I wasn’t sure I had heard him correctly, so I repeated the question. “How old are your kids?” “Six,” he said, this time with a grin between sheepish and sly. We were in a group discussion with other inmates and staff at the D.C. Correctional Treatment Facility near the D.C. Jail, so I let the matter drop. When the session ended, we spoke again privately, and that’s when the fog lifted.
Washington, D.C
Opinion | As youth crime persists, one question looms large (continued)
He explained that six years earlier, at age 16, he had fathered three children in the District. “They were born one month apart,” he said. I told him he belonged in jail. He laughed and agreed he had left behind a mess.
These were the opening paragraphs of a column I wrote nearly 30 years ago about children in trouble and the city’s besieged child welfare system. I had visited the correctional facility to meet separately with male and female offenders. I learned that many had children, some living with relatives or friends, some in the city’s foster care system. One inmate didn’t seem to know where her children were.
The week of my column, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hogan placed the city’s child welfare system under general receivership. He said the system was in a crisis so severe that he had no choice: Children were being neglected, abused, abandoned.
I don’t know what became of the 22-year-old inmate with three children. Those kids must now be about 36. Their father told me he never had a father to give him encouragement and support. What of his own children?
Last week’s column featured a long list of youths arrested in crimes committed during the first half of April. It asked, “What about the fathers?” The same question can be asked about the fathers of children in today’s child welfare system, children out in the streets — not in jail but also not in school.
Let me revisit another old column to tell you about a different kind of father. Mine.
By today’s standards of success, my father might have been labeled a failure. He was a high school dropout, worked as a laborer, often two jobs at a time. Later in life, he landed work inside a government office building and retired as a senior clerk.
My father never gave me, my brother or my sister an allowance. There were no such things as family vacations. We were the last family in the neighborhood to get a television. We never owned a car. And my father didn’t have the kind of jobs that let him take time off to attend a kid’s drill competition or football game.
But failure? No. Isaiah King was a living example of what responsible fatherhood is all about.
His life refuted the notion that wealth, education and social status have anything to do with the irreplaceable condition for being a good father, which is simply being there. Apart from brief visits to out-of-town family and a few medical stays, my father spent nearly every night at home with Amelia, his wife of 53 years, and their three children.
To some people passing him on the street, my father might have been dismissed as a working-class Black man of little consequence. Goodness knows, he swallowed more than his share of insults and slights growing up in this racially segregated city. And we kids — familiar with being banned from schools, stores, theaters, restaurants, and pools and amusement parks — knew all too well that White people’s animus toward and disdain for men, women and children of a darker hue were as pervasive as the D.C. air we breathed.
For us, the most cherished part of the Washington landscape was Isaiah King’s home. Simply because he was there.
To be sure, my mother held the reins — and had the brains — in the household. After taking in washing and ironing at home and doing menial domestic work in far Northwest D.C. and suburban Maryland to help send three children to college, she went on to collect undergraduate and graduate degrees herself and retired as a D.C. public school teacher.
My mother was the sparkplug. But my father supplied the horsepower.
Except for the time our kitchen stove was converted from coal to natural gas, no electrician, plumber or carpenter entered our home. Daddy fixed everything. He painted; we held the ladder. He did the electrical work; we kept candles handy. So what if the light switch read “nO” instead of “On” when Daddy got finished? It worked, didn’t it?
I learned from him — and have tried to teach my sons so they will in turn teach my grandsons — that a real man doesn’t leave it to others to take care of his children. A real man respects and cherishes strong women. And while his boxing lessons never improved my win-loss record on the playground, he taught me to never run away from a fight.
There were other priceless gifts.
Like the morning that self-taught man took his three grade-school youngsters to Washington Circle, pointed us east down K Street and told us to “just follow your nose.” Fifteen blocks later, we arrived at the Central Public Library and the world of books.
Like the first letter he wrote to me, pulling me up short after my marriage in 1961, and reminding me of a husband’s responsibilities.
Like the moment when I let on how hurt I was to lose a coveted banking position to a politically connected, fair-haired boy, and how he set aside his own pain and thoughts of impending death to snap me out of my self-absorption with the words of a loving father, “Son, keep your chin up.”
Today we see too many kids in jail. Kids in graves. Kids broken in body and mind.
Think of the story of that young inmate 30 years ago. Of my story.
How did we get to where we are? Where do we go from here?
Washington, D.C
Nonprofit sues the federal government over plans to paint Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool blue
With a blue sky above the Lincoln Memorial, people walk along the reflection pool in Washington, D.C., on June 9, 2023.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
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Jose Luis Magana/AP
A nonprofit is suing the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum over the decision to resurface the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool at Washington D.C.’s National Mall, and to paint the pool’s basin blue.
The suit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), an education and advocacy organization. In the suit, TCLF is asking a federal judge to halt the project, saying that the Trump administration failed to have the project reviewed federally, as is dictated by the National Historic Preservation Act.
