner by giving gifts or flowers or having a meal in a favorite restaurant – even marking the evening with a romantic getaway in a lavish hotel.

Historically, the day became associated with romantic love in the Middle Ages in England, following the pagan fertility festivals held throughout Europe as the winter came to an end. In those days, lovers exchanged handwritten notes.

Today, if you’re fortunate enough to be in a committed relationship and be in love, you may be taking a walk down memory lane – thinking back to the first time you met your “boo” – remembering where you were, what the weather was like, what he or she was wearing and how they smelled, marking the special moments the two of you have shared since then.

Songs of love will be prominently selected for your weekend playlist with artists like Marvin Gaye, Brian McKnight, Phyllis Hyman, Anita Baker, Luther Vandross and Kem tickling our ears.

But as we all know, while most humans hope, even pray for true love, it’s something that is rare, complicated, often misunderstood – even elusive. Perhaps the reason is because in order for one to be able to love another, they must first love themselves. Only then, can we, as singer/songwriter John Legend says so succinctly, “[I] love your curves and imperfections.”

Fortunately, we’ve witnessed an evolution of sorts in love American style over the last century with many changes occurring to the various accepted forms of love. For example, in the mid-1960s and earlier, it was illegal in many states for Blacks and whites to marry. Even samesex relationships have gained significant ground, with many couples, depending on the state, being able to marry – bringing legal precedent and public acknowledgement to their form of love.

Few would dispute that both interracial and gay forms of love have had to face torment, teasing, isolation and hatred. Those who have had the courage to step forward together have been scrutinized, ridiculed, rejected and at times even criminalized because of the color of their skin or their sexual identity.

Thank goodness such times are in the past. Or are they?

Some would say they still experience hurt and shame because of their chosen form of love. But who are we to decide? Isn’t love a gift from God? And do we really have a choice when it comes to who we love? For some, no matter how far we run and how fast we move away from it, love somehow takes hold of us and won’t let go.

Still, when we look around us we tend to see more examples of lust than love, more notions of selfishness rather than selflessness. And we realize just how rare the gift of love is – love that is open and liberating and boundless.

And so, if you have love firmly within your grasp and in your heart for another, take the time to show them – not only on Valentine’s Day – but every day of the year – how much they mean to you.

Because you have been granted a gift that some people, no matter how hard they search, may never find. That world where only two share a rhythm and a beat that is indescribable and rare.

Yes, ain’t love grand? WI

What Do You Think? We’d Like To Know.

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Write Us:

Paying Criminals Not the Right Move

Cam Newton: A Breath of Fresh Air

I understand that crime has risen to an all-time high in the District of Columbia.

I understand that something needs to be done to reduce crime, and it needs to be done fast. What I don’t understand is why Kenyan McDuffie (Ward 5 City Council member) thinks that paying people not to commit crimes is the solution to the problem. Is this a gross wasting of taxpayer dollars, or what?? How would the potential criminals be identified? Is this a one-time payment, or would it be ongoing like earning wages? If the idea is to pay people not to commit crimes, would I qualify for such payment? I don’t intend to commit a crime, so can I apply for the money? There are people desperately in need of employment or financial aid just to survive. How can McDuffie justify using city money to pay people for not committing a crime when there are so many other areas of need? If money is available for this, the city should use it toward funding affordable housing and other pressing needs. I just don’t understand how this suggestion has come this far. And, sadly, I just heard that the City Council supports it.

That was a great story written by Sarafina Wright, “Cam Newton Seeks to make History,” on the front page of the February 4, 2016 edition. It was refreshing to read a positive story about this very talented young man.

Most of the writers in mainstream media have been ripping him to shreds about his socalled antics on the football field and some have even taken nasty shots at his private and personal life. Most blacks, if they have lived long enough in America, know that we are held to a different standard no matter what our accomplishments are, especially if our accomplishments place us in a position usually held by whites. I am sure Cam Newton has worked hard for everything he has achieved, and he deserves all of the accolades that come with it. I hope he leads the Panthers to a victory in the Super Bowl on Sunday, not only because he is a black quarterback, but also because he is a great quarterback. Those who don’t want to accept change need to get over it. Cam Newton is who he is and I love him for that, and I hope he doesn’t change for anybody.

Marva Wissinant Washington, D.C.

Kevin Reeves Washington, D.C.

The Washington Informer 3117 MLK Ave, SE • Washington, D.C. 20032

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FEB. 4 - 10, 2016 23

OPINIONS/EDITORIALS Guest Columnist

By Hillary Clinton (excerpt)

Hillary Clinton Seeks to Give Hope to Citizens of Flint I am so grateful to Pastor Stuart to this congregation for giving me the chance to come to say a few words that are on my heart about this community.

I feel blessed to be here with you, wishing it were for a different reason. I am here because for almost two years Flint’s water was poisoned. I’m here because for nearly two years mothers and fathers were voicing concerns about the water’s color, the smell, the rashes it gave to those bathing in it.

I want you to know that this has

to be a national priority.

This is not merely unacceptable or wrong, though it is both. What happened in Flint is immoral. The children of Flint are just as precious as the children in any other part of America. We don’t yet know how many children have been affected by lead poisoning. We don’t yet know how many challenges they might face in the years ahead. But what we do know, we know that even a single child suffering lead poisoning due to the state’s neglect is one child too many.

And we also know we need action now. Flint should be able to start making the repairs you need

Guest Columnist

to restore safe water as soon as possible. But it’s not only the physical infrastructure that needs to be fixed. It’s the human beings. We need to so much more to provide health care and educational supports for Flint’s children.

I have seen for myself my friends the incredible things these programs can do. For eight years, I represented New York. Our problem with lead poisoning in New York was not the water; t was the lead-based paint on the old houses that people lived in. So as a senator, I fought for children struggling to bear heavy burdens, and I will fight for you in Flint.

And in addition, I think we should send a lot more Americorps volunteers to come here as we put young people to work in Flint, working side by side with those who are part of the national service, of our federal government, realizing that, yes, this is problem that affects Flint, but I dare say there are other communities with similar problems. This is not the only place where children are being harmed by what they breathe and what they drink. And you should have all the information you need to know what this means for your children and grandchildren, what’s true about what lead poisoning

and what isn’t, what the challenges are, what you could do to help and where you can turn to help. Now I know this is going to take time and it’s not going to be easy. But repairing trust is as important as repairing pipes. We need to be able to lift each other up again, we have to trust each other, to count on each other to truly be our brother’s and our sister’s keepers. When I first heard about what was happening here, I was so angry. I was outraged. And I know you must feel exactly the same.

So I want to thank those who

CLINTON Page 45

By George H. Lambert Jr.

On Track With the Greater Washington Urban League - Taking Back the Streets Not long ago, I was walking in Columbia Heights when I noticed three guys standing around, eyeing a young woman who was walking just ahead of me. As she passed them, one made a very crude remark, and his friends laughed loudly.

Without considering the consequences, I inserted myself between the woman and the guys and asked them not to talk to my colleague that way.

(In reality I did not know her.)

For an instant it felt like the incident could have gotten ugly, but fortunately it ended there.

She thanked me and continued on her way. They were wrong and knew it. No one should have to endure this kind of harassment. My female friends tell me it happens all the time.

Evidently, a certain kind of man has no other way of gaining attention, is immature and lacks the self-respect to keep his comments to himself.

Brianne Nadeau, council person for Ward 1, is confronting the issue head-on. She re-

Guest Columnist

cently convened a discussion, inviting public comment.

“Street harassment,” she stated, “impairs the ability of District residents to move freely and safely and contributes to a broader culture of violence.”

Council member Nadeau is onto something. Street harassment is real, and I applaud the people behind www.stopstreetharassment.org for calling attention to an issue that some might consider trivial. Unwanted verbal threats can be almost as harmful as violence itself. If residents of our com-

munity are intimidated as they walk down the street, they can’t be their best in life and we can’t be our best as a society.

I am concerned, however, that measures to reduce this ugly behavior could inadvertently be used as a pretext for another kind of harassment— namely, the harassment that African-Americans often experience at the hands of police officers. We have seen well-intentioned policies and laws go wrong before. Officials who want to stop drug dealing on street corners pass anti-loiter-

ing laws, but bigoted police officers take advantage of them as an excuse to stop and frisk young men of color. In Florida we saw the “Stand Your Ground” law protect the murderer of Trayvon Martin. The innocent and the guilty alike are targeted for behavior that our white counterparts don’t have to worry about.

Another example of the unintended consequences resulting from poorly thought-out policy is so-called broken-win-

LAMBERT Page 45

By Armstrong Williams

The Water Crisis in Flint is a Man-Made Disaster Something is definitely rotten in the state of Michigan. And it’s not just the lead-poisoned water coming from the corroded pipes undergirding Flint’s public water system. The rottenness goes to the very core of an attitude of managerial expediency unfettered by moral leadership.

Contrary to widespread belief, Flint Michigan’s water woes are not the result of decades’ long neglect of critical infrastructure

24 FEB. 11 - 17, 2016

investments – although that is certainly a contributing factor. The blame for Flint’s water problems lay squarely with a legacy policy choices dating back decades. The fact that towns like Flint, Michigan, are currently facing critical fiscal crises is the result of successive generations of corrupt and incompetent local elected leadership. But the immediate cause of the water crisis in particular stems from current Michigan governor’s attempt to rectify fiscal mismanagement through authoritarian, anti-democratic governance poli-

cies.

Snyder’s policy of usurping local governmental authorities and placing economically depressed towns like Flint under the sole control unelected ‘emergency managers’ is the proximate cause of the Flint crisis. The philosophy behind Snyder’s policy choices seems to be that governments should be ‘run more like a business.’

Under Snyder’s dubious management-oriented philosophy, principle-centered leadership often takes a backseat to expedient

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tactics. In Flint this policy regime has tragically backfired. The absence of moral discernment has caused a crisis from which the citizens of Flint as well as for Michigan taxpayers are unlikely to escape any time soon.

Let’s be clear. The situation in Flint was not an act of nature, or an accident, or a mistake. It is a man-made environmental disaster. It was entirely foreseeable and entirely preventable. Potentially thousands of children may have suffered permanent neurological injuries due to elevated levels of

lead in their blood – elevated levels caused by drinking and bathing in contaminated water that was falsely declared safe by officials who were appointed by and report directly to the governor – a two-term governor at the end of a term-limited run who may feel he no longer has to be accountable to the Michigan voters.

But what has elevated this crisis from mere tragedy to the heights of diabolical absurdity was the Snyder administration’s year-long

WILLIAMS Page 45

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OPINIONS/EDITORIALS Guest Columnist

By Julianne Malveaux

My Head Says Hillary; My Heart Says Bernie I am looking forward to Nov. 8 and to voting for Hillary Rodham Clinton to lead the United States.

I am so extremely excited that a woman of character, experience, and discernment can lead our nation. Even as I look forward to the November vote, I am fully enjoying the path to November. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has provided tone and texture to this race. He has forced Clinton to hone her positions on health care, Wall Street and income inequality. He came

so amazingly close to toppling her in Iowa that it gave me post-dramatic stress syndrome. She didn’t make my drama hers, though. She has managed, with stoic dignity, to stake her claim for this presidency.

My head is with Clinton, but my heart is with Sanders. I realize that he has promised everything and hasn’t shared how he might pay for much of it — free tuition, universal health care, or Wall Street reform.

Still, his energetic bluster has been a galvanizing factor in a race that might otherwise have been seen as a cakewalk or a coronation. Clinton needs to be pushed as hard as

Guest Columnist

Sanders can push her. And even though Sanders says he does not care about her “damn e-mails,” the email conversation has to remind Clinton that she has to figure out ways to restore trust among those who support her positions but look askance at the ways she has been too frequently presented.

There is an element of sexism in this. Clinton has been on the national stage for several decades, from the time when her husband was elected governor of Arkansas in the 1980s. As first lady, she had to juggle her smarts and her secondary role, blundering as she tried to offer

clarity around health care, soaring as she provided rhetorical leadership on women and children’s issues. And since the Clintons left the White House, she has been nimble and focused as a senator, managing to make friends in both political parties and managing to provide solid international leadership as secretary of state. Were she a man, would she be judged as harshly because some find her “unlikeable”?

Would her every facial expression be parsed? Would opponents feel free to comment on her marital business? Thrice-married Donald Trump has spoken of Bill Clinton’s

fidelity, but it is documented that he was a big-time philanderer. Carly Fiorina says she would have left her husband if he’d cheated like Bill, but we don’t know that, do we? What we know is that Clinton’s gender is a double-edged sword. I cringe whenever she says, “I am woman” or “the only woman,” or some reference to her clear, self-evident gender. But I also cringe when the gender-bashers seem incapable of interpreting her words and her work fairly.

