The Washington Informer - September 12, 2019

VOL. 54, NO. 48 • SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019

The Informer Welcomes Attendees to the 2019 Annual CBCF Legislative Conference

August Wilson's 'Jitney' Opens at Arena Stage Page 30

Arduous Recovery FIRST OF A THREE-PART SERIES Whether Veterans or Novices, Black Politicians Endure and Overcome Process From Reconstruction to Continues for Congressional Black Caucus, Battle for Ravaged Equality Goes On Bahamas

By D. Kevin McNeir

Survivors Seeking Refuge in U.S. Met with Vague, Innocuous Policies

WI Editor @dkevinmcneir

Barrington M. Salmon Special to The Informer As the official death toll in the Bahamas rises each day, reported at 50 as of Sept. 9, traumatized citizens of the Caribbean island nation, along with allies and volunteers from around the world, continue the painfully-slow process of recovering and rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian and the devastating impact it caused.

Bahamians have joined hands to help the thousands left helpless, providing food, water and shelter for the legion of people homeless and with few, if any, personal possessions.

Bahamian government officials say US Coast Guard helicopters have been flying across the string of barrier islands looking for survivors while on the ground, members of the Royal Bahamas Defense Force, police officers, coroners, investigators and search and rescue teams continue to scour Abaco and other islands in the north of the archipelago, aiding the injured and removing the bodies of the deceased.

Some bodies have already been transported to Rand Memorial Hospital in Nassau with and others placed temporarily in refrigerated trucks. “… We acknowledge that there

RECOVERY Page 46

5 The ceremonial swearing-in for returning and newly-elected Congressional Black Caucus members of the 116th Congress was held Thursday, January 23.

(WI File Photo/Shevry Lassiter) 3 The founding and early members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

(Courtesy photo)

Earlier this year, on Thursday, Jan. 3, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc. [CBCF] celebrated a milestone, hosting a ceremonial swearing-in for 55 current and newly-elected Congressional Black Caucus [CBC] members of the 116th Congress – the largest in the CBC’s history.

Few seats stood empty during the ceremony held at the Warner Theatre in Northwest, as a changing of the guard ushered in Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) as the newly-elected CBC chair, charged with guiding the group founded by 13 African-American members of the House of Representatives in February 1971.

Yet, despite there being some in the Theatre whose cheers may have suggested that the ceremony gave

CONGRESS Page 42 A WASHINGTON INFORMER EXCLUSIVE

Comcast Partners with Cornerstone Schools of DC to Eliminate Digital Divide

With Expansion of Internet Essentials Program, 3 Million New Households Now Reached

By D. Kevin McNeir WI Editor @dkevinmcneir “The Internet is no longer a luxury – it’s an essential part of our lives in the 21st century.”

The words above, stated by David L. Cohen, senior executive vice president & chief diversity officer, Comcast Corporation, explain why, in 2011, the company

launched an initiative to reduce and remove barriers that have long held millions hostage, primarily due to limited household incomes, and thus unable to connect to the Internet.

And on Tuesday, Sept. 10, Cohen, joined by officials from Cornerstone Schools of Washington, D.C., shared news that’s expected to benefit 3 million households in

the Greater Washington Area with the launch of the largest-ever expansion of Comcast’s Internet Essentials Program.

“One-quarter of the U.S. population is now at risk of being left horribly behind without access to the Internet, making it impossible for children to do their homework, for youth or adults to search and apply for jobs, for adults to access

healthcare benefits, for anyone to research all kinds of information they deem to be important – even for entertainment purposes like watching Monday Night Football or whatever else you like on TV,” he said.

Cohen, along with Cornerstone Schools officials, announced

COMCAST Page 14

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Around the Region............ 4-11 PG County....................... 12-13 Business............................ 14-15 National............................ 16-18 International.........................19 Health ............................. 20-21 Education ....................... 22-23 OpEd................................ 25-27 Lifestyle..........................28-35

On September 12, 1992 Astronaut Mae Jemison becomes the first African American woman to travel in space.

Black Facts / Page 6

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SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY www.washingtoninformer.com Visit our updated Web site and give us your comments for a chance to win a gift from The Washington Informer

Women the Cycle of wi hotBreak topics Domestic Violence Councilmember Gray Hosts Prince George’s Releases

COMPILED BY D. KEVIN MCNEIR, WI EDITOR AND WILLIAM J. FORD, WI STAFF WRITER

Emergency 5G SmalllawCell Listing of Back-to-School Nights enforcement. She said they threat,” she said.

WI Staff Writer had come together to bring a Among the programs Marlow Technology Town Hall sense of uniformity in the way wants to see implemented are

By Tia Carol Jones

When L.Y. Marlow's 23-year- domestic violence victims and stricter restraining order policies, old daughter told her the father survivors are treated. more rights for victim's families of her daughter threatened her “She's using her own personal to intervene on behalf of a viclife, and the life of their child, story, her own personal pain to tim, a domestic violence assessshe knew something had to be push forward,” Davis-Nickens ment unit coupled with further done. Out of her frustration said about Marlow. training for law enforcement with law enforcement's handling Davis-Nickens said anyone agencies, a Child's Life ProtecEmail comments to: of the situation, she decided to who reads Marlow's book will tion Act and mandatory counselrburke@ start the Saving Promise cam- “get it.” She said she “puts the ing for batterers. paign.

Justaverage in case parents receive case in such a way, the “If weand areguardians ever goingdidn’t to eradiwashingtoninformer.com “It seems to be a vicious cycle person can get it.” She a phone notice about Back-to-School Night said at call the or cate domestic violence, we must that won't turn my family end of the day, thefunctions in Prince George’s County, school book will look at both sides of thethecoin. loose,” Marlow said. Marlow help people begin tosystem have aproduced dia- Weanneed online list with thethe dates to address both vic-and shared her story with the audi- logue about domestictimes. violence. tim and Marlow on Some schools heldthe thebatterer,” annual tradition ence at thetoDistrict Heights In efforts better inform Ward 7 Also and District present at the theevent samewas week said. the first day of school began Sept.

Domestic Violence Symposium residents about the 5G small cell technology comMildred Muhammad, the exMarlow would also like to 3. Some elementary and middle schools willseeconon 7 atCity, the District ingMay to the Ward 7 Heights Councilmember wife ofVincent John Allen Muhammad, programs designed to raise duct them on two days based on a student’s grade.

Municipal Center. sympo-town who sentenced toAccording six consec-to the C. Gray hosted an The emergency hallwas meeting awareness children inday list, Sept.among 26 marks the latest sium was sponsored bySept. the 11.utive life terms without parole public and private schools.

She in Northeast, Wednesday, scheduled for parents to visit classrooms, chat with Family andthere Youth Services by a Maryland his roleand in tour feels children to beschools educat-and Gray says remain many unanswered ques-jury for teachers schools.

Forneed specific Center of the city District Beltway attacks ed about domestic violence. tions, especially the ofhigh numberthe of small cellsSniperdates, visitinhttps://www.pgcps.org/contactus/backHeights theinstalled Nationalin HookMildred is “We have to stop being pasexpectedand to be Ward 7 2002. and others in- Muhammad toschool.aspx.

Up of Black Women. the founder of After the Trauma, sive-aggressive with poor chilcluding: potential health risks? The exact number Marlow has written a book, an organization that helps the dren about domestic violence,” of towers and facilities planned for the Ward and “Color Methey Butterfly,” which is a survivors of domestic violence Marlow said. how will be regulated? story about four generations and from their ANC children.

Marlow has worked to break Gray was reportedly joined of by those domestic violence.

The book is “I lived in fear for six years. Six the cycle of abuse in her family, 7B, 7C, 7D, 7E and 7F, along with the D.C. inspired by her own experiences, years in fear is a long time. It is and is confident the policies she Federation of Civic Associations and the D.C. 3 Commuters and those of her grandmother, not an easy thing to come out is pushing for will start that Citizens Federation at Ron Brown College Prewait to board a her mother and her daughter. of,” she said. process. paratory High School. Invited guest agencies and Blue Line train She said every time she reads Mildred Muhammad said “I plan to take these policies to speakers (unable to be confirmed at the time this Braddock In Memoriam excerpts from her book, she still people who want to help a Congress and imploreatthem to report went to press), included: District Dept. of Road Metro Dr. Calvin W. Rolark, Sr. can not believe the words came domestic violence victim must change our laws,” Marlow said.

Wilhelmina J. Rolark station Sept.

Transportation; of Energy and Envifrom her. “ColorDC Me Dept.

Butterfly” be careful of how they go into “I will not stop until these poli9. (William The Washington Informer Newspaper ronment; DC Health; and 5G providers: Crown won the 2007 National “Best the victim's life, and understand cies are passed.”

J. Ford/The THE WASHINGTON INFORMER Castle (T-Mobile/Sprint), AT & T and Verizon PUBLISHER In Memoriam Books” Award. that she may be in “survival Tia Carol Jones can be reached NEWSPAPER (ISSN#0741-9414) is Washington representatives.

Dr. Calvin W. Rolark Rolark, Barnes Sr. Denise “I was just 16-years-old when mode”. at tiacaroljones@sbcglobal.net published weekly on each Thursday.

Informer) Wilhelmina J. Rolark my eye first blackened and my Periodicals postage paid at Washing“Before you get to 'I'm going ton, D.C. and additional mailing ofTHE WASHINGTON INFORMERSTAFF NEWSPAPER (ISSN#0741-9414) is published lips bled,” Marlow said. to kill you,' it started as a verbal WI fices. weekly News and advertisingPeriodicals deadline postage on Thursday. paid McNeir, at Washington, D. Kevin EditorD.C. and additional Elaine Davis-Nickens, presiis Monday to publication. mailingprior offices.

News and Anadvertising is Monday prior to publication.

Ron deadline Burke, Advertising/ Marketing Director dent of the National Hook-Up nouncements must bemust received two two weeks prior to event. Copyright 2000 by The Announcements be received Shevry Lassiter, Photo Editor After a summer project that took about 100 days of Black Women, said there is no weeksWashington prior to event.

Copyright 2016 Informer. All rights reserved. POST MASTER: Send change of addressLafayette Barnes, Editor

by The Informer.

All 3117 to complete work on platform improvements at six consistency in the way domestic es toWashington The Washington Informer, Martin Luther King,IV, Jr. Assistant Ave., S.E.Photo Washington, rights D.C. reserved.

POSTMASTER: Send Johnmay E. De Freitas, Sports Photo Editorpermis20032.

No part of this publication be reproduced without written Metrorail stations in Northern Virginia, the tranviolence issues are dealt with by changesion of from addresses to The The Wash-Informer the publisher.

Newspaper cannot guarantee Dorothy Rowley, Online Editor the return of sit agency reopened them Monday, Sept. 9. The ingtonphotographs.

Informer, 3117 Martin Luther Subscription rates are $30 per year, two years $45.

Papers will be received ZebraDesigns.net, Design & Layout King, not Jr. more Ave., than S.E. aWashington, D.C. stations on the Blue and Yellow lines – Braddock week after publication.

Make checks payable to: Mable Neville, Bookkeeper 20032. No part of this publication may Road, Eisenhower Avenue, Franconia-Springfield, be reproduced without writtenTHE permisDr. Charles Vincent, Social Sightings columnist WASHINGTON INFORMER Huntington, King Street-Old Town and Van Dorn sion from the publisher.

TheLuther Informer Tatiana Moten, Social Media 3117 Martin King, Jr. Ave., S.E. • Washington, D.C.Specialist 20032 Street – received new digital signs, trash and recycle Newspaper cannot guarantee the return Phone: 202 561-4100 Fax: 202 Circulation 574-3785 Angie •Johnson, of photographs. Subscription rates are bins and platform shelters where riders can charge E-mail: news@washingtoninformer.com $45 per year, two years $60. Papers will www.washingtoninformer.com cell phones and plug other electronic devices into REPORTERS be received not more than a week after outlets. Other work included informational displays publication. Make checks payable to: Stacy Brown (Senior Writer), Sam P.K. Collins, PUBLISHERCox, Will Ford (Prince George’s and enhanced speakers for public announcements in Timothy THE WASHINGTON INFORMER Denise Rolark Barnes both English and Spanish.

Politicians.

Educators.

Business leaders.

AtCounty Writer), Jacqueline Fuller, Hamil 3117 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave., S.E STAFF REPORTERS Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld said the torneys.

Black women who hold these and othHarris, D. Kevin McNeir, Dorothy Rowley, Washington, D.C. 20032 Brooke N. Garner Managing Editor Tia C. Jones, Ed Laiscell, round-the-clock work to shut down the stations Phone: 202 561-4100 er positions in Prince George’s County will be Brenda Siler, Sarafina Wright, James Wright Carla Peay Assistant Managing Editor Odell B. Ruffin, Larry Saxton, Fax: 202 574-3785 allowed for only one summer closure compared to recognized at “Women in Business, Women in Ron Burke Advertising and Marketing Mary Wells, Joseph Young PHOTOGRAPHERS news@washingtoninformer.com Mable Whittaker Bookkeeper at least two years that would have been needed in a Power” on Monday, Sept. 15 during a breakfast John E. DeFreitas, Shevry Lassiter, www.washingtoninformer.com LaNita Wrenn Administration PHOTOGRAPHERS piecemeal process. at the Prince George’s Ballroom in Landover.

Lewis, Lafayette Jr., Anthony Brigette John E. De Freitas SportsRoy Editor Barnes,Tilghman, IV, “This was a big, big project. It took a lot of effort The scheduled event will feature: County ExecVictor Holt PhotoWhite Editor John E. De Freitas, Maurice Fitzgerald, Zebra Designs, Inc. Layout & Graphic Design Joanne Jackson, Roy Lewis, Robert from a lot of people. It was a tough summer for us, utive Angela Alsobrooks, Bowie State University Ken Harris /www.scsworks.com Webmaster Ridley, Victor Holt but we recognized we had to do this,” he said at the President Aminta Breaux, Community College INTERNS: L.Y. Marlow Braddock Road station in Alexandria.

“The work President Charlene Dukes and many others. AcOlivia BoydCIRCULATION Paul Trantham needed to be done. It was for the customers. It’s their tress Debbi Morgan will be the special guest at system.” the breakfast hosted by the Bi-County Business Metro plans to conduct similar work next year at Roundtable and Sisters 4 Sisters Network. eight other stations – four in Prince George’s County For more information, go to www.bcroundtaand four in Northern Virginia. ble.com.

4 / May 15 - 21, 2008 The Washington Informer / www.washingtoninformer.com

Metro Reopens Six Stations in Northern Virginia

“

Black Women to be Honored in Prince George’s

We have to stop being passive-aggressive with poor children about domestic violence. I plan to take these policies to Congress and implore them to change our laws. I will not stop until these policies are passed.

“

4 SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019

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AROUND THE REGION

Mayor Bowser's 'My Brother's Keeper' Program Moves Forward Mentorship Remains Singular Focus

By James Wright WI Staff Writer @Jamesdcwrighter The Obama administration has become a part of history but its signature social initiative, "My Brother's Keeper" has continued in the District and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has made mentorship a highlight.

Bowser has worked to keep the initiative alive since Barack Obama left the White House in January 2017. On Sept. 5, the city's Office on Public Service and Volunteerism, hosted an event, "Mayor Bowser Presents: My Brother's Keeper Summit & Volunteer Fair", that took place at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Northwest.

Over 400 people listened to speakers and visited the booths of government agencies and non-profit organizations that deal with the problems of young Black males. Ayris T. Scales serves as the Chief Service Officer of the Office on Volunteerism & Partnerships and said she structured the one-day program in a deliberate manner.

"We wanted to show the public, private and non-profits who are working to help young Black boys and men to succeed," Scales said. "We have heard from some people who say that government has all of the answers and that is simply not true. Our volunteer

fair has government programs such as The Mayor's Commission on Fathers, Men and Boys and non-profits like Bread for the City and Horton's Kids that help Black young men to be the best they can be."

One panel featured D.C. Schools Chancellor Dr. Lewis Ferebee, D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham, D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (D-Ward 5) and Clinton Lacey, the director of D.C. Youth Rehabilitation Services. Ferebee said he mandates that educators go to the homes of their students and meet the families and get to know the communities they live in.

"Home and school need to work together," the chancellor said. "They need to talk to each other in order to help Black boys succeed in school."

Ferebee also encouraged Black parents, especially fathers, to read to their children at an early age.

"We need to let our young Black boys know that it is okay to read," he said.

Newsham said re-instituting the Officer Friendly program, where police officers intentionally engage the people whom they protect, has become a priority of his.

"Young kids will be able to develop a relationship with the officers in their neighborhoods," the chief said. Newsham talked the

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5 Thomas Penny III talks with his mentee, Arturo Evans, at the “My

Brother's Keeper Summit & Volunteer Fair" held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Northwest on Sept. 5. (Photo by James Wright/ Washington Informer)

Contact LaShawn Mizzell-McLeod, Contract Specialist at (202) 535-1212 or by email at LMMCLEOD@ dchousing.org with copy to business@dchousing.org for additional information.

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SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019 5

AROUND THE REGION

black facts

SEPT. 12

1913 – Four-time Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens is born in Oakville, Alabama.

1977 – Steve Biko, famed anti-apartheid activist, dies in police custody in Pretoria, South Africa.

1992 – Astronaut Mae Jemison becomes the first African American woman to travel in space.

SEPT 12 - 18, 2019 SOURCE: BLACK AMERICA WEB

to their masters upon capture, is passed by the U.S. Congress.

1895 – Booker T. Washington delivers the Atlanta Compromise speech. The compromise was a deal struck between Southern Blacks and whites that Blacks would work and submit to white political rule in exchange for basic education and due process in law.

1951 – Ben Carson, (left) retired neurosurgeon and former presidential candidate, is born in Detroit.

1970 – Rock icon Jimi Hendrix is found dead in a London apartment at age 27.

1980 – Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, a Cuban Air Force pilot, becomes the first Hispanic and first person of African ancestry to travel in outer space. WI

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1885 – Alain Locke, the first African American Rhodes Scholar and "Dean" of the Harlem Renaissance, is born in Philadelphia.

1996 – Rap great Tupac Shakur dies in Las Vegas at age 25 after being shot six days earlier.

SEPT. 14

1861 – Abolitionist John Rock, the first Black person to be admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, gains admittance to the Massachusetts Bar.

SEPT. 15

1963 – Four African American girls are killed in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

SEPT. 16

1889 – Claude Barnett, founder of the Associated Negro Press, is born in Sanford, Florida.

1925 – Legendary blues singer and guitarist B.B. King (above right) is born in Itta Bena, Mississippi.

SEPT. 17

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.

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1973 – Illinois becomes the first state to honor Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a holiday.

1983 – Vanessa Williams becomes the first African American to be crowned Miss America.

SEPT. 18

1850 – The Fugitive Slave Act, which required that all escaped slaves were to be returned

MAE JEMISON

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AROUND THE REGION

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Journalist Jemele Hill wrote in a column that Black athletes should go to historically Black colleges and universities instead of predominantly white Division I schools, drawing ire from critics. What do you think?

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Jemele, I'm with you! We fight to sit next to people who don't want us next to them. They exploit these young men.

They bring in millions and get only free tuition and board! Not a fair deal! The athletes are the majority of a minority on most of their campuses!

MELINDA DOAKS / WASHINGTON, D.C.

Some people are saying she attended a white college. And? Was she an athlete that brought in millions of dollars for the school? Nope. She probably got a full scholarship. Yes she worked for ESPN and is writing for a white-owned company. My thing is, what she saying isn't a lie. Never shoot the messenger and always listen to the message when it speaks truth.

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RAKEEM BOLDEN / WASHINGTON, D.C.

Hilarious! Hill attended Michigan State, seven percent black, worked for ESPN, which is white-owned, and writes for The Atlantic, which is white-owned! How do you get to want others to make sacrifices that you aren't willing to make yourself?

TONIA HOBBS / ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA

She is so right on so many levels. Black athletes think they have to go to those schools in order to get a shot in the NFL. I guarantee you, the Black players start going to the HBCUs, [and] the recruiters will start coming to your school to see you also.

Hell, when they're looking for talent, they go anywhere. I think if these athletes start going to their own schools, they will still get their shot in the pros.

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SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019 7

AROUND THE REGION The World According to Dominic

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Early last Sunday morning, my former wife and mother of our two adult children, sent me a heartwarming photograph of her and our “little man” – our precocious and gifted five-year-old grandson, Jackson. It was National Grandparents Day and they were circumnavigating sections of our hometown, Detroit, taking advantage of child-friendly events. From the picture, it was clear that Jackson was having the time of his life with his grandmother who he affectionately refers to as “Grandy.”

Their outing continues a tradition maintained for three generations by the elders, both maternal and paternal, who, as grandparents, have made spending time with their grandchildren their top priority. I never thought about how I’d feel or what I’d do when, and if, I became a grandparent. In truth, there was no need to do so as the blueprint had already been established. All I’ve had to do is follow the roadmap, staying along the path and within the lines.

During moments of quiet reflection, I can still “feel” the embraces of my own grandmothers – a Black woman born in Baltimore left to make it on her own after being

From the picture, it was clear that Jackson was having the time of his life with his grandmother who he affectionately refers to as “Grandy.” abandoned on the streets with only a sixth-grade education and God’s love, eventually becoming the maid for the Mayor of Williamsburg – using that enviable position for her family’s benefit. My other grandmother was a formidable, towering, six-foot-tall woman of ebony hue from the Blackfoot tribe who, unfortunately, died when I was only four. More than anything, I remember their hugs and kisses which left no doubt in my mind that, despite what the world might think or say about little Black boys, I was unconditionally loved.

I can still imagine struggling to keep up with Granddaddy Jack – my father’s father – half Black and half white – who loved taking his youngest grandson for walks in the fields on his Alabama farm, who taught me how to ride a horse,

chase down chickens for dinner and avoid the snakes in the outhouse.

(That’s right, there wouldn’t be indoor plumbing in the house until I was almost 10).

My mother’s father, one of nine children from parents of Black and Chickahominy bloodlines, was a great storyteller who reminisced about tribal traditions, his intense love for his siblings and who raised pigeons as a hobby, often bringing in a few for Sunday dinners – a delicacy that never appealed to my taste buds. He was the first man of color to integrate the Restoration – the team of Black and brown men and women who provided service for and information to tourists as Colonial Williamsburg grew and flourished. Dressed in the garb of the 18th century, seeing him come home from work was like looking into a history book – except this time the man in the scene looked like me.

Now, as the grandfather of two boys, 5 and 17, I often send them gadgets and gizmos, money and mementos, much to their delight.

But, following in footsteps far too big for me to ever fill, I give my boys my time – every possible moment making all kinds of memories – memories that will, prayerfully, enrich their lives, remain with them forever and be passed on to other little boys and girls who, while I’ll be part of their ancestry, I’ll probably never meet.

