WINNER OF SIX SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS D.C. AWARDS FOR 2022
Celebrating 58 Years - Vol. 58, No. 45 • August 24 - 30, 2023
Break Ground on New Rec Center
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The 60th Anniversary March on Washington: What to Know and Where to Go By Hamil R. Harris WI Contributing Writer
5 Ben’s Chili Bowl celebrated their 65th Anniversary at the original U Street location. Residents, Go-Go bands, DC officials, and celebrities were all present to celebrate the milestone on August 22 with the Ali Family. (Ja'Mon Jackson/The Washington Informer)
Ben’s Chili Bowl Turns 65
Co-Founder Virginia Ali Credited as Guiding Force By James Wright WI Staff Writer On the stage at the 65th Anniversary of the founding of Ben’s Chili Bowl on Aug. 22, Virginia Ali, the co-founder of the restaurant chain and brand, sat between Black women entrepreneurial icons Sheila Johnson, the co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, CEO of Salamander Hotels and Resorts and the first Black American woman billionaire; and
Cathy Hughes, the founder of media company Radio One and became the first Black woman to lead a publicly-lead company. Ali, 89, in the company of business standouts, didn’t go unnoticed at the celebration that took place in front of the restaurant chain’s storied U Street, N.W. location in front of dozens of people. “We three women started out with a mate in these businesses and either by divorce or death, we were able to carry on,” Hughes, 76, said. “Each and every one of us had our trials but it was you, D.C., that stood by us. D.C. is the reason three Black women succeeded in business.” Ali co-founded Ben’s Chili
Bowl with her husband, Ben, in 1958. Throughout the decades, the company has served noted figures such as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Rev. Jesse Jackson, President Barack Obama, many members of the Congressional Black Caucus including each District delegate to the U.S. Congress, every District mayor and many Council members as well as everyday people. The U Street location has seen the 1968 uprising after the assassination of King, economic downturns, the construction of the Green Line in the 1980s,
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Sixty years after the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, and Andrea Waters King are bringing together thousands from across racial, cultural, and generational lines to finish the work that began at the Lincoln Memorial decades ago. Six decades ago a group of Civil Rights leaders called “the Big 8,” organized an event that brought 250,000 people to Washington. On Saturday, a diverse coalition that spans generations and races is
planned to reignite the “Dream,” that Dr. King articulated on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. “We’ve partnered with 60 national organizations representing everyone from Latino, Jewish, Asian, and LGBTQ+ communities to labor and civic groups,” the Rev. Sharpton said in a statement Saturday. “[National Action Network] NAN has carefully curated speakers, planned a safe march route, and ensured that Aug. 26 will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reaffirm our collective commitment to the fight for equality and justice.”
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D.C. Churches the Bedrock for MLK, the Civil Rights Movement By Hamil R. Harris WI Contributing Writer
In August of 2013, for weeks, the Rev. Perry Smith, urged his congregation to join the 50th anniversary of the historic March on Washington, emphasizing the historicity and significance of the occasion. “We felt it was something that needed to occur because of the absence of the rights of African Americans in this country,” said Smith, in an interview 10 years ago. A decade later, many veterans of the movement have passed away, such as Smith, who died in April 2021.
5Rev. Perry Smith (Coourtesy photo)
As people gather for the 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington, current freedom fighters stress the im-
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