THE WASHINGTON INFORMER HISTORY OF THE DC CITY WIDE SPELLING BEE

Since 1981, The Washington Informer has officially sponsored the D.C. City Wide Spelling Bee. Dr. Mary E. White, former supervising director, D.C. Public Schools Division of Instructional Services, Department of English, believed it was time for D.C. students to participate in Scripps National Spelling Bee held annually in Washington, D.C. She appealed to Dr. Calvin W. Rolark, Sr., Informer publisher. He agreed that his newspaper should apply.

In prior years, The Washington Daily News sponsored the local spelling bee. Subsequently, when The Washington Star purchased the Daily News, it was decided to discontinue sponsoring the spelling bee. For more than 15 years, the D.C. public, private, and parochial school students could not participate in the national competition for lack of a sponsoring newspaper.

Dr. White solicited support from the Washington Post, hopeful that the publisher would agree to become D.C.’s official sponsor. According to Dr. White, Post officials told her that since the daily newspaper was a regional publication, their sponsorship would have to include both D.C. and suburban Maryland and Virginia. However, at that time, the Journal newspaper chain had served as the suburban sponsor for several years, resulting in the Post refusing to sponsor the bee solely for students enrolled in D.C. schools.

Dr. White then appealed to Dr. Calvin W. Rolark, a friend and supporter of the D.C. Public Schools, president, and founder of the United Black Fund, Inc., and publisher of The Washington Informer newspaper. She hoped he would use his influence to persuade Post officials to sponsor the D.C. spelling bee.

Dr. Rolark volunteered his newspaper instead, a local, weekly, Black-owned community newspaper serving residents since 1964. He engaged his daughter, Denise Rolark, managing editor of The Washington Informer, to assist in coordinating D.C.’s first spelling bee. He believed the Informer was ideally suited to sponsor the spelling bee.

The first citywide spelling bee was held at Backus Junior High School in Northeast in March of 1982. John Krattenmaker, a sixthgrade student at Mann Elementary School in Northwest, was the winner. Dr. Rolark was disgruntled after Scripps denied John’s participation in the Scripps National Spelling Bee held the following May. According to Scripps rules, only daily newspapers qualified for sponsorship, and the Informer was published weekly.

Dr. Rolark, a member of the board of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), the trade association for nearly 200 African American-owned newspapers in the U.S., concluded that the national spelling bee’s policy was discriminatory. Since there were no African American-owned daily newspapers in the U.S., Black publications were blocked from sponsorship even in markets where no other publications would sponsor a local spelling bee.

Purpose

Scripps, a diversified multi-media compa ny, established the National Spelling Bee to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabulary, learn concepts, and develop correct English that will help them all their lives. Spellers experience the satisfaction of learning language not only for the sake of correct spelling but also for the sake of cultural and intellectual literacy.

The Washington Informer’s participation in Scripps National Spelling Bee helps to further the goals of Scripps in the District of Columbia and to address the issue of illiteracy, particularly among African American youth. “If we want to improve the quality of life for all Americans,” said the late Dr. Calvin W. Rolark, publisher, “then we must begin by teaching our children to read, which they will not be able to achieve until they can learn to spell.”

Dr. Rolark engaged legal counsel from his wife, Attorney Wilhelmina J. Rolark, who informed Scripps of their plans to file an injunction in court that would forbid the national competition to be held in the District of Columbia until the court ruled on the merits of the case. Scripps quickly reversed its policy, and the following year, the national spelling bee winner was sponsored by the Loudon County Times, a weekly newspaper based in Loudon County, Virginia. The Times was the only other weekly newspaper to participate along with the Informer in the national spelling bee that year.

Nearly 4,000 students enrolled in more than 200 D.C. schools, including private, parochial, independent, charter, and home-schools, participate in The Washington Informer DC City Wide Spelling Bee each year. For 36 years, the DC City Wide Spelling Bee was held at the television studios of NBC4. It was taped and later aired for general viewership throughout the Washington metropolitan area.

In 2020, the 38th Annual Washington Informer DC City Wide Spelling Bee was held in the studios of the Office of Cable Television, Film, Music, and Entertainment (OCTFME).

In 2021, due to the pandemic, the 39th Annual Washington Informer DC City Wide Spelling Bee was held virtually with students eager to win the citywide title despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, the 40th Annual Washington Informer DC City Wide Spelling Bee was held in person, with students returning to OCTFME for the exciting spelling competition.