Then again – given the still untapped power of “the ancestors” and the spiritual realm – who knows? WI

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

Dempson Tapped as First Female D.C. Superior Clerk

By James Wright WI Staff Writer @JamesDCWrighter

Zabrina W. Dempson realizes making history recently as the first female clerk to manage the busy D.C. Superior Court system has merit, but instead of focusing on that, she wants to make the court a more efficient, customer-friendly place.

"I want to make sure that our judges, staff and the residents of the District are well-served by our court system," Dempson said. "I want to make sure that our judges have what they need to administrate justice. Our staff needs to be well-resourced to do their jobs and our citizens should have access to justice and treated with dignity and respect."

Dempson supervises over 600 employees in the Superior Court system, which consists of the Civil, Criminal, Probate, Domestic Violence, Multi-Door Resolution, Special Operations and Family Court divisions and the Crime Victim's Compensation Program and the Office of the Auditor-Master. The clerk's administrative functions include maintaining and securing all court records and evidence, supervising non-judicial personnel, scheduling cases and preparing daily calendars, assigning courtrooms to judges, managing juror services and case processing and improving the efficiency of the system.

Dempson became the clerk permanently after serving in an acting capacity since August 2018 after the departure of Duane B. Delaney.

Even though she performed the duties of the clerk, she went through the application process

that included interviews with three Superior Court judges and two court executives and accepted their offer for the position permanently on July 31.

Dempson said her time leading the Civil Division and as the court's senior operations manager prepared her to be the clerk. She said wants to implement a new case management system that will process cases quicker and use the latest technology to meet that end.

"We want to offer remote technology so people can do what they need to do without coming to the court," she said. "We have already implemented e-filing documents to the court and people can go online and utilize court forms electronically."

She also wants to deal with emerging issues in the law such as police and streets cameras and how they are stored as evidence and the best way to do that technologically.

Dempson, a District native and Eastern Senior High graduate, got her bachelor's degree from North Carolina Central University in 1991 and her juris doctor degree from its law school in 1995.

Dempson practiced law in Raleigh, N.C. and then made the decision, with her husband, to move back to the Washington area. She decided to work for the D.C. court system even though she enjoyed practicing law.

"I did not want to manage a law office and practice law at the same time," she said. "I wanted a steady paycheck. It was more about security and doing something else."

Dempson can't claim to be the first Black in the position, though.

Thomas Duckenfield, who served as the president of the National Bar

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5 Zabrina Dempson is the D.C. Superior Court's administrative leader.

(Courtesy of D.C. Superior Court)

Association and the Washington Bar Association, become the first Black clerk in 1980 and Delaney was the second.

Dempson nevertheless realizes that she will be recognized as a role model, but embraces the role and has words of encouragement for young people, especially women, who want to follow in her footsteps.

"I will tell any young person not to let any obstacles or challenges stop you from doing what you want to do," she said. "Set goals and follow your dreams. Education is so important to achieving your goals and don't let money be the driver for success.

WI

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“For bad or good, ‘nigger’ is destined to remain with us for many years to come – a reminder of the ironies and dilemmas, the tragedies and glories of the American experience.”

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AROUND THE REGION Mentoring Program to be Launched in Amin Muslim's Honor

By Sam P.K. Collins WI Contributing Writer @SamPKCollins Two violence-interruption stalwarts have launched a mentoring program in honor of the late Amin Muslim, a highly regarded community advocate who worked to build a bridge between disaffected residents and D.C. officials and agencies.

The program, named Amin's Angels, aims to pair D.C. adolescents and young adults with adults who exemplify the qualities needed to overcome obstacles. Warees Majeed, co-founder of Amin's Angels, said it will continue the work done under YAAY ME, his local youth and family education nonprofit.

"Amin Muslim taught me how necessary mentoring was and how he wouldn't be where he was without a mentor," Majeed said.

On Oct. 11, Majeed and fellow youth mentor Duane Cunningham will celebrate the renaming of their youth mentoring to Amin's Angels during the inaugural Denim & Diamonds Fundraising Celebration.

D.C. radio legend Donnie Simpson, local reporter Leon Harris, Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Peter Newsham and MPD Assistant Chief Robert Contee have been confirmed to appear that evening at the Blue DOT/DC Water headquarters in Southwest.

Black Alley will also grace the stage.

Proceeds from the Denim & Diamonds Fundraising Celebration will support Amin's Angels, the name of which alludes to Muslim's impact on women and men who later formed similar bonds with young people.

Majeed said Muslim, who he met in 2006, inspired his foray into youth and community advocacy, part of which would include YAAY ME. At its inception, YAAY ME hosted workforce development, after-school and summer programs and major events. In recent years, it expanded into the returning citizens space; 50 people completed YAAY ME's Pathways Program at the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement.

"Some brothers like myself and Cousin Wayne [Duane Cunningham] were the people Amin invested in years back," Majeed said.

"We're starting to see our investment growing. Those people [we mentored] are productive citizens and mentors in their own right. It's a ripple effect more than anything."

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES

In the mid-2000s, Muslim, a

returning citizen and telemarketer, parlayed his communication skills into a community resource specialist position at Edgewood/Brookland Family Support Collaborative.

Throughout the next few years, he helped shape DC Parks and Recreation's Boxing Under the Stars and Project Empowerment, a Department of Employment Services workforce development program.

In 2012, Muslim co-founded the DC Muslim Caucus and launched an annual Iftar dinner at the Woodrow Wilson International Building.

At the time of his April 16 death, Muslim had served nearly three years as a supervisory community outreach coordinator with MPD. In that role, he developed a newsletter that kept ANC commissioners abreast of crime trends, safety measures and MPD programs.

He also helped crime investigators form relationships pivotal in closing cases, identified community resources and played a part in improving staff development.

Before his tenure at MPD, Muslim oversaw constituent services in Ward 7 Councilwoman Yvette Alexander's office between 2007 and 2016. Muslim also served two terms on D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray's Commission on Reentry and Returning Citizens Affairs.

In that role, Muslim and at least 14 other people advised then-Mayor Gray, the D.C. Council and the director of the Mayor's Office on Returning Citizens Affairs on reintegrating the formerly incarcerated into society.

Gray, now a Ward 7 council member, reflected on what he described as Muslim's tenacity.

"Amin was somebody who let people know he overcame obstacles and mastered life," Gray said. "He was deserving and did so much for so many. He's a dear friend and someone whose efforts should be emulated [because] so many of our young people are trying to overcome obstacles, some not of their making."

In the Spirit of Innovation A study by Wallethub said D.C. had the highest youth poverty rate out of all the U.S. states and territories. The study also ranked the District as second highest in its percentage of youth drug users.

Youth safety has also been a concern; D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), DCPS Chancellor Lewis Ferebee and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education recently launched the Safe Spot initiative as a means for students to safely commute to and from school.

Amin's Angels will maintain a presence in two D.C. schools before expanding throughout the city. District youth, regardless of whether they've interacted with the judicial system, will be eligible for mentorship.

Upon completion of a vetting process, mentors will implement a curriculum centered on healthy decision-making and navigating adulthood. An educational component focuses on helping young people outline their short-term and long-term goals. YAAY ME also addresses public safety issues affecting District youth and their families.

Brittney Muslim, Amin Muslim's widow, expressed her desire that Amin's Angels carry on the spirit of her late husband, specifically his way of connecting people and breaking the mold. She said that the latter proved to be the case during his tenure at MPD.

WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM / THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

5 The Amin's Angels mentoring program has been launched in honor of Amin Muslim, shown here with his son Bariq Ibn-Amin Muslim. Muslim, a community advocate, worked to build a bridge between disaffected residents and D.C. officials and agencies. (Courtesy photo)

"One idea Amin had before his transition was bridging the gap between law enforcement and the community," Muslim said. "Amin felt law enforcement played a major role in how we conducted

ourselves. Both sides needed to be educated; just bridging the gap by getting the police to understand the culture of the neighborhood. He really believed there was something in that relationship." WI

SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019 11

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY Jealous Headlines Talk on Criminal Justice Reform

By William J. Ford WI Staff Writer @jabariwill

Former NAACP President Ben Jealous summarized that a financial investment in education would decrease money toward mass incarceration.

Jealous was the main speaker on a discussion about criminal justice reform hosted by Progressive Maryland on criminal justice reform not only in Prince George's County, but also the state of Maryland.

"On this issue as progressives, let us have hope. Let us be our sister's keeper, our brother's keeper," he said Saturday at ATU Local 689 headquarters in Forestville. "Let us organize each of us as a self-interest in this."

After an unsuccessful bid last year for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, Jealous, who

hasn't decided whether to run for mayor of Baltimore City, presented a message similar to the one from his previous campaign: love, optimism and perseverance will make a community better.

In terms of criminal justice, a Vera Institute of Justice report released in April showed Maryland's prison population decreased last year to 17,815, or 1.7 percent.

It marked the first time in nearly three decades that figure dipped below 18,000.

Although the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services shows the year-end population of 2018 at nearly 19,000, the Vera Institute of New York City calculated its data based on those incarcerated from Maryland and doesn't include people from other states held in Maryland's state prisons.

The institute received prison population numbers from the state and federal Bureau of Prisons, according to the report.

On Saturday, some people in attendance faced or continue to struggle with the inadequacies of the criminal justice system.

Joe Perez and Sonya L. Zollicoffer are engaged in an ongoing lawsuit with current and former county police officers against the police department for alleged discrimination against Black and Latino officers and residents.

Kema Harris's son, Kevin Sneed, was charged with attempting to kill a police officer during a traffic stop when his vehicle slowly moved, causing the officer to jump through the driver's side window in fear that Sneed had a gun.

After a two-year legal battle, a grand jury cleared Sneed in May of all charges.

Some family members must communicate with loved ones who remain in jail or prison, such as Kim Carter of Upper Marlboro.

Carter said her nephew, Justin Taylor, has served 16 years of a 30-year sentence in Virginia "for a crime he didn't commit."

Carter, a native of New York City's Bronx borough, said Taylor set up a drug deal for a person who eventually shot and killed someone.

Although police couldn't find the shooter, Carter said police charged Taylor, now 36, with murder.

"He wasn't even there when the shooting occurred," she said.

Braveboy Says County to End Cash Bail

By William J. Ford WI Staff Writer @jabariwill Prince George's County State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy presented the State of Justice symposium Tuesday, an outing her office labeled as the first time an elected state's attorney from the jurisdiction addressed residents with goals toward criminal justice reform.

For slightly more than 40 minutes, Braveboy touted the first 273 days of her administration, noting that her office reviewed 25,000 criminal cases, created a conviction- and sentencing-integrity unit and will encourage state lawmakers to make strangulation a first-degree felony.

But what received rousing applause was Braveboy's announcement that, as of Oct. 1, her office will no longer request cash bail as a condition of release before trial for those arrested for certain offenses.

Criminal justice advocates have said it keeps poor people in jail because they simply cannot afford to pay for bail.

12 SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019

"We hope that the steps we are taking will serve as an example to other decision-makers that there are other alternatives," she said at The Hotel at the University of Maryland in College Park. "No one who is not a threat or danger to our community should be in jail pre-trial."

Maryland implemented bail reform two years ago for judges to use cash bail as a last resort.

A June 2018 report by Progressive Maryland and Color of Change showed the practice did decrease in Prince George's from nearly 50 percent between June 2016 and June 2017 to 40 percent between July 2017 and May 2018.

During that same time frame, nobail status imposed in court increased from 11 percent to 14 percent.

"Replacing cash bail with no bail holds simply perpetuates many of the problems in the cash bail system," the report said. "People are kept away from their jobs, families, and loved ones, all of the factors that have criminogenic effects."

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland)

said he visited Braveboy in her office and realized she plans to seek ways to rehabilitate people so they can become better citizens.

"It was obvious to me that Aisha was committed to making the state of justice in Prince George's County and our state better," he said. "We need to make sure we don't people in cages who are not dangerous to others. We need to believe in rehabilitation, not in retribution."

One of Braveboy's early initiatives that she announced in July seeks to decrease the number of at-risk youth who enter the criminal justice system.

Instead of a teenager being processed and tried in juvenile court, the "family approach" endeavor will allow some teens to receive mental health, social or other services that may be needed based on a person's records and needs. Her office will lead the effort with the help of the county's public school system, sheriff's office and nonprofit organizations.

The county will host its first Juvenile Justice Summit at Bowie State

5 Former Maryland gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous (right) chats with Kim Carter after Jealous spoke about criminal justice reform during the program hosted

by Progressive Maryland at ATU Local 689 headquarters in Forestville on Sept. 7.

(Anthony Tilghman/The Washington Informer)

"My children don't even know my nephew. Criminal justice reform is a must. It needs to be done because innocent people are behind bars."

Jealous and others stressed Saturday that the majority of those incarcerated are Black. Maryland's Department of Corrections noted earlier this year more than 70 of its prisoners are Black.

Angum Check, 21, said mass University in November for youth and adults to identify causes of behavior. In addition, the forum could provide recommendations on state legislation toward criminal justice reform.

Braveboy also presented at least a dozen awards to those who've helped toward criminal justice reform such as Del. Darryl Barnes (D-District 25) of Upper Marlboro, who chairs the state's Legislative Black Caucus.

Then Braveboy joined eight others on a panel, with the first question coming from moderator Harold Fisher of WHUR-FM (96.3): "How do you define justice in 2019?"

Kristi O'Malley, principal deputy chief in the U.S. Attorney's Office for Maryland's Southern Division, said "the important thing is to do the right thing every day. That's justice for me."

Keith Lotridge, the district public defender for Prince George's, offered a different perspective.

"It's almost an impossible question to answer. You cannot have justice without looking at the totality of the individual," he said. "My definition of justice: I haven't seen it yet."

WI

incarceration remains "a national crisis."

"We have the largest prison population amongst any developed country in the world," said Check, the lead Prince George's County organizer for Progressive Maryland. "We see there are deeply rooted institutional disparities of how people are treated based on race, based on wealth. It must change."

In Prince George's, at least 100 people in attendance received a pledge card to end mass incarceration and ensure the cards are received by State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy during her "State of the Justice" address Tuesday in College Park. The card outlines a request for Braveboy to conduct the following: • End cash bail.

• Decriminalize sex work.

• Divest from the school-to-prison pipeline and invest to treat children as children.

• Stop prosecuting petty crimes and minor offenses.

• Stop deportations and cooperating with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

Jealous praised Braveboy when she worked as a state delegate to help abolish the death penalty in Maryland in 2013.

"We can work with her," he said.

"The focus with her should be, how do we push her? How do we build a movement that gives her no choice to rise to her best angel and be the justice leader that we need?

Let's go out there and win justice for our communities."

WI

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

PGCPS BRIEFS Compiled by Dorothy Rowley WI Staff Writer

FROM SCHOOLS CEO MONICA GOLDSON

"[On first day of school year 2019-20], I visited schools across the county and saw the excitement of students, families, educators and administrators. From the first day of school until the final day of classes, we are working every day to support the whole child, set high academic standards and help propel our students' dreams beyond their expectations.

"As I begin my first year as chief executive officer, I am excited to implement the Blueprint for PGCPS to improve student outcomes and create an environment where teaching and learning can thrive.

"This year, we need everyone in the PGCPS community — families, civic leaders, business professionals — to be present and active in our students' lives.

Over the course of the next year, I look forward to meeting more students and families, visiting more schools and continuing to build on our progress."

PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY tem's largest infrastructure investment in generations.

Over the next 10 years, more than 30 schools in the district will have renovations done.

TEACHER COMPENSATION

PGCPS is offering a restorative salary increase to all employees who lost steps during the economic downturn at the beginning of the decade yet remained with the school system.

School officials said PGCPS has been working through the downturn over the past decade, as numerous cost-savings strategies were used to limit the impact on students and schools, including a "freeze" on employee salary increases from 2009 to 2012.

To rectify the situation, PGCPS has allocated $13 million for fiscal 2020 to recruit and retain the best employees to serve the county's children and families. WI

5 Schools CEO Monica Goldson wants to make the 2019-20 school year magical for every PGCPS student. (PGCPS photo)

BEST SCHOOL BOARD

Schools CEO Monica Goldson congratulated Allenwood Elementary third grade teacher Ms. Johnson for her "Words with Friends"-inspired board, which earned the "CEO's Choice for #PGCPSBestBoards."

"I love this one as it incorporates student's name to make them feel important and show they are all connected! @EsAllenwood," Goldson said in a Sept. 5 tweet.

5 Schools CEO Monica Goldson congratulated an Allenwood Elementary third grade teacher for her "Words with Friends"-inspired board. (PGCPS photo)

FACILITIES UPGRADES

One of Prince George's County Public Schools' most pressing concerns is making upgrades to its facilities that are decades overdue.

With the support of County Executive Alsobrooks and County Council, Prince George's County government and PGCPS, $25 million to $30 million a year will be invested for the next 30 years in school construction funds, the school sysWWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM / THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019 13

BUSINESS COMCAST from Page 1 their recently-formed partnership during a skating clinic at Fort Dupont Ice Arena in Southeast where they discussed the expansion of the Internet Essentials program to all qualified low-income families and individuals who reside in areas serviced by Comcast.

During the event, the children, all developing ice skaters, received the surprise of their lives as three U.S. Olympic medalists, each of whom had to rely on their prowess on the ice to bring medals home, assisted coaches with onice instruction for the students.

The Olympic champions, each serving as Internet Essentials

spokespersons, included Jocelyn Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando, both Women’s Ice Hockey Team gold medalists and Rico Roman, U.S. Paralympic Gold Medalist, Men’s Sled Hockey Team and a Purple Heart recipient.

Even Slapshot, the official mascot of the Washington Capitals, took to the ice much to the children’s delight.

“Think about it,” Cohen said.

“How many children get the opportunity to skate during practice with a trio of Olympic champions?”

But even with the fun and games, Cohen remain focused on the rationale behind the new

5 David L. Cohen, senior executive vice president and chief diversity officer of Comcast Corporation joins in a group shot at the Internet Essentials fall tour at Fort Dupont Ice Skating Rink in Southeast on Tuesday, Sept. 10. (Anthony Tilghman/ The Washington Informer)

changes to the Internet Essentials Program.

“Most people probably take the Internet for granted but for those

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14 SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019

without it, it’s a real need, a big need – even a social justice need,” he said. “Those being left behind and unconnected are disproportionately poor, of color or are faced with other forms of unequal treatment from among populations that need our help the most.”

Upon the program’s inception eight years ago, its target audience only included families with children eligible for free lunch under America’s national lunch programs. But in subsequent years, others have been given access as the rules for eligibility have changed, adding, among others, families living in public housing, low-income senior citizens and college students.

“This year, Comcast wanted to get rid of all the subsets and with this major expansion in the program, we have doubled the population pool from last year, adding three million households now eligible to apply and take advantage of Internet Essentials,” Cohen noted.

He discussed how Comcast chose to engage in conversation with Cornerstone Schools, located in the heart of Southeast, eventually concluding that a partnership between the two would result in mutually-beneficial results.

Cornerstone Schools, established on Christian-centered fundamentals, offers rigorous academic instruction in grades K-12 with its formative years going back to the last 1990s. Today, 89 percent of their graduating seniors continue to pursue higher education; African Americans make up 97 percent of the student population.

“Cornerstone Schools wasn’t a perfect fit as it relates to its students, their families and those who

needed our assistance and who we felt would benefit the most from our recent expansion which dramatically impacts the rules of program eligibility. However, given the unquestioned effectiveness of their leaders, instructors, school district community and parents, it’s a perfect example of a school where the magic needed to hold our Internet Essentials Program together and make it work exists in formidable proportion,” Cohen said.

“We’ve connected eight million to the Internet over the course of the program but that still leaves 210,000 individuals in the Greater DC Area who still are not connected. So, we’ve stayed at it, with our boots on the ground and created an ‘echo chamber’ where families tell other families about how they’ve benefited from the program. It’s trusted sources telling others to consider what we have to offer and choosing to take a chance,” he added. WI

“We’ve connected eight million to the Internet over the course of the program but that still

leaves 210,000 individuals in the Greater DC Area who still are not connected."

– David L. Cohen

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

BUSINESS Black Chambers of Commerce Aimee D. Griffin, Esq.,

5 The University of the District of Columbia's newest workforce site recently opened at 3100 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave. in Southeast. In the months leading up the ground lease deal, UDC engaged Phinis Jones and other parties in negotiations. (Roy Lewis/The Washington Informer)

Phinis Jones Explains Importance of UDC's New Leasing Agreement

By Sam P.K. Collins WI Contributing Writer @SamPKCollins The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) recently opened its newest workforce development site on the grounds of the former Democracy Prep Public Charter School in Congress Heights, a testament to what business maven Phinis Jones describes as the economic potential of the Ward 8 community.

In August, the UDC's community college consolidated its programs at P.R. Harris Educational Center on Livingston Road, the Shadd campus on East Capitol Street and the training hospital at United Medical Center into 3100 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.

This deal culminated D.C. Council scrutiny and months of negotiations between UDC and a team comprised of Jones' District Development Group LLC, and business partners Monica T. Ray and Andrew Botticello.

Jones said that the process highlighted a point he has long attempted to make to residents and colleagues alike about the need for ownership.

"That school sat vacant in downtown Congress Heights for 27 years," Jones said as he recounted his ground lease of 3100 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.

"Homeless people stayed in it and it was an environmental mess with oil and water sitting in there six feet high.

"We had a 65-year ground lease from the city [and] any leasing over 40 years means bank financing," he said. "We spent over $30 million renovating that building.

No one was looking at Congress Heights in 2008 when we were looking into that building."

A UDC spokesperson declined The Informer's request for an interview about the new workforce development site.

UDC's expansion into Congress Heights takes place just as Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) has called on the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and the Department of General Services to identify potential properties in Wards 7 and 8 that can serve as space for local government agencies. She said such a move could attract retail and other amenities to historically underinvested areas.

Congress Heights, home to more than 14,000 people, had been designated by Destination Congress Heights as the most economically diverse neighborhood east of the Anacostia River and Ward 8's largest commercial district. As neighborhoods in the western end of the District have experienced gentrification, investors, elected officials and residents have eyed Congress Heights as one of the District's last frontier for urban development.

By the late 2000s, at least $455 million worth of development projects had been underway, including that for St. Elizabeths West Campus, THEARC, the Southeast Tennis & Learning Center and the area surrounding Congress Heights Metro Station.

In November, Bowser broke ground on the Residences at Congress Heights, located on St.

This summer the US Black Chambers celebrated 10 years of serving as the National Voice for Black Businesses. I am proud to say that I was a part of the group to create this purposeful organization.

This summer, with B. Doyle Mitchell, President and CEO of Industrial Bank and Antwanye Ford CEO of Enlightened Inc., as incorporators,we launched the Greater Washington Black Chamber of Commerce.