That’s not why I’ll vote for Clinton, though. I’ll vote for her because

MALVEAUX Page 46

By Harry C. Alford

Filthy Rich and Dangerous – Part 2 Yes, the new progressive movement is in full form, and it is not taking any “prisoners.” Move On.org, ACORN and others are basically a memory. When the Obama administration moved into the White House, just a block away from the beautiful U.S. Chamber of Commerce building, we immediately saw that times for conciliation were not to be. Chaos with no exceptions. Groups using tactics that were close to military. They camped out in some of the prominent parks

in Washington, D.C., nonstop with the blessings of the White House.

These hotheads would arrive with ladders and scale the walls of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce giving the impression of an attack – an attack on corporate America. They would press themselves against the windows on the fourth floor offices and make noise. Marches throughout downtown D.C. made this fine city look like some third world uprising. They had the contact information on all board members of the Chamber and would send emails, letters and phone calls demanding us to resign from the board. They

Askia-At-Large

would harass the neighborhoods of some of our board members causing them to hire security service to protect their families and property.

It was hooligan!

My organization had a pretty good relationship with The Washington Post. But suddenly this major publication turned on me personally. While I was in Paris on some important business meetings, a bombshell hit us. There was a very derogatory article about me, Harry C. Alford, and the NBCC. It claimed we have sinisterly teamed with fossil fuels companies to destroy our land, kill the children and

spread blight throughout the entire world. It was on the front page, in bold print above the first fold.

What brought this change? Why was it so vicious? The answer was this. Multibillionaire Jeff Bezos had just bought the Post and is an avid climate change activist with a hatred for traditional energy companies.

He also owns Amazon.com.

I decided to find out who this new monster attacking us and all others who are pro-business and free market loving. I found the greatest explanation written by John B. Judis and published in the National Journal:

“There is no single group that dominates the Democrats’ informal network, but the one that has the greatest reach, due to the power of its purse, is the Democracy Alliance. It was founded in 2005 by Rob Stein, a venture capitalist who had worked for master political operative Ron Brown at the Democratic National Committee and Commerce Department.”

Stein went on a mission to grow the Democracy Alliance into a powerful infrastructure to promote their ideas of Income Redistribution, Cli-

ALFORD Page 46

By Askia Muhammad

Let’s Not Bash Islam in the Name of ‘De Lawd’ We must be living in The Last Days because everywhere we look there is nothing but war and rumors of war, even among—especially now among — the “People of the Book.”

In this instance “the Book” refers to the “Abrahamic scriptures.” That is those faiths that recognize the Prophet Abraham as “the father of the faithful,” as “the friend of God.” Sometimes referred to as the

major “monotheistic religions,” they are Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called them “the beloved community.”

By definition, there can be only one “Supreme Being,” only One God . . . that is the God of all faiths, the Abrahamic faiths and all others: Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Hinduism Vodun, Santeria, and others I may have omitted.

There can be only one Lord of all the worlds. So why is there so much controversy over The

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Lord and his religion?

Wars have been fought for centuries over interpretations of religious dogma. Even to this very day there is a potential “clash of civilizations” among the “cousins”— the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims who recognize Abraham and the prophets who followed in his path.

Most decidedly the terrorists who call themselves the “Islamic State,”— which is neither an Islamic government nor is it a civilized “state — the

Islamic State (ISIL) and its fellow travelers who are called “al Qaeda” and “Boko Haram” are the chief mischief makers today, not unlike the Christian White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were vicious crusaders 100 years ago . . . themselves not unlike the original Crusaders who answered the call of Pope Urban II in 1095 on a quest to regain control of Jerusalem — the Holy Land — and to capture the fictitious “Holy Grail.” It seems the more things change, the more they

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stay the same.

Fast forward 1,021 years and said ISIL betrays the teachings of its own book — the Holy Quran which was revealed to Prophet Muhammad in the Eighth Century. The Quran condemns murdering innocent people in explicit terms.

“Whoever kills a person [unjustly] . . . it is as though he has killed all mankind. And whoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved all man-

MUHAMMAD Page 46 FEB. 11 - 17, 2016 25

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

D.C. Black History Month Celebration Kicks Off

By Sam P.K. Collins WI Contributing Writer @SamPKCollins Ninety years after journalist and historian Carter G. Woodson created what’s now known as Black History Month, the yearning to celebrate a storied past and secure a prosperous future looms larger than ever among people of African descent living in Western society.

The reverence for those who triumphed against oppressive forces continued last week when nearly 100 community members kicked off citywide Black History Month festivities at the African American Civil War Museum in Northwest. During a two-hour program, an array of local artists, public officials, educators, and activists conjured the spirit of black liberation while

decrying monuments of white supremacy.

“This hallowed ground reminds me of things that are painful, like driving down Robert Lee and Jefferson Davis Highways,” said Dr. Frank Smith, head of the African American Civil War Memorial & Museum, referring to major roads in Virginia named for well-known Confederate figures during his remarks on the evening of Feb. 2.

“Some of these things have to come down. Let me just say that only Black people don’t have a role. I’m challenging white people to help clean up the pollution. I care so they have to care too. These hallowed grounds matter because they remind us of a time when Black people didn’t have power,” Smith added.

Though speakers reflected on the tragic events of the past year, including the massacre of nine churchgoers in South Carolina, much of the discussion focused on buildings, events and land that chronicle black achievement in the U.S. The theme for the 2016 Black History Month program, “Hallowed Grounds: Sites of African-American Memories,” spoke to that goal, as reiterated by representatives of the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History, an organization Woodson founded in 1915.

Other guests included D.C. Councilmember Vincent Orange (D-At-Large), Ruhama Hayle, Miss Ethiopia 2015 and finalist for the Miss Africa USA Pageant, Dr. Benjamin Chavis and Denise Rolark Barnes of the National Newspaper Publishers

5Charles Hicks speaks at the African American Civil War Museum in Northwest during the kick-off of Black History Month on Tuesday, Feb. 2. / Twitpic by Charles Allen

Photo Courtesy of Antony Platt/PBS.

EXPLORE THE HISTORIC SITES AND STORIES THAT INSPIRED THE SERIES. Uncover the real people behind the show’s characters, the realities of Civil War medicine, women’s changing roles and African-Americans claiming their freedom.

VisitAlexandriaVA.com/MercyStreet Tune in to Mercy Street Sundays at 10 PM on PBS.

26 FEB. 11 - 17, 2016

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Association (NNPA) and representatives of the D.C. statehood movement. Each speaker brought good news to the podium, touching on their efforts to extend summer employment opportunities for young adults in the District, secure statehood, and usher the Black press into the technological age.

In his comments, Chavis, NNPA president and CEO and a well-regarded figure of the Civil Rights era, called on his peers to mentor young activists, a group he said was better equipped to address contemporary challenges facing people of African descent in the U.S. “It’s our obligation to raise a new generation of freedom fighters and intellectual giants.

We can’t afford a cultural and generational gap,” Chavis said.

“This is about whether this democracy will be inclusive or exclusive. Our history has shown us that every benefit Black people have gotten has benefited everyone else. Everyone should be celebrating our struggle. Long live the spirit of our people and our history.”

Retired District government training officer Taji Anderson echoed Chavis’ sentiments, saying that she often shares Black history facts with her family and friends at home and through social media. For her, doing so is a matter of preserving Black

history. Anderson said the issues young people currently face come from a lack of understanding of the sacrifices their ancestors made.

“Youth wouldn’t be shooting each other if they knew about their ancestors and had a sense of pride about how Black people died to get them here today,” Anderson, a relative of Black historical figures including Rachel and Ruth Macomson, Janet Dickerson Stephens and Marian Wright Edelman, said, noting that her oldest grandson’s thirst for knowledge increased after watching “Selma” in theaters in 2014.

While Ariel Alford agrees, she said elders must commit to engaging young people and include them in Black History Month festivities. Alford, who attended the kickoff celebration with her friend, counted among a handful of millennials in the room that evening.

“This was a missed opportunity to include young people.

We can’t learn how to do these things if we’re not involved,” said Alford, a middle school teacher.

“A high school class could have aided in this project to make it more intergenerational. It’s important for us as African people to have spaces like this where we can convene and have an honest discussion about the empire we’re living in.” WI

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BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Jesse Owens: A Life of Perseverance History Maker Remembered

By Sarafina Wright WI Staff Writer In light of Black History Month and it being an Olympic year, remembering trailblazer Jesse Owens cannot be overlooked.

Track and field athlete Owens made history when he won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games in 100 meters, 200 meters, 4 x 100 meter relay and the long jump. His record in the long jump held for 25 years.

ESPN ranked Owens as the sixth-greatest North American athlete of the 20th century and greatest athlete in his sport of track and field.

In 1976, he received the Pres-

5Jesse Owens / Courtesy photo

idential Medal of Freedom, and in 1981 USA Track and Field created the Jesse Owens Award to be given annually to the best in the sport.

Before Owens became an international superstar, defying stereotypes and breaking the false Aryan supremacy narrative of his time, he was James Cleveland Owens.

Born to sharecroppers in Oakville, Alabama, on Sept.

12, 1913, Owens along with his family moved to Cleveland at age of 9 like many African-Americans participating in what would be known as the Great Migration, where millions left the south and moved north for better opportunities.

At Fairmont Junior High School Owens found for his knack for track.

It was also there that he met his second love Minnie Ruth Solomon, who would become his future wife.

The 1933 National High School Championship in Chicago where he set records garnered him his first taste of national fanfare.

Owens went on to attend Ohio State University, where he won a record eight individual championships, four in 1935 and 1936 all while not being on scholarship.

During his time at OSU Owens was subjected to racism and harassment.

He lived in off campus housing with the rest of the African-American students who attended the university.

While travel-

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ing with the track team, often he had to be serviced at black-only hotels, restaurants and other service stations separate from his white teammates.

Before the Olympics commenced in 1936 Owens had mixed feelings about participating because of Nazi Germany and their politics. He faced pressure by many Blacks and Whites to boycott the games, which he almost did.

However, he went anyway and showed the world a performance it would never forget.

His performance at the 1936 games garnered him an Adidas endorsement.

Later on his life Owens never saw the same level of success he did that one summer in Berlin.

Opting to return to the United States after the games to capitalize off of his success instead of traveling with the Olympic team, he subsequently became blackballed from the sport, which ended his career.

Owens went on to venture into the Negro Baseball League.

For a short time he owned the

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

Portland (Oregon) Rosebuds.

A string of bad luck and odd jobs landed him in bankruptcy court in 1966.

His fortune began to change when he was appointed a U.S. goodwill ambassador.

Due to an aggressive lung cancer, Owens passed away on March 30, 1981, at the age of 66, leaving his wife and three daughters Gloria, Beverly and Marlene behind.

In 1990, President George H.W. Bush awarded Owens posthumously with the Congressional Gold Medal.

Stay tuned for our RACE movie review in next week’s issue. WI

FEB. 11 - 17, 2016 27

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Biopics Newest Trend in Black Cinema Films to Watch This Quarter Sarafina Wright WI Staff Writer This Black History Month, the Jesse Owens Story will hit theaters on Feb. 19 titled “Race” kicking off a new wave in Black cinema in light of the controversy surrounding diversity in Hollywood prompting hashtags on social media like #Oscarssowhite.

This past award season films like “Straight Outta Compton,” “Creed” and “Beast of No Nation” were noticeably left out of the most sought after recognizable award categories.

Several authorities in the film industry mused that rather than the issue being of racial bias, it’s more about a lack of Black films at the table to be voted for.

In January, actor Nate Parker had an answer for those criticisms when the film that he wrote, directed and starred in made Sundance Film Festival history.

Birth of a Nation went for a record 17.5 million, purchased

by Fox Spotlight, the highest any company has paid for a film at the festival.

Parker plays the infamous Nat Turner, a slave, preacher who led the deadliest slave revolt in American history in Southhampton County, Virginia, in 1831.

The film is slated for release during the awards season, which lasts from November through February.

Falling in line with the trend, actor Don Cheadle will make also make his feature film directorial debut as well

as starring as jazz impresario Miles Davis in the biopic “Miles Ahead.”

The film will explore Davis’s musical gifts and his troubles.

It will be released nationwide in theaters April 1.

Not to be forgotten, HBO films will air the TV movie “Confirmation” on April 16 starring “Scandal” star Kerry Washington.

Washington will portray Anita Hill, a law professor who made national news when she testified that Supreme Court nominee Judge Clarence Thomas sexually harassed her when they were co-workers.

Thomas will be played by veteran actor Wendell Pierce.

