“The truth doesn’t have to do with cruelty, the truth has to do with mercy.” – Ken Kesey James Clingman Warns Against Borrowing Page 22 •
C e l e b r a t i n g 4 8 Ye a r s o f S e r v i c e
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Serving More Than 50,000 African American Readers Throughout The Metropolitan Area / Vol. 48, No. 16 Jan. 31 - Feb. 6, 2013
D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton addresses the crowd during the March on Washington for Gun Control on Saturday, Jan. 26. See story on Page 10. /Photo by Roy Lewis
UNCF Moves to D.C., Hosts Masked Ball By Barrington M. Salmon WI Staff Writer Two students, desperate for financial assistance, recently emailed the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) seeking help. Each was faced with the need to pay off outstanding balances of about $7,000 before they could
register for a new semester. They had nowhere else to turn. Luckily for them, the UNCF is able to give them, along with thousands of others, the financial support they need. That scenario plays out every day, the organization’s leader said at a press conference and media tour of their new headquarters
in Northwest. The organization recently moved here from New York after 20 years. The UNCF’s raison d’etre is to help increasing numbers of needy students navigate rocky financial terrain on the way to attaining college degrees. “For most students, it’s a complex, almost impossible system,
from filling out forms to staying in college year-after-year,” said Michael L. Lomax, Ph.D., UNCF’s president and chief executive officer at the Jan. 24th event. “… There is a terrible patchwork of programs that do not work. Kids can’t get loans. It doesn’t work anymore. It’s broken.” The UNCF plays a large role
Visit us online for daily updates and much more @ www.washingtoninformer.com. Thousands March to Support AntiGun Legislation Page 10
Leckie Math Program Promotes Conceptual Learning Page 19
in being the financial fix. Lomax described it as the country’s largest and arguably its most effective minority education organization. Washingtonians and others in the region will get the chance to show their support next month at the area’s inaugu-
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