Entrepreneurship has long been a significant tool in economic empowerment. As black people we have been systematically under employed and devalued.

Entrepreneurship for people of color and women has been a tool of self determination.

When interviewed regarding the Black Chambers I was asked the question what is the difference between the DC Black Chamber and the DC Chamber. The obvious answer is the word Black.

Pay equity is an issue that many have acknowledged with the disparity of women making $.80 to the dollar of white men earn. Black women make $.61 on the dollar. The disparity underscores the struggle to earn one’s way out of the racial wealth gap using traditional means. The inequity that may or may not be intentional for individuals is and has been a systematic tool over the years forming the foundation of institutional racism.

The Black Chambers have the capacity and the responsibility to directly address the inequity of access and opportunity. Entrepreneurship provides an opportunity to create a livelihood for the owners who can impact the communities that they are a part of.

The US Black Chambers built a platform with the following 5 pillars: Advocacy, Access to Capital, Contracting Opportunities, Entrepreneur Training and Chamber Development.

The Greater Washington Black Chamber, an affiliate of the US Black Chambers holds the mission to promote black business growth in the District of Columbia through the facilitation of business opportunities and education.

Black Chambers hold an unabashed commitment to grow the businesses in the black community. With centuries of oppression and institutional racism this disparate economic reality will not dissipate with time. There must be an aggressive and assertive action to provide access and opportunity to close the racial wealth gap.

One of the struggles in closing the racial wealth gap is that money begets money. Those who have assets to invest will gain while those who do not are not able to invest, and therefore lose.

Entrepreneurship is a struggle and without access to opportunity and capital, there are limitations to access to success.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners (SBO) over 90% of Black and Latino businesses do not have a single employee. For Black women owned businesses approximately 98% have no employees. Sixty-seven percent of firms without employees had annual sales of less than $25,000. The ability to survive does not exist with these numbers.

Advocacy is necessary to pave roads that lead to access and opportunity. Frederick Douglass taught us that Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

I am proud to say that The Griffin Firm is a member of the Black Chamber in Atlanta, Durham, Northern Virginia, District of Columbia as well as the US Black Chambers, the National Voice of Black Business. Wherever we have an office it is our intention to become a member. Successful entrepreneurship impacts communities in tangible and intangible ways. The Black Chambers’ mission to support the profitability of black business will only be successful if the community joins the effort.

Aimee D. Griffin, Esq., The Griffin Firm, PLLC www.yourestateplanningattorney.com (202)379-4738 5335 Wisconsin Ave NW Suite 440 Washington DC 20015 1401 Mercantile Lane • Suite 383 • Upper Marlboro MD 20774 100 International Drive • 23rd Floor • Baltimore MD 21202 1100 Peachtree ST NE • Suite 200 • Atlanta GA 30309 2530 Meridian Parkway • Suite 300 • Durham NC 27713

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SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019 15

NATIONAL The Weight They Carried: Women of the Suffrage Movement are Now and Forever 'She-Roes'

By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer @StacyBrownMedia This is part of an ongoing Washington Informer series about the Women's Suffrage Movement and an initiative that includes Informer Publisher Denise Rolark Barnes that will use the lens of history, the fabric of art and culture and the venue of the public square

to shine a light into dark places, equipping all with a compass to chart the way forward.

The initiative lives in the institutional home of the Washington Informer Charities.

"Because of them, we can."

That's the mantra of Karen Arrington Goodwill, the ambassador to Sierra Leone and founder of Miss Black USA. "Abolitionists Lucretia Mott, Ida B. Wells, Maria Weston

5 Five women officers of the Women's League (Courtesy of Library of Congress)

Chapman, Sojourner Truth and others carried an insurmountable weight while challenging sexism and Black people's access to the ballot box," said Goodwill, who is also an

Looking Back at the Horror of 9/11 Americans paused on Wednesday, Sept. 11, to remember the tragedy of that fateful day. United Airlines Flight 175 crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center complex in New York during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. (Courtesy photo/Wikipedia commons)

16 SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019

author and award-winning empowerment expert.

Goodwill noted that because of the hard work and advocacy

by Black women of the suffrage movement, today's African Americans prosper.

"For the first time in history, we've got a Black woman on the top of the Forbes richest women in entertainment list [Rihanna], and we've got sisters in positions of prestige and power at organizations like Xerox and Microsoft, the World Bank and the U.S. Congress," she said. "Black women of the suffrage movement paved the way for us to rewrite the rules of power and opportunity."

Nicole L. Arkadie, a professor who teaches macro and micro practice to master's-level social work students, said everyone owes a debt of gratitude to the Black women of the suffrage movement.

And, while there have been strides made, the fight is far from over, Arkadie said.

"It's important for Black women to take an active role in the political scene and to know the issues that affect and impact our community," Arkadie said.

"Due to their race and gender, Black women were not allowed to vote before the 19th amendment was passed and voting is important, and it's a right that we fought for," she said.

"We can, and we have overcome various race and economic disparities to reach success and fulfill our life goals. We've had to jump over more obstacles, overcome more challeng-

es, work with having access to fewer resources and advantages," Arkadie said.

Terrell Strayhorn, vice president for academic and student affairs and a professor of urban education at LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis, Tenn., marveled at how difficult it would have been for Black female suffragists to show up for a rally.

"Fired up for advancing women's equal rights, only to be shunned by white women, shoved by white suffragists, or even asked to get to the back of the rallying line as was often the case," Strayhorn said.

"I think the way we connect younger generations to these historical women of color is by telling their story for ages to come. Say her name and celebrate her courage, her strength, and her resilience.

"Use 'her-story,' not just 'his-story,' to demonstrate to today's youth powerful lessons about what it means for the person to be political and being mindful of when and where they enter a conversation, a social issue, or movement," Strayhorn said.

Goodwill added that the suffrage movement paved the way for African Americans to rewrite the rules of power and opportunity.

"We still have obstacles to overcome, stereotypes to smash and trauma to release," she said. "There's no question about it. It won't be easy.

But it will be worth it. And these women, she-roes, [they] proved it."

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NATIONAL

MoCo Residents Question Vetting Process for Police Chief

By Sam P.K. Collins WI Contributing Writer @SamPKCollins

Not long after former Portsmouth Police Chief Tonya Chapman declined further consideration for the Montgomery County police chief position, the county council's attention quickly pivoted to County Executive Marc Elrich's latest choice: Darryl McSwain, chief of the Montgomery County division of the Maryland-National Capital Park Police.

However, a group of Montgomery County residents involved in the selection process has called for an investigation into the circumstances of Chapman's departure.

They allege the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the county council, and conservative forces within the media conspired to oust Chapman, a Black woman with a reputation of holding officers accountable.

"It seemed like some of the council members didn't like Tonya Chapman because the FOP didn't like her," said Katie Stauss of the Silver Spring Justice Coalition (SSJC).

This group, comprised of grassroots organizations and Montgomery County residents, formed in the aftermath of Montgomery County resident Robert White's police-involved shooting death last year. Earlier this summer, SSJC members took part in a community panel to vet Elrich's choices for Montgomery County police chief.

On September 5, nearly two weeks after Elrich announced Chapman's decision, SSJC petitioned the Montgomery County Council for a list of more than three dozen questions prepared for Chapman during the vetting process, and an assertion that officials embraced Chapman's efforts to improve police-community relations in Portsmouth.

"The FOP worked through their political and media contacts to undermine Tonya Chapman," she said. "The county council could've been more sensitive to that and appreciate that there would be people against her because she wants to hold police accountable. A low-key character assassination happened in Montgomery County."

In the aftermath of police bodycam footage that caught a Montgomery County police officer using a racial slur toward a Black suspect, conversation around po-

lice-community relations have centered on how to establish trust between officers and Montgomery County's young, nonwhite residents.

SSJC members heralded Chapman as the person to carry out such a task, as she had done so in instances that affected her professionally.

Earlier this year, Chapman, Virginia's first Black female police chief, resigned from the Portsmouth Police Department amid accusations of low officer morale.

During her three-year tenure at the Portsmouth Police Department, Chapman enforced de-escalation tactics and reported incidents of alleged discrimination to the FBI. Her prior experience includes stints at the Arlington County Police Department, Richmond County Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

Chapman's relationship with the majority-white police force quickly soured following the 2016 conviction of former officer Stephen Rankin, a white man, in the shooting death of William Chapman II, an 18-year-old Black man.

In a four-page letter addressed to Portsmouth residents this year, she implicated the city manager in a conspiracy to force her out of office.

Chapman didn't reply to an email from The Informer about her experience as Portsmouth police chief or the circumstances of her resignation from the Montgomery County police chief selection process.

In July, Elrich revealed Chapman as the lone candidate for the Montgomery County police chief position after Takoma Park Police Chief Antonio Devaul dropped out of the running. In response to concerns about her relationship with the Portsmouth police force, Elrich cited professional differences, not Chapman's competency, as a key cause.

Such assurances didn't quell what supporters called a media blitz that questioned Chapman's ability to work well with Montgomery County police officers.

Another point of controversy involved more than 40 questions that council members submitted on August 15 to Elrich. Some of those inquiries touched on domestic violence, Chapman's tenure as Portsmouth police chief and her views on police-community relations.

Attempts to gather comment from Montgomery County Coun-

cil members Nancy Navarro, Sidney Katz and Tom Hucker, all of whom serve on the council's public safety committee, about the police chief vetting process proved futile.

Montgomery County Councilman Will Jawando, author of legislation that increased transparency in police-shooting investigations, contended that the media battle

distracted from a selection process that allowed him and his colleagues to know Chapman.

At this juncture in the police chief search, county officials must focus on getting a chief who values community programming, he said.

"It's unfortunate how this played out. The focus of the county should be how to get a police chief that understands policing

needs to be equitable," said Jawando, an at-large representative. "We need someone who's willing to address information about disparate arrests, dig into the statistics and be willing to change it. We need someone who's willing to build trust by implementing a community policing program. That's very important for our police chief."

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2:28 PM SEPTEMBER 12 - 18,9/4/19 2019 17

NATIONAL

Ten Democrats Set to Debate in Houston

By William J. Ford WI Staff Writer @jabariwill Democratic voters still undecided on who to choose as the presidential nominee will hear from 10 candidates in the third debate Thursday, Sept. 12 in Houston.

Although more than 20 people seek the Democratic nomination and have participated in previous debates, only 10 qualified for Thursday's debate based on polling and fundraising thresholds.

The 10 candidates who will appear at Texas Southern University, a historically Black institution, are former Vice President Joe Biden, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Peter Buttigieg, former HUD Secretary Julián Castro, California Sen. Kamala Harris, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former Texas Sen. Beto O'Rourke, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warner and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

According to poll observations

by poll aggregator RealClearPolitics, Biden and Warren on average place first and second, respectively. Thursday also marks the first time both candidates will appear on stage together.

The latest poll released Sunday, Sept. 8 by ABC News/Washington Post show Biden in first place among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents at 27 percent, a 2 percent decrease from July.

Sanders placed second at 19 percent, but Warner jumped from 11 percent in July to 17 percent.

Harris decreased in fourth place from 11 percent to 7 percent to join the rest of the candidates in single digits.

The poll, conducted Sept.

2-5 among a random national sampling of 1,003 voters, shows Biden with 42 percent who believe he's the best candidate to defeat Republican President Donald Trump.

Biden also has one racial group that supports him.

"Biden owes much of his advantage to Blacks, with 44 per-

cent support, about double his level among whites and Hispanics alike," according to the poll.

The poll highlights Sanders garnered the highest number at 31 percent of voters "closest to me on issues," but only 11 percent believe he's "most likely to beat Trump."

Meanwhile, several candidates released recent policy proposals such as climate change.

Klobuchar would place the country on net-zero emissions by 2050. She would also restore former President Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan that set emis-

sion standards for states.

If elected president, Booker would invest $3 trillion by 2030 and transition into a 100 percent carbon-neutral economy by 2045. His plan also proposes to increase Environmental Protection Agency enforcement actions against "polluting companies."

One idea Warren would propose to improve climate change stems from a $2 trillion investment over 10 years in green research, manufacturing and exporting. In turn, create more than a million American jobs.

Part of Castro's plan would push for civil rights legislation that would review whether any health and environment im-

pacts are affected on low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.

Buttigieg also wants net-zero emissions by 2050 that includes a $200 billion investment in advanced technology that "can contain captured carbon and direct air capture of greenhouse gases."

Harris became the last person to release a plan, doing so the same day as Buttigieg on Sept.

4. Her plan includes $10 trillion in public and private funding. By 2030, her plan would ensure the country runs on carbon-neutral electricity for busses, heavy-duty vehicles and vehicle fleets at zero emissions.

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5 Former Vice President Joe Biden is still the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in the latest polls.

(Courtesy of Biden for Maryland)

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SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019 19

INTERNATIONAL

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Zimbabwe Mourns Mugabe

Zimbabwe began a period of national mourning following the Sept. 6 death of Robert Mugabe, (left) the former guerrilla hero turned despot who ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years.

As Zimbabweans expressed sharply divided opinions about Mugabe, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said his predecessor had been declared a "national hero" and that Zimbabwe would mourn him until the burial.

"The late departed icon will be eternally remembered and honored for the bold and historic land reform program which he undertook," Mnangagwa said during a nationally televised address.

Mugabe, 95, died early Friday morning in Singapore, where he had been hospitalized in April.

First heralded as a liberator who rid the former British colony Rhodesia of white minority rule, Mugabe used repression and fear to govern until he was finally ousted by his previously loyal generals in November 2017.

His increasingly tyrannical leadership and economic mismanagement prompted millions to leave the country.

He had been battling ill health, and after a humiliating fall from office, his stamina seeped away rapidly.

Some Zimbabweans hailed him as a "true African" and a "revolutionary icon." For others, however, his name evoked only "evil," "destruction" and "suffering."

"Mugabe was an educated man but he used his education for evil," said Baster Magwizi, a war veteran in the southwestern city of Bulawayo. "He manipulated everyone around him and fooled the world. Only Zimbabweans can testify to this as we lived in hell under his leadership."

But Harare schoolteacher Tatenda Musoni was forgiving.

"To be honest I thought I would celebrate when he died but … I'm actually sad because he was an embodiment of what a true African should be.

"He had his flaws but he did a lot of positive things for us which I doubt we will ever see again in this country."

Adam Molai, Mugabe's nephew, said the former president died of old age "surrounded by family." WI

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No Post-Dorian Arrangements Made for Bahamians to Come to U.S. National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) officials emphasized Monday that no special arrangements have been made to facilitate the entry of Bahamians affected by Hurricane Dorian into the United States.

The announcement came after crew of the Balearia Caribbean Ferry demanded that passengers without a US visa disembark the vessel, prompting the exodus of reportedly 100 or so people, The Tribune reported.

5 Volunteers from Royal Caribbean’s "It's hurtful because I'm watching my daughter cry, but it is what South Florida offices boarded Navigait is," one person told Brian Entin, a reporter for Miami TV station tor of the Seas this week to assist with WSVN who was on board the vessel. hurricane relief. Known as “Go Team,” During a press conference Monday morning, NEMA spokesman the group is assisting unload relief supplies Carl Smith said: "NEMA and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would and evacuee efforts. like to advise the public that there are no new arrangements that have been established to facilitate entry of Bahamians into the United States or Canada. Bahamians interested in traveling to the United States or Canada should ensure that they have all of the usual immigration documents required by those countries for entry. While most inquiries have come in respect to movement to the United States or Canada, NEMA can confirm that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not aware of any new arrangements for any other country. We are aware of an incident reported on a large passenger vessel headed to the United States from Florida. NEMA has requested that the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs investigate this matter."

Bahamians traveling to the U.S. can do so with a passport and a clean police record.

Last week, U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott asked President Donald Trump to waive some visa requirements for Bahamians following Hurricane Dorian and to make it easier for them to seek shelter with their families in the United States.

Scott, in a statement, called on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to work with the Bahamian government to clarify rules regarding visas in the Bahamas so confusion does not occur. WI

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September Greetings from DC Department of Aging and Community Living Laura Newland Director Laura Newland, Department of Aging and Community Living Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote on our new logo that will officially brand us as the Department of Aging and Com­ munity Living! We received hundreds of votes — it’s only fitting that you helped choose our new look because we wouldn’t be here with­out you.

Since Mayor Muriel Bowser signed the bill changing our agency to a department back in February, we’ve been hard at work incorpo­ rating this new identity into all that we do at the agency. I can’t wait for you to see our new look in the coming months.

As we roll out our new branding, my team and I will be out in the community connecting with you — after all, YOU are a major part of who we are as an agency.

Starting this October, you may see some familiar faces from my leadership team pitching in to serve lunch at one of our 46 commu­nity dining sites. Or maybe I’ll answer your call into our Informa-

tion & Referral/Assistance line, (202) 724-5626. You may catch us riding along on one of our Seabury buses, delivering meals to at-home clients, supporting our Medicaid Enrollment team on home visits, or playing a round of bingo at a Senior Wellness Center.

Members of my leadership team will be joining my frontline staff and learning more about their experiences in serving our commu­ nity, and just as important, seeing the many ways in which you con­ nect with us as an agency.

By taking the time to experience all of the different programs, services and activities, we are building a stronger and more sup­portive team here at DACL. And the better we can support each other within the agency, the better we can support you out in the community.

So, don’t be shy. When you see me or my team having lunch or taking a class with you, take a moment to share some of your ideas and feedback with us.

Also, on November 8, 2019, DACL is excited to be partnering with the Department of Parks and Recreation to host the first ever Roll, Stroll, and Run Caregiver 5k and 1-mile

Fun Run at Anacostia Park.

This event is open to all past, present and future caregivers, and supporters, and of course is wheelchair accessible. We invite you to join us to con­nect with other caregivers, celebrate the work you do, and raise aware­ ness. Registration is available at https://caregiver5k.eventbrite. com/.

We have a busy season ahead of us, and we’re looking forward to these new initiatives and introducing our new branding in the months ahead. You are such a critical part of what makes DACL so great — thank you!

Thank you for your feedback, your ideas, your advocacy and guidance. Because of you, our

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older adults, adults with disabilities and caregivers have a Department that we can all call our own.

See you out in the community!

SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019 21

HEALTH Gray Wants East End Health Care System

One Hospital Not Enough, He Says

By James Wright WI Staff Writer D.C. Councilman Vincent Gray said one hospital located in the East End of the District will not be enough to meet the health care needs of the residents there and a system will be needed for that purpose.

"D.C. is a tale of two cities," said Gray, who represents Ward 7 on the D.C. Council, said. "On the west side, the health care services are the best in the city and in the country. However, further east, there are a dearth of health care services."

Gray made his comments

at a Sept. 6 panel discussion at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel, "The Future of Health Care: The D.C. Hospital Report," sponsored by the Washington Business Journal.

He was joined on the panel by Wayne Turnage, the District's deputy mayor for Health and Human Services and director of the D.C. Department of Health Care Finance; Dr. Hugh Mighty, dean of the Howard University College of Medicine and vice president of Clinical Affairs; and Dr. Tamarah Duperval-Brownlee, president and CEO of Providence and senior vice president and chief community impact of-

5 DC Councilmember Vincent Gray (2ndleft) speaks while (L-R) Washington Business Journal reporter Sara Gilgore, Dr. Tamarah Duperval-Brownlee, Dr. Hugh Might, and (not shown) Wayne Turnage), listen at a panel discussion “The Future of Health Care: The DC Hospital Report” that was sponsored by the Journal and took place at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel in Arlington, Va. on Sept. 6. (Courtesy photo/Twitter grab)

ficer for Ascension.

Sara Gilgore, the Journal's health and innovation reporter, moderated the panel.

Gray said residents east of the Anacostia River need quality health care like residents in the rest of the city.

"There are 150,000 people who live in Wards 7 and 8," he said. "We have a number of clinics and a United Medical Center that has outlived its usefulness.

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We have no urgent care center in Ward 7 or 8 at this point."

There are plans to build a new hospital on the St Elizabeths campus in Ward 8. The United Medical Center (UMC), the only publicly funded hospital in the District that has suffered from financial mismanagement and recently losses in services such as obstetrics and gynecology, will be shuttered in 2023.

The St. Elizabeths hospital will replace UMC, according to District government officials.

There have been concerns that the UMC will close before the St. Elizabeths hospital opens, but Gray quickly disputed that.

"I will not support in any way for UMC to close without the new hospital opening," the council member said.

Turnage agreed with Gray, saying "the East End will not be hospital-less" "UMC will still be open," he said.

Gray said he continues to work with his council colleagues to see that Howard University College of Medicine has a role in the St. Elizabeths hospital "with

George Washington Hospital as the manager being satisfied."

Howard University Hospital announced a deal on July 29 with Adventist Healthcare as its manager and Mighty said the transition could take place in January 2020.

Duperval-Brownless said Providence did close as a full-service hospital on April 30 but still has operations focusing on primary and community care in a clinical setting.

"We're still here," she said.

"We will continue to serve the needs of members in the community, particularly the elderly."

Before the panel started, Dr. Joseph Wright, interim president, CEO and chief medical officer of the University of Maryland Capital Region Health, spoke about the possibility that District residents will have access to the new hospital being built by the Metrorail station in nearby Largo, Md. "The geopolitical boundaries are immaterial," Wright said.

"We will treat people wherever they come from."

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D.C. Grades Well in Elder-Abuse Protections

By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer @StacyBrownMedia Earlier this year, D.C. Council member Anita Bonds reintroduced legislation to combat elder abuse.

The at-large councilwoman noted that elder abuse counts as a growing problem that's affected District residents and seniors around the nation.

The Elder Abuse Response Team Act was reintroduced to establish the District of Columbia Elder Abuse Response Team (EART), a partnership of public and private agencies that will coordinate a high-quality, multidisciplinary, victim-centered response to elder abuse.

The legislation complemented Bonds' 2015 bill, titled the Financial Exploitation of Vulnerable Adults Amendment Act, which assists seniors in obtaining quality living without fear of financial exploitation or abuse.

The bill's reintroduction followed the passage of the District of Columbia Department on Aging and Community Living Amendment Act of 2018, which Bonds introduced to elevate the District of Columbia Office on Aging to the status of "department."

The focus on elder abuse was the subject of a recent WalletHub report.

The report noted that elder abuse occurs regularly and in many forms.

Women and those with disabilities who rely on others for care are especially at risk.

One estimate said elder abuse affects as many as 5 million people

per year, and more than 95 percent of all cases go unreported.

"Unless states take action to prevent further abuse, the problem will grow as America becomes an increasingly aging nation," according to researchers at WalletHub. The U.S. Census Bureau expects the population of those 65 and older to nearly double from 43.1 million in 2012 to 83.7 million in 2050, mostly due to baby boomers who began turning 65 in 2011.

