WINNER OF SIX SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS D.C. AWARDS FOR 2022
Celebrating 58 Years - Vol. 58, No. 42 • August 3 - 9, 2023
Negro League All Star Game
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Hundreds, Distinguished Guests Celebrate the Life of Senator Tommie Broadwater Funeral Highlights Broadwater’s Political and Community Legacy By Richard Elliott and Hamil Harris WI Contributing Reporters
5 Maryand Governor Wes Moore dropped by the City of New Carrollton for National Night Out on August 1. (Hamil Harris/The Washington Informer)
The main sanctuary of the First Baptist Church of Glenarden appeared like a living almanac of Prince George’s County politics— filled with lawmakers and politicians who came out to pay their final respects to former Senator Tommie Broadwater. More than 1,000 people came out to the service at the First Baptist Church of Glenarden and in the pews were politicians spanning generations. “He was the one who made the way
for all of the Black Senators from Prince George’s County,” said Maryland State Sen. C.Anthony Muse (D– District 26). “He was able to come up in a system that was not always kind to people of color. He was the Godfather of politics and we all loved him.” The passing of Senator Tommie Broadwater, the first Black Senator elected in Prince George’s County, sparked a multigenerational celebration. As “The Godfather of Prince George’s” his life has received universal praise for the great political advance-
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First Woman and African American Appointed as Metro’s Range Master
Children of Louise B. Miller Look Back on Her Advocacy for Black Deaf Students
Salicia Belton views herself as someone who does her job without a lot of fanfare and shuns the limelight. However, Belton quietly made history months ago when the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA or also known as Metro) board finalized her selection as the leader of the agency’s police department’s firearms training range. Metro officials confirm Belton is the first woman and first African American to serve in that position. “I am in charge of the agency’s
y Sam. P.K. Collins B WI Staff Writer
By James Wright WI Staff Writer
weapons and ammunition range,” Belton, 51, said. “It is a multi-million-dollar operation. I oversee training officers on how to use their weapons, maintenance of the range, working within its budget and seeing that it is well supplied.” The firearms training range operation started in 2006 when Metro officials learned that its police offi-
BELTON Page 52 4 Sergeant Salicia Belton is WMATA’S range master for its firearms training operation.
Gallaudet Recognizes Miller, Her Son Kenneth Miller and Black Deaf Students Denied Diplomas
Two years before schools became desegregated nationwide, Louise B. Miller and other local parents fought a court battle on behalf of her son Kenneth Miller and five other Black Deaf students who had been denied admission into the Kendall School for the Deaf, located on the campus of what's now known as Gallaudet University in Northeast. Even after the U.S. District Court in D.C. ruled in Miller's favor, the Kendall School relegated Kenneth Miller, his peers, and more than a dozen other Black Deaf youths to Kendall Division II
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