Stay tuned for our review on the film “Race” and interviews with the film’s lead actor and director in our next issue. WI

5Promotional photo for HBO TV movie “Confirmation” starring Kerry Washington airs on April 16. / Courtesy photo.

5Promotional photo for “Miles Ahead” starring Don Cheadle will be released in theaters on April 1. / Courtesy photo.

5Promotional photo for “Birth of a Nation” starring Nate Parker, release date to be announced. / Courtesy photo.

28 FEB. 11 - 17, 2016

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BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Beyonce Gets Political in New, Sizzling Video ‘Formation’ Affirms African-American Culture

By Sarafina Wright WI Staff Writer @dreamersexpress

We don’t know, but we do know When you add up all of these that last week news broke that Jay-Z facts you conclude that she’s down donated a million dollars to the Black for the cause and therefore, what’s Lives Matter movement. We know the big deal? that the superstar couple supported “Formation” is different because slain teenager Trayvon Martin’s fam- white America can’t ignore it. She’s T:7.5738” ily and we also know that Beyoncé blatantly showing the establishment follows prominent activist DeRay on that she isn’t the likable, respectable Twitter.

Negro that whites can easily digest.

A new era of Beyoncé’s budding legacy is upon us.

Sister Solange Knowles tweeted following the release of the video.

“Y’all gon learn bout dem children of Celestine & Matthew, lol.

Slay sis, slay [brown fist emoji]. And slay niece, slay [brown fist emoji] WI

Ava Duvernay Arts & Entertainment (not shown)

Jeff Johnson Trailblazer

Marc Morial Humanitarian

Marvin Sapp Living Legend

Caroyln Hunter Owner-Operator

T:10”

One day before Super Bowl 50, superstar Beyoncé dropped a new video without warning addressing police brutality, southern culture, Hurricane Katrina and her love for the Black aesthetic.

The reactions to the unexpected visual ‘Formation’ began pouring in by the thousands on social media anchored by the BeyHive, the name for her diehard fans throughout the globe who are known for their strong social media presence.

Many people loved it, however and understandably so, there were those that just didn’t get it.

Unless you are an African American from the south, or more specifically New Orleans, the symbolism throughout the video may go over your head.

The video opens with New Orleans Bounce music artist Big Freedia narrating “what happened at the Nu ‘Awlins?” in a distinct Louisiana dialect.

Throughout the video the singer sits on top of a New Orleans police car barely above water in reference to Hurricane Katrina.

She sings, “I like my baby hair, with baby hair and afros. I like my Negro nose with Jackson 5 nostrils.”

She goes on to sing “my daddy Alabama, momma Louisiana. Mix that Negro with that Creole you make a Texas bama.”

Beyoncé proudly proclaims she likes her daughter’s hair, her husband’s nose and the stock of her parents from which she came.

The video showcases the Black church, crawfish, marching bands and Second lines, a New Orleans parade tradition whose roots can be traced to West Africa.

Beyoncé’s four-year-old daughter Blue Ivy Carter also makes an appearance.

All of those nuggets are great, however, the tone shifts when a line of militarized cops appear with “stop shooting us” spray painted on the wall behind them.

Even for Beyoncé, a megastar, aligning herself with the Black struggle makes her a threat to the white establishment.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani blasted Beyoncé’s perfor-

mance of “Formation” during the Super Bowl halftime describing it as “an attack on police.”

Why would Beyoncé, seemingly beloved by all, disturb her “harmless” public persona?

Why did she use her musical platform for a political message and a celebration of blackness?

Tori Turner Community Choice Youth Award Winner

Aaron Johnson Community Choice Youth Award Winner

12 Months. 365 Days. 8760 Hours. 525,600 Minutes.

To those who always find time to reach out…reach back…and bring others along. McDonald’s® celebrates you, not only during Black History Month, but each and every day throughout the year.

Find out more at 365Black.com.

©2016 McDonald’s

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FEB. 11 - 17, 2016 29

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

USPS Honors Richard Allen with Stamp

Marks the 39th in Black Heritage Series

By Sarafina Wright WI Staff Writer The U.S. Postal Service kicked off the national observance of Black History Month by adding the 39th stamp to their Black Heritage Series.

They dedicated a Forever stamp to Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church on Tuesday, Feb. 2, at Mother Bethel AME Church, which is founded by Allen in Philadelphia.

“Richard Allen was a man of boundless stature, courage and determination. The Postal Service is pleased to dedicate this special commemorative Forever stamp in his honor,” Postal Service Vice President, Area Operations - Eastern Area, Joshua D. Colin, said.

The USPS added Allen to an elite group of African-Americans based on his inspirational life as a preacher, activist and civic leader and his profound contribution to American history.

Also, the 39th stamp coincides with the 200th anniversary of Allen’s founding of the AME church, which is considered one of the most important institutions in African-American life.

The Black Heritage Stamp Series began in 1978 honoring abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

Others who followed her include Martin Luther King Jr., Benjamin Banneker, Carter G. Woodson, Mary McLeod Bethune, Langston Hughes, Thurgood Marshall, Paul Robeson, Marian Anderson, Hattie McDaniel, Ella Fitzgerald, John

H. Johnson, Barbara Jordan and Shirley Chisholm.

“Frederick Douglass and later Martin Luther King Jr., both said that they were influenced by how Bishop Allen seemed to channel a higher power to work through him to shepherd blacks through some of this country’s darkest days,” Colin said.

After making a name for himself as a traveling minister throughout the Mid-Atlantic, Allen was asked to preach to his fellow free negro people at a Methodist church in Philadelphia.

He quickly rose to prominence as a civic leader, co-founding an organization to help neighbors in need, rallying black Philadelphians to serve as aid workers during a yellow fever epidemic in 1793 and

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90th ANNUAL ASALH Black History Luncheon & Featured Authors’ Event

5The latest debut by the U.S. Postal Service in their Black Heritage Series

Saturday, February 20th, 2016

stars Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. / Photo courtesy of the USPS.

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30 FEB. 11 - 17, 2016

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

preparing the black community to defend the city during the War of 1812.

Eager to establish an independent African-American church, Allen purchased an old blacksmith’s shop and moved it to land he owned at Sixth and Lombard Streets.

Dedicated in 1794, Bethel Church soon attracted hundreds of members, but Allen spent years in conflict with white church leaders who sought to assert their control.

After a campaign that included sit-ins and a judgment by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the congregation secured its independence.

In 1816, Allen summoned other Black Methodist leaders to Philadelphia, where together they founded the AME church, electing and consecrating Allen as its first bishop.

Today, Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church stands on the site where Allen converted that old blacksmith’s shop more than two centuries ago. The denomination he

founded now boasts more than 2.5 million members.

“I hope this stamp will inspire every American to learn more about this uplifting man,” Colin said. WI

“Frederick Douglass and later Martin Luther King Jr., both said that they were influenced by how Bishop Allen seemed to channel a higher power to work through him to shepherd blacks through some of this country’s darkest days.”

Joshua D. Colin / PSVP, Area Operations - Eastern Area

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BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Loren Miller: Rose from Poverty to Civil Rights Activist Author Amina Hassan Shares a Gem of an Untold Story

By D. Kevin McNeir WI Editor When children are asked to do research on a famous Black American, they often lean toward the familiar figures: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman or George Washington Carver.

But when historian and award-winning public radio documentarian Amina Hassan heard about an attorney who had been critical in the civil rights victories of Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP, she said she became curious.

That curiosity led her to uncover little known facts about Loren Miller – the son of a former slave and a white Midwesterner born in 1903 whose life reflects the quintessential America success story – rising from poverty to power and influence.

After earning his law degree, Miller, who was said to prefer political activism and writing to the law, made his way from his home in Kansas to Los Angeles where he took a job as a journalist and owner of the California Eagle, one of the longest-running Black newspapers in the West. At the same time, he assisted the California branch of the ACLU, working to stop the internment of Japanese citizens, helping to integrate the U.S. military and the L.A Fire Department and defending Black Muslims arrested in a deadly street brawl with the LAPD. Hassan shared her views during an author’s reading at Sankofa Video Books & Café on Saturday, Feb. 6 in Northwest, also speaking to audiences several days earlier at Upshur Street Books and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, both also in Northwest.

“Miller was an essential part of the legal team in the Brown v Board of Education landmark case, serving as the writer of the briefs for Thurgood Marshall but he’s rarely mentioned – that’s a real travesty,” she said. “One of his cases, Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) is taught in nearly every American law school today.”

“I think his contributions aren’t as well-known because he was based out West in L.A. – most of

the great leaders in Black history we hear about lived in either the South or the East. Only in the last few years have we heard more about Miller. But we owe a great deal to him and his lifelong commitment to making democracy work for the minority,” said Hassan, a single parent of five children who received her Ph.D. in rhetorical criticism from Ohio University and lives a bi-coastal life between D.C. and L.A. “He was also a frustrated writer but he went into law in order to honor his father’s wishes,” she said. “Few people know that he co-founded the Los Angeles Sentinel in 1964 with his cousin, often writing the editorials. He was appointed as a judge in 1964 too and died in 1967 at the age of 64.”

Miller’s influence continues to be felt, particularly in the state of California.

“One of the state’s most prestigious awards is The Loren Miller Legal Services Award – one of the greatest honors an attorney can receive and the only award that allows the recipient to speak at the ceremony during which they’re honored,” Hassan said.

As for the Black press, Miller was often more critical than complimentary.

“Miller said the Black press tended to misrepresent the real role portrayed by Black actors, painting them as stars in films when they were more accurately bit part players,” Hassan said.

“He wanted the Black press to tell the truth. His words remain relevant today in light of the many criticisms lodged against the Academy because of its lack of diversity in its awards decisions.”

From Pinder, Nebraska, one of seven children, the extremely intelligent Miller made his mark in his community and in America.

“He often shared his story of extreme poverty with school children in order to show them that by working hard at one’s studies, it’s possible to achieve anything,” Hassan said.

Loren Miller – a true American original who had the courage to defy the limits of society while reshaping the political and racial landscape of 20th century America. WI

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5Dr. Amina Hassan discusses her new book “Loren Miller, Civil Rights Attorney and Journalist” at Sankofa Video Books & Café on Georgia Avenue in Northwest on Saturday, Feb. 6. / Photo by Patricia Little

LUCY DIGGS SLOWE (1885-1937)

DC Water Celebrates

Black History Month

• Founding member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. • In 1917, Slowe won the American Tennis Association’s first tournament, making her the first African-American woman to win a major sports title.

• Founded Shaw Junior High School in 1919, the first junior high school in the District of Columbia school system. In the same year, she was also appointed principal of the school.

• First Dean of Women at Howard University in 1922. While serving as Dean, she secured the establishment of a “women’s campus” and influenced the appointment of women’s deans throughout the country.

During her tenure at Howard, three new residence halls were built. A co-ed residence in the historic LeDroit Park is currently named in her honor.

• In 1935, helped organize the National Council of Negro Women and founded the National Association of College Women.

• Inducted into the 26th annual Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame in 2011.

dcwater.com

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FEB. 11 - 17, 2016 31

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Black Wax Museum a Labor of Love Wife Carries On Legacy

By Sarafina Wright WI Staff Writer While floating down the Nile River in Egypt during a trip in 2001, Dr. Elmer Martin, founder of The National Great Blacks In Wax Museum in Baltimore, died suddenly. But his wife, Dr. Joanne Martin, vowed to return home with a renewed purpose.

On Saturday, Feb. 13, several buses will leave THEARC in Southeast to embark on an African American Heritage tour through Baltimore where many will get to explore the wax museum for the first time.

“I want people to look at the history and the struggle and sacrifices of the ancestors whose blood flows through them,” Joanne said. “Our stories make up the fabric of this country’s history.”

Currently the national attraction

has about 145 wax figures on display of different figures who contributed to the Black experience in various areas.

“The museum is very much schematic and sectioned off – we have ancient Africa, the Underground Railroad, civil rights and athletics in chronological order as best we can,” Martin said.

The museum features traditional Black figures such as Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington, but also includes more contemporary figures like President Barack Obama, Cathy Hughes and the founders of clothing brand FUBU. Washington Informer “The figure selections are guided by three historical traditions in the Black community, religious, protest and extended family,” Joanne said.

“We set out to not be a typical wax 5.65” museum. We took the concept and flipped it.”

5The Great Blacks in Wax museum located in Baltimore is loaded with wax replicas of famous African-American people throughout history. / Photo courtesy of Blacks in Wax Museum

“We wanted to tell the history of a people,” she said.

During a trip to St. Augustine, Fla. the Martin’s visited the Potter’s Wax Museum where they became fascinated by the figures and how they were depicted.

