OpEd

Street Renaming to Honor the Rolarks in Southeast

D.C. City Council received testimony this week on a bill introduced by Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White to rename a D.C. street in honor of Dr. Calvin W. Rolark, Sr., and his wife, former Ward 8 Councilmember Wilhelmina J. Rolark. The 500 block of Foxhall Place, S.E., where the powerful D.C. couple lived for more than 30 years, will be renamed Wilhelmina and Calvin Rolark Way if the bill passes.

The renaming is symbolic, not permanent, allowing residents living there now to avoid the hassle of changing their addresses, a measure they opposed in 2018 when a previous bill was introduced.

Wilhelmina Jackson Rolark, a native of Portsmouth, Virginia, is a 1937 graduate of Howard University, where she received her Bachelor of Arts and master’s in Political Science. She is a 1944 graduate of Robert H. Terrell Law School, which she attended at night and practiced law in D.C. for over 50 years. She served as secretary to the National Bar Association and was an active member of the Washington Bar Association. She also founded the National Association of Black Women Attorneys.

Rolark’s legal career focused on civil rights. She was praised as a champion for working people by the AFL-CIO. She was also remembered as a “Soldier for Home Rule” in a The Washington Post obituary.

Rolark served on the D.C. City Council for Ward 8 for four terms from 1977 to 1993. She chaired several committees, including the Judiciary Committee, and her legislation established cable television in D.C.

Councilmember Rolark was responsible for renaming Nichols Avenue, S.E. to Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Portland Street to Malcolm X Avenue, S.E. She co-founded the Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Parade. She died on February 14, 2006.

Dr. Calvin W. Rolark, Sr., a native of Texarkana, Texas, died on October 23, 1994. He was 67. A community activist, journalist and philanthropist started The Washington Informer newspaper in 1964. He also co-founded the United Black Fund in April 1969.

The fight UBF had with the U.S. Civil Service Commission for UBFs inclusion in the Combined Federal Campaign to solicit payroll deductions from federal employees was impactful and successful. They also worked tirelessly to establish a fundraising partnership with the United Giver’s Fund, now the United Way. Under Dr. Rolark’s leadership, millions of dollars were raised to assist more than 100 diverse local and small non-profit organizations serving the unmet needs of area residents.

Though Calvin and Wilhelmina Rolark are no longer with us, their legacy lives on with those who remember their innumerable contributions to this community. WI

Bullets Flying Everywhere but Do We Really Care?

The recent mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, continues a disturbing trend for 2022 with the number of such incidents now around 309 – with more inevitably to come.

Years ago, when the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary occurred December 14, 2012, Americans were shocked that something so terrible, so heinous, so callous, could occur in our own country – particularly at the hands of another American.

Back then, America still seemed more focused on weapons of mass destruction and the efforts of foreign agents to cause havoc in the U.S. But as the number of mass shootings have continued to escalate, most, if not all committed by disgruntled, if not mentally-impaired American citizens, one has to wonder why our legislators and other officials have not done more to bring an end to such incidents.

In the latest mass shooting, the alleged shooter had a history of mental health challenges including an attempted suicide and a documented threat to murder his entire family. Yet, he still was able to purchase guns under his own name and with relative ease.

The bullets seem to fly with reckless abandon with shootings taking place everywhere – from small suburbs like Highland Park to major urban locations.

And while the president has flags flying at half-mast at the White House, families and friends in the Chicago suburb are left to bury their loved ones – the youngest being just eight years old. One couple who died in the melee, leave their two-year-old son, whose father protected the child by shielding him with his own body, to grow up as an orphan.

Haven’t we had enough? How much more must Americans endure?

Where are our priorities? While the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade to protect the yet unborn, what about those already living?

Don’t they matter just as much? Apparently, they – we – do not. WI

TO THE EDITOR

My Body, My Choice

I can’t believe we are now in a society where my granddaughters will have less reproductive rights than I. Yes, abortions are still legal in D.C., but for how long? Congress has authority over the District as we still don’t have statehood. Our rights could be here today and gone tomorrow like many in this country are experiencing.

