Washington, D.C

At historic Black D.C. landmark, a legacy of uplift carries on

Published

2 years ago

September 4, 2022

At historic Black D.C. landmark, a legacy of uplift carries on

Remark

It will be simple to stroll previous the good-looking constructing at 1200 U Avenue NW and never contemplate its historical past. Annually, 1000’s of individuals absolutely do.

However the True Reformer Constructing, on the nook of twelfth and U streets, has a storied previous foundational to Black Washington. In-built 1903 because the headquarters of the Grand Fountain of the United Order of True Reformers, it was a landmark constructing and doubtless the primary within the nation that was funded, designed, constructed and owned by African People after Reconstruction, in accordance with the Library of Congress.

The aim of the True Reformers was clear. Based by William Washington Browne as a Black temperance group within the late nineteenth century, it later grew into an insurance coverage, banking and newspaper enterprise that catered to Black individuals in want of enterprise loans, support and providers they couldn’t get hold of from White-owned companies, in accordance with Encyclopedia Virginia. At one level it was the most important Black-owned enterprise in the USA.

The constructing was additionally a logo of Black Washington’s rising political, financial and academic energy.

John Anderson Lankford, Washington’s first Black registered architect, designed the constructing. It “stands out to the civilized world as a pattern or instance of what the Negro can do and has carried out together with his mind, ability and cash,” he stated on the time, in accordance with Cultural Tourism DC.

Now the Public Welfare Basis, house owners of the constructing since 1999, is making efforts to tell each newer Washingtonians and lifelong residents about its significance.

Within the course of, the inspiration desires to proceed the constructing’s legacy as a useful resource for Black People.

“That is actually hallowed floor,” Candice C. Jones, the Public Welfare Basis’s chief government, stated final week as she led a tour by means of the 119-year-old constructing, which was up to date in 2001 and reworked once more in 2019 simply earlier than the pandemic.

“Why is that this landmark vital?” Jones requested. “As a result of simply a few blocks over on Vermont was once a tent city the place Black individuals fleeing racial terror within the South would come and arrange refuge. The True Reformer society … would pool their assets and supply individuals providers that they couldn’t get in the marketplace.”

This week the inspiration will have fun its seventy fifth anniversary as a nonprofit that has distributed greater than $700 million to grantees doing social justice work, together with pushing for reform in youth and grownup prison justice. There can be events, music (together with a efficiency by the Howard College marching band), panel discussions and a keynote speech by Bryan Stevenson, government director of the Equal Justice Initiative.

The anniversary, Jones stated, is an opportunity for the group to have fun its ongoing work: looking for “transformative justice.” Meaning not merely calling for “much less policing, much less jail, much less sentencing,” she stated, but in addition for funding approaches that can tackle wants at earlier levels.

“It might probably’t all be about dismantling. It’s about what you’re constructing,” Jones stated. “And the one factor that we’re going to have the ability to construct is really extra funding in communities of coloration.”

The True Reformer constructing stands as a logo of what funding can do for a neighborhood. And what occurs when that funding disappears.

At the moment, probably the most distinguishing attribute on the surface of the constructing is the huge mural of Ellington, a duplicate of 1 that was as soon as above the U Avenue Metro station. Approaching from the west, the mural, by Washington artist G. Byron Peck, is sort of unimaginable to overlook, a reminder within the closely gentrified hall of its Black beginnings.

Within the early a part of the twentieth century, Howard College, simply blocks away, was a vibrant younger faculty whose graduates noticed alternative blossoming for them within the newly growing U Avenue hall and different elements of the District. U Avenue expanded and grew into the District’s model of “Wall Avenue and Harlem’s a hundred and twenty fifth Avenue all at one time,” stated Maurice Jackson, an assistant professor of African American historical past at Georgetown College.

“All the nice golf equipment have been there,” Jackson stated. “And the entire nice performers would play there. Duke Ellington, Ms. Lena Horne.”

Jackson stated Ellington sometimes performed reveals within the constructing’s auditorium {and gymnasium} between basketball video games.

As U Avenue started to thrive, nonetheless, the fortunes of the True Reformers group light due to monetary scandals and mismanagement. A fraternal group and secret society purchased the constructing in 1917, and within the center a part of the century, it served as the one Boys Membership within the District to confess Black individuals. Different companies and organizations would lease out the constructing over time, however the 1968 riots after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. laid waste to a lot of U Avenue. The constructing survived intact, however the hall’s fortunes fell away.

In 1989 the constructing was listed on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations, and 10 years later it was bought by the Public Welfare Basis, which totally renovated and refurbished the constructing earlier than opening it in 2001.