Elmer got the push to start his

5Dr. Joanne Martin, co-founder of the Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore. / Photo courtesy of Blacks in Wax Museum

own museum due to several disheartening 6.5” incidents involving some of his students who didn’t want to learn about Black history because they felt it wouldn’t help them achieve the American dream.

Then there was also the time when a young boy on a baseball team Elmer sponsored wanted the team photo to be retaken because he said he was too dark.

“With all of that Elmer sat in his office and realized we had failed to institutionalize our history,” Martin said.

Getting into the wax figure business certainly posed challenges for the Martin’s who were entering unchartered territory.

“The wax figure business was very insulated then. We called around and nobody would give us any information,” she said. “One

32 FEB. 11 - 17, 2016

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

day I guess the lady sensed our frustration and said there was a wax figure maker on the east coast and he was actually in Baltimore.”

After a meeting with Rob Dorfman, wax figure maker and museum owner, they found a source and began their journey with four wax figures including Mary McLeod Bethune, Frederick Douglass, John Brown and Nat Turner.

Now continuing her husband’s dream, the museum will be undergoing an expansion in a larger building on the same block as their current dwelling slated to open 2018.

“We are deliberately located in a fragile low-income community in East Baltimore because we believe that a museum here can help community revitalization,” Martin said.

WI

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LIFESTYLE

First Lady Weighs in on Black History Says it Should be Celebrated ‘Every Single Day’

By Leanna Commins Howard University News Service WHITE HOUSE – First lady Michelle Obama said Monday the contributions of African Americans to the U.S. are far too many and important to be celebrated for only a month, and instead should be studied and commemorated by the nation throughout the year.

“Let’s celebrate it for every single day of every single year – forever and ever,” Obama told spectators during a special Black History Month program at the White House on Feb. 8. “We have contributed so much to this nation and this planet.”

“We have to make sure our young people understand where they come from and how valuable they are and how valuable that history is so that they know they have a solid foundation upon which to soar.”

Obama’s comments were made after 51 young Washington students performed at a day-long dance workshop held in the White House in honor of Black History Month.

The students performed special dances signifying the history of black dance after being trained and choreographed for three hours by four of the nation’s top dancers – Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Judith Jamison; dancer, choreographer and “Different World” television director Debbie Allen; the Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Virginia Johnson; and hip-hop choreographer Fatima Robinson.

The students danced a variety of genres, including African tribal,

modern, classical ballet and hiphop.

Obama called the students the “living legacy” of the choreographers who trained them.

“Your presence here today is very much the result of the risks they took, because of the sacrifices they made and the grinding hard work they put in hour after hour, year after year, rehearsing until their bodies ached and their lungs burned and they never wanted to put on that leotard again,” she said.

“For nearly 50 years, the women who are gracing us with their presence here today have been a driving force in the cultural life of this nation. From tribal dance, to freedom songs, to modern dance, to hip-hop, their work has stirred our souls and ignited our imagination.”

Obama also discussed the hardships Black dancers have faced in the past.

“It wasn’t that long ago that many major dance companies wouldn’t hire Black dancers,” she said. “The few dancers who were hired were sometimes asked to wear white pancake makeup to hide their face from the audience.

Some of the women who are with us today felt the sting of that discrimination first hand.”

As she wrapped up the event, Obama congratulated the young dancers on their performances.

“What you all just did today – showing up at the White House, learning from dancing legends, and then coming out in front of the media and performing like that, proves there’s absolutely nothing you cannot do,” she said.

WI

5On Monday, Feb. 8, In the East Room of the White House, District youth dancers perform for Black History Month celebration. / Photo by Cheriss May, Howard University News Service

5First

“We have to make sure our young people understand where they come from and how valuable they are and how valuable that history is so that they know they have a solid foundation upon which to soar.”

Michelle Obama / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

FEB. 11 - 17, 2016 33

LIFESTYLE

Remembering Maurice White Earth Wind & Fire Legend Blazed Musical Trails

By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer Maurice and Verdine White were as excited as if they were playing their first gig.

During a 2013 interview with the Washington Informer just ahead of Earth Wind & Fire’s scheduled performance at Wolf Trap, the brothers

KURT WEILL / MAXWELL ANDERSON

LOST IN THE STARS Starring Eric Owens

WHEN FAITH IS SHAKEN, THE TRUTH SHALL SET US FREE.

talked about how they had been able to put smiles on the faces of millions across an illustrious career that had spanned five decades.

“The fun never stops and neither does the excitement each time we step on stage,” Verdine White said.

On February 4, the music and the fun stopped as Maurice White succumbed to a lengthy illness. He was 74.

White, whom the New York Times called a boundless funk voyager and smooth-soul maestro, was one of music’s most gifted alchemists of style. Born and raised in Memphis, White moved to Chicago and played as a session drummer for Chess Records.

In 1969, Maurice and Verdine co-founded Earth, Wind & Fire with Maurice White serving as the group’s primary song writer and record producer, sharing lead singing duties with Philip Bailey.

With such hits as “Reasons,” “That’s the Way of the World,” “September,” and “Boogey Wonderland,” Earth, Wind & Fire won six Grammy awards and earned a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The group immediately helped to bring about an evolution in pop music which bridged the gap that often separated the musical tastes of Black and white America.

With the brothers White at the helm, the band combined high-caliber musicianship, wide-ranging musical genre eclecticism and 1970s multicultural Spiritism, Maurice White said during the 2013 inter-

view.

“I wanted to do something that hadn’t been done before,” he said.

“Although we were basically jazz musicians, we played soul, funk, gospel, blues, jazz, rock and dance music which somehow ended up becoming pop. I wanted our music to convey messages of universal love and harmony without force-feeding listeners’ spiritual content.”

While he had quit performing by the time the Wolf Trap show rolled around, Maurice White remained the band’s heart and soul from behind the scenes as a composer and producer.

“I wanted to create a library of music that would stand the test of time,” White said. “I hope our music can give people encouragement and peace. I want the live concert experience to be memorable for everyone.”

Over the course of 44 years, the band received 20 Grammy nominations - winning six times – and 12 American Music Award nominations – winning four times.

The group was inducted into the NAACP Hall of Fame in 1994 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1995.

In 2000, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2003 the band was voted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

With seven top 10 albums and seven top 10 singles, EWF has sold nearly 100 million records.

“That longevity issue is very important,” said Verdine White.

“You know, when we first got into this thing, we were expecting maybe a five-year run. But, as it turns out, it’s 44 years in, and I don’t know if some of the younger artists

5 Maurice White, co-founder of the group Earth, Wind and Fire. / Photo courtesy of bet.com

coming in understand that longevity is something you have to work at. You have to earn that,” he said.

“It’s not something that’s just going to be given to you because you have a couple of records out.”

In addition to his brother Verdine, Maurice White is survived by another brother, Fred, and Maurice White’s two sons. WI

February 12–20 Eisenhower Theater Major support for WNO is provided by Jacqueline Badger Mars.

David and Alice Rubenstein are the Presenting Underwriters of WNO. WNO acknowledges the longstanding generosity of Life Chairman Mrs. Eugene B. Casey.

General Dynamics is the Presenting Sponsor of WNO’s 2015-2016 Season.

WNO’s season is presented with the support of Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello.

Support for Lost in the Stars is provided by Anne Kline Pohanka and Geoffrey Pohanka.

Eric Owens’s performances as Stephen Kumalo on February 12 and 13 are underwritten by Mrs. Alexander J. Tachmindji.

This production is also funded in part by Joe and Judy Antonucci and The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc. New York, NY.

TICKETS ON SALE NOW! KENNEDY-CENTER.ORG (202) 467-4600 Tickets also available at the Box Office. Groups call (202) 416-8400.

34 FEB. 11 - 17, 2016

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LIFESTYLE

Free Books Program Looks to Close Literacy Gap Howard University News Service WASHINGTON – Young children in Washington can now receive a free book every month through “Books From Birth,” an early literacy program co-sponsored by the District of Columbia Public Library that will mail books to children up to age 5 in an effort to close the literacy gap among the city’s children.

City Councilman Charles Allen, who began the program, said books that are mailed will be age-appropriate and every child in the household under age 5 can receive a book.

The first book that every child, at every age, in the program will receive is “The Little Engine That Could,” Allen said, to send the message that every child has the ability to be successful.

The approximately 3,300 families that have already signed up for the program through the library’s website at www.dclibrary.org/freebooks will begin receiving their books this month, Allen said. The goal is to get books in the hands of every child in the District and shrink the education gap for Black and Hispanic children, he said.

“It is too often that the word gap is a very accurate predictor of educational achievement for a child,” he said. “It is later called the achievement gap. The achievement gap predicts outcomes for children that affect their health, public safety, jobs and income.”

“I believe that putting that power of a book in the hands of our youngest residents will absolutely make a difference.”

Ryckale Williams, a mother of two children, a 4-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter, said she signed her children up because they love to read and she believes that this will encourage them to continue reading.

“I think this is a great idea,” Williams said. “A child can never have too many books.”

Williams heard about the program through her daughter’s day care center, which reached out to spread the word about the program.

“This should help get the community involved,” she said. “Once a child starts getting books at home, they want to go to the library and explore words they did not know before.”

Williams said she and her children read at home before the children’s bedtime, picking a book from the in-home library they created.

Allen introduced legislation to create the program in January 2015. He got the idea, he said, when he was visiting a family in Tennessee, and his niece received a book in the mail. He then began working on the initiative that would do the same in Washington.

Allen and Mayor Muriel Bowser kicked off the program Thursday at National Medical Center in Northwest Washington.

Bowser congratulated Allen for creating the program.

“He had an idea, introduced it, got it funded and implemented it,” she said.

Early literacy develops well before children step into their school,

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Allen said, which is why it is so important to not wait until the word gap turns into the achievement gap to tackle the issues.

“It is not the reality of every child to have books at home, which is why it is so important to create that help,” he said.

The District now joins 1,600 communities that have built home libraries for a quarter of a million children through an organization called the Imagination Library.

The Imagination Library is a non-profit organization that supports early childhood literacy by sending books to the homes of children. It was founded by singer Dolly Parton in Tennessee in an effort to promote reading for children.

According to the Imagination Library website, it has mailed over 60 million books since its inception in 1995. WI

5Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen and Mayor Muriel Bowser kick-off the “Books from Birth” program aimed at improving educational outcomes for children at the Seacrest Atrium of the Children’s National Medical Center in Northwest on Thursday, Feb. 4. / Photo courtesy of dc.gov

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FRI, MAR 25

DELFEAYO MARSALIS & MARCUS ROBERTS QUARTET WED, APR 20

HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE FRI, APR 22

JULIAN LAGE THU, MAY 5

AND MANY MORE! 1 6 3 5 T R A P R D, V I E N N A , VA 2 2 1 8 2

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

FEB. 11 - 17, 2016 35

LIFESTYLE

WI Book Review A

Horoscopes

FEB.11 - 17, 2016

ARIES This week is all about your family. Whatever you wanted to get to at the begin-

ning of the week, if it isn’t related to family, forget about it. Try as you might to at least get some work done, you’re sidetracked by your love life. It fills you with tons of energy, which will be useful Friday, Saturday and Sunday -- which is, strangely enough, when you finally get some work done.

“The Parker Sisters: A Border Kidnapping”

TAURUS You’re speaking your mind and getting a great response this week. People light up when you say something they aren’t expecting. You surprise people in small ways like this all week. Remember, it takes confidence to really talk with people. However, a little too much confidence sometimes looks like pomposity. The weekend is everything you could hope for with an array of colors and lights and love.

by Lucy Maddox c. 2016, Temple University Press $28.50 / higher in Canada 256 pages

GEMINI Moodiness is a dominant theme Monday and Tuesday. There’s a sense that there isn’t enough good stuff to go around, and people are fighting over what’s left. It’s a perception thing. Wednesday and Thursday you more or less see the light. New ideas come to you, you spark a few debates and you make headway on a big project. Around the weekend you have about a billion things to get done.

CANCER Someone asks you what you want on Monday or Tuesday, and almost

Your neighbors said they’d keep an eye on your house for you this summer.

They would bring the mail in, and grab the newspaper while you were on vacation. They would do everything for you – and, as in the new book “The Parker Sisters” by Lucy Maddox, you should be glad if they watch your children, too.

Along the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland, Thomas McCreary “earned a reputation” as slave catcher, did jail time in 1849 for kidnapping, and was mistrusted by many, Black and white. Still, he’d managed to find work as a mail carrier in both states, which may have given him opportunity to observe the comings-and-goings of Elizabeth and Rachel Parker, two free Black children.

