VOL. 52, NO. 44 • AUGUST 17 - 23, 2017 WI Back to School Supplement Center Section
Congress Heights Businesses Get Boost Page 31
Protesters Flood D.C. Streets, Angered by Trump’s ‘Silence’ Has White Supremacy Been Given a Green Light in America?
Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Comcast Bring Internet to Underserved Families
By D. Kevin McNeir WI Editor @dkevinmcneir On an idyllic summer afternoon in the District on Sunday, Aug. 13, thousands took to the streets in the shadows of the White House to voice their concerns after armed white supremacists in Charlottesville took prejudice and violence to new heights just one day earlier – resulting in dozens of injuries and even death in a daylong melee captured on video that confirms the tenuous state of race relations in today’s Donald Trump-led America. One local participant who also works as an organizer with the Stop Police Terror Project DC, said efforts to move the country backward, including the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and like-minded groups who support Nazi ideologies, will continue to be met with strident opposition. “There’s been a movement growing in America for several years, especially since the murder of Mike Brown – a movement against white supremacy, racism and bigotry,” said Eugene Puryear who added that incidents in Charlottesville have exposed those hell bent on making the country even more divided. Several others reacting to the white nationalists-fueled “Unite the Right” rally, held last Saturday allegedly to voice opposition to city officials’ decision to remove a statue of the South’s Civil War icon, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, said it’s time for all Americans to speak up. “I’m surprised things have gotten
RESPONSE Page 11
Olympic Medalist ‘Leaps Forward’ for Youth
By D. Kevin McNeir WI Editor @dkevinmcneir
5 Activist Eugene Puryear (right) led protesters past Trump Hotel to the confederate statue of Albert Pike
near Metropolitan police headquarters after a prayer vigil at Lafayette Park in Northwest on Sunday Aug. 13. /Photo by Roy Lewis
DCPS, Teachers Union Finally Agree on Contract
East St. Louis native and Olympic medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee can attest to the importance of having the proper tools for training and a supportive team of coaches in order to perform at the highest possible level. Now, for the second year, the woman voted by Sports Illustrated as “the Greatest Female
KERSEE Page 14
Union Members to Vote, Then Move to Council By Sarafina Wright WI Staff Writer The Washington Teachers Union (WTU) reached an agreement with the city this week on a new contract that significantly increases compensation for the thousands of teachers in the D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) system, ending a yearslong standoff. After a long and testy battle — the union had operated
without a contract since 2012 — Mayor Muriel Bowser, schools Chancellor Antwan Wilson and union President Elizabeth Davis announced Monday, Aug. 14, a tentative deal for a new contract that will increase wages by nine percent over the next two years for city teachers. "Since 2007, the District of Columbia has blazed a trail
UNION CONTRACT Page 38
5 D.C. Schools Chancellor Antwan Wilson, Washington Teachers Union
(WTU) President Elizabeth Davis and Mayor Muriel Bowser speak to teachers and members of the press at Bunker Hill Elementary School after the new teachers’ contract was submitted to the body for vote. /Photo by Shevry Lassiter
Celebrating 52 Years of Service / Serving More Than 50,000 African American Readers Throughout The Metropolitan Area