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Center Section Celebrating 58 Years - Vol. 58, No. 30 • May 11-17, 2023
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Twenty-Three Years Later, Two Mothers Carry on Healing Journey
Easter Monday Shooting Survivor Harris “Pappy” Bates Credits Mother for Support By Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer At the age of 34, Harris “Pappy” Bates continues to relish in the parts of his life that bring him joy, including his budding career as a security professional, moments spent with his fiancé and mother, and phone conversations with a teenage daughter in North Carolina who’s well on her way to adulthood. Even with life on the up and up, Bates admits that the events of April 24, 2000 often weigh heavily on his mind.
On that day, Bates counted among seven children who were shot at the main entrance of the National Zoo on Connecticut Avenue in Northwest at the culmination of Easter Monday festivities. Just feet away from where Bates, his sister and cousins had been standing, two groups of youth were engaged in an altercation that turned violent when Antoine Jones, 16 years old at the time, let off several shots into a crowd. Bates, then 11 years old, suffered a
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5 Mothers Union - Harris "Pappy" Bates (2nd left), son of Gillian Bates, (right) survived the 2020 Easter Monday Family Day shooting at the National Zoo. Tyrone Parker, (2nd right) united Bates and Linda Grimes-Jones, mother of Bate’s shooter, and supports their efforts to address gun violence in D.C. (Lafayette Barnes IV/Washington Informer)
CELEBRATING MOTHERS
Roberts Beats Odds to Raise Six Children Earns Degrees While Managing Family By James Wright WI Staff Writer Many mothers will say that raising one child is a handful, but taking care of six that are close in age can be downright overwhelming. But no one told that to Michelle Roberts, a 5Michelle Roberts raised children, worked, and attendDistrict resident who has birthed a half-a-dozed college and graduate schools simultaneously. (Shevry en children and did the best she could to raise Lassiter/ The Washington Informer) them right. “It wasn’t easy, but I did it,” Roberts, 42, said. “My oldest child is 23 years old and the youngest is six.” In addition to raising her children on her
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5 Bladensburg Councilmember Jocelyn Route (center) with her children, ages 17 months to 17 years old. (Courtesy Photo/ Jocelyn Route)
Local Politician Provides Home and Hope for More Than 20 Children By Micha Green WI Managing Editor Bladensburg Councilmember Jocelyn Route, has more than 22 kids and six grandbabies– she carried three, ages 11, 9 and 17 months, of the about two dozen— but all of the children she
proudly claims. For 14 years, Route has served as a foster parent to children in the DMV area– a role she stumbled into at the age of 22 and hasn’t looked back. “I started off when I was a student at How-
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Celebrating 58 years. Your credible and trusted source for Black news and information.