RECIPIENT OF THE DC BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION 2023 LEGACY AWARD
Serving Our Community in the DMV
Marion Barry Avenue: A Newly Named Road with a Long Legacy By Kayla Benjamin, Sam P.K. Collins and James Wright, Jr. WI Climate & Environment Writer and WI Staff Writers District officials, business magnates, artists, organizers and residents recently ushered in the renaming of Southeast’s Good Hope Road with a ceremony honoring the life and legacy of former D.C. Mayor and Ward 8 D.C. Councilmember Marion S. Barry, Jr., the man whose name will now emanate from street signs along the nearly twomile corridor. “Marion Barry did a lot of good for people in the community,” said Ann Fields, co-owner of LaThreadz Couture, a variety store along the corridor.
“He gave a lot of people their first job. He put a lot of work into Ward 8. Renaming the street? He earned it.” In the years since Barry’s death, the former Good Hope Road experienced incremental, but significant, economic and infrastructural development, somewhat similar to District neighborhoods west of the Anacostia River. For instance, new Black-owned eateries and businesses are peppered throughout the corridor. D.C. government employees also make their daily commute to the D.C Department of Housing and Community Development, located on Marion Barry Avenue SE near Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE.
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African Americans with Native American Ancestry Discuss Heritage By James Wright WI Staff Writer Sam Ford is known throughout the Washington metropolitan area as the local news reporter for Channel 7, WJLA-TV who asks the right questions, gets answers, and is responsive to the African American community. What is not as well known about Ford, 70, is that he is a voting member of the Cherokee Nation, one of the Native American groups classified by the U.S. government early in the country’s history as what is now known as the “Five Tribes.” These tribes (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek
HERITAGE Page 48 4 Terace Garnier is a U.S. Air Force veteran, a member of the D.C. National Guard, Miss International World 2023, a journalist, author and member of a Chippewa council in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Robert R. Roberts/The Washington Informer)
Vol 59 No 6..., November 23 - 29, 2023
Go-Go Museum Breaks Ground
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5 Cora Masters Barry dons a coat celebrating her late husband Marion S. Barry, at the street renaming ceremony in his honor on Nov. 18. ( /The Washington Informer)
Local Organizations Help Families During the Holidays By Lindiwe Vilakazi and Sam P.K. Collins WI Health Reporter and WI Staff Writer The pandemic may have come to an end, but individuals and families alike are still struggling to keep afloat. That’s why Alan Kamara plans to pass out healthy food and winter essentials for the third consecutive time under his nonprofit Raising Aware5 Organizations throughout the DMV are providing meals ness 4 Innocent Prisoners (RAIP). for families in need. (Roy Lewis/The Washington Informer) Kamara, a returning citizen, founded the nonprofit in 2021 to advocate for those forgotten about in the prison system. Other programs conducted by RAIP include community basketball games and fitness sessions. As it relates
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