It is not the style of clothes one wears, neither the kind of automobile one drives, nor the amount of money one has…it is simply service that measures success. –-George Washington Carver
The Untold Story of Progress in the Congo Page 30 •
C e l e b r a t i n g 4 7 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. 47, No. 28 Apr. 26 - May. 2, 2012
A Conversation with a Civil Rights
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Often called “one of the most courageous persons the Civil Rights Movement ever produced,” Congressman John Lewis tells his story about growing up in the segregated South, being beaten to near death by Alabama state troopers and the pivotal role he played with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the entire Civil Rights Movement. The Washington Informer brought the Congressman to THEARC Theatre in Southeast, Thursday, April 19, where publisher Denise Rolark Barnes sat down with him before a live audience to discuss his life’s story. The entire event is featured in this special edition. (See page 21.) / Photo by Shevry Lassiter
Reservation 13: The Debate Continues By James Wright WI Staff Writer The debate between neighborhood activists and city leaders over a plot of land in Southeast Washington rages on despite a redevelopment plan that has been in place for more than a decade.
Reservation 13, near RFK Stadium, presently housesthe District’s largest homeless shelter, the D.C. Jail and a drug treatment facility. Villareal Johnson, an advisory neighborhood commissioner in Ward 7, where Reservation 13 is now located, said the community needs to have greater involvement in the
process before the Gray Administration makes a decision on what should be done with the property. “I think there is a desire for the residents of Ward 6 and 7 to have more input on what will happen to Reservation 13,” Johnson, 34, said. “The residents in the wards want to be a part of
the final decision-making process.” In 2000, then-Mayor Anthony A. Williams shuttered D.C. General Hospital because it was viewed as a stain on the city’s financial portfolio. In October 2002, the D.C. Council approved a master plan that would redevelop the 50
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PG County’s ‘Transforming Neighborhoods Initiative’ Page 14
acres, known as Hill East, into a mixed-use urban waterfront community that would include some retail and residential components, but would be noted for its tree-lined public streets, recreational trails and waterfront park lands. However, the plans
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