Juliette Young Washington, D.C.

Take It to The Bridge

I enjoy the WI Bridge. It captures the authenticity of the city and the young people Black and brown people without being corny or forced. We need more of a spotlight on young, Black media, especially in D.C. Salute to WI Bridge.

Brandon Freeman Washington, D.C.

Readers' Mailbox The Washington Informer welcomes letters to the editor about articles we publish or issues affecting the community. Write to: lsaxton@washingtoninformer. com or send to: 3117 Martin Luther King Jr Ave., SE, Washington, D.C. 20032. Please note that we are unable to publish letters that do not include a full name, address and phone number. We look forward to hearing from you.

Guest Columnist

What Did We Expect?

As soon as the Supreme Court announced its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a decision that allowed states, not the federal government to legislate women's bodily autonomy and right to choose, those who support abortion rights took it to the streets. They gathered with an enthusiasm fueled by outrage that a right established nearly 50 years ago has been snatched back. They gathered outside the Supreme Court, and at state capitals and state courts, angrily chanting, "We won't go back." They have pressured the White House, imploring President Biden to do something to preserve abortion rights at the federal level. They have rightfully excoriated Maine Sen. Susan Collins (R), who voted to confirm all three of the most recent conservative justices — Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett — saying that she believed them when they asserted, under oath, that they believed that Roe was a precedent that could not be overruled.

Julianne Malveaux

I agree that the Dobbs decision was wrong and infringes on women's bodily autonomy. But I wonder what those who took it to the streets expected when the terrible trio joined the Supreme Court. Rabid Republicans have been trying to overturn the Roe decision for decades, mistakenly describing themselves as "pro-life." They support life in the womb but not in the world, failing to fund Medicare expansion, the child tax credit, affordable and quality housing and education, and other things that support a quality of life for children and their parents. Taking it to the streets after the fact may be emotionally satisfying and movement-galvanizing, but it is too little, too late. As soon as the three conservatives joined the court, Roe was bound to be overturned. Instead of acting and strategizing, activists are impotently reacting. The only way Dobbs can be reversed now is to both expand the Supreme Court and elect people at the state level that will support women's bodily autonomy.

The Dobbs decision has racial reverberations. Black women are lower-income than others, and more likely to have abortions, mostly for economic reasons. Many are mothers of several children and simply cannot afford one more. The removal of their bodily autonomy has economic consequences for women when unwanted pregnancies can cause interruptions in education and employment. While laws exist to prevent discrimination against pregnant women, these laws are often unevenly enforced, and women of modest means often lack the resources to bring this

Guest Columnist

A. Peter Bailey

BET Awards Show Didn't Provide a Black Cultural Experience

I will begin by stating that I am a senior citizen journalist/amateur historian who, during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, had memorable experiences of attending at least two or more concerts featuring some of the most inspiring and brilliant Black artists of the 20th century. As a journalist, I met and interviewed many of them. They provided me and others with soulful and entertaining experiences that remain with us.

They included Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, Miles Davis, Lionel Hampton, Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Donnie Hathaway, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Roberta Flack, B.B. King, Max Roach, Abby Lincoln, Teddy Pendergrass, The O'Jays, the Four Tops and the Staples Singers, among others.

Unfortunately, the kind of Black cultural experience they provided was mostly absent at the recent BET Awards show. As I watched the entire three hours it was sorrowful to see so many Black artists performing with a notable lack of what some of us call soul. Throughout the entire show the host consistently referred to it as an entertaining and cultural presentation. To me, it may have been a cultural experience for some, but it wasn't a Black cultural experience. In fact, it was a kind of European-American cultural presentation that can be often seen on television and on stages throughout the country.