At the moment the constructing’s different tenants additionally tackle prison justice points. The Washington Authorized Clinic for the Homeless and the Nationwide Reentry Community for Returning Residents have their places of work within the constructing. And Public Welfare, the constructing’s proprietor, has stated it’s going to make places of work obtainable at no cost to different nonprofits which are working to deal with essential social considerations. It has additionally supplied its assembly rooms to organizations that want area and put in giant glass home windows on the primary flooring to make it extra interesting to passersby and provides them a greater sense of the work happening there.

Just like the constructing’s authentic house owners, Jones says that funding in communities is important. Particularly with regards to problems with justice and judicial reform. In profitable communities, Jones stated, there’s a continuum of care supplied to individuals, together with psychological well being providers, counselors, training and a give attention to well-being.

“We’ve obtained to begin to put some funding within the issues that we need to see, and we don’t need all of the ways to be suppression and incarceration,” she stated. “We’ve to have some different fashions obtainable for actual hurt discount, as a result of that’s what’s going to get us to wholesome communities.”

Public Welfare’s work, Jones stated, follows on the unique goal of the constructing’s first house owners by serving Black People dealing with systemic discrimination. “You’ve got all of that historical past that’s simply effervescent up by means of this place,” she stated. “And it’s now present to assist precisely the sort of work that’s carried out right here.”

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Washington, D.C

Snow totals for DC, Maryland & Virginia, after overnight snowfall

Published

4 hours ago

January 11, 2025

Press Room

Snow totals for DC, Maryland & Virginia, after overnight snowfall

Overnight snow across the DC region

FOX 5’s Gwen Tolbart has your weekend weather forecast and what to expect with potential snow.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A winter weather system threatens the Washington, D.C. region this weekend.

According to FOX 5’s Gwen Tolbart, a Winter Weather Advisory until 1 a.m. Sunday for Garrett, Western Highland, Western Grant and Western Pendleton counties. An additional 2 to 4 inches of snow is possible with some isolated amounts up to 6 inches.

How much snow this weekend in DC? Snow forecast, timeline & expected totals

Gusty afternoon winds are expected to reach 40 mph and will cause blowing snow in the advisory area. Poor visibility and slick road conditions are to be expected.

Saturday will welcome some clouds that will eventually thin out to leave us with partly sunny skies. The highs are expected to remain in the 30s. Winds will be gusty from the Northwest region 10-15G30 mph. A very cold night ahead with mostly clear skies of 24F.

More sunshine is expected for Sunday with passing clouds. A cold and slightly breezy day on the horizon with highs again in the 30s. Overnight temperatures will drop to the low 20s and teens.

WeatherWashington, D.C.News

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Washington, D.C

Report: The Trumps are in talks to buy back D.C. hotel lease

Published

16 hours ago

January 11, 2025

Press Room

Report: The Trumps are in talks to buy back D.C. hotel lease

The Trump Organization is engaged in preliminary discussions to reclaim the lease on its former hotel in Washington, D.C., reports the Wall Street Journal.

The hotel is currently operating as a Waldorf Astoria.

The Wall Street Journal said Trump Organization executive vice president Eric Trump met with an executive from BDT & MSD Partners at Mar-a-Lago earlier this week to discuss purchasing the lease rights to the former Trump International Hotel Washington D.C.

BDT & MSD Partners currently controls the property’s lease, following a 2023 default and subsequent foreclosure by previous leaseholder CGI Merchant Group. The Trump Organization sold the hotel’s lease to CGI in 2022, and the hotel was reflagged as a Waldorf Astoria.

The 263-room hotel, which occupies the Old Post Office building, opened as a Trump hotel in 2016.

During President Donald Trump’s first presidency, the hotel was a prominent gathering spot for Republican lawmakers, lobbyists and others with business involving the administration. The property came under intense scrutiny because of ethical and legal concerns.

The hotel has some of the largest guestrooms in the city. Top-tier accommodations include the 4,000-square-foot Presidential One Bedroom Suite and 6,300-square-foot Waldorf Townhouse Two Bedroom Bi-Level Suite.

The hotel is home to restaurants The Bazaar by Jose Andres and the Michelin-starred Sushi Nakazawa, plus 38,000 square feet of event space and a 10,000-square-foot Waldorf Astoria Spa.

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Washington, D.C

Man at the center of Washington DC ‘Pizzagate’ killed during North Carolina traffic stop

Published

1 day ago

January 10, 2025

Press Room

Man at the center of Washington DC ‘Pizzagate’ killed during North Carolina traffic stop

The man who stormed into a Washington D.C. restaurant with loaded weapons during an incident widely known as “Pizzagate” is now dead after North Carolina police shot him during a traffic stop.