And by just 2030, one in five U.S. residents will be retirement age.

Financial abuse and exploitation is another problem facing seniors.

In 2018, District of Columbia officials took additional steps toward helping financial advisors protect their senior citizen clients from fraud.

They accomplished this with the approval of the Senior Safe Act that encourages advisors and their firms to report the financial exploitation

of senior citizen clients by protecting advisors from liability and the violation of privacy laws.

Wells Fargo shared the results of its 2018 Wells Fargo Elder Needs Survey that asked older residents about the financial issues they're facing. They also released an Elder Financial Abuse Protect Guide to outline steps on how seniors can protect themselves.

"When seniors don't take intentional steps to plan for the longevity of their later years, they are posing themselves a greater threat," John Allen, Wells Fargo's D.C. Region Bank president, said at the time.

"The question isn't 'will I ever be targeted,' it is 'when.' Which should then be followed by, 'Am I prepared to stop it?'"

While some states and the District have recognized that elder abuse is a real and growing issue,

ABUSE Page 40

INVITATION FOR BIDS Solicitation GAGA-2019-I-0115 Speech-Language Pathology Therapy Services DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS OFFICE OF CONTRACTS AND ACQUISITIONS The District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), Office of the Chief Business Officer (OCBO), on behalf of the Division of Specialized Instruction (DSI) is soliciting proposals from offerors to provide experienced licensed Contractor(s) with the capacity to provide Speech-Language Pathology services to students attending various locations within the District of Columbia Public Schools.

Solicitations will be available for pick-up on Thursday, September 12, 2019 at 1200 First Street, N.E. 9th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20002, between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. This solicitation may also be downloaded from the OCA website delineating all the details of the solicitation at: http://dcps.dc.gov/DCPS/About+DCPS/Doing+Business+with+DCPS/ Procurement.

Proposals will be accepted at DCPS/OCBO on Wednesday, September 25, 2019, no later than 3:00 p.m. at the address indicated above.

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

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SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019 25

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EDUCATION Trump Ties HBCU Success to ‘America First’ Vision

By Sam P.K. Collins WI Contributing Writer @SamPKCollins Even as he extolled the legacy of historically Black colleges and universities, President Donald Trump (R) evoked nationalist sentiments at the National HBCU Week Conference that initially garnered him overwhelming support among white conservatives.

In his Tuesday afternoon address, Sept. 10, before HBCU students, faculty and community members, Trump framed his administration's recent over-

tures to African Americans as part of an endeavor to reverse economic policies that favored other countries and disenfranchised U.S. citizens.

“We want to help each student have the experience needed to get a tremendous job, enjoy a rewarding career and join our great, big national effort to rebuild America,” Trump said at the Renaissance Hotel in Northwest, where the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities hosted the conference between Sept. 8 and 11.

In his speech, Trump ac-

5 Bowie State Universitiy serves as one of the nation's Historicallly Black Colleges and Universities. (Courtesy photo)

knowledged Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Jonathan Holifield, executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Bowie State University President Dr. Aminta Breaux and a slew of other HBCU officials and leaders of

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nonprofits.

In moments that brought some applause, Trump highlighted an executive order that moved the federal HBCU initiative back to the White House and a recent Supreme Court ruling that deemed restrictions on financial assistance for religious institutions unconstitutional.

“Fierce dedication to strengthening historically Black colleges and universities is a core part of my administration’s unwavering focus on the project of national renewal,” Trump told audience members in his 30-minute address. “We’re working every day to make decisive decisions to avoid the failures of our past [...] made by politicians in both parties who put the needs of other countries and special interest before Americans.”

President Trump’s remarks came amid concerns about a trade war with China, a slip in his approval ratings and the fallout from his clashes with Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and the four nonwhite, female members of “The Squad.”

In April, the Trump admin-

istration unveiled the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council as a means of tackling issues affecting Americans of the least means. The council brought forth the tenets of what’s touted as the Opportunity and Revitalization Plan.

On Tuesday, a Black Trump administration official said one of these initiatives, named opportunity zones, will attract private investment and boost economic prosperity, not just African Americans, but all people living in underserved American communities.

“It’s not just economic development, it’s community development,” said Scott Turner, executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council.

“Poverty is in the Black community and white community,” he said. “It’s urban, rural and suburban. We’ve been to 38 cities and I’ve seen the worst. Poverty doesn’t care what you look like or where you come from.

Revitalization has no color or party. It starts in the heart of every man and woman.” WI

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DCPS

BRIEFS Compiled by Dorothy Rowley WI Staff Writer

NEW PROGRAMS, SCHOOLS

DCPS expanded access to high-quality pre-kindergarten for the 2019-20 school year by adding nine new classrooms at the following schools: Bunker Hill Elementary School, Ketcham Elementary School, LaSalle-Backus Education Campus, Miner Elementary School, Takoma Education Campus, Truesdell Education Campus, West Education Campus, Wheatley Education Campus and Whittier Education Campus.

In addition, several schools opened with brand-new build-

EDUCATION ings and facilities that will transform learning environments and support high-quality instruction for hundreds of students.

For example, Kimball Elementary School (Ward 7) was completely transformed and the new building supports the school's STEM focus with new science spaces, an outdoor classroom and community spaces.

Jefferson Middle School (Ward 6), C.W. Harris Elementary School (Ward 7) and Houston Elementary School (Ward 7) buildings were also renovated to meet 21st-century learning standards. Those renovations include new and updated classrooms, technology and learning spaces.

PRINCIPAL'S COMMENTARY

William Haith, principal Anacostia High School in southeast D.C., grew up in Anacostia, and has lived the life many of his students now live.

"Over the past year, we experienced incredible heartbreak with the loss of Gerald Watson and other students who have been victims of violence," he said in the August issue of The DCLine.

"I deeply understand the pain our students and community feel when a loved one is lost to tragedy. My close family members still live in this community, and each day I am grateful for the opportunities provided to me as a young child. I was able to take my love for football and use it as a force to propel me into a job I love.

"I believe the most important career in our city and our country is serving as an educator, and I am committed to helping my students succeed," he said. "I know the grit, perseverance and determination it takes to survive the sometimes, turbulent streets of Southeast.

"I also know the love, pride and resources that are available in our community," Haith said.

"Southeast nurtured and prepared me for college and my career. That's why I am proud to be the principal of Anacostia High School, which was designated in the spring as one of the DCPS system's '10 Connected Schools.'"

DCPS GOES TO COLLEGE

Nicholas Amponsah, a 2019

5 William Haith, a native Washingtonian who grew up in Anacostia, became principal of Anacostia High School in 2018. (DCPS photo)

graduate of Luke C. Moore High School in Northeast, has appreciated the opportunity to complete much of his coursework on the computer through the school's self-paced model and to build new skills through a class on Microsoft Word.

This fall, Nicolas enrolled at the University of the District of Columbia to major in computer science. After moving from Ghana in 2016, Nicholas was eager to enroll in college, but was not able to because he had not yet earned a diploma. He later enrolled at

Luke C. Moore and graduated in June as valedictorian of his class, an honor he said he earned through "hard work."

Nicholas describes his experience at Luke C. Moore as "perfect" and encourages students who are interested in getting their diploma to explore the options that the school offers.

"It's a very good opportunity for people who maybe were out of school and want to come and get their diploma," Nicholas said.

WI

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EDITORIAL

OPINIONS/EDITORIALS

Roaming Rooster Makes Good on D.C.’s Fried Chicken Sandwich Frenzy Minority-owned businesses in the U.S., from the moment they open their doors, find themselves in nonstop competition for a customer base and pool of advertisers that will collectively garner profitable outcomes, a brand that evokes positive views from the public and ultimately a product or service whose merit speaks for itself. Each day, these businesses go up against corporations and conglomerates that have the advantage of far greater operating capital and resources, more personnel and usually, the kind of connections that money cannot buy.

While these Black and brown entrepreneurs may never reach the level of financial security achieved by today’s business tycoons like Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, or Warren Buffett, they continue to forge onward seeking their slice of the American pie. With patience, preparation and a never-give-up attitude, those rare moments occur when a relatively unknown “David” finds itself benefiting from the bevy of activity raised by a “Goliath” known for its dominant position in the market.

Such is the case with Roaming Rooster – a Black-family-owned restaurant based in Northeast whose Ethiopian-born founder started the business in 2015 with one food truck which has since expanded to four. Roaming Rooster’s best. And as luck would have it, after a chance tweet from a popular musician in late August went viral, the popularity of the restaurant, which serves only free-range chicken, has morphed beyond their wildest dreams.

Ironically, Roaming Rooster’s owners have benefited from fast-food giant Popeyes’ decision to add a new item to the menu – a spicy chicken sandwich – resulting in lines for customers for the fast-food giant that resemble those anxious to purchase the newest Apple cell phone. Still, despite being smaller in size, Roaming Rooster’s Honey Butter Fried, Nashville Hot and other chicken variations have already proven that they’re true “taste sensations.” Now, with comparisons being made between the two businesses, and the fury of tweets from satisfied customers, Roaming Rooster is seeing an impressive surge in revenue from first-time buyers.

We celebrate their success, their diligence and their determination to offer the best products possible while always doing something that they love to do. Maybe this is what going after the American Dream is all about – being given the opportunity to succeed.

WI

Recess is Over Congress, the D.C. Council and other local legislative bodies are back in the saddle this month to complete their respective legislative agendas for 2019. Guns and public safety, health care, housing, infrastructure and technology — not necessarily in that order — are certainly among the priorities remaining for legislators and their constituents.

And the American voters are impatiently hoping their elected representatives will get some things done.

The clock is ticking for the upcoming 2020 census and the 2020 elections. The census count will determine new legislative districts and, depending on who lives where, the count will ultimately affect federal resources — programs and funding — and who will receive them.

The upcoming 2020 elections will be the biggest melee among voters and legislators who have decided to take up the issue of whether to pursue impeachment proceedings against President Trump in the coming year. All while a presidential election heats up between Democrats and Republicans. In states like North Carolina, where this week's election aimed to retain or regain party leadership, every other state will be repeating the same battle. All in hopes of securing a majority in both the House and the Senate.

This week in Washington, D.C., both the Congressional Black Caucus, started in 1971, and the Hispanic Congressional Caucus, launched in 1978, are hosting their annual conferences. Constituents from across the country are engaged in discussions on critical issues alongside their leaders. Their voices will influence the votes on Capitol Hill. These events cannot be unappreciated or undervalued, particularly at times like this.

The bottom line is that voters, especially Black and Latinx voters, must be present and attentive to the words and actions of those they elect to serve them. They must not take anything for granted when it comes to the affairs of their communities, their businesses or their families.

Recess is over — not only for legislators, but for voters as well.

WI

TO THE EDITOR Bringing Suffrage Embracing Our Stories to the Light Heritage I really enjoyed the story "Texas Suffragist Christia Adair a Civil Rights Champion" by writer Stacy Brown.

Happy to have learned about yet another "hidden" figure.

Toni White Washington, D.C.

WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM / THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

I wanted to let you guys know that I'm already planning and looking forward to The Informer's annual African American heritage trip. I know it's early but I'm looking forward to finding out where this year's will be. My family and I have a great time every year!

Shannon Camps Laurel, Md.

Readers' Mailbox

The Washington Informer welcomes letters to the editor about articles we publish or issues affecting the community. Write to: lsaxton@washingtoninformer. com or send to: 3117 Martin Luther King Jr Ave., SE, Washington, D.C. 20032. Please note that we are unable to publish letters that do not include a full name, address and phone number. We look forward to hearing from you.

SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019 29

OPINIONS/EDITORIALS Guest Columnist

By Zachary R. Wood

Biden's Words on Racial Equality Ring Hollow

"I think the Democratic Party could stand a liberal George Wallace — someone who's not afraid to stand up and offend people, someone who wouldn't pander, but would say what the American people know in their gut is right."

Former Vice President Joe Biden uttered these words in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1975. But before we proceed, I have to ask: Are you surprised?

Perhaps Biden's humor is lost on me, but I have a hard time understanding how any American leader could make a statement like that and truly believe in racial equality. At first glance, I thought to myself: If Biden wants the support of African American voters, he is going to have to recant this opinion, and apologize for the anger and distrust his words have unjustly ignited. On second thought, I am not sure if it would be a good idea for Biden to address this horrendous comment because I fear that if he tried, he might only succeed in making some aggravated potential threat to

our public safety somewhere think that statements like this are in the ballpark of being "OK." Instead of discussing the reasonable expectation that Biden fumble around and flub a partial apology, here I want to make the case briefly as to why I believe Joe Biden does not deserve the support of the African-American community. My thesis: Biden's 36-year Senate history scarcely reflects a strong, honest commitment to fighting for racial justice.

To start, as many journalists, and even two presidential candidates have contended, Biden

Guest Columnist

fiercely and persistently opposed busing as a mechanism for desegregation. In his own words, "no issue has consumed more of my time and energy."

This battle in which Biden was an outspoken crusader put him in cahoots with unapologetic white segregationists such as Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond. Making matters worse, his commentary on the issue was flagrantly foul. In one interview, Biden called busing efforts to integrate schools "asinine" because it would "stunt the intellectual growth" of the "children of good citizens who are not racist" and "fill them

with hatred" for being sent to "inferior schools." I prefer not to unpack this one.

On top of that, Biden advocated ruthlessly for mass incarceration. He even attacked George H.W. Bush, a Republican president, for not being aggressive enough on crime. His language again was on many occasions shocking and recklessly offensive. What is more, Biden willfully authored several of the most harmful policies undergirding the war on drugs.

He wrote legislation increasing policing and the number

WOOD Page 53

By Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr.

Flying While Black: Stop the U.S. Congress From Raising Air Travel Taxes

Working families in the African American community and beyond have a hard enough time keeping up with daily expenses. Every mortgage payment, car payment, trip to the grocery store, stop at the gas station, or utility bill that shows up in the mail is a reminder of how expensive it is to afford basic needs.

Now, lawmakers in the U.S. Congress have introduced legis-

lation that threatens to add one more expense to that list.

On Capitol Hill, some lawmakers are championing what is essentially a regressive tax on airline passengers that would raise the cost of flying — painfully, on working families. If successful, the tax hike would burden African American travelers with significant additional fees on top of what is already required. Lawmakers who support the increase insist that the money will be spent on infrastructure improvement projects at airports. But if our communities can no longer

afford to fly, this becomes a moot point.

The tax, known as the passenger facility charge, is a locally enforced but federally authorized fee that every passenger must pay at U.S. commercial airports.

Nearly every airport in America charges it. The fee is currently set at $4.50 per person per leg of a trip. Legislation has been introduced that would remove that cap, allowing airports to charge any amount they want.

Some have proposed raising the PFC to $8.50, nearly doubling the current tax. That would add

Guest Columnists

a significant cost for all American families. Under that proposal, a family of four on a connecting flight would pay nearly $150 in this tax alone — a tax that is layered on top of the price of the ticket itself. Such a substantial increase could be the deciding factor between that family taking this vacation or staying home.

Fortunately, largely due to the recent surge of low-cost flights from many airlines, air travel has become a more obtainable luxury, remaining largely affordable for working people, whether in rural America, the suburbs or the

inner cities. While still a relatively expensive proposition, air travel to get away on a vacation, or to visit far-away family and friends, without the proposed new tax, is still within reach for many individuals on tight family budgets.

The near-doubling of the PFC tax will likely place air travel out of reach for many. And the reason for this hike is absurd.

The argument for the hike is that the additional money will pay for much-needed infrastructure improvement projects at

CHAVIS Page 53

By Bill Fletcher Jr.

Trump and the Weather

Each week, I swear that I will write something other than about Donald Trump. I cannot keep to that promise consistently, particularly when certain events unfold.

This week is a prime example.

The Washington Post published a story on Sept. 8 that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration backed Trump over its own scientists when Trump — incorrect-

ly — stated and restated that Hurricane Dorian would hit Alabama.

Worse, the NOAA allegedly insisted that its staff stand by the president regardless of the inaccuracies he articulated. This all happened after the National Weather Service contradicted Trump.

The evolution of this story started as near-comedy. Trump, not known as a meteorologist, informed the public that Hurricane Dorian would be hitting the state of Alabama, among other places. Even when it was clear that this would not happen, he and his clique stood

30 SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019

firm. Thus, what began as a simple error became an international embarrassment. But now it is much more.

There have been repeated stories of the repression of science under this administration. Scientists have been informed not to use this word or that word. The suppression of scientific exploration and publication of new research on climate change. This is all being done under the cover of night. But now we have a story where it is quite public that this administration not only wants to dictate reality, but it wish-

es to suppress those who contradict them, irrespective of the truth.

The obvious question is where does this end? There is no outcry from Republicans in Congress about this. I found myself thinking about what a scenario might have looked like had then-President Obama told the NOAA that it was to support misinformation that he provided. Well, I think that you know what would have happened.

But in the current situation, such idiocy is being tolerated by those in Congress.

This is not a situation to take

lightly. There is no Grand Canyon between the suppression of science and the suppression of other ideas.

If you happen to live in a district represented by Republicans, you might want to ask them why they don't speak up.

In the meantime, just a reminder of what is at stake in 2020. A president who wishes to suppress reality is a president who will stop at nothing to get their own way. It reminds me of an episode starring Billy Mumy from the original "Twilight Zone," but we'll save that for another column … WI

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

OPINIONS/EDITORIALS Guest Columnist

By Charlene Crowell

DeVos Hands For-Profit Colleges $11.1B Over 10 Years

Most consumers would likely agree that consumers should get what they pay for. If a product or service fails to deliver its promises, refunds are in order.

That kind of thinking guided the Obama administration's decision to address false promises made to student loan borrowers.

A rule known as the "borrower defense to repayment", came on

the heels of successive for-profit college closures that left thousands of students stranded educationally and financially. The federal rule provided a way for snookered students and borrowers to apply for and secure loan forgiveness. Its premise was that both borrowers and taxpayers were assured that the Department of Education was looking out for them.

But with a new administration and education secretary, rules that made sense and brought taxpayers financial fairness have been

Guest Columnist

repealed and replaced with other rules that favor for-profit colleges, loan servicers, and other business interests.

Just as many people were about to begin their Labor Day holiday, the federal Department of Education announced it was changing a key rule that provided a pathway to federal loan forgiveness. Instead, a new rule puts in place a process that will be cumbersome, lengthy and nearly impossible for consumers to successfully secure relief.

Commenting on the rule that will now apply to all federal student loans made on or after July 1, 2020, Secretary Betsy DeVos said, "We believe this final rule corrects the wrongs of the 2016 rule through common sense and carefully crafted reforms that hold colleges and universities accountable and treat students and taxpayers fairly."

Excuse me, Secretary DeVos, the rule was promulgated due to the thousands of wrongs resulting from less than truthful recruit-

ment practices, false advertising, and targeting of vulnerable populations: low-income, first-generation college students who were often people of color, and veterans seeking new skills in a return to civilian life. For-profit colleges largely remain financially solvent by their heavy dependence upon taxpayer-funded student loans.

For Black America, the effects of predatory student lending at for-profit colleges comes with

CROWELL Page 54

By Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr.

NFL's Depression-Era Ban on Black Players Lingers in the Owner's Box

The National Football League season opened last week with a full slate of games.

On the field, extraordinary athletes of all races and backgrounds competed with the same set of rules.

Yet, it is worth noting that this has not always been the case — and that the legacy of discrimination has yet to be redressed.

In June, when the Chicago Bears announced that their "throwback jersey" for their 100th anniversary this year

would come from 1936, they were honoring a jersey that was worn in the third season of the NFL's 12-year ban on Black players.

In an extraordinary article for Windy City Gridiron, Chicago sports historian Jack Silverstein detailed the story and background of the ban.

Unlike baseball, the NFL allowed Black players to play in its early years. Black players like All-Pro halfback Fritz Pollard and tackle Duke Slater were among the most honored players of the day.

"What makes the NFL so unique is that it's a full-fledged

Askia-At-Large

league and it starts off integrated," says professor, author and historian Louis Moore, whose work includes the podcast The Black Athlete.

Yet, when the Great Depression deepened, Black players were suddenly banned from the league. The owners — led by George Preston Marshall, owner of the Washington Redskins and, Silverstein postulates, likely George Halas, famed owner of the Chicago Bears — clearly enforced a ban on Black players that lasted from 1933 to 1945.

The argument apparently was that with the Depression, Black players would be resented — the

football version of last hired, first fired.

The Washington owner, Marshall, writes Silverstein, was an "avowed, gleeful racist" who generally bears the onus of pushing the ban. He hoped to market the Washington team as the team of the South.

But other owners, including legends in the sport, were complicit or worse, including Chicago's Halas, Curly Lambeau of the Packers, Tim Mara of the Giants and Art Rooney of the Steelers.

Mara's Giants didn't have a Black player until 1948, Halas' Bears not until 1952, Lambeau's

Packers not until 1950. Marshall's Redskins were the last to integrate, doing so only in 1962 when the federal government threatened to revoke the lease on the team's stadium.

Today, NFL rosters are integrated.

But there's still a dearth of Blacks in the elite club of owners. Of the 32 teams in the NFL, only two principal owners are people of color — Shahid Khan of the Jaguars and Kim Pegula of the Buffalo Bills. (Of the 92 teams in baseball, basketball and football combined, there are

JACKSON Page 54

By Askia Muhammad

Mugabe: African Liberation Hero

Robert Mugabe, a Conquering Lion of the African Liberation Struggle, has joined the ancestors.

He was 95.

Most commentators discussing Mugabe's legacy, even those who are being "kind," can't get past saying "it's complicated."

Mugabe's career is certainly complicated, but I view his situation like that of the leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Iran: the American bully has been intent on seeing the revolutionary lead-

ers of those nations fail for decades, so the U.S. does everything it can to ruin those countries, so the people living there will blame their leaders for their failure to successfully lead them to prosperity.

Mugabe earned his place, leading the revolutionary forces of the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) against the minority settler leaders of the country called Rhodesia, named for the colonist Cecil Rhodes.

There was another opposition force — the Zimbabwe African Patriotic Front (ZAPU), led by

Joshua Nkomo. After years of armed struggle, waged almost entirely by ZANU, the white minority forces led by Ian Smith were ready to buckle when the British negotiated an end to the revolution, without total capitulation, installing a puppet-like African leader named Abel Muzorewa as prime minister to essentially protect white interests, while giving the appearance of a Black-led government.

The ZANU forces would have none of it and went back to the bush to continue to wage war, when in 1979 Lord Carrington, the British foreign secretary, and

WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM / THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

U.S. President Jimmy Carter managed to wrangle the infamous Lancaster House peace deal, ushering in the new Black state.

