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GLE IS REAL. T H E S TRUG

HT IS T HE FIG L! S TIL 2026

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. SUPPLEMENT

Serving Our Community in the DMV

Vol 61 No 15

January 22 - 28, 2026

Stronghold vs. Kennedy Street: The D.C. Native Battle for the Mayor’s Seat Begins

The 2026 MLK Holiday DC Peace Walk and Parade: A Moment for Reflection, Unity, Action By Sam Plo Kwia Collins, Jr. WI Senior Local Politics & Education Writer For another year, hundreds of revelers participated in a peace walk and parade in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They did so with Nee Nee Taylor of Harriet’s Wildest Dreams serving as a grand marshal. For Taylor, who just laid her brother, Ward 7 community leader John Fitzgerald Cotten, to rest, leading the 21st annual Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) Holiday DC Peace Walk and Parade took on a deeper meaning. “This parade we've been doing since we were in elementary school,” Taylor told The Informer as she pointed to a pin on her jacket bearing Fitzgerald’s image. “That's why I brought him with me to the parade with me. We believe in the dream…that one day all of our people will be free.”

By Sam Plo Kwia Collins, Jr. WI Senior Local Politics and Education Writer

WALK Page 36

5 Nee Nee Taylor of Harriet’s Wildest Dreams serves as a grand marshal in the 2026 MLK Holiday DC Peace Walk and Parade on Jan. 19. (Ja’Mon Jackson/The Washington Informer)

With former D.C. council member Kenyan McDuffie now in the mayoral race, the battle to succeed D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has become a showdown between him and another child of the District, D.C. Councilmember Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4). As McDuffie and Lewis George continue to highlight their deep neighborhood ties and District coming-of-age stories, some voters, including Amanda Beale, are saying they look forward to seeing each candidate debate about more pressing topics in the coming days and weeks.

The Collins D.C. Council Report

Trump Extends National Guard Deployment in D.C. Despite Low Crime and Local Objections

By Sam Plo Kwia Collins, Jr. WI Senior Local Politics & Education Writer

In her seven years as a local fixture, Doni Crawford has garnered a reputation as a racial equity advocate with a strong command of fiscal policy matters. Time and time again, from inside and outside of the John 5 FDoni Crawford (center) assists Council Chair Phil A. Wilson Building, she’s effected change for the marMendelson and former Councilmember Kenyan McDuf- ginalized. fie during a November 2025 legislative meeting. In the Now, as the D.C. Council’s newly appointed indeaftermath of Mcduffie’s resignation, she was appointed pendent at-large council member, Crawford plans to

COLLINS REPORT Page 16

MAYOR'S SEAT Page 36

3Members of the National Guard at Union Station in August 2025. After an extension from the Trump administration and despite crime rates sitting at a 30-year low, Washington, D.C. will remain under an expanded National Guard presence through at least the end of 2026. (WI File Photo/Ja’Mon Jackson)

Doni Crawford: An Appointed At-large Councilmember That Unites Insiders and Outsiders

as an at-large council member. (WI File Photo/Robert R. Roberts)

WHAT WOULD KING DO?

Martin Luther King Supplement Center Section

By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer

Washington, D.C. will remain under an expanded National Guard presence through at least the end of 2026 after the Trump administration approved another extension of the mission, keeping roughly 2,600 Guard members

deployed across the city despite violent crime rates sitting at a 30-year low. “And so it goes,” mused Tremaine Lackey, a Northeast, D.C. resident who works near Union Station. “The police state continues and the America that we once knew, the one where people put

GUARD Page 9

Celebrating 61 years. Your credible and trusted source for Black news and information. JANUARY 22 - 28, 2026 1