Doris Proctor remembers her fear 33 years ago as she sat behind her 17-year-old son, Terrance, as he was sentenced for participating in several armed robberies. Doris Proctor, mother of Terrance Proctor. (Courtesy photo) Bernice Stewart, her mother and Terrance’s grandmother, sat with her. “I just kept praying,” said Doris Proctor, 68, of Grand Prairie, […]
Author Archives: Avis Thomas-Lester
AFRO Executive Editor
Posted inNational News
Martin’s Soul Food Cooks Up Family Tradition
It took Timothy Martin just eight years to go from gas-station chef to soul-food restaurant mogul. Growing up in Norfolk, Va., Martin and his 10 siblings eagerly anticipated the dinners their father, Ernest, prepared. “He’d work eight hours a day, come home and by 4:35 p.m., he was cooking,” Martin said, recalling platters of savory […]
Posted inNational News
Farmer Fights to Leave Estate to Next Gen
John Wesley Boyd Sr. (left) and John Wesley Boyd Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association. John Wesley Boyd, Jr., lives off the land raising cows and growing soybeans and corn on 400 acres he owns in rural Baskerville, Virginia. He works alongside his father, John Wesley Boyd, Sr., 75, who farms 117 acres […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
Whites Favor Muriel Bowser as D.C. Primary Approaches
The recent allegations that Mayor Vincent C. Gray may have known about an illegal shadow campaign run on his behalf in 2010 has given Council member Muriel Bowser a surge among White voters in her quest to become the city’s top executive. According to results of a Washington Post poll released this week, D.C. Council member […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
Can Mayor Vincent Gray Pull One Out of the Hat on April 1?
Mayor Vincent Gray, as my grandmother used to say, has a tough row to hoe in his effort to get reelected. As voters headed to the polls for early voting this week, the question hung in the air: Did he know about an illegal “shadow campaign” to get him elected in 2010? Jeffrey E. Thompson, […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
Mayor Vincent Gray: I Didn’t Break the Law
D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray took the defensive during his State of the District address March 11, asking his constituents to believe in his innocence just one day after allegations were fired at him by a major fundraiser in his 2010 bid for mayor. From the start, an obviously irritated Gray struck out at D.C. […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
The Week Before Christmas at the AFRO
‘Twas a week before Christmas and all around the AFRO, All the editors were scurrying to get the paper ready to go. The stories had been edited and sent to Production with care, With hopes that fresh printed copies soon would be there. The reporters were working their next stories with care, In hopes that […]
Posted inPrince George's County News
Bible Man Gone to His Reward
They called him Bible Man and he was a regular fixture on Pennsylvania Avenue in Forestville, pacing up and down, the Good Book in hand, a wave for everyone and a word for anyone who took time to listen. According to police, Bible Man was really Eugene Crawford Anderson and he was 52 years old […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
Late Mississippi Civil Rights Hero Clyde Kennard Honored in D.C.
Several of the Washington, D.C.-area’s most celebrated civil rights leaders converged on Busboys and Poets at 14th and V streets NW recently to pay homage to a man who gave his life in the quest for freedom. Clyde Kennard was a Korean War veteran who lived in Hattiesburg, Miss., who started a public campaign after […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
The Life of Radio Personality Sheila Stewart to Be Celebrated
Ask friends what they miss most about Sheila Stewart and they will likely say her warm friendship and zest for life. There was also the way she presented people, which friends will remember forever. “Sheila was a master connector of people,” said Varick Baiyina, 43, a friend who worked with Stewart at Radio One. “She […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
The AFRO Celebrates Our Military Men and Women in Uniform
These days, Edgar A. Brookins, Jr., serves as the general manager of the AFRO’s D.C. office, helping to ensure news coverage of everything from community events to breaking news. But once, he traveled the world as a career military officer. Since May, Elaine Frye Fuller has worked in the AFRO’s advertising group, serving print and […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
Radio One’s Sheila Stewart Killed in Atlanta Car Accident
(Updated 10/25/2013) Sheila Stewart, known in the Washington, D.C. area for serving for many years as the news and community affairs director for local Radio One stations, died Oct. 24 in a car accident in Atlanta. Details of the incident had not been released by afternoon, but she apparently was involved in the crash on […]