President Trump revealed his plans for the pool do-over last month in “American flag blue,” saying that the project would take one week and $2 million, and that it would be completed in time for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. A few days later on Truth Social, the president posted a fake image of himself and several of his administration officials in swimsuits, along with an unidentified woman in a gingham bikini, lounging in the water with the Washington National Monument at the rear. (Swimming in the reflecting pool is prohibited by federal law.)
In a YouTube video posted by the White House on April 23, Trump called the pool “filthy dirty” and said it “leaked like a sieve.” In that video, Trump said he was going to call three companies that he has worked with in the past – “all they do is swimming pools” – and say, “Give me a good price.”
The New York Times reported last Friday that the contract for the reflecting pool’s resurfacing was awarded in a $6.9 million no-bid contract to a company called Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which previously has never held any federal contracts.
An employee at the Atlantic Industrial Coatings confirmed in a telephone call on Monday that it has been contracted for this project, but referred all other questions to the Department of the Interior.
The Times reported on Monday that the final cost of the project could be upward of $13 million, per documents it says it has obtained. The Department of the Interior did not confirm the cost of the project, but wrote: “The contract price reflects the effort necessary to expedite the timeline of completing the leak prevention coating project—more people, more materials, more equipment and longer hours ahead of our 250th.”
In an unsigned statement emailed to NPR Monday afternoon, the Interior Department wrote: “The National Park Service chose the best company to expedite the repair of the iconic Reflecting Pool ahead of our 250 celebrations. The choice of American Flag Blue will enhance the visitor experience by making the pool reflect the grand Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. NPS is also investing in a state-of-the-art ozone nanobubbler filtration system and will now have a dedicated crew who will maintain the grounds’ from wildlife. The Department is proud of the work being carried out by our Park Service to ensure this magical spot can be enjoyed for not only our 250th, but for many generations to come.”
Critics of the project, including TCLF, don’t share that vision – and are taking particular umbrage at the color.
“The reflecting pool should not be viewed in isolation; it is part of the larger ensemble of designed landscapes that comprise the National Mall,” Charles A. Birnbaum, the president and CEO of TCLF, said in a statement emailed to NPR Monday. “The design intent, to create a reflective surface that is subordinate, is fundamental to the solemn and hallowed visual and spatial connection between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. A blue-tinted basin is more appropriate to a resort or theme park.”
The National Park Service regularly cleans out algae, goose droppings and other detritus from the reflecting pool. The last major renovation of the reflecting pool, which included the installation of a new circulation and filtration system, took place during the Obama administration at a reported cost of $34 million.
Before founding TCLF in 2008, Birnbaum served for 15 years as the coordinator of the Historic Landscape Initiative for the National Park Service.
TCLF has another open lawsuit against the federal administration: it is one of eight cultural and architecture groups currently suing President Trump and the Kennedy Center board over the planned renovations of the complex, which are planned to start in July.
The memorial service will be held at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial at 1 p.m.
WASHINGTON D.C. – A brave K-9 hero from the region will be honored at the Annual National Police K9 Memorial Service on Monday afternoon.
K-9 Knox died in the line of duty last year after he was accidentally hit by a police vehicle while pursuing a suspect involved in a stolen vehicle incident. He was a 3-year-old German shepherd and had served as a narcotics detection and patrol apprehension K-9 for the Roanoke Police Department since May 2023.
The memorial service will include a wreath-laying ceremony and will be held at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C., at 1 p.m. The event will open with a musical performance by Frank Ray, and the guest speaker will be Deputy Jared Hahn of the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office K-9 Unit.
The San Antonio Police Department Blue Line Choir will sing the national anthem, and the Emerald Society Pipes & Drums band will also perform.
Copyright 2026 by WSLS 10 – All rights reserved.
4 things to know about the weather:
- Shower chance Monday morning
- Cooler Monday
- Midweek rain chance
- Warmer end to the week
Showers continue to move west with a cold front tonight. There will be a break in the rain overnight, but showers return for the start of the day on Monday. Monday afternoon will be dry, but noticeably cooler.
Sunshine returns Tuesday, but the break in the rain will be short-lived with rain chances on Wednesday
Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.
QuickCast
TONIGHT:
Showers early
Mostly cloudy
Wind: N 5-10 mph
LOW: Low 50s
MONDAY:
Morning shower chance
Wind: N 5-10 mph
HIGH: Upper 60s
TUESDAY:
Sunny
Wind: N 5-10 mph
HIGH: Near 70°
WEDNESDAY:
Shower chance
Wind: S 5-10 mph
Gusts at 20 mph
HIGH: Low 70s
SUNRISE: 5:59 a.m. SUNSET: 8:10 p.m.
AVERAGE HIGH: 75° AVERAGE LOW: 56°
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.
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