Other things that, to me, showed its lack of soul was so many Black women and men with dyed or bewigged blond hair, of Black men wearing sunglasses when there was no sun in sight, of so many women jumping around the stage in "shake yo' booty" outfits, of Black men and women with egotistical one name, of too many Black men and women on stage and in the audience who have completely embraced the European concept of fashion and dress.

All of the above made watching the BET Awards show a negative experience for serious Black people who strongly believe that Black culture is

Guest Columnists

Vercie Lark / Ted James

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a vital contributor in our efforts to promote and protect our human and civil rights in this basically white supremacist society. We totally reject the concept that European-American culture is superior to ours. In fact, many whites in the cultural and entertainment arenas have artistically and financially exploited that talents of so many Black artists. They are well aware of the greatness of Black cultural and artistic contributions. There was very little Black culture for them to exploit at the BET show.

WI

Beyond Juneteenth: Breaking the Chains to Access Capital and Achieve Real Freedom

Being Black and walking away from a person who legally owned you became reality on June 17, 1865, when Texas became the last state to implement the Emancipation Proclamation. The day, now known as Juneteenth, has become one of celebration for Black Americans.

It was a start. As Black Americans, however, we continually must ask the question: “Are we truly emancipated?”

While important to celebrate a day that freed our ancestors from the physical bondages and the inhumane capacity of slave owners to treat them as less than human beings, we must also look to the day as a reminder we have yet to successfully free Black community, from the vestiges of restraints, controls and power structures that bond us far beyond the physical realm of being enslaved.

Participating in capitalism through business ownership is one of them. Many people were then and still remain reluctant to accept our access of all that our country offers. The quest for equity, fairness and impartiality – at the least from the federal government – has been attempted through years of court rulings and reforms. Still, equity in America, even after 157 years, is a work in progress.

According to an analysis from the White House Council of Economic Advisers, differences in business ownership account for 20% of the wealth gap between average white and Black households. The analysis noted that people of color, women and those from rural areas are underrepresented in their share of total federal procurement dollars, even relative to their low rates of ownership in the general economy.

Seeing that a whole government corrective action was needed, the Biden/Harris Administration instructed by executive action more than 90 federal agencies to scour their agencies for changes they could make to provide more equity in services and programs to the underserved – a group which includes Black Americans and other communities disproportionately impacted by poverty and inequity over the years. In response, agen-

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Guest Columnist

Dots

Like many of my generation, I was never reared in opulence. There was never an overabundance of anything that could make life materially easier. We did have love and the values of personal achievement and the pursuit of a quality education. We learned to appreciate many things that others would consider insignificant.

I can recall gleefully stimulating my imagination with connect-the-dots art. I always enjoyed predicting the subject of the illustration before completing the connections and found that I became quite skillful at both, including the final coloring. In reflection, I consider that activity as preparation for my adult life — learning how to assess the big picture and understanding how things come together. So it is with the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

Taking the time to connect the dots and realizing that life, like the dots, frequently offers a glimpse into the future, it is difficult to believe that so many find it shocking and unbelievable that the Supreme Court would follow-through with the dissolution of Roe. The "leaked" decision in May makes this shock and disbelief even less understandable. Beyond the leak, it must be acknowledged that this decision was not made spontaneously. This well-orchestrated decision is the result of decades of organization, planning and single-issue voting.

I can't remember the number of times I've mentioned it in past articles, but, as far back as the mid-seventies, I can remember televangelist and 1988 Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson providing tutelage on a ground-up approach to national Republican political domination. He advocated vigorous competition for any and all available local elective offices. He was confident that securing these offices would lead to establishing the groundwork for success in securing higher elective offices. In my assessment, the Robertson plan has worked. In 1982, Congress amended the Voting Rights Act by changing the standard from requiring proof of intended discrimination to only having to show discriminatory impact. Ronald Reagan believed that the Voting Rights Act humiliated the South and brought in an individual to determine how to oppose the 1982 Voting Rights Act Amendment. That person was John Roberts who began his career arguing against the Voting Rights Act. When writing for the majority in the evisceration of the VRA in 2013, Roberts' crusade had, seemingly, achieved its highest objective.