The Brits, and to a lesser extent the Americans, promised the white African leaders that they would pay the settlers who stole the land under British authority to surrender the land to Black ownership. Ian Smith had led a breakaway from England in 1965 to avoid a peaceful transition to minority rule, so the revolutionaries had to fight and beat them down to the negotiating table.

Only thing, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan took office

before any checks were written and they nixed the agreement, refusing to give Zimbabwe a single dime of what had been promised.

It's complicated.

Things went along swimmingly until the mid-1990s (neighboring South African Blacks were rising up by then, winning their freedom from apartheid, white minority rule) and in Zimbabwe, the veterans of the protracted armed struggle began demanding their promised land.

That's when I entered the picture. I attended the Rev. Leon

ASKIA Page 54

SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019 31

LIFESTYLE Arena Stage Kicks off National Tour of August Wilson’s ‘Jitney’ Masterpiece to Open Season-long Festival Honoring Renowned Playwright

By D. Kevin McNeir WI Editor @dkevinmcneir Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater in Southwest kicks off the company’s season-long August Wilson Festival on Friday, Sept. 13 (running through Oct. 20) with Wilson’s masterpiece, “Jitney.”

Ruben Santiago-Hudson directs the 2017 Broadway production – recipient of the 2017 Tony Award for Best Play Revival – which will serve as the first of two Wilson classics performed during the Festival.

The Festival continues Arena Stage’s tradition of showcasing the work of American Giants in the theater and has previously featured playwrights from Lillian Hellman and Arthur Miller, to Edward Albee and Eugene O’Neill.

As the season-long festival unfolds, there will be a wide range of discussions, events and panels that delve into Wilson’s (1945- 2005)

legacy and impact on American theater. Arena has produced nine of Wilson’s 10 plays from his American Century Cycle which chronicle the Black experience in the U.S. throughout the 20th century.

“Arena Stage has had a love affair with August Wilson; when considering influential American playwrights, [he’s] a giant among giants,” said Artistic Director Molly Smith. “While his American Century Cycle has been read and performed in its entirety and his plays are produced all over, we are focusing on the impact he has and how he changed the landscape of American theater. His ideas, language and artistry pulled American theater into the 21st century, before we had even gotten there ourselves.”

Events slated for September include: A Designers Panel: Building the World of August Wilson, Sept.

16; a private Master Acting Class with Santiago-Hudson and stu-

dents from Howard and Georgetown universities, also on Sept. 16; and a Writers Panel: On the Shoulders of Giants – August Wilson’s Dramatic Legacy, which will take place between performances of “Jitney,” Sept. 28.

After the Oct. 17 performance of Jitney, a post-show discussion with Paul Ellis, Wilson’s nephew and executive director of the August Wilson House in Pittsburgh, will take place in the Kreeger Theater.

Leading up to the production of Seven Guitars (April 3 – May 3), Arena will host a Women of Wilson Panel on April 25, including award-winning actress, director and producer Michele Shay (Broadway’s “Seven Guitars”), who have originated and defined Wilson’s strong female characters.

Additional events will include a documentary film screening and community discussion panels, hosted in collaboration with the August Wilson Society, centering around relevant topics: Gentrification in D.C. and African American Music and Society.

SYNOPSIS OF THE SCHEDULED WILSON PRODUCTIONS

“Jitney” – The play unveils the dramatic story of a Pittsburgh jitney station, a symbol of stability, as the jitneys struggle against an oppressive lack of opportunity and unnerving neighborhood gentrification which threatens the way they live and work. The drivers resist powerful forces while coming to grips with their pasts to fulfill their own hopes and dreams for the future.

“Seven Guitars” – 1940s Pittsburgh serves as the scene for Wilson’s fifth play. Seven lives are interconnected when an old friend and blues singer, Floyd Barton, vows to turn his life around after a surprise windfall leaves him hopeful for a second chance. Infused with rich

5 A rendering of the poster for "Jit-

ney," now playing at Arena Stage .

4 August Wilson

(Courtesy photos)

and soaring blues rhythms, the play pits the desire for a better future against the harsh realities ultimately leading to heartbreaking and unescapable circumstances.

FOR ACTOR HARVY BLANKS, THE PLAY’S THE THING

Veteran actor of all things August Wilson, Harvy Blanks, who comes off the 2017 Tony Award Winning Jitney Revival, brings the role of Shealy to Arena’s stage. He’ll continue to be a part of the national tour as it moves on to cities including Los Angeles, Seattle and Detroit.

Make no mistake – Harvy has proven himself and then some, starring in all 10 plays that encompass Wilson’s American Century Cycle.

Prior to devoting his energies and life to the stage, he once played football All-American for the University of Washington. There, he says, like many of his friends, he had hoped to eventually be chosen to represent

3 Actor Harvy Blanks (Photo Joan Marcus) 6 The cast of "Jitney" (Photo Joan Marcus)

a team in the National Football League. However, he chose early in his matriculation to leave the team after becoming fed up with numerous examples of racial discrimination from other teammates during his short stint within the school’s athletic program.

He currently lives between New York City and Denver.

Washington Informer: Do you have any regrets about leaving football, abandoning your dreams and turning your attention to the stage?

Harvy Blanks: For a long time, yes, but things didn’t go right for me in Seattle politically. Being from Chicago, I didn’t have much fear and had been raised to speak my mind, just like my four brothers and sister. My dad stayed on all of us and for him, education mattered the most. Fortunately, I was able to get my degree from the University of Washington. Later, I went on to Cornel for my masters to hone my craft. Still, I had put a lot of my apples into making professional football my career and so, it took a long time to adjust. And I wasn’t the only Black athlete who was forced to leave. For a while, I was teetering on the brink of disaster. But one day, I remember saying, “it’s gone

JITNEY Page 33

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LIFESTYLE

High Maternal Mortality Rate Among Blacks Alarms D.C. Leaders

city to go west of the river to have their children.

"A woman can have a baby at the United Medical Center, but only in the emergency room," Eric Goulet, director and senior counsel of the D.C. Council's Committee on Health, said on Sept. 6. "For other types of services, they have to go someplace else."

D.C. Health Director LaQuandra Nesbitt, who participated in the summit, said all District women have access to prenatal care across the city in clinics.

Linda Goler Blount, president and CEO of the Black Women's Health Imperative, said she supported that approach.

"We shouldn't get hooked on

a hospital," said Blount, who also spoke at the summit. "We should meet women where they are."

In regard to the troubling maternal mortality rate particularly among East End women, Nesbitt said her department has a number of initiatives that deal with keeping mothers healthy during the pregnancy process.

"We want to make sure that the mother is as healthy as possible," Nesbitt said. "That means stopping chronic diseases that tend to be prevalent in that population."

Bowser said one way to help prevent maternal mortality in the city would be for the council to pass the Better Access for Babies to Integrated Equitable Services Act of 2018, which would, among other things, establish a comprehensive newborn screening program and discharge standards and authorizes penalties for failure to comply with standards or to perform the necessary screens.

Dr. Esther Gamuchirai Madzivire, an obstetrics and gynecology practitioner, bemoaned the state of maternal mortality among Black women.

"Black women, or poor women in general, need access to transportation to get to a hospital," she said.

"They need access to information and they need to be at a hospital that will accept them as patients.

"Not all hospitals want to deal with those types of patients," Madzivire said. "They don't have the resources to deal with poorer populations so they try not to treat them."

Bowser also announced she will

swing on your ability to speak and your language facility because August speaks in poetic fashion. But in Wilson, unlike in much earlier classical works, he demands his actors to reach into the reality of how people really spoke in the hood and into our culture while not lingering to develop drama when it wasn’t there. Saying what you meant and meaning what you said. Hicks’ training prepared me to take on any of Wilson’s works and was impossibly wonderful.

I never thought I’d ever want or be able to work with anyone else after Hicks died, until I met Reuben.

He’s brilliant. Working with him is like being in a classroom or a seminar. He’s a historian and I take a lot of notes during every rehearsal. He mandates that we speak trippingly on the tongue so the words come out and move the action. That’s a Santiago play – no lag in time or space.

That’s also listening to August.

WI: What’s the relevance of “Jitney” for today’s youth?

Blanks: I hope they’ll understand that even though the men in this play appeared to have very little, they were still, basically heroes within their community. They performed a needed service for their people. They were like my own father who never missed a day of work, even when I remember him once really being sick with pneumonia. The men in the play didn’t knock folks in the head, they weren’t addicts. What mattered to them was providing for and protecting their families. That’s the kind of Black men that kept our communities together – they were then and still are the ones who are the true heroes.

Now in its seventh decade, Arena Stage serves a diverse annual audience of more than 300,000. Visit www.arenastage.org for more information. WI

By James Wright WI Staff Writer @Jamesdcwrighter

Black women are dying at higher rates than white women in the District when having babies and city leaders are beginning to acknowledge this.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) hosted her second Maternal & Infant Health Summit on Tuesday, Sept. 10 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Northwest to deal with the ongoing crisis of Black maternal mortality.

D.C. Department of Health statistics show that between 2014 and 2016, Blacks consisted of nearly 75 percent of District mothers who died of complications from pregnancy, labor and childbirth. These startling statistics translate on the national level as well, with Black women dying three to four times more than white women through childbirth.

Last year, the District counted 36.1 maternal deaths per 100,000 births, an 11 percent decrease from 40.7 deaths per 100,000 births but still higher than the national average of 20.7, according to statistics from the United Health Foundation.

In the predominantly Black Wards 7 and 8 located east of the Anacostia River, Black women who are pregnant don't have the benefit of an obstetrics and gynecology unit at the nearest operating hospital, the United Medical Center. The District government shuttered that hospital's unit in August 2017, forcing most women from those sections of the

JITNEY from Page 32 – it’s over. I’m glad that I was able to make that decision. Some of my friends couldn’t and were never the same again.

WI: Wilson’s plays are long productions with a lot of dialogue and complexities. How have you been able to prepare yourself for the roles?

Blanks: People consider August Wilson to be the American Shakespeare – I agree. As a younger actor, I became used to studying and doing classical work in the conservatory. You have to put in the hours.

Then, it’s just about doing what you’ve been trained to do and it’s simple: memorizing lines, studying characters, getting into the who, what and why of it all.

I started working with Israel Hicks, a wonderful director, who had a propensity for moving the action. He taught me that much of the action in Wilson’s works

5 Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt serves

as the District's director of health.

(WI photo)

WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM / THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

introduce the Investigating Maternal Mortalities Amendment Act of 2019, which will mandate immediate reporting of all maternal deaths in the city so that the chief medical officer can assume primary jurisdiction to conduct forensic death investigations and determinations.

The chief medical officer's data on this subject will be transmitted to the District's Maternal Mortality Review Committee.

"Through this legislation, we can do more to prevent tragedies before they happen," the mayor said.

WI

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LIFESTYLE Death of Gambia's Founding President Sparks Reflection

By Sam P.K. Collins WI Contributing Writer @SamPKCollins

Founding Gambian President Dawda Jawara died late last month at the age of 95 in his home on the outskirts of Banjul, Gambia. His death came amid ongoing truth and reconciliation hearings intended to reveal human rights abuses alleged to have been committed under former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, the man who ousted Jawara from power in 1994.

For Gambian economist and political commentator Sidi Moro Sanneh, both occasions have allowed for reflection on Jawara's legacy as a proponent of democracy, and what he described as the Gambia's descent into authoritarian rule under Jammeh.

Sanneh, a former Jawara and Jammeh administration official, has firsthand experience of this change: he and his family fled to the United States 12 years ago out of fear for their safety. Since then, Sanneh has lived in the D.C. metropolitan area, where

he weighs in on Gambian politics on the blogosphere.

"Now that [current Gambian President] Adama Barrow is at the helm, Gambians are appreciating more the rights and freedoms they enjoyed under Jawara, after 22 years of dictatorship under Yahya Jammeh," Sanneh said.

"Gambians took for granted the freedom they enjoyed under Jawara who presided over a multi-party state when across the border, his counterpart was governing a one-party state. [With Jammeh out of power], they are

trying to make sure that type of [dictatorial] leadership doesn't resurface in the Gambia."

By 1994, when the military coup forced Jawara into exile, he had been in office for 24 years.

Jawara, a veterinarian, became his country's founding president in 1970, five years after negotiating Gambia's independence from British rule. He gained a reputation as a unifier, maintaining power in one of Africa's few multi-party, multi-ethnic political systems.

As president, Jawara encouraged agricultural diversification and fiscal discipline, all without the use of military force. However, a significant portion of the electorate grew frustrated with slow economic growth. A 1981 coup attempt led to the launch of economic expansion programs to little avail.

Following his 1994 ouster, Jawara would not return to his home country until the early 2000s. Though barred from participating in national politics, he made his impact regionally via the Economic Community of West African States.

Last year, Gambia ranked seventh among African countries for quality of life and opportunities on the Kochenov Quality of Nationality Index by Henley& Partners. By that time, Barrow, who defeated Jammeh electorally, had gotten settled into office.

Jammeh's 22 years as president had been marred by death of political dissidents, instances of which mercenaries recounted last month during truth and reconciliation hearings aired on Gambian television. Up until his failed reelection bid and emigration from Gambia in 2017, Jam-

meh allegedly ordered the murders of journalists, West African migrants, and other opponents.

The "junglers" who participated in the massacres have yet to be charged, much to the chagrin of some Gambians.

Even so, some people in the diasporic political space, including Melvin Foote, contend that the Gambia and other African governments are on the cusp of change. He said that Jammeh's rule highlighted the perils of absolute power, and that any mechanism to limit that type of presidency should receive support.

"Africans are starting to agree that governments need to work for the people," said Foote, president of Constituency for Africa, an advocacy organization critical in shaping U.S.-Africa foreign policy.

Shortly after Jawara's death, Foote took to social media to recount his meeting with Gambia's founding president after the 1994 coup.

Though he spoke highly of Jawara, Foote said the coup, like similar events that occurred across the African continent at the time, signified public anxiety about heads of state who held onto power for a long time. The course of events since then have inspired conversation, and some action on the part of African elected officials.

"There is a growing agreement about term limits," Foote said.

"Some of the presidents are doing the right things. People are thinking about it right now. At least there's some government in place. It's not a cut-and-dry process, [but] when you don't have democracy in place, a lot can end badly." WI

5 Gambia’s late founding president, Dawda Jawara. (Courtesy photo/Forayaa News)

34 SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019

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SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019 35

LIFESTYLE JOIN THE FIGHT FOR ALZHEIMER’S FIRST SURVIVOR.

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Phillips Exhibit Brings Migration to the Public

By Eve M. Ferguson WI Contributing Writer Taking its title from the seminal quote by the late author Richard Wright ("Native Son") and sharing the name with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson's celebrated historical account of African American migration, "The Warmth of Other Suns: Stories of Global Displacement," on view at The Phillips Collection through Sept. 22, takes the tales of global citizens and makes them into an aesthetic narrative of the discomforts of uprooting from the familiar, whether forced or intentional.

This expansive exhibition, which includes works by 75 artists from all over the world, is in itself a feat comparable to moving away from one's home to a wholly new environment. A collaborative undertaking by The Phillips Collection and the New Museum in New York, the threefloor exhibition brings together works from all five continents to make the themes of migration and immigration tangible, often in difficult and heartbreaking displays.

At the center of the exhibit is, of course, The Phillips Collection's own masterpiece by Jacob Lawrence, "The Migration Series," of which the museum owns

5 A panel from Jacob Lawrence's "Migration Series" (1940-41), part of which is in The Phillips Collection's permanent collection, is at the center of "The Warmth of Other Suns: Stories of Global Displacement," at the museum through Sept. 22. (Courtesy photo)

half of the panels. The series, 60 panels in all, depicts the migration of African Americans to northern and western cities from the South after the failure of Reconstruction.

Produced between 1940 and 1941, the series was the subject of a solo show at the Downtown Gallery in Manhattan in 1941.

Lawrence became one of the first black artists to be represented by a New York gallery and interest in the series became competitive.

Ultimately, The Phillips Collection and New York's Museum of Modern Art agreed to divide it, with the Phillips buying the odd-numbered paintings.

Glenn Ligon's "Double Amer-

ica," an installation of neon signs reading "America" right side up, and mirrored in a darker version upside down, brings the duality of allegiance, separation and disorientation into a simple but powerful form to drive home the internal coding that often develops among displaced people.

Andrea Bowers' series of pencil drawings, "Study from May Day March, Los Angeles 2010 ('We Are All Americans')," depicting a woman holding a sign reading "We Are All Americans," and her "Stop Separating Families (May Day March 2015, Los Angeles, California," literally puts things in black and white.

Through installations, paintings, photographs, sculptures, film and mixed media works, the messages become clear. This is a life-changing activity which often has very harsh and negative outcomes.

One common mode of artistic messaging is the use of tiny houses and toy-like structures, such as in Iranian artist Siah Arnajani's 2017 work, "Seven Rooms of Hospitality," which comes off as playful and innocent, but on closer inspection includes a truck where immigrants smuggled in died, a prison holding cell and a "Room for Deportees."

Beverly Buchanan created a series of shacks, often the only home that new migrants can occupy, including one called "No Door, No Window" and another titled "House from Scraps."

Italian artist Alighiero Boetti's series of tapestry maps, "Mappa, 1979," "Mappa, 1989" and "Mappa, 1972," are colorful, beautifully embroidered works which incorporate international flag patterns. They feel innocent

PHILLIPS Page 40

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LIFESTYLE

Baltimore Storyteller Among 2019 Class of NEA National Heritage Fellows

By Eve M. Ferguson WI Contributing Writer Like so many of us, storyteller Linda Goss grew up listening to her family's stories, particular those of her grandfather where she grew up in rural Tennessee.

"As they say, I was born and raised in it! I was raised on pinto beans, fried apples, cornbread, and storytelling," Goss said in her NEA podcast. "I come from a big storytelling family. My mother had a large family, it was 14 children, of which 11 survived. Now my father only had one brother, who died very young. But his father, my granddaddy, was a wonderful storyteller. So I grew up in it. And in the town I'm from it's full of just interesting characters.

The stories just pop out at you."

Goss founded the Association for Black Storytellers in 1984 in Philadelphia, which be-

came the National Association of Black Storytellers (NABS).

In 1982, Mother Mary Carter Smith (1919-2007) and Goss, affectionately known as "Mama Linda," founded the "In the Tradition…: Annual National Black Storytelling Festival and Conference" in Baltimore.

Goss and Carter had an understanding of the dire need "to institute an organizational structure to perpetuate African diasporic storytelling."

For nearly the past four decades, Goss has made sure to keep the tradition of storytelling alive and brings it to people throughout the country and the world, as the storyteller ambassador for the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum and in her position as Storyteller in Residence at the Peale Center in Baltimore.

"The first festival was held in Baltimore at Morgan State Uni-

versity in 1983," Goss said. "We travel to a different city each year throughout the United States, however, every 10 years we come back home to Baltimore. We will be in Montgomery Alabama Nov. 6-10. We will be back in Baltimore in 2022 to celebrate our 40th festival.

The National Heritage Fellows, awarded annually in September, is the highest honor bestowed on artists whose contribution to folklore and the traditional arts and crafts in the country has reached the point of excellence.

This year's ceremony will be held Sept. 18 with a free concert on Sept. 20.

"I am honored and appreciative to be one of NEA's National Heritage Fellows for 2019 in storytelling," Goss said. "I have been telling stories most of my 72 years standing on the shoulders of my ancestors and leaning

5 Baltimore resident Linda Goss, founder of the National Black Storytellers' Association, is one of the National Heritage Fellows for 2019. (Courtesy photo)

on the ever loving arms of my elders. This Fellowship recognizes the oral traditions Granddaddy Murphy, my momma and daddy, and Uncle Buster passed on down to me. I will continue to share this fellowship and my stories with the Baltimore community and beyond."

Other Heritage fellows this year include Dan Ansotegui, Basque musician and tradition bearer from Boise, Idaho; Grant Bulltail, Crow storyteller from Crow Agency, Montana; James F. Jackson, leatherworker

from Sheridan, Wyoming; Balla Kouyaté, balafon player and djeli from Medford, Massachusetts; Josephine Lobato, Spanish colcha embroiderer from Westminster, Colorado; Rich Smoker, decoy carver from Marion Station, Maryland; Las Tesoros de San Antonio—Beatriz (La Paloma del Norte) Llamas and Blanquita (Blanca Rosa) Rodríguez, Tejano singers from San Antonio; and Bob Fulcher, folklorist and state park manager from Clinton,

STORYTELLER Page 40

New Affordable Housing Opportunity in the Navy Yard, Washington D.C.

We are proud to introduce Estate apartments offering 52 brand new studio, one-and two-bedroom apartments for qualified low-income households at The Yards in Washington, D.C.’s Navy Yard. Waitlist is now open. First move-ins January 2020. Income and program restrictions apply. Admission standards include economic criteria.

Persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Housing Choice vouchers are accepted. Equal Housing Opportunity Provider.

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38 SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019

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Installation of 7 trash traps that have removed more than 70,000 lbs of trash & debris from District waterways

More than 3,000 trees planted & over 29,000 linear feet of stream restoration projects

Installation of more than 2,300 rain barrels to capture stormwater

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More than 7,500 people experiencing the Anacostia River through educational boat tours

SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019 39

LIFESTYLE

ABUSE from Page 24

WalletHub officials said only some are fighting hard enough to stop it.

WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on 14 key indicators of elder-abuse protection in 3 overall categories.

The personal finance website's data set ranges from "share of elder-abuse, gross-neglect, and exploitation complaints" to "financial elder-abuse laws."

They found that Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Nevada had the best elder abuse protections in the country. Just as important, the District and Alaska had the highest total of long-term care ombudsman program funding.

The District also had the most certified volunteer ombudsmen and the highest quality of nursing homes.

Ombudsmen are advocates for residents of nursing homes, board and care homes, and assisted living facilities.

Marguerite Irene DeLiema, a

WalletHub expert and research scholar at the Stanford Center on Longevity, said it's important to remember that families are the gatekeepers.

First, before a need arises, the older adult should assign multiple trusted people to oversee their financial affairs should a need arise in the future, not just one person, DeLiema said.

"Second, families should carefully vet and oversee all hired caregivers and not give them access to the older person's financial accounts," she said. "Older adults should use automatic bill pay, go paperless for all financial and health insurance docs, require a co-signer on checks, use convenience accounts with their caregivers for day-to-day purchase needs, have a designated POA or two, and have many open discussions about their financial wishes and needs with the family.

"Families should also try to be as involved as possible in their loved one's social life," DeLiema said.

For the complete study, go to wallethub.com. WI

PHILLIPS from Page 36 enough, until one looks closely at the placement of the flags.

Ghanaian artist El Anatsui's "Dzesi," an abstract assemblage of found aluminum and copper wire, draws attention to the African people who collect scrap metal and parts from cellphones to resell. Unfortunately, the consequences are often dire and detrimental to their long-term health. The word, in the Ghanaian Ewe language, means "sign" or "to recognize."