Elizabeth, somewhere around 10 years old, was a headstrong, “difficult” child who had left (or been kicked out of ) her family’s home years before and had worked and lived with a series of white families. The latest was near-destitute; Maddox hypothesizes that Elizabeth’s presence in the Donnelly household may have been on purpose, so that McCreary might have an easier chance to snatch her.

Two weeks later, Elizabeth’s older sister, Rachel, was taken in broad daylight, right in front of the family who employed her. Rachel’s abduction, says Maddox, probably made neighbors notice that Elizabeth, who was already on her way to a slave auction in Baltimore, was gone.

The man who employed Rachel, Joseph Miller, was outraged over her kidnapping. There had been similar trouble before nearby; the Federal government and individual states had long argued over the laws governing escaped slaves, free Blacks, and slave catchers who generally lied about both.

Miller and his neighbors sprang into action and, says Maddox, “Within twenty-four hours, the abductions of the Parker sisters would no longer be local matters.”

Neither would they be resolved happily or quickly. Says author Lucy Maddox, Rachel and Elizabeth spent months in jail, while their legal status and identities were resolved. In the meantime, one man lost his life and another got off “scot-free.”

I’m normally not a fan of books that offers dozens of names to keep track of, but that profuseness somehow works in “The Parker Sisters.”

That may be because Maddox explains in detail the significance of what happened by telling the history behind the laws that made this event possible (and illegal). Readers will appreciate the story’s movement between North and South, and the clarity of explanation, even on the smallest of details. There are some big surprises in here too – particularly in what happened to Elizabeth Parker.

On the matter of murder, Maddox is rather like a detective, which is another well-done aspect of this book. Officials tried to explain the death as a suicide, but she walks readers through events and clues to prove otherwise.

Despite all that’s appealing, and because it’s packed with a lot, this isn’t an easy book to read – but it’s worth it. If you’re a lover of a good tale or a historian, particularly, “The Parker Sisters” is a book you’ll want to keep your eyes on.

WI

36 FEB. 11 - 17, 2016

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

without knowing, you tell everything. Hopes and dreams -- and all that. Somehow in the telling, all the things that once seemed so far away seem closer than ever, even achievable. You think about the future this way, your perfect future. You carry the thought with you like a possession.

LEO You’re a lot more sensitive than usual. So when someone tells you something and you almost physically react. That said, no one else can tell. You have such a polished way with things, that people register absolutely no change in your disposition. This unbelievable finesse is the subject of discussion among others. You keep to yourself a bit more than usual on the weekend. Great things are coming.

VIRGO You derive your energy from other people. Women figure prominently in your week and something about your conversational chemistry wakes you up. Madness is transpiring and you’ll need to be flexible to survive it. When you make it out unscathed, don’t brag about your valor. But all this is just the preamble to Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Great days? Yes. You’re beaming.

LIBRA You’d love to keep your head down and focus, but you have all these feelings swimming around you, all these distractions. Find something small and beautiful to focus on. If you’re at work, go buy a little plant and put it on your desk. Somehow this sort of thing works. What really works is seeing good friends who inspire you to conversational greatness. They convince you to open up.

SCORPIO As much as you’d like to be in control, you’re not controlling the reins, so you might as well put your feet up and enjoy the ride. You almost have the urge to put your foot down and demand that things go the way you want -- you may even feel like standing up to your boss. But, really, don’t. Your weekend will show great days in a subtle way. Your friends are excellent.

SAGITARIUS It’s okay that you’re not on the same page as everyone else on Monday and Tuesday. Follow where your own mood takes you and you’ll stumble onto something wonderful, some idea that no one else could think of. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, you have the urge to speed ahead. But what’s the hurry? Relax. Enjoy the walk.

CAPRICORN Take things one at a time. Change is in the air, and you’re not op-

posed to change -- sometimes you really like the idea, actually. But it’s a process. Plus, it’s way more fun to experience life as it unfolds. That said, what unfolds on Wednesday and Thursday is hardly fun. The real fun happens on Friday and also Saturday and Sunday.

It’s a great weekend.

AQUARIUS Monday and Tuesday are challenging, no doubt about it. But try not to let the challenges bring you down. Challenges are fun! Sure, when it’s real life and not a game, feelings get added to the mix, but that just makes things more interesting.

You feel strongly about something, and someone else strongly disagrees. What ends up happening is the joint discovery of a brilliant middle ground.

PISCES Monday and Tuesday will be awesome. Romance is in the air, and so is a little music. You feel like you’re in a movie about someone who’s happy. You’re light on your feet. Wednesday and Thursday, you’re brought back to the real world by someone who insists on waving their hand in front of your face. You’re such a romantic, imagining your life with you-know-who while there’s work to be done.

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SPORTS

Wizards Defeat Philadelphia 76ers, 106-94 4 Wizards guard John Wall tries to get around 76ers guard Isaiah Canaan in the third quarter of NBA action on Friday, Feb. 5 at the Verizon Center in Northwest. The Wizards defeated the 76ers, 106-94. / Photo by John E. De 6 Philadelphia 76ers center Jahlil Okafor shoots over the outstretched arms

of Wizards center Marcin Gortat in the first quarter of National Basketball Association (NBA) action on Friday, Feb. 5 at the Verizon Center in Northwest.

The Wizards defeated the 76ers, 106-94. / Photo by John E. De Freitas

6 Wizards guard Garrett Temple drives

around 76ers guard Isaiah Canaan in the third quarter of NBA action on Friday, Feb. 5 at the Verizon Center in Northwest.

The Wizards defeated the 76ers, 106-94. / Photo by John E. De Freitas

5 Wizards guard Ramon Sessions goes to the basket for two in the third quarter of NBA action on Friday, Feb. 5 at the Verizon Center in Northwest. The Wizards beat the 76ers 106-94. / Photo by John E. De Freitas WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

FEB. 11 - 17, 2016 37

SPORTS

Norfolk State Needs Two Overtimes to Stop Howard, 110-108 4 Norfolk guard Kieera Basey drives past Howard forward Sydni Johnson in the second quarter of MEAC women’s basketball action on Saturday, Feb. 6 at Howard University Burr Gymnasium in Northwest. Norfolk defeated Howard 110-108. / Photo by John E. De Freitas 6 Norfolk guard Da’Shae Shumate is defended by Howard guard Yazmen Hannah in the second quarter of MEAC women’s basketball action on Saturday, Feb. 6 at Howard University Burr Gymnasium in Northwest. Norfolk defeated Howard 110-108 in double overtime. / Photo by John E. De Freitas

6 Norfolk guard Kiara Roberts shoots for two in the second quarter of MEAC women’s basketball action on Saturday, Feb. 6 at the Howard University Burr Gymnasium in Northwest. Norfolk defeated Howard 110-108 in a double overtime barnburner. / Photo by John E. De Freitas

5 Howard guard Jasmine Hill drives past Norfolk guard Alexys Long in the third quarter of MEAC women’s basketball action on Saturday, Feb. 6 at Howard University Burr Gymnasium in Northwest. Norfolk defeated Howard 110-108 in a double overtime thriller. / Photo

by John E. De Freitas 3Howard guard Te’Shya Heslip heads to the basket in the third quarter of MEAC women’s basketball action on Saturday, Feb. 6 at Howard University Burr Gymnasium in Northwest.

Norfolk defeated Howard 110108 in double overtime. / Photo

by John E. De Freitas 38 FEB. 11 - 17, 2016

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RELIGION THE RELIGION CORNER

The Griffin Firm, PLLC

Black History Month Salute to Lady Tramaine Hawkins We celebrate Black History Month with this salute to the legendary Lady Tramaine Hawkins, someone who was a part of the ministry that gave yet another change to gospel music.

It was when Edwin Hawkins wrote “Oh Happy Day,” including Tramaine, that gospel took another turn, becoming a crossover hit. It wasn’t planned or intended, yet that song is now known around the world, reaching the top of the charts.

Another major element of black religious music dates back to the slave era, when Harriet Tubman came to free slaves. One song they sang as they harmonized out in the fields while working and singing, “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” was a sign that Harriet was back for her next group.

They really meant “Swing Low, Sweet Harriet!”

The next period I’d like to share briefly is with Thomas A. Dorsey, who began by singing in clubs to make money. His mother kept trying to tell him to sing spirituals, but he needed money and sang blues and jazz. Then one day, in August 1932, Dorsey’s life was thrown into crisis when his wife and son died during childbirth. In his grief, he turned to the piano for comfort. The tune he wrote, “Take My Hand, Precious Lord,” came, he says, directly from God. Later, he combined his jazz and blues rhythms with spirituals and thus gospel was invented.

Turning Hearts Church 4275 4th Street, S.E. Washington, DC 20034 Phone: 202-746-0113 Fax: 301-843-2445

Gospel became a phenomenon, with musical beats that aroused all who listened, which brings me up to the 1960s with the birth of “Oh Happy Day,” the birth of contemporary music.

It is a pleasure to salute Lady Tramaine Hawkins. She is a voice we came to know and love in the late ’60s. Hawkins was literally born in church in the San Francisco Bay Area, as her mother, the late Lois “Lois the Pie Queen” Davis, a gospel singer in her own right, left a church concert to give birth to Tramaine.

In 1969, Lady Tramaine joined the Edwin Hawkins Singers and was a part of the gospel music revolution via the recording of “Oh Happy Day,” the first million-selling gospel single to top the pop record charts as well as the first crossover hit in all cross-sections of the world. Lady Tramaine then moved on to the Los Angeles area to join Andrea Crouch and the Disciples, where she sang lead vocals on the Grammy-nominated single “Christian People.” After sharing her gifts with Andrea Crouch and the Disciples, Lady Tramaine returned to the Oakland area where she rejoined the Edwin Hawkins Singers. Lady Tramaine can be heard singing lead vocals on the Love Alive Series with Walter Hawkins and The Love Center Choir and also with The Hawkins Family in the ’70s and ’80s.

Lady Tramaine has record-

• • • • •

Estate planning and probate Medicaid planning Elder law Business and succession planning/ coaching Workshops and seminars on legacy creation for economic strength

Aimee D. Griffin, Esq., The Griffin Firm, PLLC 5335 Wisconsin Ave NW Suite 440 Washington DC 20015 www.thegriffinfirm-PLLC.com

with Lyndia Grant ed at least nine solo albums, which included her single “Fall Down (Spirit of Love),” the first gospel song to reach the number one spot on the dance charts, and helped open the door to contemporary rhythms we hear in gospel music today. She won Grammys, Dove Awards and Communications Excellence to Black Audiences Awards and was inducted to the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1999.

Currently, she resides in the Sacramento Area with her husband, Tommie E. Richardson Jr., a retired educator.

Tune in this Friday, Feb. 12, at 6 p.m. on Radio One, WYCB AM, 1340 to hear Lady Tramaine Hawkins on “The Lyndia Grant Show” as we salute her and enjoy some of her hits. We will talk further about the topic of the evolution of African-American church music.

WI

202-379-4738

(301) 864-6070

CHURCH LAWYERS MCCOLLUM & ASSOCIATES, LLC

Organizational Formation, Governance Issues, First Ammendment, Church Employment, Ministerial Exception, Maintenance Issues, Risk Management, Safety and Security Issues, and Real Property Law SERVING MARYLAND, DC, & NORTH CAROLINA

www.jmlaw.net

(301) 864-6070

jmccollum@jmlaw.net

Historic St. Mary’s Episcopal Church The Reverend Lyndon Shakespeare Interim Priest

Virgil K. Thomas, Sr. Senior Pastor/ Teacher

Foggy Bottom • Founded in 1867 728 23rd Street, NW • Washington, DC 20037 Church office: 202-333-3985 • Fax : 202-338-4958

Services & Times Sunday School 8 – 9 AM Worship Service 9 – 11 AM Tuesday Night Bible Study 6:30 – 8:00 PM Wednesday Daytime Bible Study 11 AM – 12:30 PM

Worship Services Sundays: 10 a.m. Holy Eucharist with Music and Hymns Wednesdays: 12:10 p.m. - Holy Eucharist

Motto : “A Great Commitment to the Great Commandment” Website: www.turningheartschurchdc.org Email: faithdefender@verizon.net

Committed to providing services and supports to increase the capacity of individuals, businesses, and communities.

www.stmarysfoggybottom.org Email: stmarysoffice@stmarysfoggybottom.org All are welcome to St. Mary’s to Learn, Worship, and Grow.

