Author Archives: Jamaal Abdul-Alim

Not so long ago, Northwest D.C. florist Karen Woods could plan to spend about $100 per week on gas to make whatever deliveries she needed to make in the region. But with the recent surge in gas prices, the weekly cost of gas for Woods has more than tripled to close to $350. Woods says […]

Chocolate City? Not anymore. That’s because while the District of Columbia’s overall population has grown for the first time in 60 years, the city’s Black population has shrunk, putting the nation’s capital on track to lose its long-held status as a majority Black city—if it hasn’t happened already. That’s the conclusion being reached by demographers […]

In an effort to stave off academic losses by reaching children during their earliest years, D.C. officials and philanthropists have teamed up to construct a $12 million facility in Ward 7 that will provide daylong year-round early childhood education. The facility is expected to serve 171 infants, toddlers and preschoolers. “If I were in a […]

Using revolutionary rhetoric, chants and African drums, a national network of juvenile justice advocates gathered for a rally in Washington, D.C., this week to call on Congress to put money behind legislation they say will lead to fewer youth of color being locked up. “I like to think of those resources that are used to […]

Fifteen fewer guns are on the streets of Washington, D.C., thanks to Got Guns?, a Metropolitan Police Department program that offers cash rewards to anonymous callers who give police tips on where they can find illegal firearms. According to the program’s records, obtained by the AFRO through a Freedom of Information Act request, in its […]

Despite widely-heralded reforms of Washington, D.C.’s juvenile justice system, youth advocates recently decried the increase in District youths being locked up for low-level offenses, and alleged the youths were being subjected to substandard medical care and increased instances of isolation in the District’s overcrowded, understaffed secure facilities. At the same time, a District councilmember said […]

In a recent sermon on how God can set things aright, the pastor at Rock Creek Baptist Church said the church had been released from all debts stemming from an alleged scheme officials say was meant to trick the church into paying for overpriced informational kiosks. “We were relieved,” the Rev. Jeffrey L. Mitchell Sr., […]

The box next to the question on job applications that asks whether a person has ever been convicted of a felony could soon become a thing of the past under a measure proposed by a Washington, D.C. councilman and supported by advocates for ex-offenders. With few exceptions, the bill—introduced by D.C. Councilman Harry Thomas Jr.—would […]

High unemployment rates and other economic woes continue to haunt Washington, D.C. and Maryland voters as the Sept. 14 primary elections draw near. Under these conditions the endorsements of one of the labor movement’s most prominent organizations could end up playing a wild card role in some of the region’s most important and hotly-contested races. […]