VOL. 52, NO. 38 • JULY 6 - 12, 2017
Babyface, Fantasia to Headline this Year's Summer Spirit Festival - Page 30
‘Mayor for Life’ Statue Slated Honoring Marion Barry, Jr.
Happy 4th of JUly!
BARRY Page 38
Mayor Bowser Takes Flack for District's Affordable Housing Crisis By Tatyana Hopkins WI Staff Writer
By Lauren Poteat WI Contributing Writer
Nearly three years after his death, the legacy of former District Mayor Marion Barry, Jr. will be commemorated with an eight-foot statue in the heart of the city. The bronze statue of the “Mayor for Life” will be placed outside of the John A. Wilson Building in Northwest next March, the same month as his birth, with an encrypted message from his autobiography: “Most people don't know me . . . They don't know about all of the fighting I've done to manage a government that was progressive and more oriented to uplift the people rather than to suppress them. That's what I want my legacy to be. I was a freedom fighter and a fighter for the economic livelihood of not only Black people but all people,” he wrote. The statue will be a full-body likeness of the former mayor, who served from 1979 to 1991 and again from 1995 to 1999, with his arm raised in greeting on top of a 2½-foot granite pedestal. Barry, a civil rights crusader, served as the second mayor of the District and eventually secured both the love and respect of many Washingtonians, particularly those who lived in Ward 8. That support would diminish little even after his 1990 arrest when he found himself
Capture the Moment Page 18
5 The display of fireworks on the National Mall attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors and thousands of more viewers at prime location spots around the city. /Photo by Lateef Mangum
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser may be outpacing the hypothetical opponents for her 2018 re-election bid, but her administration's handling of the city's affordable housing crisis has drawn the ire of some residents. A recent Washington Post survey revealed Bowser to be the most favorable candidate in a hypothetical vote. She snagged 50 percent of the vote, while her predecessor, D.C. Council member Vincent Gray, received 27 percent and D.C. Attorney General Karl
SURVEY Page 14
Hearing Loss Advocates Seek to Educate Public on Disability By William J. Ford WI Staff Writer @jabariwill When people try to capture Veronica Davila's attention from a distance at a grocery store, parking lot or any other venue, some believe she's just ignoring them. If that person comes within six feet of her, Davila's service dog, a giant schnauzer named Sammie, either barks boisterously or rubs her leg to alert her that she may have company. Davila of Oxon Hill stands among 48 million Americans who appear normal visually, but suffer
from hearing loss, an invisible disability incorporated as part of the American Disability Act, which became law on July 26, 1990. To inspire others, the hairstylist who went completely deaf in her left ear in September 2012 founded the Prince George's County chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America. It's one of only four chapters in Maryland organized to educate people and to change the stigmas against individuals with hearing loss in society. "I was very tight-knit with the
DISABILITY Page 11
5 Veronica Davila, president of the Prince George's County chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of American, takes notes while talking with members of the organization at a Wegman's in Lanham on June 28 as her dog, Sammie, looks on. /Photo by William J. Ford
Celebrating 52 Years of Service / Serving More Than 50,000 African American Readers Throughout The Metropolitan Area