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FEB. 11 - 17, 2016 39

RELIGION ChurCh Printing

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tel: 202-291-6565

Blessed Word of Life Church

Pilgrim Baptist Church

Church of Living Waters

Rev. Louis B. Jones II Pastor

Rev. Paul Carrette Senior Pastor Harold Andrew, Assistant Pastor

700 I Street, N.E. Washington, D.C. 20002 (202) 547-8849

4915 Wheeler Road Oxon Hill, MD 20745 301-894-6464

Worship Sundays: 7:30 & 11:00am 5th Sundays: 9:30am 3rd Sundays: Baptism & Holy Communion Prayer & Praise: Wednesdays @ Noon & 6:30pm

Schedule of Service Sunday Service: 8:30am& 11:00am Bible Study: Wednesday 7:30pm Communion Service: First Sunday www.livingwatersmd.org

www.pilgrimbaptistdc.org

Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ

Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church Rev. Dr. Michael E. Bell, Sr., • Pastor 2498 Alabama Ave., SE • Washington D.C. 20020 Office: (202) 889-7296 Fax: (202) 889-2198 • www.acamec.org 2008: The Year of New Beginnings “Expect the Extraordinary” Sunday Worship Services: 8:00am and 11:00am Sunday Church School - 9:15am & Sunday Adult Forum Bible Study - 10:30am 2nd & 4th Monday Women’s Bible Study: 6:30pm Tuesday Jr./Sr. Bible Study: 10:00am Tuesday Topical Bible Study: 6:30pm Tuesday New Beginnings Bible Study: 6:30pm Wednesday Pastoral Bible Study: 6:30pm Wednesday Children’s Bible Study: 6:30pm Thursday Men’s Bible Study: 6:30pm Friday before 1st Sunday Praise & Worship Service: 6:30pm Saturday Adult Bible Study: 10:00am “The Amazing, Awesome, Audacious Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church”

Crusader Baptist Church Rev. Dr. Alton W. Jordan Pastor 800 I Street, NE • Washington, DC 20002 202-548-0707 Fax No. 202-548-0703 Sunday Morning Worship: 11:00am Holy Communion: 1st Sunday Sunday School: 9:45am Men’s Monday Bible Study: 7:00pm Wednesday Night Bible Study: 7:00pm Women’s Ministry Bible Study: 3rd Friday -7:00pm Computer Classes: Announced Family and Marital Counseling by appointment E-mail: Crusadersbaptistchurch@verizon.net www.CrusadersBaptistChurch.org

St. Stephen Baptist Church

Third Street Church of God

Greater Mt. Calvary Holy Church

Dr. Dekontee L. & Dr. Ayele A. Johnson Pastors

Drs. Dennis W. & Christine Y. Wiley Pastors

Bishop Lanier C. Twyman, Sr. Senior Pastor

Rev. Cheryl J. Sanders, Th.D. Senior Pastor

Bishop Alfred A. Owens, Jr.; Senior Bishop & Evangelist Susie C. Owens – Co-Pastor

4001 14th Street, NW Washington, DC 20011 (202) 265-6147 Office 1-800 576-1047 Voicemail/Fax

3845 South Capitol Street Washington, DC 20032 (202) 562-5576 (Office) (202) 562-4219 (Fax)

5757 Temple Hill Road, Temple Hills, MD 20748 Office 301-899-8885 – fax 301-899-2555

610 Rhode Island Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002 (202) 529-4547 office • (202) 529-4495 fax

Schedule of Services: Sunday School: 9:30am Sunday Morning Worship Service: 11:00am Communion Service: First Sunday Prayer Service/Bible Study: Tuesday, 6:30pm

Services and Times: Sundays: 10:00am Worship Services Bible Study: Wonderful Wednesdays in Worship and the Word Bible Study Wednesdays 12:00 Noon; 6:30pm (dinner @ 5:30pm) Sunday School: 9:00am – Hour of Power

Sunday Early Morning Worship: 7:45am Church School: 9:30am Sunday Morning Worship: 10:45am Tuesday: 7:00pm/Kingdom Building Bible Institute Wednesday: Prayer/Praise/Bible Study-7:30 pm Baptism & Communion Service: 4th Sunday – 10:30am

1204 Third Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 202-347-5889 office 202-638-1803 fax

“An inclusive ministry where all are welcomed and affirmed.” www.covenantbaptistdc.org

“We are one in the Spirit” www.ssbc5757.org e-mail: ssbc5757@verizon.net

www.blessedwordoflifechurch.org e-mail: church@blessedwordoflifechurch.org

Campbell AME Church Rev. Dr. Henry Y. White

(Disciples of Christ) 1812 12th Street, NW•Washington, DC 20009 Phone: 202-265-4494 Fax: 202 265 4340

Sunday Worship Service: 10:00 am Sunday Church School: 8:45 am

Reverend Dr. Paul H. Saddler Senior Pastor

Bible Study Wednesday: 12:00 Noon Wednesday: 7:00 pm Thursday: 7: pm “Reaching Up To Reach Out”

Service and Times Sunday Worship Service: 11:00 am Communion every Sunday: 11:00 am Sunday School: 10:00 am Bible Study Tuesday: 12 Noon Pastor’s Bible Study Tuesday: 6:30 pm

Mt. Zion Baptist Church Rev. John W. Davis, Pastor 5101 14th Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20011 202-726-2220/ 202-726-9089 Sunday Worship Service: 8:00am and 11:00am Sunday School: 9:15am Holy Communion 4th Sunday 10:00am Prayer and Bible Study Wednesday 7:00pm TV Ministry –Channel 6 Wednesday 10:00pm gsccm.administration@verizon.net

40 FEB. 11 - 17, 2016

“Ambassadors for Christ to the Nation’s Capital” www.thirdstreet.org

Reverend Dr. Calvin L. Matthews • Senior Pastor 1200 Isle of Patmos Plaza, Northeast Washington, DC 20018 Office: (202) 529-6767 Fax: (202) 526-1661 Sunday Worship Services: 7:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.

Holy Communion: 2nd Sunday at 7:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.

Sunday Church School: 9:20 a.m.

Seniors Bible Study: Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m.

Noon Day Prayer Service: Tuesdays at Noon Bible Study: Tuesdays at 7 p.m.

Motto: “A Ministry of Reconciliation Where Everybody is Somebody!”

Website: http://isleofpatmosbc.org Church Email: ipbcsecretary@verizon.net

ST Marks Baptist Come Worship with us...

St. Mark's Baptist Church 624 Underwood Street, NW Washington, dc 20011 Dr. Raymond T. Matthews, Pastor and First Lady Marcia Matthews Sunday School: 9:00am Worship Service: 10:00am Wed. Noon Day prayer service Thur. Prayer service: 6:45pm Thur. Bible Study: 7:15pm

Twelfth Street Christian Church

2562 MLK Jr. Ave., S E Washington, DC 20020 Adm. Office 202-678-2263 Email: Campbell@mycame.org

Mailing Address Campbell AME Church 2502 Stanton Road SE Washington, DC 20020

Sunday School: 9:30am Sunday Worship: 11:00am Prayer Meeting and Bible Study: Wed. 7:30pm

Sunday Worship Service: 8 AM and 10:45am Sunday Youth Worship Services: 1st & 4th 10:45am; 804 R.I. Ave., NE 5th 8 AM & 10:45am; Main Church Prayer Services Tuesday – Noon, Wednesday 6am & 6:30pm Calvary Bible Institute: Year-Round Contact Church Communion Every 3rd Sunday The Church in The Hood that will do you Good! www.gmchc.org

Isle of Patmos Baptist Church

Motto: “Discover Something Wonderful” Website: 12thscc.org Email: Twelfthstcc@aol.com

Mount Carmel Baptist Church Joseph N. Evans, Ph.D Senior Pastor 901 Third Street N.W. Washington, DC. 20001 Phone (202) 842-3411 Fax (202) 682-9423 Sunday Church School : 9:00am Sunday Morning Worship: 10:10am Bible Study Tuesday: 6: 00pm Prayer Service Tuesday: 7:00pm Holy Communion: 3rd Sunday 10:10am themcbc.org

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RELIGION Shabbath Commandment Church 7801 Livingston Road Oxon Hill, MD 20745 301-534-5471 Bishop Adrian A. Taylor, Sr. Pastor Sabbath School 9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

Service 11:00 a.m. Praise & Worship Preaching 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Motto: “A Church Keeping It Real for Real.”

Website: Shabbathcommandmentchruch.org Email: Praisebetoyhwh@gmail.com

Zion Baptist Church

All Nations Baptist Church Rev. Dr. James Coleman Pastor 2001 North Capitol St, N.E. • Washington, DC 20002 Phone (202) 832-9591 Sunday Church School – 9:30 AM Sunday Worship Service – 11:00 AM Holy Communion – 1st Sunday at 11:00 AM Prayer – Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Bible Study – Wednesdays, 7:00 PM Christian Education School of Biblical Knowledge Saturdays, 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM, Call for Registration Website: www.allnationsbaptistchurch.com All Nations Baptist Church – A Church of Standards

Israel Baptist Church

Rev. Keith W. Byrd, Sr. Pastor

Rev. Dr. Morris L Shearin, Sr. Pastor

4850 Blagdon Ave, NW • Washington D.C 20011 Phone (202) 722-4940 • Fax (202) 291-3773

1251 Saratoga Ave., NE Washington, DC 20018 (202) 269-0288

Sunday Worship Service 10:15AM- Praise and Worship Services Sunday School 9:00am Monday: Noon Bible School Wednesday: Noon & 7PM: Pastor’s Bible Study Ordinance of Baptism 2nd Holy Communion 4th Sunday Mission Zion Baptist Church Shall; Enlist Sinners, Educate Students, Empower the Suffering, Encourage the Saints, and Exalt Our Savior. (Acts 2:41-47) www.zionbaptistchurchdc.org

St. Luke Baptist Church Rev. Aubrey C. Lewis Pastor 1415 Gallatin Street, NW Washington, DC 20011-3851 P: (202) 726-5940 Sunday Worship: 11:00 a.m.

Sunday School: 9:15 a.m.

Holy Communion: 11:00 a.m., 3rd Sun. Bible Institute Wednesday - 1:30 pm Prayer Meeting Wednesday - 12:00 Noon

St. Matthews Baptist Church Rev. Dr. Maxwell M. Washington Pastor Worshiping Location Knights of Columbus - 1633 Tucker Road Fort Washington, MD 20744 (240) 838-7074 Order of Services Sunday Worship Services: 10:00 am Sunday School: 9:00 am Holy Communion 3rd Sunday Morning Prayer / Bible Study: 6:15 pm - 7:20 pm (Tuesday) Theme: “The Kingdom Focused Church” Matthew 6:33 and Mathew 28:18-20, KJV Email: stmatthewsbaptist@msn.com Website: www.stmatthewsbaptist.org

Sunday Worship Service: 10:00 A.M. Sunday School: 8:30 A.M. Holy Communion1st Sunday: 10:00 A.M. Prayer Service: Wednesday at 6:30 P.M. Bible Study: Wednesday at 7:00 P.M.

Mount Moriah Baptist Church Dr. Lucius M. Dalton, Senior Pastor

King Emmanuel Baptist Church Rev. Daryl F. Bell Pastor 2324 Ontario Road, NW Washington, DC 20009 (202) 232-1730 Sunday School – 9:30 am Sunday Worship Service – 11:00 am Baptismal Service – 1st Sunday – 9:30 am Holy Communion – 1st Sunday – 11:00 am Prayer Meeting & Bible Study – Wednesday -7:30 pm

Lincoln Park United Methodist Church Rev. Dr. Diane Dixon Proctor, Pastor 1301 North Carolina Ave. N E Washington, D C 20002 202 543 1318 lpumconthegrow@gmail.com www.lpumcdc.org Sunday worship 10: am Holy Communion first Sunday 10: am Sunday school 9: am Bible Study each Wednesday @ 12 noon and 6:30pm Motto: “A CHURCH ON THE GROW”.

Eastern Community Baptist Church

Emmanuel Baptist Church Rev. Dr. Clinton W. Austin Pastor 2409 Ainger Pl.,SE – WDC 20020 (202) 678-0884 – Office (202) 678-0885 – Fax “Come Grow With Us and Establish a Blessed Family” Sunday Worship 7:30am & 10:45am Baptism/Holy Communion 3rd Sunday Family Bible Study Tuesdays – 6:30pm Prayer Service Tuesdays – 8:00pm www.emmanuelbaptistchurchdc.org

Sermon On The Mount Temple Of Joy Apostolic Faith

Rev. Dr. George C. Gilbert SR. Pastor

623 Florida Ave.. NW • WDC. 20001 Church (202) 667-3409 • Study (202) 265-0836 Home Study (301) 464-8211 • Fax (202) 483-4009

4504 Gault Place, N.E. Washington, D.C 20019 202-397-7775 – 7184

Sunday Worship Services: 10:00 a.m.