While some works take some figuring out, Arshile Gorky's portrait "The Artist and His Mother," from circa 1926-1946, is a realistic rendering of the two. His mother died of starvation while waiting to migrate to America from Europe during World War II. Other simple works, such as Zoe Leonard's "Liberty, NY," from 2001, make one draw in the breath deeply, as the four suitcases sitting side-by-side stand iso-

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lated, next to nothing.

Archival photos by Augustus Sherman, Dorothea Lange, Lewis Wickes Hine and Jack Delano's series from 1940 depicting African American migrants traveling from Florida to Cranberry, New Jersey, to pick potatoes make the experience real, as do photos from Ellis Island, in the collection of a nameless private collector.

Benny Andrew's painting "Trail of Tears" captures the emotions and sentiments of the Cherokee people forced to relocate from their historical homeland in the American South to Oklahoma.

Andrews was born Nov. 13, 1930, in Plainview, Georgia, a farming community, to George and Viola Andrews. As one of 10 children. Benny followed in the footsteps of his father, George, a sharecropper and self-taught artist. Andrews began working in the fields as a young child, attending Plainview Elementary School, a one-and-a-half room log cabin built by Plainview's African American community.

As the first in his family to attend high school and later go on to higher education, Andrews later recalled that his arrival at the Art Institute of Chicago was "revelatory" because it was both his first time in an art museum,

and his first time in a city or cultural facility without segregation.

"Everyone has to be aware of the issue and to help immigrants to gain their dignity and get back on their feet," said Léonce Byimana of Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC), an advocacy group for so many who flee torture in their homelands, only to find a hostile, unwelcoming country on the other side of escape.

"If you look around this exhibition, most of the art was done by immigrants," Byimana said.

"I don't know how if you remove all the art done by immigrants, you would enjoy this exhibition.

That is not only for this exhibition. If you go almost any place, good jobs are being done by immigrants, building this country.

We can do better as Americans to help these people, because we are all part of humanity."

"The Warmth of Other Suns: Stories of Global Displacement," is on view at The Phillips Collection (1600 21st Street NW) through Sept. 22. On Sept. 13 and 20, the museum will stay open until 8 p.m. with tours of the exhibit held on Sundays at 1 p.m. and Tuesday through Friday at 11 a.m. The museum is closed on Mondays. Go to phillipscollection.org/events for information on additional complementary programs. WI

STORYTELLER from Page 38

tional Heritage Fellow, and will be followed by a reception on Wednesday, Sept. 18 from 5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. The ceremony will be held at Library of Congress's Coolidge Auditorium in the Thomas Jefferson Building at 10 First Street SE in D.C. The National Heritage Fellowships Concert will feature music, demonstrations and conversations with the National Heritage Fellows and other special guests.

The evening will be hosted by Queen Nur, storyteller, teaching artist, and director of the Folklife Center at the Perkins Center for the Arts.

The concert will take place 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 20 at the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Sidney Harman Hall (610 F Street NW) and streamed live at www.arts.gov. Free tickets to the concert can be reserved via Shakespeare Theatre Company's website, either online, by phone at 202-547-1122, or in person at Sidney Harman Hall. Ticket-holders should arrive by 7:45 p.m. At that time, all unclaimed tickets will be released to those in the stand-by line. WI

Tennessee.

Fulcher is the recipient of the 2019 Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellowship in recognition of an individual who has made a significant contribution to the preservation and awareness of cultural heritage.

The National Endowment for the Arts has honored American master folk and traditional artists with the National Heritage Fellowship Since 1982. The lifetime achievement award recognizes the ways these individuals demonstrate and reflect living cultural heritage and their efforts to share that knowledge.

The National Heritage Fellowships Awards Ceremony will honor the 2019 National Heritage Fellows at a free awards ceremony, which will include a presentation of medals and short remarks by the recipients.

Hosted by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, the ceremony will open with a performance by Sheila Kay Adams, ballad singer, musician, storyteller and 2013 Na-

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

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SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019 41

LIFESTYLE CONGRESS from Page 1 reason for the continued euphoria and optimism that marked the election of the nation’s first Black president, Barack Obama, the silence of others may have suggested otherwise.

One could not help but be impressed by the significant number of freshman members who had beaten the odds just months ago in November to secure their seats. As for the largest collective, 55, to ever join the ranks as members of the CBC, that too gave some cause to celebrate and to look to the horizon with hope.

But Bass, mindful of the work she and her colleagues had before them, expressed her concerns.

“We face turbulent waters in this changing political moment,” she said. “As members of the Congressional Black Caucus, we are called to forge a path for the least of these . . . in this blessed land where democracy is not yet

finished.”

Such has been the case for Black members of Congress since the days of Reconstruction – ebbs and flows in progress experienced by the nation’s African-American citizens – as Blacks elected to Congress sought to make justice and equality for people of color a reality rather than a promise held at bay for generations yet unborn.

For Rep. George Henry White (R-NC), (1852-1918), the lone African-American representative at the dawn of the 20th century, disenfranchisement of Blacks and the proverbial “turning back of the clock” had come to be expected in a political system and nation that overwhelmingly supported the continuation of segregation and the role of Blacks as second-class citizens.

He spoke candidly on the House Floor, confronting Booker T. Washington’s call to work within the segregated system, re-

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VisitAlexandriaVA.com/Fall #VisitALX |

42 SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019

5 Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL 7th District) (Courtesy photo/US House of Representatives)

5 Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL 24th District) (Courtesy photo/US House of Representatives)

alizing that with the rash of white supremacy in his home state of North Carolina, campaigning for a third term yielded little promise of success.

As he departed the chamber on March 3, 1901, it would be 28 years before another Black representative set foot in the Capitol.

“This, Mr. Chairman, is perhaps the Negroes’ temporary

farewell to the American Congress,” White said. “But let me say, Phoenix-like he will rise up someday and come back.”

Over a century later, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), serving her 11th term in the House and considered by many as the “Voice of Reason,” seemed to echo White’s sentiments.

“Fifty-five members represents 22 percent of those elected to Congress and we are proud to serve as the conscience of Congress,” she said.

In this three-part series, we talk with one of the CBC’s senior statesmen from Chicago, Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-IL); an educator-turned-politician, Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL), dedicated to helping young Black males succeed and assist young school girls from Chibok find the light out of darkness; and Rep. Lucia Kay McBath (D-GA), who, since the murder in Florida of her teenaged son, Jordan, to gun violence, has remained determined to upend laws like Stand Your Ground that have given the green light to white men shooting and killing Black boys. Their sole defense, “fear of a Black planet.”

As we look at the legislation sponsored, the day-to-day grind endured and the alternating moments of success and failure experienced by three unique members of Congress, we will also consider how the battlefields on which they fight each day bear similarities to those on which the first Black members of Congress also fought in those short years after the Civil War when Reconstruction politics gave African Americans a taste of governing their own lives.

Ironically, the group of 17 Black Congressmen elected between the years of 1870 and 1887, all came from the Republican Party, all lived in the South and all, like the Radical Republican within whose ranks they were

5 Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA 6th District) (Courtesy photo/US House of Representatives)

included, remained determined to enact reforms that temporarily reshaped the political landscape in the South during Reconstruction.

Their leaders included men like Senator Hiram Revels of Mississippi and Representative Joseph Rainey of South Carolina whose arrival on Capitol Hill in 1870 serves as one of the greatest paradoxes in U.S. history. Con-

CONGRESS Page 46

5 Sen. Blanche K. Bruce (Courtesy photo)

5 Sen. Hiram R. Revels (Courtesy photo)

5 Group shot, First Black Representatives and Senators in U.S. Congress (41st and 42nd Congresses) (Courtesy photo)

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LIFESTYLE

wi book review "More to Life"

by ReShonda Tate Billingsley c.2019, Dafina Books $15.95 ($21.95 Canada) 272 pages

By Terri Schlichenmeyer WI Contributing Writer "Keep this to yourself!"

That's the way big dreams start: don't tell anyone, because telling makes them more delicate. Sharing makes it hurt more when what you want doesn't happen. As in the new book "More to Life" by ReShonda Tate Billingsley, it's even worse when your dreams are ignored.

Even by her own admission, Aja James had everything a woman could want: a handsome husband, Charles, who loved giving gifts.

Two wonderful children. A beautiful home, fine furnishings, a full closet, a new car.

And yet, during an island birthday vacation with her three best friends — paid for by Charles, of course — 45-year-old Aja realized that she never had what her soul needed.

Once, she'd showed promise as a painter and it was her passion. She was good at it but, as she realized at the island resort, nobody listened when she said she wanted to paint forever. Her high school guidance counselor and her parents shooed her away from it. Her husband and children called it a "hobby." When Aja said she wanted to open an art gallery, her friends didn't take her seriously, either.

So, like the good wife she was expected to be, she put her own needs aside to take care of Charles and the children. She painted when she could, which was rare because her time was spent looking for lost socks and lost golf clubs and doing what her family demanded of her.

And then Aja met a strange island woman who told her that she needed to walk her own purpose, words that struck her to the core.

Finally, Aja knew what made her feel so unsettled, and she went home to face her future.

But was it with — or without — Charles? Aja's best friends thought she was crazy to give up a good man for the unknown. And the house and the lifestyle, too? Insane! Ah, but just thinking about a quiet art gallery and an easel made Aja smile.

Could she really do it?

Dreams deferred. Is that the story of your very existence? If so, then you'll love having "More to Life"… more or less.

More, because author ReShonda Tate Billingsley offers fans another novel that reads as though she's spent a month spying on their lives and calendars, and anyone who's ever lost a dream or shelved one indefinitely will feel a kinship with Aja. That character, as well as the rest of Billingsley's cast, feels familiar, almost personal, and mostly likable, although the situations they're placed in (here's the "less") are really too over the top. Suffice it to say that there's a Big Event inside this tale that abruptly alters the entire course of the story, adding unnecessary drama to a situation that was arguably better and more relatable without embellishment.

Still, if a dream is like a butterfly in your hands, or if you've ever moved to seize a what-if, then this book will read like a diary for you.

Start "More to Life" and you won't be able to keep it to yourself.

WI

horoscopes

SEPT 12 - 18, 2019

ARIES You may have a lot on your plate this week, much as you did last week. However, this week there is a shift in the air, and you'll be eager to consider options that are a departure from the norm. You do best when you can get out of your own way and don't try to control every single detail. Lucky Numbers: 26, 32, 57 TAURUS Outings can be fun but also have a serious note, particularly if you're learning something through the process of discovery. There is potential for romance, particularly if you meet someone who shares your ideas and with whom you have a lot in common.

And it's likely to occur when you move out of your comfort zone. Lucky Numbers: 11, 15, 43 GEMINI The theme of organizing your home and getting it shipshape continues this week. However, you don't have to do it all yourself. Ask for support and delegate a few of those key tasks and the household chores can get done much more quickly. Lucky Numbers: 14, 31, 41 CANCER You may be busy in an intellectual sense and have a lot of writing, studying, or research to do. If you're a student, this could be an intense time when you have deadlines, or you're perhaps getting used to a new curriculum. Whatever you're doing, planning is the key to an easier life. Lucky Numbers: 16, 19, 22 LEO This can be a great time to market your goods and services, start a side hustle, or let others know about a skill of yours that may be underused. This is an excellent opportunity to get your money to work for you and perhaps find ways to enhance your income.

Have too much stuff? Selling it could give you more space and add to your cash reserves, too. Lucky Numbers: 9, 12, 17 VIRGO It's game, set and match to you as the planets in your sign give you a certain advantage. Lingering aspects early in the week can see you moving ahead with a creative project or perhaps honing a skill. Either way, this can be a productive time. Lucky Numbers: 2, 6, 19 LIBRA This is a chance to take stock and consider your spiritual health and physical health. How happy are you with your current lifestyle? If you have any issues, it could be because you aren't following your heart. What is your passion? Your purpose? If you know what they are, then introducing more of them into your everyday life can bring you the satisfaction and heightened energy you desire. Lucky Numbers: 5, 30, 50 SCORPIO Social events and group or club meetings could keep you busy this week. If you're involved in any committees, you may have more than your fair share of work to do. And if other people see how eager you are, they could add to your workload unless you speak up. Still, this is a great time for collaborating, and your efforts can be very productive even if things take a little while to come to fruition. Lucky Numbers: 9, 12, 13 SAGITTARIUS Your time in the spotlight continues this week, bringing opportunities to showcase your best skills and abilities to the world. Make the most this time, because within a couple of weeks the emphasis will shift to your social sector. For now, you are much more proactive concerning your goals, ambitions, and career plans. And if you can adopt a disciplined approach, much can be accomplished. Lucky Numbers: 1, 22, 29 CAPRICORN If you have opportunities to travel for work or pleasure, go for it. This is very much a time to move out of your comfort zone and explore options you might never have considered before. If you have a desire to study, this is the perfect time to start. You'll likely find it very useful in the future regarding plum jobs or even a potential career change. Lucky Numbers: 1, 37, 57 AQUARIUS The focus on finances and business affairs continues this week, and you could be eager to get on board with new ideas and opportunities. The only thing that might stop you is your own hesitation. This could come down to past experiences that have left their mark. Lucky Numbers: 4, 17, 39 PISCES You could have your work cut out for you because you'll likely be a lot busier than usual. Your social life could ramp up with more invitations and potential dates.

And if you're in a long-term relationship, you and your partner might decide to get out and about more and perhaps take on a few challenges together. Lucky Numbers: 15, 16, 24

WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM / THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019 43

SPORTS For more photos, visit www.washingtoninformer.com

Dunbar Manhandles Bell

5 Bell Griffins defensive back Aaron Thomas tackles Dunbar Crimson Tide wide receiver Elijah Starkey during Dunbar's 46-6 win at the Cardozo Education Campus in northwest D.C. on Saturday, Sept. 7.

(John E. De Freitas/The Washington Informer) 3 Bell Griffins wide receiver Stephan Michel pulls in a pass in front of two Dunbar Crimson Tide defenders during Dunbar's 46-6 win at the Cardozo Education Campus in northwest D.C. on Saturday, Sept. 7. (John E. De Freitas/The Washington Informer)

5 Dunbar Crimson Tide running back Deequaun Harvin slides to make a first down in front of Bell Griffins defensive back Aaron Thomas during Dunbar's 46-6 win at the Cardozo Education Campus in northwest D.C. on Saturday, Sept. 7. (John E. De Freitas/The Washington Informer)

5 Bell Griffins linebacker Tyler Green tackles Dunbar Crimson Tide defensive back Savion Marshall during Dunbar's 46-6 win at the Cardozo Education Campus in northwest D.C. on Saturday, Sept. 7. (John E. De Freitas/The Washington Informer) 4 Dunbar Crimson Tide wide receiver JaMare Armstrong (21) and cornerback Tahir Chase celebrate a touchdown during Dunbar's 46-6 win over the Bell Griffins at the Cardozo Education Campus in northwest D.C. on Saturday, Sept. 7. (John E. De Freitas/The Washington Informer)

44 SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019

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SPORTS

Mystics Win Regular-Season Finale

5 Washington Mystics forward Aerial Powers attempts to shoot over Chicago Sky center Kayla Alexander during the Mystics' 100-86 win at the Entertainment and Sports Arena in D.C. on Sunday, Sept. 8. (John E. De Freitas/The Washington Informer) 3 Chicago Sky guard Courtney Vandersloot is trapped by Washington Mystics guard Natasha Cloud (9) and forward Myisha Hines-Allen during the Mystics' 100-86 win at the Entertainment and Sports Arena in D.C. on Sunday, Sept. 8. (John E. De Freitas/The Washington Informer)

Mystics Guard Poised to Help Team Win WNBA Crown Shatori Walker-Kimbrough Brings Small-Town Scrappiness to Pro Game

By Timothy Cox Special to The Informer A year ago, the Washington Mystics were swept in the WNBA Finals by the Seattle Storm.

With Storm stars Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart both out the entire season with major injuries, the Mystics are poised to finish the job when this year's postseason begins Sept. 11.

Though she's not yet the face of the franchise, Mystics guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough remains a fan favorite, primarily because of her sterling career at nearby University of Maryland in College Park, where she led the Terrapins to two Final Four appearances, a combined 127-17 record and six Big Ten regular-season and conference tournament championships.

Her college dominance led to the Mystics selecting her sixth overall in the 2017 WNBA draft. And with the leadership of WNBA All-Star guard Elena Delle Donne, the Mystics now have high hopes of winning this year's title.

When asked how a six-foot slightly-built young lady learned high-level basketball skills in her hometown of Aliquippa, Pa. — where football rules — Walker-Kimbrough, 24, vividly recalls her mother reciting a story about her toddler girl wearing a dress, dribbling a basketball outside of church on Sunday mornings.

"I've always enjoyed the game, since age 3, and mostly played with the best boys in my neighborhood to hone my skills," she said.

The hoop court dubbed "the dump," on Griffith Street behind her Mount Vernon public housing community, is where she earned her stripes and a toughness that has propelled her. She also plays in Budapest during the off-season.

Aliquippa, a Pittsburgh suburb that birthed gridiron greats Mike Ditka, Tony Dorsett, Ty Law and Darrelle Revis, is a high school football hotbed, yet Walker-Kimbrough bucked the trend as the top female athlete from the small, steel-city town known as "The 'Quips." She starred at track, volleyball and hoops at neighboring

Hopewell High School. Hopewell and Aliquippa share neighboring school district borders within the Mount Vernon apartments.

She credits good genes, family and civic pride as characteristics that have ignited her success.

"My mother [Andrea Kimbrough] is my biggest hero," she said. "She sacrificed to make sure I was always at practice, and so much more."

Her father, Vance Walker, is a former star Aliquippa athlete. Her uncle, Craedel Kimbrough, owns a workout facility in Aliquippa and her mother's uncle, the late Mike Kimbrough, was the heralded blocking fullback for Dorsett at her alma mater Hopewell.

In the Mystics locker room, she reflected on her good fortune.

"I don't take anything for granted," she said. "I look to my right and I see [Delle Donne], the best player in the WNBA, and I play for the best team in the league. It's very surreal."

The slight, 5-11, 140-pounder admits larger-sized opponents often try to intimidate her, "but I use my speed, quickness and in-

WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM / THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

tellect to counteract."

Mystics head coach Mike Thibault looks to Walker-Kimbrough as a reliable leader off the bench, especially after an early-season injury to starting guard Kristi Toliver.

Walker-Kimbrough also credits fellow Pittsburgh-area native and WNBA veteran Trina Wright, who attended West Mifflin High and was likewise a Big Ten star at Penn State.

"We're from different eras, but we're aware of one another," Walker-Kimbrough said.

In advising young women athletes from the DMV, Pennsylvania and other regions, Walker-Kimbrough quickly states, "Dream big, keep working hard — and consistently keep grinding." WI

SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019 45

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are many missing and the number of deaths is expected to significantly increase,” said Bahamas Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis in a Sept. 6 statement.

“This is one of the stark realities we face in this hour of darkness,” he said. “The loss of life we’re experiencing is catastrophic and devastating.

The grief we bear as a country begins with families who have lost loved ones. We meet them in this time of sorrow with open arms and walk by their sides every step of the way.”

Across social media, people watched videos, viewed photographs illustrating the utter devastation wreaked by the hurricane.

One video by an unnamed member of parliament showed parts of his flooded house – dark water lapping against his living room and kitchen windows nearly 20 feet above the ground.

Thousands of people have been displaced and remain trapped in “rapidly deteriorating” conditions in the most devastated areas of the Bahamas, said an official of the UN’s World Food Program on Saturday.

Charity and aid organizations have been rushing emergency aid and supplies, workers and money to the storm-battered islands but the effort has been hampered by the sheer size of the affected areas and a raft of logistical problems.

Trump administration officials say the U.S. has sent a Disaster Assistance Response Team to the Bahamas, deployed to work with local authorities, humanitarian organizations and others to assist those affected impacted by the storm, according

CONGRESS from Page 42 sider that just 10 years before, the seats these two African Americans held in Congress had been held by white southern slave owners.

As this series continues, we will attempt to compare the American political and social landscape following that landmark year of 1877, the formal conclusion of Reconstruction, to today’s “Age of Trump.”

Whether white supremacists and alt-right Republicans of the 21st century or ex-Confederates and their Democratic allies in the late 19th and early 20th century, the mission was simple: to snatch power away from Blacks and return them to positions of servitude – second-class citizenry if you will.

Utilizing custom and the legal system, they effectively developed a segregated society – one that took less than 20 years to put in place – and would in short order eliminate African Ameri-

5 Felipe Mitjor, administrative assistant at the Bahamas Consulate, collects donations for victims of Hurricane Dorian at the Bahamas Embassy Consular Annex in Northwest on September 5. (Roy Lewis/The Washington Informer)

to a USAID statement. The agency has also begun sending supplies, including plastic sheeting, hygiene kits, water buckets and chainsaws.

In addition, the US Coast Guard has deployed helicopters with both China and Great Britain shipping medicine and relief supplies. Cuba has sent 60 physicians. And with the Bahamian airport rendered inoperable, Royal Caribbean has utilized the seas, delivering 10,000 packaged meals, 43,000 bottles of water, generators and other supplies in partnership with the Bahamian government and the Bahamas Feeding Network.

The company has pledged $1 million for hurricane relief.

Famed chef José Andrés remains in Abaco and other outlying areas flying in supplies and provisions and preparing between 10,000 and 15,000 meals a day to needy residents. Meanwhile, in a related decans from public office and end their participation in politics.

Is this really a new day? Are we seeing new possibilities? Have we risen in Phoenix-like manner? Or are we marking time to a far too familiar drumbeat for a people who have witnessed more than our fair share of setbacks and heartbreaks – as far back as 1619?

We’d like to hear from you.

As this series continues, we will attempt to compare the American political and social landscape following that landmark year of 1877, the formal conclusion of Reconstruction, to today’s “Age of Trump.”

velopment, Hampton University, an Historically-Black university in Virginia, announced that it will provide a free semester to students from the University of the Bahamas who have been displaced by the deadly storm and wish to continue their education without interruption.

One week ago, Hurricane Dorian made landfall, hovering for almost two days over the northern part of the islands and punishing the landmass with 185-mile-an hour winds and gusts of up to 220 miles an hour.

Eyewitnesses report seeing bodies floating in newly-formed waterways.

And despite more conservative death tolls shared by government officials in the double digits, it’s feared that when the final numbers become available, they will mount in the thousands.

Chris Laville and his wife Indira, who once enjoyed life on Elbow Cay, found themselves unable to escape as Dorian made landfall. He, like other Bahamians, had lived through hurricanes before says, previous storms have been nothing the most recent.

“It was early in the morning.

It had rained and there was a light breeze,” Laville told a reporter from the Informer. “I woke saying we could ride this out not knowing what a Category 5 storm was.”

