VOL. 54, NO. 28 • APRIL 25 - MAY 1, 2019
Celebrate Nature’s Splendor in the DMV – It’s National Park Week
Norton Gets Powerful Backing in her Push for D.C. Statehood
Automatic Voter Registration a Transformative Tool for America By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer @StacyBrownMedia The District is one of a handful of jurisdictions that have implemented automatic voter registration and new studies have indicated that it's a move that's helped increase voter turnout. That success along with voter suppression concerns have led Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), chair of the Elections Subcommittee of the Committee on House Administration, to hold listening sessions to hear from citizens about their recent voter registration and voting experiences. Also, it's anticipated that any evidence of voter suppression or voter
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WI BRIDGE Center Section
By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer @StacyBrownMedia
5 Participants packed a riverboat on the first trip of the day on the Anacostia River during the Anacostia River Festival held Saturday, April 20 in Southeast. (Anthony Tilghman/The Washington Informer)
D.C. Tackles Gentrification during Emergency Summit By Sam P.K. Collins WI Contributing Writer @SamPKCollins
5 Leaders address gentrification. (WI Staff photo)
In response to the mass expulsion of Black people from revitalized U.S. urban centers, a bevy of grassroots organizers, elected officials and businesspeople converged on Newark, New Jersey, this month for the National Emergency Summit on Gentrification, organized by the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW). A delegation of more than a dozen District-based leaders — including ANC Commissioner Salim Adofo, attorney Nkechi Taifa and the Rev.
Willie Wilson — counted among the participants in this meeting. They listened as panelists framed gentrification as a "Negro removal program" and later brainstormed strategies to counter systems that have allowed outside forces to maintain their leverage over majority-Black communities. "One of the things that I learned was that as an elected official I have to prepare residents to be able to have ownership in their community," said Adofo, one of 15 people who took the nearly four-hour drive to Newark for the event, held April 4-6. Adofo, whose constituents live
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The long and hard-fought battle for D.C. statehood led by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton received some powerful backing recently when D.C.'s Karl Racine announced that 20 fellow attorneys general nationwide have joined in supporting the cause. Racine said the attorneys general "affirm that District residents deserve voting rights and autonomy." Each have urged Congress to pass H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, a bill introduced by Norton that would make D.C. statehood a reality. The announcement came as Racine and others celebrated Emancipation Day, which commemorates the end of slavery in the District in 1862. "It also serves as a reminder of all the ways in which the District's freedom and autonomy have not yet been fully realized," Racine said. The action represented the first time that state attorneys general from across the country have come together to support the District. "The District's over 700,000 residents work hard, raise families and pay the highest federal taxes per capita, and yet they are deprived of the fundamental
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