Sunday Church School: 8:45 – 9:45 a.m.

Holy Communion: Every First Sunday Intercessory Prayer: Monday – 7:00-8:00 p.m.

Pastor’s Bible Study: Wednesday –7:45 p.m.

Midweek Prayer: Wednesday – 7:00 p.m.

Noonday Prayer Every Thursday

9:30AM. Sunday Church School 11:00 Am. Sunday Worship Service The Lord’s Supper 1st Sunday Wednesday 7:00pm Prayer & Praise Services 7:30pm. Bible Study Saturday before 4th Sunday Men, Women, Youth Discipleship Ministries 10:30am A Christ Centered Church htubc@comcast.net

Matthews Memorial Baptist Church

2616 MLK Ave., SE • Washington, DC 20020 Office 202-889-3709 • Fax 202-678-3304

Kelechi Ajieren Coordinator

Sunday Apostolic Worship Services 11:00 A.M and 5:00 P.M

Early Worship Service 7:30a.m Worship Service 10:45a.m.

New Members Class 9:30a.m.

Communion and Feet Wash Holy Communion : 1st Sunday -10:45a.m 4th Sunday at 5:00 P.M Church School 9:30a.m.

Prayer, Praise and Bible Study: Prayer/Seeking Wednesday 7p.m Wednesday at 8:00 P.M. Bible Study : Saturday: 11a.m.

Baptism: 4th Sunday – 10:45a.m Apostolic in Doctrine, Pentecostal in Experience, Holiness in Living, Uncompromised and Unchanged. “Empowered to love and Challenged to Lead a The Apostolic Faith is still alive –Acts 2:42 Multitude of Souls to Christ”

New Commandment Baptist Church

Sunday Worship Services: 7:45 am and 10:45 am Holy Communion: 1st Sundays at 7:45 am and 10:45 am Sunday School: 9:30 am Prayer & Praise Service: Tuesdays at 12 noon and 6:30 pm Bible Study: Tuesdays at 1 pm and 7 pm Youth Bible Study: Fridays at 7 pm

Service and Times: Early Morning Message 7:30 AM Sunday Morning Worship Service 10:00 AM Sunday Church School 9:00 AM Holy Communion 1st Sunday 7:30 AM & 10:00 AM Prayer, Praise and Testimony Wednesday 7:00 PM Bible Study Wednesday 7:30 PM

Services: Sunday Worship 11 AM Sunday School 10 AM Wednesday Mid-Week Worship, Prayer & Bible Study - Wed. 7 PM

Web: www.mountmoriahchurch.org Email: mtmoriah@mountmoriahchurch.org

“Real Worship for Real People” Website: www.easterncommunity.org Church Email Address: ecc@easterncommunity.org

“A Church Where Love Is Essential and Praise is Intentional”

Shiloh Baptist Church

Peace Baptist Church

Rev. Dr. Michael T. Bell 712 18th Street, NE Washington, DC 20002 Phone 202-399-3450/ Fax 202-398-8836 Sunday Morning Worship Service 7:15 am & 10:50 am Sunday School 9:30am Sunday Morning Worship Service 10:50am Wednesday Prayer & Testimonies Service 7:30pm Wednesday School of the Bible 8:00pm Wednesday - Midweek Prayer Service 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm “The Loving Church of the living lord “ Email Address pbcexec@verizon.net

First Rising Mt. Zion Baptist Church

Rev. Curtis l. Staley Pastor

Rev. Alonzo Hart Pastor

Rev. Dr. Wallace Charles Smith Pastor

Rev. Reginald M. Green, Sr., Interim Pastor

621 Alabama Avenue, S.E.•Washington, D.C. 20032 P: (202) 561-1111 F: (202) 561-1112

917 N St. NW • Washington, DC 20001 (202) 232-4294

9th & P Street, N.W. • W. D.C. 20001 (202) 232-4200

602 N Street NW • Washington, D.C. 20001 Office:(202) 289-4480 Fax: (202) 289-4595

The Church Where GOD Is Working....

And We Are Working With GOD

Sunrise Prayer Services - Sunday 7:00 a.m.

Sunday Morning Prayer Service: 8:00 a.m.

Sunday Church School: 9:15 a.m.

Sunday Morning Worship: 10:40 a.m.

Third Sunday Baptismal & Holy Communion:10:30 a.m.

Tuesday Church At Study Prayer & Praise: 6:30 p.m.

Morning Worship: 8:00 a.m Church School : 9:30 a.m.

Morning Worship: 10:55 a.m.

Bible Study, Thursday: 6:30 p.m.

Prayer Meeting,Thursday : 7:30 p.m.

Motto: “Where God is First and Where Friendly People Worship”

WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

Elder Herman L. Simms, Pastor

13701 Old Jericho Park Road Bowie, MD. 20720 (301) 262-0560

Sunday Service: 10 am Sunday School for all ages: 8:30 am 1st Sunday Baptism: 10: am 2nd Sunday Holy Communion: 10 am Tuesday: Bible Study: 6:30 pm Prayer Meeting: 7:45 pm

Christ Embassy DC

6839 Eastern Avenue, R1 Takoma Park, MD 20912 (202) 556-7065

8213 Manson Street Landover, MD 20785 Tel: (301) 322-9787 Fax: (301) 322-9240

Salem Baptist Church

Dr. Earl D. Trent Senior Pastor

Dr. C. Matthew Hudson, Jr, Pastor

Rev. Stephen E. Tucker Senior Pastor

Rehoboth Baptist Church

Holy Trinity United Baptist Church

5606 Marlboro Pike District Heights, MD 20747 301-735-6005

Damion M. Briggs Pastor

1636 East Capitol Street, NE Washington, DC 20003 Telephone: 202-544-5588 Fax: 202-544-2964

Florida Avenue Baptist Church

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

Sunday Worship Services: 7:45am & 11:00am Sunday school For All Ages 9:30am Prayer Services Wednesday 11:30am & 6:45pm Bible Institute Wednesday at Noon & 7:45pm “Changing Lives On Purpose “ Email: Froffice@firstrising.org Website: www.firstrising.org

Sunday Worship Service 10:00 A.M. Wednesday Bible Study 7:00 P.M. Friday Evening Service 7:00 P.M. ; Last Friday “…Giving Your Life a Meaning” www.Christembassydc.org

Pennsylvania Ave. Baptist Church Rev. Dr. Kendrick E. Curry Pastor 3000 Pennsylvania Ave.. S.E Washington, DC 20020 202 581-1500 Sunday Church School: 9:30 A.M. Sunday Worship Service: 11:00 A.M. Monday Adult Bible Study: 7:00 P.M. Wednesday Youth & Adult Activities: 6:30 P.M. Prayer Service Bible Study

Mt. Horeb Baptist Church Rev. Dr. H. B. Sampson, III Pastor 2914 Bladensburg Road, NE Wash., DC 20018 Office: (202) 529-3180 Fax: (202) 529-7738 Order of Services Worship Service: 7:30 a.m.

Sunday School: 9:00 a.m.

Worship Service: 10:30 a.m.

Holy Communion: 4th Sunday 7:30 a.m. & 10:30a.m.

Prayer Services: Tuesday 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday 12 Noon Email:mthoreb@mthoreb.org Website:www.mthoreb.org For further information, please contact me at (202) 529-3180.

FEB. 11 - 17, 2016 41

LEGAL NOTICES

LEGAL NOTICES

LEGAL NOTICES

LEGAL NOTICES

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

Administration No. 2015 ADM 1335

Administration No. 2015 ADM 1040

Administration No. 2016 ADM 52

Administration No. 2015 ADM 1504

Zema M. Tucker Decedent

Wilheimina Carey Decedent

Simon N’Guiamba Decedent

Madgie R.W. Giddens Decedent

Deborah D. Boddie, Esq. 1308 Ninth Street, NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20001 Attorney

Gemma Antoine-Belton, Esquire 1101 L Street, NW, Suite 806 Washington, DC 20005 Attorney

Tabitha R. Brown, Esquire 1200 G Street, SE, Suite A Washington, DC 20003 Attorney

Brett Cohen 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 1430 Bethesda, MD 20814-7047 Attorney

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS

Elaine C. Myrick, whose address is 11760 Sunrise Valley Drive, Unit 201, Reston, VA 20191, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Zema M. Tucker who died on February 20, 2015 without a Will, and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding.

Objections to such appointment shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before July 28, 2016. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before July 28, 2016, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship.

Gemma Antoine-Belton, Esquire, whose address is 1101 L Street, NW, Suite 806, Washington, DC 20005, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Wilheimina Carey who died on December 30, 2014 without a Will, and will serve with Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment (or to the probate of decedent’s Will) shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before July 28, 2016. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before July 28, 2016, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship.

Myriam Oussou N’Guiamba, whose address is 1668 Tamarack St., NW, Washington, DC 20012, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Simon N’Guiamba who died on July 17, 2015 without a Will, and will serve with Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding.

Objections to such appointment shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before August 11, 2016. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before August 11, 2016, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship.

Brett E. Cohen, whose address is 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 1430, Bethesda, MD 20814-7047, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Madgie R.W. Giddens who died on December 8, 2015 without a Will, and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before August 11, 2016. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before August 11, 2016, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship.

Date of first publication: February 11, 2016

Date of first publication: January 28, 2016

Date of first publication: January 28, 2016

Elaine C. Myrick Personal Representative

Gemma Antoine-Belton, Esquire Personal Representative

TRUE TEST COPY

TRUE TEST COPY

Anne Meister Register of Wills

Anne Meister Register of Wills

Washington Informer

Washington Informer

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

Administration No. 2015 ADM 1110

Administration No. 2015 ADM 577

Administration No. 2015 ADM 29

Gwendolyn C. Pressley Decedent

Rex Gholson Decedent

Lula M. Miller Decedent

Michelle Lanchester, Esq. 601 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Suite 900 South Bld. Washington, DC 20004 Attorney NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS Leslie R. Rhetts, whose address is 11400 Glissade Dr., Clinton, MD 20735, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Gwendolyn C. Pressley who died on August 15, 2015 with a Will, and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding.

Objections to such appointment (or to the probate of decedent’s Will) shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before August 4, 2016. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before August 4, 2016, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship.

Date of first publication: February 4, 2016 Leslie R. Rhetts Personal Representative

TRUE TEST COPY Anne Meister Register of Wills Washington Informer

42 FEB. 11 - 17, 2016

Myriam Oussou N’Guiamba Personal Representative

TRUE TEST COPY Anne Meister Register of Wills Washington Informer

Date of first publication: February 11, 2016 Brett E. Cohen Personal Representative

LEGAL NOTICES SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131 Administration No. 2016 ADM 54 Deloris E. Lewis Decedent NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS Michael A. Lewis, whose address is 4508 Eads Place, NE, Washington, DC 20019, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Deloris E. Lewis who died on December 26, 2015 without a Will, and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before August 11, 2016. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before August 11, 2016, or be forever barred.

Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship.

Date of first publication: February 11, 2016 Michael A. Lewis Personal Representative

TRUE TEST COPY TRUE TEST COPY Anne Meister Register of Wills Washington Informer

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131 Administration No. 2015 ADM 1532 Ethel Bradford Halsey aka Ethel B. Halsey Decedent Peter D. Antonoplos 1725 DeSales Street, NW #600 Washington, DC 20036 Attorney

Anne Meister Register of Wills Washington Informer

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131 Administration No. 2016 ADM 60 Clinton T. Carroll, III Decedent

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS

Ashima Reed and Aaron Gholson, whose addresses are 4224 Ft. Dupont Terr., SE, Washington, DC 20020 and 1105 47th Place, NE, Washington, DC 20019, were appointed Personal Representatives of the estate of Rex Gholson who died on February 4, 2015 without a Will, and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before July 28, 2016. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before July 28, 2016, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship.

Peggy A. Miller and Jamila A. Barber, whose addresses are 5130 7th St., NE, Washington, DC 20011-2625, were appointed Personal Representatives of the estate of Lula M. Miller who died on December 7, 2015 with a Will, and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment (or to the probate of decedent’s Will) shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before July 28, 2016. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before July 28, 2016, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship.

Date of first publication: January 28, 2016

Date of first publication: January 28, 2016

Ashima Reed Aaron Gholson Personal Representative

Peggy A. Miller Jamila A. Barber Personal Representatives

TRUE TEST COPY

TRUE TEST COPY

Anne Meister Register of Wills

Anne Meister Register of Wills

Anne Meister Register of Wills

Anne Meister Register of Wills

Washington Informer

Washington Informer

Washington Informer

Washington Informer

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS Nick Louis B. Halsey, whose address is 4914 Muskogee Street College Park, MD 20740, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Ethel Bradford Halsey aka Ethel B. Halsey who died on October 11, 2015 with a Will, and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment (or to the probate of decedent’s Will) shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before August 11, 2016. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before August 11, 2016, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship.