Edgar Maddison Welch, 36, was shot just after 10 p.m. last Saturday, Kannapolis Fire and Police wrote in a news release this week.

Welch is the same Salisbury, North Carolina man who in December 2016, showed up to Comet Ping Pong, a pizzeria in Washington DC., with loaded weapons to investigate “unfounded rumors concerning a child sex-trafficking ring” that was allegedly operating out of the restaurant, federal prosecutors said.

He pleaded guilty in March 2017 to a federal charge of interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition, as well as a District of Columbia charge of assault with a dangerous weapon.

Three months later, he was sentenced to four years in prison.

What is ‘Pizzagate’? What happened at Comet Ping Pong?

Welch’s initial reason for making headlines in 2016 stemmed from rumors of a child sex trafficking ring allegedly operating out of the pizza restaurant he stormed into, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia.

Rumors began circulating online that the restaurant was part of a trafficking ring operated by then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton – a fake news campaign targeting Clinton during the general election.

Welch allegedly tried to recruit people to participate in the storming of the restaurant leading up to Dec. 4. He’d texted someone saying he was “raiding a pedo ring” and sacrificing “the lives of a few for the lives of many.”

Prosecutors said Welch traveled from North Carolina to Washington D.C. with three loaded firearms, including a 9mm AR-15 assault rifle loaded with 29 rounds of ammunition, a fully-loaded, six-shot, .38-caliber revolver and a loaded shotgun with additional shotgun shells.

Welch parked his car and around 3 p.m., walked into the restaurant, where multiple employees and customers were present, including children, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia said in a news release.

“He was carrying the AR-15 openly, with one hand on the pistol grip, and the other hand on the hand guard around the barrel, such that anyone with an unobstructed view could see the gun,” the office wrote in the news release.

Once customers and employees saw Welch, they fled the building. Welch was also accused of trying to get into a locked room by forcing the door open, first with a butter knife and then shooting his assault rifle multiple times into the door.

Shortly after he walked into the restaurant, an employee who had no idea what was going on walked in carrying pizza dough, federal prosecutors said. When Welch saw the employee, he turned toward the worker with the assault rifle, which made the employee think he was going to shoot them. The employee then ran out, leaving Welch alone in the restaurant.

Welch spent more than 20 minutes inside the restaurant, then walked out, leaving his firearms inside. Officials then arrested him.

When Welch was sentenced to four years in prison, he was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release, during which he’d have to get a mental health assessment.

He was also ordered to stay away from the Comet Ping Pong restaurant while released and to pay $5,744 in restitution for property damage.

What happened leading up to the Welch’s death?

The deadly traffic stop happened the night of Jan. 4, said Kannapolis Chief of Police Terry L. Spry in a news release.

Around 10 p.m., a Kannapolis Police Officer patrolling North Cannon Boulevard spotted a gray 2001 GMC Yukon. The officer recognized the vehicle because he’d previously arrested someone who frequently drove the vehicle, Welch. He also knew Welch had an outstanding warrant for his arrest, police said.

The officer stopped the vehicle and recognized the front seat passenger as Welch, who had an outstanding arrest warrant for felony probation violation, police said. While the officer was speaking with Welch, two additional officers showed up to help.

As the officer who made the traffic stop approached the passenger side of the vehicle and opened the front passenger door to arrest the individual, the passenger pulled out a handgun and pointed it at the officer.

The initial officer and a second officer who was standing at the rear passenger side of the Yukon ordered the man to drop the gun. After the passenger failed to lower his gun, both officers fired at him, hitting him.

Officials called for medical assistance for Welch who was taken to a hospital for treatment. He was later taken to another hospital, where he died from his injuries two days after the shooting.

None of the officers at the traffic stop were hurt and neither were the driver and back seat passenger in the vehicle with Welch.

The officers involved who fired their weapons were Officer Brooks Jones and Officer Caleb Tate. The third officer at the scene did not fire his weapon, police said.

District Attorney will decide next steps in traffic stop shooting death

An outside law enforcement agency has been requested to investigate the shooting.

“This practice ensures there is no bias during the investigation and the findings of the investigation are presented to the District Attorney without any influence by a member of the department,” the police chief wrote in the news release.

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is still investigating the shooting and the two officers who fired their weapons are on administrative leave, which the police said is standard protocol.

Cabarrus County District Attorney Ashlie Shanley will decide what the next steps are, police said.

Contributing: Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY’s NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Follow her on Twitter at @SaleenMartin or email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.

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