Mitch McConnell led Senate Republicans in a disciplined, sustained, and, at times, underhanded campaign to deny President Obama the opportunity to appoint federal judges. McConnell helped bring down Roe — a decadeslong goal of anti-abortion

E. Faye Williams

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Guest Columnist

Ben Jealous

Start Now to Take Back the Supreme Court

Did you ever wonder whether elections really matter? Well, the Trump Supreme Court majority has answered that question for good. Or, more accurately, they have answered it for bad.

In the term that has just ended, the new far right-wing majority on the Supreme Court went on a rampage. They have torn up decades of legal precedent to diminish Americans' rights and legal protections. To justify the results they wanted, they lied in their rulings the way some of them lied to get on the court. It has been a shameful display of power politics disguised as judging.

Not surprisingly, the most attention has been paid to the Court majority overturning the 50-year-old Roe v. Wade decision. A constitutional right that has made a huge difference in the lives of generations of women was wiped away. The impact will be devastating and deadly.

Millions of individuals and couples dealing with unwanted pregnancies, the trauma of rape or incest, life-threatening pregnancy complications, or even a miscarriage that some intrusive government official decides is suspicious, will have their options severely limited or eliminated entirely.

We know that those restrictions and their consequences will fall most harshly on already vulnerable people, including Black people, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities and low-income people. Already in Missouri, a major health care system will no longer treat rape victims with emergency contraception because the state abortion ban puts medical care providers at legal risk.

Anti-abortion state legislators seem to be in competition to see who can pass the most extreme, intrusive and controlling laws. Some are even trying to limit people's right to travel from one state to another, targeting anyone who helps a person from a state that bans abortion get care in a state that permits it. It reminds me of the old fugitive slave laws that forced free states to help slave states deny people their freedom.

Unfortunately, overturning Roe is just one of the harmful decisions handed down by the Trump Court. The Court intervened in voting rights cases to protect gerrymandering designed to limit Black voters' access to political power. This comes on top of other rulings gutting the Voting Rights Act.

The Trump Court went after sensible regulation of guns. The far-right justices overturned a New York law more than 100 years old that required people to show a good cause to get a permit to carry concealed firearms. Communities that are already suffering from the effects of gun crime are likely to experience even greater violence now that the court has robbed

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Guest Columnist

Marc H. Morial

Essence Festival: A Birthday Party That Has Grown Into a National Cultural Touchstone

"It's within our DNA as Black women, and some of it is within the historical evolution of who we are as Black women, where we were trained and groomed to give so much of ourselves. Essence was specifically created to be a platform where we gave to her. We're not looking to take from her or to put more of a burden on her, but we just want her to come in a safe space — whether it's with her girlfriends, herself, if she wants to bring her family, it's up to her — but it's all about her. It doesn't matter what's surrounding her; she comes and she gets energized and she feels rejuvenated and she feels safe and comforted." — Joy A. Profet, former Essence Communications CEO

For more than a quarter-century, each Independence Day weekend, my beloved hometown of New Orleans is transformed as it hosts the nation's signature celebration of Black women, culture and communities, the Essence Festival of Culture.

Only three times since 1995 has New Orleans not hosted the festival: in 2006 it was moved to Houston as New Orleans recovered from the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the festival in 2020, and it was held virtually last year.

Bringing the Essence Festival to New Orleans is among my proudest accomplishments during my two terms as mayor — not only because of what it has meant to the city, but because of what it means for Black women in America.

This year, it's more important than ever to celebrate and lift up Black women. The past week has seen one of the high points in our nation's history and one of its lowest. Just six days after delivering a devastating blow to women's rights with its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court inaugurated Ketanji Brown Jackson, its first Black female justice.

The events of the past week prompted New York Times columnist Charles Blow to declare "Women Will Save Us": "It simply feels in this moment that women, more than men, have a clarity about the danger

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