Category: Washington D.C. News

Cool temperatures and fiery-colored leaves; carved pumpkins and trussed-up turkeys; harried gift shopping and hurried cross-country trips; mounds of food and stacks of gaily-wrapped presents—that’s what the end-of-year holiday season in the United States is usually made of. But not so much this year, many across the Baltimore-Washington metro area and beyond are reporting. With […]

Gregory Baldwin is a man on a mission. He wants to save Black boys from a lifetime of oppression, low self-esteem and street violence. Baldwin also endeavors to keep sharing the story of how he turned his own life around after it hung in limbo. Some 20 years ago, Baldwin, now 46, was shot 10 […]

“Got any K2?” Nouri Moore, 19, asked, approaching the counter of an Asian-owned convenience store in northeast Washington, D.C. A cashier at the Northeast Market located on the 1300 block of Mount Olivet Road, N.E., came to the counter, where a large basket sat, displaying the rainbow packages of the legal drug like candy. “How […]

With the city’s 10 percent unemployment rate likened to a ticking time bomb, things can’t get much worse as 30,000 residents search for work. So when Mayor-elect Vincent Gray assumes the helm in January, one of the first objectives aligned with his economic development plan will be to help quell the District’s burgeoning unemployment problem. […]

Before integration, Black-owned businesses flourished in African-American communities and were considered one of the strongest pillars of African-American culture. But with the benefits of integration also came the declining desire among African Americans to support Black-owned establishments, believing that Whites and other ethnic groups could deliver better products, goods and services. Several generations later, Black […]

The dismantling of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s administration, prompted by his 53-46 percent loss to City Council Chairman Vincent Gray in September’s Democratic mayoral primary, is continuing apace. Gray named the team that would facilitate his transition to the city’s helm late last week. And in recent days, hundreds of Fenty hires were given their walking […]

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 […]