Former AFRO editor and reporter Janice Brown passed away from lung cancer on Aug. 20 at Washington Hospital Center. Brown, described by AFRO publisher Jake Oliver as a “ball of energy” touched the lives of whoever she met according to her friends. Longtime colleague, Carl “Doc” DeShazior met Brown in 1987 when they worked at […]
Author Archives: George Barnette
Special to the AFRO
Posted inPrince George's County News
Police From All Over Pay Homage to Adrian Morris
Police officers from throughout the mid-Atlantic region traveled to Woodstream Church in Mitchellville, Md. on Aug. 28 to pay their respects to Prince George’s Police Officer Adrian A. Morris, who tragically died in high-speed chase on Aug. 20. The ceremony celebrated the passion Morris, a former police explorer, had for his job and saluted him […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
Langston Residents Want to Derail Streetcar Barn
D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray’s insistence on siting a streetcar maintenance and training facility in the middle of the Spingarn High School campus is meeting stiff resistance from residents in the Langston community who say this aspect of the return of streetcars to D.C. needs to be derailed. Bill Simpkins, 51, an attorney who runs a […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Shooting at Washington Conservative Entity Offices Unveils New Depth of Gay Rights Battle
(August 23, 2012) Erica Reed was astounded when she answered the phone. Leonardo R. Johnson, her 46-year-old her boyfriend, had taken a bullet on the job. “I was in denial,” Reed, speaking from Johnson’s mother’s home in Southeast Washington, said of her reaction when officials from the Family Research Council (FRC) called her. “I was […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Nike Defends Reported $315 Lebron James Sneaker
Nike was in damage serious damage control. It was Aug. 21 and news had broken that it was releasing a sneaker that would retail for $315, making it the company’s highest price ever for a shoe release. Start sales at 8 a.m. for the new Lebron X Nike Plus, not at midnight, company officials told […]
Posted inPrince George's County News
New School Year Signals Season of Change in Prince George’s
The starts of the 2012-13 school year marks a season of change for Prince George’s County public schools. However, that doesn’t diminish the hope Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III has in the school system. At a Maryland Department of Public Works meeting earlier this year, Baker said he would dedicate his second […]
Posted inPrince George's County News
Officer Who “Loved” his Job Dies in the Line of Duty
To be a Prince George’s police officer was what Adrian Morris wanted to do from the time he was a teenager. Police officials say that Morris died doing the one thing he wanted most to do Aug. 20 when he lost his life in the line of duty. An impromptu press conference attended by high […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
For D.C.’s H Street, Streetcars Don’t Mean Business As Usual
As the landscape of H Street N.E. continues to change, some Black business owners are wondering where is the one thing that was supposed to set the H St corridor apart from other evolving neighborhoods in the city. They want to know what’s going on with the streetcars. Construction on the roads has been completed […]
Posted inPrince George's County News
NAACP Investigating Alleged Police Beating in Laurel
The Prince George’s County Chapter of the NAACP is investigating an incident in which a man claims he was beaten by a Laurel police officer while handcuffed. Bob Ross, president of the chapter, led a group of concerned citizens to the Laurel Municipal Center Aug. 13. They wanted to learn details of the arrest and […]
Posted inPrince George's County News
In the Quest to Draw More Souls, Turner Memorial AME Redefines Itself
Turner Memorial AME Church sits at a fork in the road of an unassuming community in Hyattsville, a transitioning church in a county full of thriving megachurches. On this Sunday morning, the doors are open for all who will come and if the Rev. William H. Lamar IV’s prayers are answered, they will remain open […]
Posted inPrince George's County News
Killings Drop in Prince George’s
Prince George’s County law enforcement officials are reporting a record drop in homicides this year, a decrease they are attributing to new law enforcement strategies. As of Aug. 13, 40 murders have been reported, 30 fewer than the 70 tallied on the same date last year. That represents an almost 43 percent reduction, good news […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Joel Peebles Officially Starts City of Praise Church Ministries
In a lavish ballroom in Springfield, Va. Joel Peebles Sr., once the heir apparent to the Jericho City of Praise church in Landover, was consecrated as head of his own church Aug. 5, possibly ending a battle for power over the religious dynasty his parents founded more than 40 years ago. In a ceremony attended […]