36TH ANNUAL WASHINGTON INFORMER
VOL. 53, NO. 25 • APRIL 5 - 11, 2018
The Informer Salutes Duke Ellington during April, Jazz Appreciation Month
Honoring Dr. King, Fifty Years Later
Spelling Bee Supplement Center Section
HU Students Occupy Campus Building Amid Financial Aid Scandal By Tatyana Hopkins WI Staff Writer
District Joins Tributes Worldwide as Youth Lead the Way By D. Kevin McNeir WI Editor @dkevinmcneir
FIRST OF A TWO-PART SERIES Wednesday, April 4, marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – a day during which Washingtonians paused to remember, reflect and rededicate their lives to making the District, its sister cities and the nation the Beloved Community that King would hope for, work toward and dream about until his tragic death in Memphis in 1968. From sunrise to sunset, the Great-
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5 Howard University students shut down the Mordecai Wyatt Johnson Administrative Building in Northwest demanding the immediate resignation of President Wayne A.I. Frederickson. The shutdown which began on Friday, March 30. Students said they will end the shutdown when their demands have been met. /Photo by Roy Lewis
NAACP Files Suit to Ensure Accurate Count of Census Data By William J. Ford WI Staff Writer @jabariwill The NAACP filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump, the census Bureau and secretary of commerce to ensure minority populations are accurately counted in the 2020 census. Prince George’s County, its NAACP branch and the branch President Bob Ross joined county resident H. Elizabeth Johnson in filing the suit on March 28 after Prince George’s experienced one of the highest undercounts
in the nation at 2.3 percent in the 2010 census, according to the suit. The figure is based on counties with a population of at least 100,000. NAACP President Derrick Johnson said a governor, several mayors and others also have expressed interest in joining the suit. “This is a national case,” Johnson said. “Prince George’s County is the perfect example to show when you have a high-wealthy county, majority African-American, where the headquarters of
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5 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Prince George’s County, Maryland, and the NAACP Prince George’s County Branch held a press conference in Northwest on March 28, announcing a lawsuit against the federal government to combat the imminent threat that the 2020 Census will undercount African Americans and other people of color in communities throughout the United States causing inequalities in political representation and deficiencies in federal funding of those communities. /Photo by Shevry Lassiter
Hundreds of Howard University students continue a weeklong protest after an anonymous article revealed six employees had been fired after an internal investigation revealed the misappropriation of financial aid. The protest, led by students known as “HU Resist,” bears witness to students occupying the administraiton building. This comes on the cusp of the 50th anniversary of similar demonstrations made by students in the same building. The group published a list of demand that includes adequate housing for students 21 and younger, an end to “unsubstantiated tuition hikes,” the resignation of the school’s president, Wayne Frederick, and the university’s board of trustees. When the news broke, students decided to sit-in at the administration building Thursday, March 29 and quickly mobilized into a movement spread through social media. “It just allowed us and other students to spark and make this action happen,” said Alexis Mckenney, a student organizer with HU Resist and a senior at the university. She said the protest was about more than financial aid. The list of demands also called for the administration to “actively fight rape culture on campus,” disarm campus police, provide more resources for students who need mental health care, give students op-
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Celebrating 53 Years of Service / Serving More Than 50,000 African American Readers Throughout The Metropolitan Area