Date of first publication: February 11, 2016 Nick Louis B. Halsey Personal Representative

TRUE TEST COPY

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS Tanys E. Carroll, whose address is 3952 Clay Place, NE, Washington, DC 20019, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Clinton T. Carroll, III who died on December 15, 2015 with a Will, and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding.

Objections to such appointment (or to the probate of decedent’s Will) shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before August 11, 2016. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before August 11, 2016, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship.

Date of first publication: February 11, 2016 Tanys E. Carroll Personal Representative

TRUE TEST COPY

WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

LEGAL NOTICES SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131 Administration No. 2011 ADM 000842 Ray D. Staten Decedent

CL ASSIFIEDS numbers. Also beware of ads that claim to guarantee loans regardless of credit and note that if a credit repair company does business only over the phone it s illegal to request any money before delivering its service. All funds are based in US dollars.

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Ronald Dixon Bynum & Jenkins 1010 Cameron St. Alexandria, VA 22314 Attorney NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS Ronald Dixon, whose address is 1010 Cameron St., Alexandria, VA 22314, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Ray D. Staten who died on May 6, 2011 without a Will, and will serve with Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment (or to the probate of decedent’s Will) shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before August 11, 2016. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before August 11, 2016, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship.

Date of first publication: February 11, 2016 Ronald Dixon Personal Representative

TRUE TEST COPY Anne Meister Register of Wills Washington Informer

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CLINTON from Page 24 have been calling for action for so long, your mayor, the mothers, the fathers, Dr. Mona, Mark Edwards, Sens. Stabenow and Peters, Congressman Kildee, all who are working to try to get the help that you need. I also want to encourage Americans across our country and I’m pleased that the press is here because we need to keep the

LAMBERT from Page 24 dow policing of the 1990s.

This theory held that by cracking down on such “quality of life” issues as graffiti, police officers could also bring down the rate of serious crime. What happened, we now realize, is that these efforts created a hostile relationship between law enforcement and perpetrators of relatively minor offenses. By poisoning this relationship, the police were actually making their own jobs harder.

WILLIAMS from Page 24 denial – despite an abundance of objective evidence to the contrary – that there was even a problem to begin with. When Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech professor, MacArthur Genius grant-recipient, and world-renowned expert on water quality declared the brown sludge coming from faucets in Flint to be toxic waste, the Snyder administration dismissed him as a quack.

When local pediatrician Dr. Mona Hannah-Attisha, alarmed that children were showing up at her practice with skin rashes and thinning hair, alerted political leaders that blood lead concentrations in children were two to three times normal levels, Snyder called her findings inconclusive and vigorously denied that the elevated lead levels were caused by the city’s drinking water. When an Environmental Protection Agency memo describing dangerously high levels of lead in Flint’s drinking water was leaked to the media, the Snyder administration lambasted the memo’s author as a ‘rogue employee.’

The level of official misconduct here is beyond ludicrous. In fact, if it weren’t staring us right in the face, we would have difficulty conceiving of such ribald villainy on the part of our elected officials.

The situation in Flint is a humanitarian debacle of world-class dimensions. If al-Qaida or ISIS had intentionally poisoned the drinking water of over 100,000 Americans, it would be considered a national security crisis. We would immediately mobilize the military

spotlight bright. And I want to encourage Americans to donate Flintkids.org and other organizations as a way of helping. I want to single out a group that came to my attention. Inmates at Handlon Correctional Facility in Ionia have pledged as much as a third of their monthly prison incomes.

We know we need more action.

Do not grow weary doing good.

Do not get discouraged. Do not

give up. I will be there with you, and I will make sure in any way I can that America stays with you too. And I look forward to coming back to Flint, to seeing this community rise, rise again, rise with determination, resilience, support, service, leadership.

For the complete speech visit our website, www.washingtoninformer.com.

WI

They became an unwelcome presence in the communities they were meant to serve.

The public discussion initiated by Nadeau is a good place to start. Coming together as a community to think of fair and equitable ways of enabling women and others to feel safe and comfortable on the streets was an important first step. I was unable to attend the event, but I understand that people of color were well represented— not just women but transgender people as well.

Street harassment seems like a straightforward issue, but whenever race and sex are involved, it requires consideration and a carefully measured response.

What do you think?

Please share your thoughts on facebook.com/GreaterWashingtonUrbanLeague and twitter.com/GWUrbanLeague.

WI

and hunt down the culprits without prejudice. The crisis in Flint cannot be characterized as anything else but an intentional act of sabotage.

Flint is not the only city in which Snyder’s autocratic, myopic and niggardly policies have wrought havoc. Snyder’s regime has gone about systemically disenfranchising largely Democratic, majority Black towns under the guise of ‘emergency management.’ Flint, with a population that is 57 percent African-American, joins Pontiac, Detroit, Highland Park, Benton Harbor and several other localities targeted politically by the Snyder administration. This seems to be part of a deliberate policy to isolate and quell his political adversaries under the dubious pretense of imposing ‘fiscal discipline.’ It is unavoidably apparent that the Snyder administration’s policies have had profligate social and financial costs. The Flint catastrophe could likely have been prevented by treating the water for a mere $100 per day (a small price to pay for precaution), but some estimates now place the long term cost of remediation at $1.5 billion or more, as pipes corroded by river water continue to leach lead into the Flint water supply. In the full light of day, Snyder’s policies seem to be motivated more by a desire to usurp the political power of the electorate, than by a genuine desire to help economically depressed localities manage their finances.

The toxic ideology that governments should be run like

businesses needs to be challenged vigorously and soon, because the policy regime that led to the crisis in Michigan is far from an isolated case. Governors in Wisconsin, Kansas, Maine and Florida are implementing similar neoliberal policies in efforts to enforce fiscal discipline on localities within their states. Many more environmental and infrastructural disasters of the sort we are witnessing in Flint are sure to follow if the dogma of market fundamentalism continues to infect the policy realm.

In the case of Flint, Michigan, the villains are easy to spot. They are the politicians who caused the fiscal crisis in the first place, and the politicians who caused a humanitarian crisis in a badly conceived attempt to alleviate the fiscal challenge. The major lesson here is that suspending the democratic process in the interests of managerial expediency usually turns out badly. The fanciful notion that a strong dictator is more effective at governing than a “weak” democratic process is a theory that was considered and discarded at the founding of our nation. WI

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George H. Lambert Jr. is the president and CEO of the Greater Washington Urban League.

Armstrong Williams is the manager/sole owner of Howard Stirk Holdings I & II Broadcast Television Stations and executive editor of American CurrentSee online Magazine. Watch our Right Side Forum every Saturday Live Newschannel 8 TV 28 in D.C., 10:30 a.m. – 11 a.m. and repeats 6:30 p.m. EST. Follow Armstrong Williams on Twitter @arightside.

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MALVEAUX from Page 25 she is a center-left moderate (Bernie Sanders is not in charge of who gets to be a progressive, and I really don’t care as much about labels as about outcomes) who will pragmatically work toward social and economic justice. She isn’t perfect and may, indeed, be fundamentally flawed (as most politicians are), but she has been a consistent advocate for the least and the left out – for children and for elders. Is she weak on Wall Street reform? Absolutely.

But as Bernie Sanders pushes her, she gets stronger.

A year ago, many predicted this race as a dynastic smackdown, with Jeb Bush and Clinton winning primaries toe-to-toe. Who would have thought that an unhinged demagogue, Donald Trump,

ALFORD from Page 25 mate Change, Federal Government Saturation, and Organized Labor Power. He won the confidence of billionaires such as financier George Soros, insurance tycoon Peter Lewis and labor leader Andy Stern among others. He assembled more than 75 individual donors. This group, Democracy Alliance, would pick about 25 groups for its donors to fund.

Over the next decade, they would put over $500 million into these progressive organizations. You can accurately refer to these donors as the “Billion Dollar Club” who want to change our nation upside down. Many have their money through inheritance with a good portion coming from the 1960s style of street activism. The few Republicans have left and the ex-

ASKIA from Page 25 Each week you’ll get news from The District of Columbia, Prince George’s County, Montgomery County, and Northern Virginia.

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kind.” Sura (chapter) 5: Ayat (verse) 32.

In November 2014 Pope Francis demonstrated his commitment to improving relations between Christians and Muslims as he prayed in Istanbul, Turkey’s historic Blue Mosque and visited the Hagia Sophia — two powerful symbols of the Muslim and Christian faiths there. President Barack Obama made a similar trip to a Baltimore Islamic center in February, one day before he spoke to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.

But just as there are some mulish, wrongly-guided Islamic leaders, so too there are Christians who are doing harm to, rather than healing, the ties that bind humans today.

At tiny Wheaton College in Illinois, Dr. Larycia Hawkins,

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

would suck much of the air out of the Republican space, leaving babbling bumblers to confuse ad hominem ignorance with issues? The collective performance of the Republican team could not equal that of either Sanders or Clinton, but those Rs keep slogging on. To what end? Do we really want a president who will trash-talk Putin, Mexico and the United Nations? Do we want sons of immigrants who so vilely disrespect their ancestors that they’d offer punitive possibilities for citizenship?

I’m not really torn between my head and my heart. I’m simply enjoying the excitement of Sanders and the way he has galvanized young people, especially, to become politically engaged. I am hoping that his commitment to the process is such that he will encourage his supporters

to remain involved, even after Hilary wins the Democratic nomination.

And I’m sad that a woman who might knock it out of the park can also be kicked to the curb if this campaign becomes corrosive.

Congressman Stephanie Tubbs Jones was a sorority sister (Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, of course) and a fierce legislator. She stuck by Hilary Clinton in 2008 even after then-Sen. Barack Obama entered the presidential race and earned the endorsement and support of many “mainstream” African-Americans.

Jones and Clinton had “heart” with each other. As a woman, Clinton can’t out-shout Sanders without appearing shrill. She can’t out-snide him without appearing b---hy. But she can out-heart him if she channels Jones’ energy. Jones was in it to win it. WI

tremist continue to join in.

Their ideal politicians are Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. Who are their funded organizations? Big Labor: SEIU, AFT, CWA, AFLCIO. Centralized Services: American Bridge, Media Matters, ProgressNow, Catalist, CEL and CMD. Think Tanks: Center for American Progress, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Center for Community Change, Demos and SiX. Issue Activists: Common Cause, Color of Change, League of Conservation Voters, Energy Action Coalition, Fair Share and American Sustainable Business Council and at least 172 other groups.

The above is what all this chaos is about. They want to shake up our wonderful Constitution (doesn’t

that remind you of something?) and bring confusion to us and power and more money to them. I would bet money that “Black Lives Matter” is tied into this. They don’t like big business, but their money comes from the fruits of big business. They want to dictate salaries, lifestyles and culture and want to blend in all ethnicities and form a super culture that adopts their hideous view of Pollyanna for the masses under their control. This is far from freedom and is, in effect, ungodly, anti-American and scary to say the least.

It is troubling that Black America is easily manipulated by such ilk.

We take the hype and are quick to serve like volunteer slaves. It is time for us to recognize this surge and make it clear to them. Keep your money, and get out of our way. WI

a tenured political science professor, was suspended from her teaching duties because she had the nerve to say that Muslims and Christians worship the same God, quoting none other than Pope Francis. Uh, Wheaton provost: by definition, there is, and can be only one God . . . see above.

Perhaps sensing a lawsuit which might cripple the college financially, the school has decided to rescind the suspension of Dr. Hawkins and to make amends. The agreement calls for an end to her employment — she had been suspended with pay — and offered her an apology for acting hastily when she was taken down.

“The administration and Dr. Hawkins have come to a place of resolution and reconciliation,” school president Dr. Philip Ryken wrote in an email to the college community. “With a mutual desire for

God’s blessing, we have decided to part ways.”

The school held a private prayer service on campus to allow Dr. Hawkins to bid farewell to her colleagues and students. “This is a time for prayer, lament, repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation,” Dr. Ryken said. Well said. Praise De Lawd!

Would that some of this country’s Republican presidential candidates could take a swallow of that Wheaton College spirit, rather than engaging in the Muslim bashing that they mistakenly describe as their foreign policy.

Let me be perfectly clear.

Muslims and Islam are not the source of the problems facing the United States of America today. Indeed, within Islam, and among this country’s Muslims, the answers to America’s problems can be found.

WI

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