Over the next day and a half, Laville, his wife and nine co-workers learned much a lot more about a hurricane of such massive force.

Elbow Key, where they lived, bore the brunt of Hurricane Dorian – the strongest to ever to hit the Caribbean archipelago of 700 islands. On Abaco and Grand Bahama islands, Dorian – which traveled at a glacial pace of one mile per hour – obliterated buildings, tossed boats and other marine vessels far inland, shredded objects in its path, splintered homes and businesses and killed indiscriminately.

“I met everybody running out of the house as the storm took off the

RECOVERY Page 52

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RELIGION the religion corner WITH LYNDIA GRANT

Your Health Is Indeed Your Wealth!

Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? — 1 Corinthians 6:15 (KJV) You're all invited to join the All Nations Baptist Church at 2001 North Capitol Street NE in D.C., where our pastor is the Rev. Dr. James Coleman. Families from throughout our community are invited to attend our Health and Wellness Fair, Saturday, Sept. 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Come out and get your health checkup.

Health organizations confirmed to attend include Sibley Memorial Hospital, an affiliate of Johns Hopkins Hospital; Dr. Gail Nunlee-Bland, Howard University Hospital's Department of Endocrinology; National Institutes of Health; Dr. Carla Easter, chief of the Education and Community Involvement Branch at the National Human Genome Research Institute; D.C. Department of Health; Howard University Speech, Hearing & Memory Testing; DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services will give free blood pressure testing; United Medical Center; American Cancer Society and AmeriHealth Caritas DC. Mt. Zion Baptist Church Reverend John W. Davis Pastor 5101 14th Street, NW Washington, DC 20011 Phone: 202-726-2220 Fax: 202-726-9089 Service and Times Sunday Worship Service - 8:00 a.m. & 11:00 a.m.

Children’s Church - 11:00 a.m. (1st & 3rd Sundays) Communion - 10 a.m. 4th Sunday Sunday School - 9:15 a.m. (4th Sunday 8:15 a.m.)

Prayer Meeting & Bible Study - Wednesday 7:00 p.m.

“A Church with a past to remember – and a future to mold”

All Nations Baptist Church will be giving healthy fruits and vegetables as door prizes, and live gospel entertainment will be provided. Enjoy a day of health education and awareness.

"Preventing diabetes in predominately African American communities' starts with raising awareness, and educating people with pre-diabetes to change their lifestyle in order to decrease their risk of getting the disease," Nunlee-Bland said. "For individuals that have diabetes, there is an abundance of programs and resources available to help manage the disease."

Nunlee-Bland suggests diabetes care is complex but can be successfully managed using a multidisciplinary approach. The Howard University Hospital Diabetes Treatment Center provides patients with a team of endocrinologists, educators, pharmacists and nutritionists to help diabetes patients become more knowledgeable about all aspects of the disease.

"We empower our diabetes patients to take on self-management, which is a vital tool that helps set and maintain goals, make informed decisions and alter lifestyle habits to improve their health outcomes," Nunlee-Bland said.

Statistics for Type 2 diabetes in D.C. neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River (Wards 7 and 8) are quite alarming. Roughly 13.4

percent of residents living in Ward 7 and 19.7 percent of residents in Ward 8 have diabetes, the highest rates in the city. Comparatively, only 3.6 percent of residents living in Ward 2 and 4.2 percent of residents in Ward 3 have the disease, the lowest in the city.

In fact, African American residents in D.C. have some of the highest mortality rates (twice the national average) from Type 2 diabetes and its complications. In Wards 7 and 8, the mortality rate is a stark 45 percent and 32 percent for residents diagnosed with the disease compared to 7 percent and 10 percent of residents in Ward 2 and 3.

"Diabetes is a growing epidemic among low income neighborhoods and a leading cause of chronic health issues for African Americans," said Nunlee-Bland, director of the Howard University Hospital Diabetes Treatment Center. "This disparity stems from poor communities having a lack of access to health care, educational programs and nutritional resources in comparison to areas of more affluence."

Higher diabetes rates among African Americans are not unique to Washington, D.C. In the U.S., African Americans are twice as likely to develop Type 2 diabetes compared to whites. This disproportion is due to the lack of knowledge. Scripture reminds us, "My people perish for the lack of knowledge." WI

(301) 864-6070

EMPLOYMENT LAWYERS MCCOLLUM & ASSOCIATES, LLC ADA, Age Discrimination, Benefits, Civil Rights, COBRA, Contracts, Deaf Law, Defamation, Disability Law, Discipline, Discrimination, FMLA, FLSA, FOIA, Family Responsibility, Harassment, HIPPA, OSHA, National Origin Discrimination, Non-Compete, Race Discrimination, Rehabilitation Act, Retaliation, Severance Agreements, Sexual Harassment, Torts, Whistleblowing, Wage-and-Hour, Wrongful Discharge SERVING MARYLAND, DC, & NORTH CAROLINA

www.jmlaw.net

(301) 864-6070

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Mount Olivet Lutheran Church

John F. Johnson Reverend Dr. 1306 Vermont Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20005 Service and Times Divine Worship, Sunday 10:00 a.m.

Communion 1st and 3rd Sunday “Friendliest Church in the City” Website: mountolivetdc.org Email: mtolivedc@gmail.com

www.mtzbcdc.org

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SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019 47

RELIGION The Miracle Center of Faith Missionary Baptist Church

Pilgrim Baptist Church Rev. Louis B. Jones II Pastor

Bishop Michael C. Turner, Sr. Senior Pastor 9161 Hampton Overlook Capitol Heights, MD 20743 Phone: 301-350-2200 Fax: 301-499-8724

Service and Times Sunday Worship Times : 7:30 AM 7 10:00 AM Communion: 1st Sunday Sunday School: 9:00 AM Bible Study: Wednesday, 12 Noon Bible Study in homes: Tuesday 7:00 PM Website: www.themiraclecenterFMBC.com Email: Miraclecenterfmbs@gmail.com Motto: “We Walk by Faith, Not by Sight”

700 I Street, N.E. Washington, D.C. 20002 (202) 547-8849 Service and Times Worship Sundays: 7:30 & 11:00 AM 5th Sundays: 9:30 AM 3rd Sundays: Baptism & Holy Communion Prayer & Praise: Wednesdays @ Noon & 6:30 PM www.pilgrimbaptistdc.org

Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ

Blessed Word of Life Church

Church of Living Waters

Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church

Rev. Paul Carrette Senior Pastor

Rev. Dr. Michael E. Bell, Sr., Pastor

Rev. Dr. Alton W. Jordan Pastor

Reverend Dr. Calvin L. Matthews Senior Pastor

Harold Andrew Assistant Pastor

2498 Alabama Ave., SE - Washington D.C. 20020 Office: (202) 889-7296 Fax: (202) 889-2198 - www.acamec.org

800 I Street, NE - Washington, DC 20002 202-548-0707 - Fax No. 202-548-0703

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

Service and Times Sunday Worship Services: 8:00am and 11:00 AM Sunday Church School - 9:15am & Sunday Adult Forum Bible Study 10:30 AM 2nd & 4th Monday Women’s Bible Study: 6:30 PM Tuesday Jr./Sr. Bible Study: 10:00 AM Tuesday Topical Bible Study: 6:30 PM Tuesday New Beginnings Bible Study: 6:30 PM Wednesday Pastoral Bible Study: 6:30 PM Wednesday Children’s Bible Study: 6:30 PM Thursday Men’s Bible Study: 6:30 PM Friday before 1st Sunday Praise & Worship Service: 6:30 PM Saturday Adult Bible Study: 10:00 AM “The Amazing, Awesome, Audacious Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church”

Service and Times Sunday Morning Worship: 11:00 AM Holy Communion: 1st Sunday Sunday School: 9:45 AM Men’s Monday Bible Study: 7:00 PM Wednesday Night Bible Study: 7:00 PM Women’s Ministry Bible Study: 3rd Friday -7:00 PM Computer Classes: Announced Family and Marital Counseling by appointment

1200 Isle of Patmos Plaza, Northeast Washington, DC 20018 Office: (202) 529-6767 - Fax: (202) 526-1661

Service and Times Sunday Service: 8:30am& 11:00 AM Bible Study: Wednesday 7:30 PM Communion Service: First Sunday www.livingwatersmd.org

St. Stephen Baptist Church

Third Street Church of God

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

Rev. Dr. Alice Greene Interim Pastor

Bishop Lanier C. Twyman, Sr. Senior Pastor

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

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

Service and Times Sunday School: 9:30 AM Sunday Morning Worship Service: 11:00 AM Communion Service: First Sunday Prayer Service/Bible Study: Tuesday, 6:30 PM

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

5757 Temple Hill Road, Temple Hills, MD 20748 Office 301-899-8885 – fax 301-899-2555 Services and Times Sunday Early Morning Worship: 7:45 AM Church School: 9:30 AM Sunday Morning Worship: 10:45 AM Tuesday: 7:00pm/Kingdom Building Bible Institute Wednesday , 12:30 PM Mid-Day Bible Study Wednesday: Prayer/Praise/Bible Study-7:30 PM Baptism & Communion Service: 4th Sunday – 10:30 AM

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

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

Campbell AME Church Rev. Dr. Henry Y. White 2562 MLK Jr. Ave., SE - Washington, DC 20020 Adm. Office 202-678-2263 Email: Campbell@mycame.org Service and Times Sunday Worship Service: 10:00 AM Sunday Church School: 8:45 AM Bible Study Wednesday: 12:00 Noon Wednesday: 7:00 PM Thursday: 7:00 PM “Reaching Up To Reach Out” Mailing Address Campbell AME Church 2502 Stanton Road SE - Washington, DC 20020

www.thirdstreet.org Live Stream Sunday Worship Service begins @ 12:00 noon www.thirdstreet.org

Greater Mt. Calvary Holy Church Bishop Alfred A. Owens, Jr.; Senior Bishop & Evangelist Susie C. Owens – Co-Pastor 610 Rhode Island Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002 (202) 529-4547 office • (202) 529-4495 fax

Sunday Worship Service: 8:00 AM and 10:45 AM Sunday Youth Worship Services: 1st & 4th 10:45 AM; 804 R.I. Ave., NE 5th 8 AM & 10:45 AM; Main Church Prayer Services Tuesday – Noon, Wednesday 6:00 AM & 6:30 PM Calvary Bible Institute: Year-Round Contact Church Communion Every 3rd Sunday The Church in The Hood that will do you Good! www.gmchc.org emailus@gmchc.org

Service and Times Sunday Worship Services: 7:30 AM and 10:30 AM Holy Communion: 2nd Sunday at 7:30 AM and 10:30 AM Sunday Church School: 9:20 AM Seniors Bible Study: Tuesdays at 10:30 AM Noon Day Prayer Service: Tuesdays at Noon Bible Study: Tuesdays at 7 PM 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...

Dr. Raymond T. Matthews Pastor and First Lady Marcia Matthews St. Mark's Baptist Church 624 Underwood Street, NW Washington, dc 20011 Services and Times Sunday School: 9:00 AM Worship Service: 10:00 AM Wed. Noon Day prayer service Thur. Prayer service: 6:45 PM Thur. Bible Study: 7:15 PM

Reverend Dr. Paul H. Saddler Senior Pastor (Disciples of Christ) 1812 12th Street, NW - Washington, DC 20009 Phone: 202-265-4494 Fax: 202 265 4340 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 Motto: “Discover Something Wonderful” Website: 12thscc.org Email: Twelfthstcc@aol.com

Mount Carmel Baptist Church

Virgil K. Thomas, Sr. Senior Pastor/ Teacher

Service and Times Sunday School: 10:15 AM Sunday Worship Service: 11;15 AM Children’s Church: 11:15 AM Tuesday Bible Study: 6:30 PM Motto : “A Great Commitment to the Great Commandment” Website: www.turningheartschurchdc.org Email: gr8luv4u2@gmail.com

“Ambassadors for Christ to the Nation’s Capital”

E-mail: Crusadersbaptistchurch@verizon.net www.CrusadersBaptistChurch.org “God is Love”

Isle of Patmos Baptist Church

Twelfth Street Christian Church

Turning Hearts Church

421 Alabama Ave. SE Washington, DC 20032 Phone: 202-746-0113 Fax: 301-843-2445

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

Services and Times Sunday School: 9:30 AM Sunday Worship: 11:00 AM Sunday Community Worship Service: 8:30 AM

Crusader Baptist Church

901 Third Street N.W. Washington, DC. 20001 Phone (202) 842-3411 Fax (202) 682-9423 Service and Times Sunday Church School : 9:00 AM Sunday Morning Worship: 10:10 AM Bible Study Tuesday: 6: 00 PM Prayer Service Tuesday: 7:00 PM Holy Communion: 3rd Sunday 10:10 AM

48 SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019

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RELIGION Shabbath Commandment Church

All Nations Baptist Church

King Emmanuel Baptist Church

Bishop Adrian A. Taylor, Sr. Pastor

Rev. Dr. James Coleman Pastor

Rev. Daryl F. Bell Pastor

7801 Livingston Road Oxon Hill, MD 20745 301-534-5471

2001 North Capitol St, N.E. - Washington, DC 20002 Phone (202) 832-9591

2324 Ontario Road, NW Washington, DC 20009 (202) 232-1730

Service and Times Sabbath School 9:30 a.m. – 10:30 AM Service 11:00 AM Praise & Worship Preaching 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM Motto: “A Church Keeping It Real for Real.”

Website: Shabbathcommandmentchruch.org Email: Praisebetoyhwh@gmail.com

Zion Baptist Church Rev. Keith W. Byrd, Sr. Pastor 4850 Blagdon Ave, NW - Washington D.C 20011 Phone (202) 722-4940 - Fax (202) 291-3773 Service and Times 9:00 a.m. – Sunday School 10:15 a.m. – Worship Service Wed. Noon: Dea. Robert Owens Bible Study 7 PM Pastor’s Bible Study Ordinance of Baptism 2nd Sunday, Holy Communion 4th Sunday Mission: Zion 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 Service and Times Sunday Worship: 11:00 AM Sunday School: 9:15 AM Holy Communion: 11:00 a.m., 3rd Sun. Bible Institute: Wednesday - 1:30 PM Prayer Meeting: Wednesday - 12:00 Noon

Service and Times 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

Dr. Earl D. Trent Senior Pastor

Rev. Dr. George C. Gilbert Senior Pastor

2409 Ainger Pl.,SE – WDC 20020 (202) 678-0884 – Office • (202) 678-0885 – Fax “Moving Faith Forward” 0% Perfect . . . 100% Forgiven!

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

Service and Times Sunday Worship: 8:00 AM & 10:45 AM Baptism/Holy Communion: 3rd Sunday Family Bible Study Tuesdays – 6:30 PM Prayer Service: Tuesdays – 8:00 PM www.emmanuelbaptistchurchdc.org

“Where Jesus is the King”

Sermon On The Mount Temple Of Joy Apostolic Faith

Lincoln Park United Methodist Church Rev. Richard B. Black Pastor

Elder Herman L. Simms Pastor

1251 Saratoga Ave., NE Washington, DC 20018 (202) 269-0288

1301 North Carolina Ave. N E Washington, D C 20002 202 543 1318 - lincolnpark@lpumcdc.org www.lpumcdc.org

5606 Marlboro Pike District Heights, MD 20747 301-735-6005

Service and Times Sunday Worship Service: 10:45 AM Sunday School: 9:15 AM Holy Communion1st Sunday: 10:45 AM Prayer Service: Wednesday at 6:30 PM Bible Study: Wednesday at 7:00 PM Bible Study: Tuesday at 10:30 AM

Mount Moriah Baptist Church

Service and Times Sunday Worship: 10:00 AM Holy Communion: First Sunday 10:00 AM Sunday School: 9:00 AM Bible Study: Wednesday @ 12 noon and 6:30 PM Motto: "Faith On The Hill"

Service and Times Sunday Apostolic Worship Services 11:00 A.M and 5:00 PM Communion and Feet Wash 4th Sunday at 5:00 PM Prayer/Seeking: Wednesday at 8:00 PM Apostolic in Doctrine, Pentecostal in Experience, Holiness in Living, Uncompromised and Unchanged.

The Apostolic Faith is still alive –Acts 2:42

New Commandment Baptist Church

Eastern Community Baptist Church

Dr. Lucius M. Dalton Senior Pastor

Damion M. Briggs Pastor

1636 East Capitol Street, NE Washington, DC 20003 Telephone: 202-544-5588 - Fax: 202-544-2964

8213 Manson Street Landover, MD 20785 Tel: (301) 322-9787 Fax: (301) 322-9240

13701 Old Jericho Park Road Bowie, MD. 20720 (301) 262-0560

Service and Times Sunday Worship Services: 7:45 AM and 10:45 AM Holy Communion: 1st Sundays at 7:45 AM & 10:45 AM Sunday School: 9:30 AM Prayer & Praise Service: Tuesdays at 12 noon & 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

Service and Times Sunday Worship: 11 AM Sunday School: 10 AM Wednesday Mid-Week Worship, Prayer & Bible Study: Wed. 7 PM

Rehoboth Baptist Church

Rev. Dr. Maxwell M. Washington Pastor

Rev. Curtis l. Staley Pastor

2001 Brooks Drive District Heights, MD 20744 (240) 838-7074

621 Alabama Ave., S.E.- Washington, D.C. 20032 P: (202) 561-1111 - F: (202) 561-1112

Service and Times Sunday Worship Service: 10:15 AM Sunday School: 9:00 AM Holy Communion: 3rd Sunday Morning Prayer Meeting / Bible Study: Tuesday at 7 PM Theme: “The Kingdom Focused Church with an Emphasis on “Evangelism and Discipleship”

Service and Times Sunday Service: 10:00 AM Sunday School for all ages: 8:30 AM 1st Sunday Baptism: 10:00 AM 2nd Sunday Holy Communion:10:00 AM Tuesday: Bible Study: 6:30 PM Prayer Meeting: 7:45 PM

Email: pastorstmbc@gmail.com Website: www.stmatthewsbaptist.org

Motto: “Where God is First and Where Friendly People Worship”

“Real Worship for Real People” Website: www.easterncommunity.org Email: ecc@easterncommunity.org

Rev. Stephen E. Tucker Senior Pastor

“A Church Where Love Is Essential and Praise is Intentional”

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

Shiloh Baptist Church

Matthews Memorial Baptist Church Dr. Joseph D. Turner Senior Pastor 2616 MLK Ave., SE - Washington, DC 20020 Office 202-889-3709 - Fax 202-678-3304 Service and Times Early Worship Service: 8:00 AM Worship Service: 11:00 AM New Member’s Class: 9:45 AM Holy Communion: 1st Sunday, 11:00 AM Church School: 9:45 AM Wednesday 12:00pm Bible Study Prayer, Praise and Bible Study: 7:00 PM Saturday Bible Study: 11:00 AM Baptism 4th Sunday: 11:00 AM

Christ Embassy DC

Kelechi Ajieren Coordinator 6839 Eastern Avenue, R1 Takoma Park, MD 20912 (202) 556-7065 Service and Times Sunday Worship Service: 10:00 AM Wednesday Bible Study: 7:00 PM Friday Evening Service: 7:00 PM ; Last Friday “…Giving Your Life a Meaning” www.Christembassydc.org Christ.embassy.dc@hotmail.com

“Empowered to love and Challenged to Lead a Multitude of Souls to Christ”

Peace Baptist Church Rev. Dr. Michael T. Bell 712 18th Street, NE Washington, DC 20002 Phone 202-399-3450/ Fax 202-398-8836 Service and Times Sunday Early Morning Prayer & Bible Study Class: 8:00 AM Sunday School: 9:00 AM Sunday Morning Worship Service: 10:00 AM

Wednesday Service: 12:00 PM

Pennsylvania Ave. Baptist Church Rev. Dr. Kendrick E. Curry Pastor 3000 Pennsylvania Ave.. S.E Washington, DC 20020 202 581-1500 Service and Times Sunday Church School: 9:30 AM Sunday Worship Service: 11:00 AM Monday Adult Bible Study: 7:00 PM Wednesday Youth & Adult Activities: 6:30 PM Prayer Service Bible Study

“The Loving Church of the living lord “

First Rising Mt. Zion Baptist Church

Mt. Horeb Baptist Church

Rev. Dr. Wallace Charles Smith Pastor

Rev. Oran W. Young Pastor

Rev. Dr. H. B. Sampson, III Pastor

9th & P Street, N.W. - W. D.C. 20001 (202) 232-4288

602 N Street NW - Washington, D.C. 20001 Office:(202) 289-4480 Fax: (202) 289-4595

2914 Bladensburg Road, NE Wash., DC 20018 Office: (202) 529-3180 - Fax: (202) 529-7738 Service and Times Worship Service: 7:30 AM Sunday School: 9:00 AM Worship Service: 10:30 AM Holy Communion: 4th Sunday 7:30AM & 10:30 AM Prayer Services:Tuesday 7:30 PM. Wednesday 12 Noon

www.stmarysfoggybottom.org Email: stmarysoffice@stmarysfoggybottom.org

Service and Times First Sunday Worship Service (one service): 10:00 AM Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sunday Worship service: 7:45 AM and 10:55 AM Sunday Church School/Bible Study: 9:30 AM Thursday Prayer Service: 6:30 PM

All are welcome to St. Mary’s to Learn, Worship, and Grow.

Email: sbc@shilohbaptist.org Website: shilohbaptist.org

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

Service and Times Sunday Worship Services: 10:00 AM Sunday Church School: 8:45 – 9:45 AM Holy Communion: Every First Sunday Intercessory Prayer: Monday – 7:00-8:00 PM Pastor’s Bible Study: Wednesday –7:45 PM Midweek Prayer: Wednesday – 7:00 PM Noonday Prayer Every Thursday

Service and Times Sunday Church School: 9:30 AM Sunday Worship Service : 11:00 AM The Lord’s Supper 1st Sunday Prayer & Praise Services: Wednesday 7:00 PM Bible Study: 7:30 PM Saturday before 4th Sunday Men, Women, Youth Discipleship Ministries: 10:30 AM A Christ Centered Church htubc@comcast.net

Email Address: admin@pbc712.org

Historic St. Mary’s Episcopal Church The Rev. E. Bernard Anderson Priest

Holy Trinity United Baptist Church

Florida Avenue Baptist Church

Reverend Christopher L. Nichols Pastor

Rev. Reginald M. Green Interim Pastor

Web: www.mountmoriahchurch.org Email: mtmoriah@mountmoriahchurch.org

St. Matthews Baptist Church

Service and Times 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

Emmanuel Baptist Church

WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM / THE WASHINGTON INFORMER

Service and Times Sunday School for All Ages: 8:00 AM Sunday Worship Services: 9:30 AM Midday Prayer & Bible Study: Wednesday 11:30AM Evening Prayer & Bible Study: Wednesday 7:00 PM Laymen's League: Thursday 7:00 PM Email: Froffice@firstrising.org Website: www.firstrising.org “Changing Lives On Purpose “

Email:mthoreb@mthoreb.org Website:www.mthoreb.org For further information, please contact me at (202) 529-3180.

SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019 49

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

2019 ADM 000473

2019 FEP 000101

2019 ADM 846

2019 FEP 000100

Michael H. Weaver aka Michael Henry Weaver Decedent

June 21, 2019 Date of Death

Ethiopia Abraha Decedent

June 16, 2019 Date of Death

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS Tamzin T. Harding aka Tawney Harding, whose address is 4500 Newark Street, NW, Washington, DC 20016, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Michael H. Weaver aka Michael Henry Weaver who died on April 3, 2019 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., Building A, 515 5th Street, N.W., Third Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 3/5/2020. 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 3/5/2020, 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: 9/5/2019 Tamzin T. Harding Personal Representative

Marilyn B. Thompson Name of Decedent NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT OF FOREIGN PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE AND NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Tennyson I. Thompson, Sr. whose address is 4309 Broken Arrow Ct., Clinton, MD 20735 was appointed personal representative of the estate of Marilyn B. Thompson, deceased, by the Register of Wills Court for Prince Georges County, State of Maryland, on July 22, 2019.

Service of process may be made upon Carol Lightfoot Walker, 1329 Missouri Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20011 whose designation as District of Columbia agent has been filed with the Register of Wills, D.C. The decedent owned the following District of Columbia real estate.

2914 12th Street, NE, Washington, DC 20012.

Claims against the decedent may be presented to the undersigned and filed with the Register of Wills of the District of Columbia, 515 5th Street, NW, Third Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001 within 6 months from the date of first publication of this notice.

Date of first publication: 9/5/2019

TRUE TEST COPY

Tennyson I Thompson, Sr. Personal Representative

Nicole Stevens Acting Register of Wills

Nicole Stevens Acting Register of Wills

Washington Informer

Washington Informer

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS Yared Ghebreyohannes, whose address is 4927 7th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20011, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Ethiopia Abraha who died on November 6, 2018 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., Building A, 515 5th Street, N.W., Third Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 2/29/2020. 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 2/29/2020, 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: 8/29/2019 Yared Ghebreyohannes Personal Representative TRUE TEST COPY Anne Meister Register of Wills Washington Informer

LEGAL NOTICES SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131 2019 ADM 000015 Lillian M. Thomas aka Lillian Thomas Decedent

Luther Kennedy, Jr. Name of Decedent

Robert L. Bell, Esq. 245 Farragut Street, NW Washington, DC 20011 Attorney

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT OF FOREIGN PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE AND NOTICE TO CREDITORS

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS

Smylia L. Kennedy, whose address is 2655 Birney Pl., SE, Apt #102, Washington DC, 20020 was appointed personal representative of the estate of Luther Kennedy, Jr., deceased, by the Orphans Court for Prince Georges County, State of Maryland, on July 19, 2019.

Service of process may be made upon Smylia L. Kennedy, 2655 Birney Pl., SE, Apt #102, Washington, DC 20020 whose designation as District of Columbia agent has been filed with the Register of Wills, D.C. The decedent owned the following District of Columbia real estate.

2628 4th St., NE, Washington, DC 20002. Claims against the decedent may be presented to the undersigned and filed with the Register of Wills of the District of Columbia, 515 5th Street, NW, Third Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001 within 6 months from the date of first publication of this notice.

Date of first publication: 9/5/2019 Smylia L. Kennedy Personal Representative Nicole Stevens Acting Register of Wills

Bradley A. Thomas, whose address is 107 P Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Lillian M. Thomas aka Lillian Thomas who died on October 17, 2018 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., Building A, 515 5th Street, N.W., Third Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 3/5/2020. 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 3/5/2020, 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: 9/5/2019 Bradley A. Thomas Personal Representative TRUE TEST COPY Nicole Stevens Acting 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

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

2019 ADM 877

2019 ADM 587

2018 ADM 001322

2019 ADM 894

2019 ADM 000880

Delores G. Campbell aka Delores Glenn Campbell Decedent

Sherry Whitfield Decedent

Savannah G. Gibson Decedent

Deborah D. Boddie, Esq. ProbateLaw DC 1308 Ninth Street, NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20001 Attorney

Laurence Matthew Laws Decedent

Kathelean Cain Decedent

Joan M. Wilbon 1120 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 1020 Washington, DC 20036 Attorney

Aimee D. Griffin, Esq. The Griffin Firm PLLC 5335 Wisconsin Ave., NW Suite 400 Washington DC 20015 Attorney

Nakia V. Gray, Esq. 9701 Apollo Drive Suite 100 Largo, MD 20774 Attorney

Janet W. Blassingame, Esq. 1413 K Street, NW Suite 1500 Washington, DC 20005 Attorney NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS Derrick Campbell, whose address is 1669 Rosedale Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Delores G. Campbell aka Delores Glenn Campbell who died on July 6, 2019 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., Building A, 515 5th Street, N.W., Third Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before March 5, 2020. 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 March 5, 2020, 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.

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS Michi Whitfield, whose address is 1707 8th Street, NW, Apt. 302, Washington, DC 20001, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Sherry Whitfield who died on October 14, 2014 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., Building A, 515 5th Street, N.W., Third Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 3/12/2020.

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 3/12/2020, 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: 9/12/2019 Michi Whitfield Personal Representative

Date of first publication: 9/5/2019

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Derrick Campbell Personal Representative

Nicole Stevens Acting Register of Wills

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NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS Yendis L. Gibson and LaRue R. Gibson, Jr., whose addresses are 315 Woodlawn Ave., Glencoe, IL. 60022 and 213 Worthington Rd., White Plains, NY 10607, were appointed Personal Representatives of the estate of Savannah G. Gibson who died on June 2, 2018 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 3/12/2020.

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 3/12/2020, 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: 9/12/2019 Yendis L. Gibson LaRue R. Gibson, Jr. Personal Representative

Washington Informer

Nicole Stevens Acting Register of Wills Washington Informer

50 SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019

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NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS Lauren J. Laws, whose address is 1925 Cradock Street, Silver Spring, MD 20905, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Laurence Matthew Laws who died on May 25, 2019 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., Building A, 515 5th Street, N.W., Third Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 3/12/2020. 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 3/12/2020, 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: 9/12/2019 Lauren J. Laws Personal Representative

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS Irish L. Williams, whose address is 4007 20th Pl, Temple Hills, MD 20748, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Kathelean Cain who died on November 24, 2017 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., Building A, 515 5th Street, N.W., Third Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 3/12/2020. 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 3/12/2020, 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: 9/12/2019 Irish L. Williams Personal Representative

TRUE TEST COPY

TRUE TEST COPY

Nicole Stevens Acting Register of Wills

Nicole Stevens Acting Register of Wills

Washington Informer

Washington Informer

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LEGAL NOTICES SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131 2019 ADM 000427 Fred Lee Gunter Decedent Deborah D. Boddie, Esq. Probate Law DC 1308 Ninth Street, NW Suite 300 Washington, DC 20001 Attorney

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NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS Everett Gunter, whose address is 3210 32nd Avenue, Temple Hills, MD 20748, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Fred Lee Gunter who died on March 15, 2018 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., Building A, 515 5th Street, N.W., Third Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 3/12/2020. 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 3/12/2020, 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.

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SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131 2019 ADM 000939 Florence Cordelia Garner Decedent Nakia V. Gray 9701 Apollo Drive, Suite 100 Largo, MD 20774 Attorney NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS John M. Garner II, whose address is 1208 D Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Florence Cordelia Garner who died on July 4, 2014 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., Building A, 515 5th Street, N.W., Third Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 3/12/2020. 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 3/12/2020, 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: 9/12/2019 John M. Garner II Personal Representative

TRUE TEST COPY Nicole Stevens Acting Register of Wills Washington Informer

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18+ SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019 51

RECOVERY from Page 46 roof,” Laville recalled. “I grabbed some things as the roof flew off my room. I looked and saw the veranda was gone, the stairs were gone and the railing taken off. The only thing I could do was jump.”

Laville told his wife to jump, caught her and waited for the rest of the group to do the same. He said he went out several times looking for food and water, towels and a safe space to shelter as those trapped inside were buffeted by fierce winds, driving sand and rain. Often, as he moved around outside, he had to crawl to avoid being swept away by the raging winds.

The group gathered in a laundry room but had to flee when the roof collapsed. After concluding that a nearby shed would be unable to withstand the winds, Laville says he eventually broke a window and he and the rest piled into an abandoned apartment where they rode out

the storm. He says he’s never been more afraid in his life and has been left deeply traumatized, adding that should he ever get an inkling that a hurricane’s coming, he’ll be on the first flight out.

Bahamian government officials and the Red Cross estimate that about half of the homes in Abaco and Grand Bahama – between 13,000 and 15,000 – have either been severely damaged or totally destroyed. In addition, the Associated Press and other media report that more than 70,000 residents will need clean drinking water, while the United Nations warns that 60,000 people will need food assistance.

Editor’s Note: In a press conference on Monday, Sept. 9, President Trump told reporters in the District that the U.S. will be cautious as those in the Bahamas seek refuge in America.

“Everybody needs totally prop-

er documentation,” he said. “The Bahamas had some tremendous problems with people going to the Bahamas that weren’t supposed to be there.”

“I don’t want to allow people that weren’t supposed to be in the Bahamas to come into the United States – including some very bad people and some very bad gang members and some very, very bad drug dealers.”

Trump’s statement and a U.S. immigration policy which remains in limbo only added to the confusion, illustrated clearly last weekend when 119 people from the Bahamas were forced to vacate a ferry bound for Florida after officials determined that they lacked the necessary U.S. travel visas.

Many residents in the Bahamas have family ties to Florida. So far, about 4,000 Bahamians have reportedly arrived since the hurricane, both by air or sea, according to Diane Sabatino, head of the

5The Bahamian Embassy, locatd on Embassy Row in Northwest, is collecting donations for victims of Hurricane Dorian. (Roy Lewis/The Washington Informer)

Want to Donate to the Bahamas? Here's How!

By Barrington M. Salmon Special to The Informer Some estimates are that Hurricane Dorian inflicted $7 billion worth of damage on the island chain of the Bahamas. Thousands of people are homeless, others are trapped on the outer islands and reaching them and catering to their needs is proving to be a logistical nightmare for the Bahamas government.

Aiding organizations and countries including the United States, Britain, China and Cuba have or are sending medical supplies, food, water and an assortment of items that survivors need.

The call has been made for individuals and organization to respond generously to this humanitarian crisis. A number of national and international organizations have stepped up, many that individuals can made donations to. Recovery will take years but Bahamas needs help now.

These organizations have already stepped in with money, food, medicine and other essentials or are in the process of doing so: • World Central Kitchen which is the means by which world renowned chef and restaurateur José Andrés feeds the victims

of natural disasters, has already set up kitchens and is preparing between 10,000 and 20,000 meals and other food to people in the areas ravaged by the storm.

• Bahamas Red Cross seeks bedding, baby supplies, non-perishables and cleaning products that staff will distribute to the areas most affected by the hurricane. BRC officials encourage the use of the hashtag #HelpUsHelp to create awareness. According to Refinery 29's Sarah Midkiff, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have so far contributed 250,000 Swiss francs from its Disaster Relief Emergen-

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52 SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2019

cy Fund (DREF) to supplement funding for the first wave of the Bahamas Red Cross.

• Team Rubicon Disaster Response is a group of British military veterans who are first responders offering their help in international disaster relief. Members of the non-profit supports organizations, offer resources and engage in activities ranging from clearing debris, rebuilding houses and organizing sizable groups of volunteers. They are already in the Bahamas and have volunteers and others on standby to go into affected areas when it's safe.

• Bahamas Relief is calling on people to donate goods for immediate disaster relief, including: toiletries, diapers, canned goods, cleaning supplies, tents, water, and power generators.

• UNICEF teams are working with the government and other U.N. agencies to ease the devastating impact on the tens of thousands of children and families whose homes and communities have been leveled.

UNICEF water and sanitation experts along with emergency and child protection specialists are now on the ground in the Bahamas, assessing the needs and planning the response. According to the U.N., an estimated 75,000 people urgently need food, water and shelter.

• The Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF) is an organization founded by Rihanna in 2012 that supports education and emergency response programs across the globe. The organization has created two emergency response grants to help victims of Hurricane Dorian.

One grant will support Andres' World Central Kitchen, whose team has been on the ground in the Bahamas since Sept. 3, supplying food to those affected by the storm. CLF's second grant aims to fund Direct Relief's medical aid efforts, which will help connect victims with medical professionals in order to receive acute and long-term care.

• International Medical Corps is a worldwide humanitarian nonprofit focusing on emergency responders and early relief efforts. They will also be delivering health care supplies and deploying medical teams.

• Bethenny Frankel's BStrong missions is gearing up to provide aid to Dorian survivors. The organization will be providing crucial supplies and immediate medical support and helping to evacuate those who weren't able to leave their homes before the storm. She said on Twitter, "the damage is incomprehensible, and thanks to you, our warehouse is filling up and we are working to send 2k lbs of relief to Sandy Point in South Abacos, Florida tomorrow."

WI

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

WOOD from Page 30

UDC from Page 15 Elizabeths East Campus. Those seven historically preserved red brick buildings that will ultimately house 252 units, the majority of which will serve as affordable housing.

Not too far from that site, the Entertainment & Sports Arena on St. Elizabeths East Campus has attracted an untold number of Washington Mystics fans and music aficionados since its opening last September. Down the street, the fun will continue this weekend during the 38th annual Congress Heights Day Parade.

That night, the corner of Mar-

Program at the University of the Nevada, Las Vegas and presently works at a District hotel as a front desk associate. Evans said Penny has made the difference in his life and considers him a role model.

Penny said mentorship "definitely helps young Black men".

"Young Black men need to know that there are people who look like them succeeding and who do care about them," he said. "I care about Arturo's development as a man. I have a wife and three kids and my wife says I pay more attention to Arturo than to them.

"I am committed to seeing him succeed."

WI

tin Luther King Jr. Avenue and 5th Street in Southeast will turn into a musical haven during Art All Night, where visitors can expect to see performances by EU featuring Sugar Bear, and Be'la Dona.

In recent years, Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue has become home to a revitalized MLK Deli and a slew of other businesses that have popped up along the blighted corridor. Jones' daughter and her husband operate the Congress Heights Arts and Culture Center, located at 3200 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Southeast. Jones said he purchased

that building in the mid-1970s for a little over $19,000 with $5 as a down payment.

Decades later, he stresses that Congress Heights residents must embrace a similar mindset.

"If you don't own it, you can't control it," Jones said. "I was on this block for 50 years and have encouraged people to buy this space since the mid-1970s. At that time, you could buy anything on [Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue] with $25,000. Whether we like it or not, prices will go up and property values will increase.

We can't complain if we don't take advantage." wi

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police cadet program at Anacostia High School that gives young people a pipeline to becoming a D.C. police officer.

McDuffie said Black boys and men are "suffering under government policies that have intentionally not benefited them". He said businesses, large and small have challenges reaching out to Black males.

"Small businesses would like to reach out but don't have the resources to do so," the councilmember said. "Large corporations have the resources but lack the connections to communities where Black boys live."

All of the speakers spoke

about the need for more mentors for young Black males.

The summit presented Thomas Penny III, the president of Donohoe Hospitality Services division., as a mentor and Arturo Evans as a mentee.

Penny said he met Evans several years ago at a school event and became impressed with him.

"I spoke at this school and like I always do, I handed out my business card," Penny said. "Arturo was the only one who called me and we developed a relationship. I introduced him to the hotel business and he has worked in it since."

Arturo, with Penny's encouragement, went to the prestigious William F. Harrah Hospitality

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BROTHER from Page 5

backing of politicians in Washington, are now coming to average Americans and asking them to shoulder the cost.

America's airports are well-positioned to continue to fund infrastructure improvement projects without needlessly reaching into the pockets of America's working families and robbing them of one of the few affordable luxuries available to them. Congress must stand up for working people and refuse this tax increase.

Economic progress in America should empower African Americans and others. We in the Black Press of America will not be silent on this issue. WI

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airports nationwide. But here is the problem: America's airports don't need the extra money. Airport revenues are already growing strongly. Since the year 2000, airports have enjoyed revenue increases of 87 percent, without the cost of flights rising meaningfully. This growth drastically outpaces the actual cost of flying, even after factoring for inflation.

Additionally, over the past decade, more than $165 billion in federal aid has been directed to airports for improvement projects at America's largest 30 airports alone. More than that, the so-called Aviation Trust Fund is

expected to reach nearly $8 billion by the end of 2019.

And this summer alone, the Federal Aviation Administration has awarded hundreds of millions in renovation grants to airports across America earmarked for infrastructure improvements.

It's also worth keeping in mind that air travel and tourism are now at or nearing all-time highs, meaning that airports are collecting more in PFC taxes than they know what to do with.

By contrast, the income of working Americans has been stagnant for years. Considering that airports are more profitable now than ever before, it is disappointing that they, with the

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of many families struggling to make ends meet.

While I certainly appreciate Biden's loyal service as Barack Obama's vice president, I have a hard time reconciling some of his more recent positions on racial equality with his long history of fueling rhetoric and spearheading legislation that have severely hurt African-American communities. WI

Photo

of prisons, maximizing prison sentences for drug offenses, devising racially disparate punishment for crack cocaine.

Less often discussed are some of the detrimental neoliberal economic policies Biden has fought hard for that have particularly disadvantaged African-Americans. In 2005, Biden

championed a bankruptcy bill that made it harder for individuals facing overwhelming financial challenges to file for bankruptcy and get out of debt.

This bill also made it much more difficult for low-income and first-generation college graduates to discharge their student debt. Similarly, Biden has pushed for welfare cuts that constrained the life chances

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CROWELL from Page 31 severe consequences. According to research by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL): • Only 21% of all for-profit students in four-year programs graduate within six years; • Four years after graduation, Black students with a bachelor's degree owe almost double the debt their white classmates owe; and • While for-profit college enrollment represents 8.6% of all college students, these schools generate over 34% of all students who default on their loans.

While this new rule may make sense to DeVos, education advocates had an opposite reaction, quickly and emphatically detailing how the rule change is as negative as it is costly.

"After the collapse of Corinthian College and ITT Tech, two of the largest for-profit education companies in the country, the Obama administration created the Borrower Defense rule to protect students and taxpayers from deceptive practices that could jeopardize the future of thousands of students and our economy," said Ashley Harrington, a CRL senior policy counsel and a primary negotiator during the Ed-

JACKSON from Page 31 only six majority owners that are people of color.)

Ownership is a small club, and the club owners still tend to admit only people that look like them. The exclusion is also a legacy of the discrimination.

When Black players — and Black owners — were banned, teams were affordable. As the league built up, many teams were inherited, gaining in val-

ASKIA from Page 31 Sullivan's fabled "African-African American Summit" which met in Harare, Zimbabwe, passing through Pretoria, South Africa, where we were entertained for an evening by new South African President Nelson Mandela.

One of the attendees with me was Andrew Brimmer, economist and Federal Reserve Board governor. In an interview, Brimmer told me that Zimbabwe had one of the strongest economies on the African continent, and that Western investors were looking favorably at Zimbabwe. There was only one little problem: veterans from the successful armed struggle against white rule had massed outside the summit to protest and call attention to the fact that more

ucation Department's negotiated rule-making process.

With DeVos' new rule, both the automatic discharge of federal loans that took effect after a school closed and another provision that allowed group claim relief are now eliminated. Anyone seeking redress on student loans must also bear the full burden of documenting their alleged "harm" before a claim can be reviewed.

The new rule also removes states from opportunities to defend their own constituents. State laws, many enacted before the 2016 Obamaera rule took effect, provided another route to legal redress. But with the new DeVos rule, no state-level claims can be pursued.

"That's problematic for us," Harrington said. "The federal standard should be the floor, not the ceiling, for relief."

Over the next decade, the Education Department projects an $11 billion cost-savings from denying loan forgiveness. But for student loan borrowers, denying $11 billion in loan forgiveness adds an unwieldy and costly burden for an education, and earnings that were never realized.

"The new 'borrower defense rule' does anything but defend students," said James Kvaal, president of The Institute for College

Access & Success (TICAS). "In fact, it makes it almost impossible for students who are lied to, defrauded, or otherwise abused by their colleges to get a fresh start. … By leaving students on the hook for colleges' illegal actions, today's rule sends a clear message that there will be little or no consequences for returning to the misrepresentations and deceptions that characterized the for-profit college boom."

A similar reaction came from Abby Shafroth, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center and, like Harrington, a participant in the department's rulemaking meetings.

"There are over 170,000 pending applications with many borrowers held in limbo for years," Shafroth said. "The new rules reflect an ongoing shift to protect the multi-billion-dollar for-profit education industry at the expense of students and taxpayers and come amid concerns about conflicts of interest raised about the rule of former for-profit executives hired by the department."

Rather than saving taxpayer dollars, it seems that this new rule is guaranteeing a taxpayer-funded revenue stream for the benefit of for-profit colleges — not students.

WI

ue along the way. By being excluded at the start, Black owners have a far harder time getting in now.

Today's integrated teams on the field serve as positive examples.

Fans cheer for favorites by the color of their jerseys, not the color of their skin. That players of all races and backgrounds play by the same set of rules exemplifies the equal justice under the law that we strive for.

But equality on the field should parallel equality in management and ownership.

The NFL should start by acknowledging the racial ban it enforced, recognizing Black players and moving more of them into the Hall of Fame and taking concrete steps to ensure that the ownership, management and coaching of NFL teams reflect the diversity of the players on the field and the fans in the stands. WI

than a decade after that Lancaster House deal, they still hadn't gotten any promised land.

They led noisy protests and Mugabe determined that it would be better for him and for the country if the country just took the farmland from the white settlers and redistributed it to Black peasants. So, he did, and whites fled en masse to white enclaves like Australia, only to return years later because they were just "ordinary" white people in Australia, but they were really special in Zimbabwe, even without all their land.

So the West took to badmouthing Mugabe, and his name has been mud in the Western press, ever since Zimbabwe started confiscating from the thieves, the African land that had been stolen.

Thus, Mugabe, who had once been adored for his cool-headed leadership, became a pariah and was never to be revered again.

Meanwhile, new, younger leaders came on the scene and they wanted the fulfillment of Freedom's Promise, demanding western-like reforms from Mugabe.

It's the classic American trap, and most of the time it works, tarnishing the revolutionary leader in the eyes of the world and making that leader appear to be ineffective, except in suppressing his own people and holding on to power.

Mugabe did what he had to do in order to secure his country's revolution, and its future. That's why he is truly a revolutionary hero.

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