Donning colorful dresses, suits and skirts, eye-catching accessories, fascinators and show-stopping hats, 200 people gathered at the National Press Club in Northwest D.C. on Oct. 24 for a celebration of sisterhood, women in leadership, legacy and the power of the Black-owned media.
AFRO News, founded in 1892 and The Washington Informer, which marked 62 years on Oct. 16, teamed up for the D.C. High Tea: Honoring Women Who Educate, Build and Lead.” Honorees included: 96.3 WHUR’s Jacquie Gales Webb, Howard University’s (HU) Dr. Kimberly R. Moffitt and Dr. Dana A. Williams, Morgan State University’s Jackie Jones, University of the District of Columbia’s (UDC) Dr. April Massey, AARP CEO Dr. Myechia Minter-Jordan, and Georgia Ellard, a 97-year-old barrier breaker, who received a special recognition.
“They are doing more than talking about making a difference,” said Vic Jagger, host “VJ in the Midday” on MAJIC 102.3, who served as the host for the Saturday afternoon event. “They are out here doing the work. They are opening doors. They are creating opportunities and making an impact.”
For Denise Rolark Barnes and Dr. Frances “Toni” Draper, publishers of The Informer and AFRO, respectively, the event put the “tea” in teamwork.
While the AFRO has hosted high teas in Baltimore and D.C. for years, such an event was a new undertaking for Rolark Barnes, who was inspired by the 135-year-old paper’s community event.
“I attended one of those teas and I said, ‘Toni, we ought to do this together,’” Rolark Barnes told the crowd. “She said, ‘Why not?’ Next thing I know, here we are.”
Featuring food, live music from the F.A.M.E. Band (provided by the Foundation for the Advancement of Music Education) and various vendors, the Saturday afternoon event offered entertainment and calls to action.
“We are going to honor some amazing, incredible women, and have a good time. Meet someone who you don’t know, and then be sure to spread the word that the Black Press will celebrate 200 years in March of 2027,” Draper said. “It’s not too many businesses of any kind that can say that, but it’s because of you and your ancestors— our foremothers and our forefathers.”
Honorees Drop Gems: ‘May All Black People Be Free or Die Trying‘
An event steeped in legacy, leadership and vision, each honoree emphasized the importance of their work in the community, while also leaving attendees with optimism and goals to work toward strengthening society overall.
“When I was young in church, the pastor would say to the congregation, ‘That nothing that you get is for you. It is to pass through you for others, who should be the beneficiaries of your good,’” Massey, UDC chief academic officer, said. “UDC is a place where those of us who have been tapped to serve understand that we are but vessels to move good through to people who are depending on us to get it to them.”
Massey explained that an education at UDC means embracing and working to serve the District and its more than 700,000 residents, through the lessons learned while at the second oldest historically Black institution in the country.
“We understand the base of our souls in terms of this world. We understand the responsibility to this city. We take very seriously that it is the taxpayer dollars that funds the university — keeps the doors open,” she continued. “We know that our responsibility rests with every ward across the city, every constituent who needs something from U.D.C.— from our workforce, to our doctoral programs and law school.”
Jones said there’s also great work happening in Baltimore to strengthen the next generation of changemakers. As dean of the School of Global Journalism and Communication at Morgan State, she said the educators and staff there are committed to growth and doing all they can to empower future media professionals.
“At Morgan State, we try to give our kids the best. We fundraise, we train, we call in all our chips and bring in the experts,” Jones said. “We get them jobs, and when I got there, in 2012, journalism was the smallest major and now it’s the biggest.”
Like Morgan, the Howard University Cathy Hughes School of Communications, celebrating 55 years, is also focused on the future.
“Our motto this year is ‘Beyond 55’ because we are working and marching very hard to help that next generation for the next 55 years,” Moffitt told attendees during her acceptance speech. “So we’ve got people in line for you.”
Gales Webb, who has worked for Howard University’s WHUR radio for 36 years, highlighted the major influence media can have on the public.
“When I first fully realized the importance of what God had given me, I had gone out to a church service… A woman came up to me when she realized who I was, gave me a hug and cried, simply because I had played the right song at the right time in her life and it brought her closer to God,” said Gales Webb, a six-time Emmy winner, who chronicled her time in radio and television over the past five decades. “That’s when I realized the importance of what we do.”
While awardee Minter-Jordan was unable to attend the high tea, the event also celebrated Ellard’s groundbreaking work as the first Black woman superintendent in the National Capital Region National Park Service.
“I served in this capacity for seven years as a superintendent of Rock Creek Park,” the nanogenarian told The Informer. “However, my entire career was with the National Park Service.”
Although she is retired, Ellard still takes to the great outdoors as a member of The Wisdom Walkers, a group that walks treks across the District and world in the name of health at all ages. Honored to be recognized during the event, the trailblazer offered advice for all women to achieve their goals.
“I’ll encourage other Black women to chase their dreams,” she said. “I think that the important thing is to be ready and to do the very best that you can in every assignment that you’re given.”
In accepting her award, Williams said she was honored to not only be recognized among such a group of visionary women, but also by the two Black- and woman-owned publications.
“I join [the honorees’] voices in celebrating not just each other, but these two Black women publishers. The future is bright for many reasons, but most especially because they keep alive our ancestors’ dreams,” Williams, dean of the HU Graduate School, said before offering a short phrase that sent the crowd into roaring applause. “May all Black people be free or die trying.”
Preserving the Black Press
While the high tea honored women in leadership, the event, hosted at the National Press Club, also underscored the importance of fact-based, trustworthy reporting — particularly at a time when news outlets and journalists have been victims of federal threats and attacks. Further, with the AFRO and Informer logos side by side on the podium, the gathering encouraged uplifting and preserving the Black Press.
“I feel a little emotional at this moment because, you know, we both talk about the struggle of the Black Press. We feel as though there’s a lot on our shoulders to keep these institutions alive. We know we cannot do it without each and every one of you,” Rolark Barnes said to the hundreds of people filling the Northwest D.C. ballroom. “We need the whole community to support us.”
Moffitt said the HU Cathy Hughes School of Communications is doing all in its power to prepare future journalists to ensure the preservation and continuation of Black narratives.
“I feel so fortunate to have such an opportunity, to create that next generation of storytellers to be here to support AFRO News as well as The Washington Informer. They are the next voice that we need to hear from,” she said. “We all in this room need to be supporting them, to tell our stories and to make sure they are not erased, because we are in a society right now that wants to erase our presence. All the brilliance that exists in this room, someone is trying to take away to make sure it doesn’t continue to shine.”
For Draper and Rolark Barnes, maintaining their publications is also about preserving family legacy.
“Most of us… are leading businesses that are forefathers and foremothers founded and we are the ones that raised our hands. We’re the ones that got the training. We’re the ones that waited our turn,” Draper, whose great-grandfather John Henry Murphy Sr. started the AFRO on Aug. 13, 1892, with a $200 investment from his wife Martha Howard Murphy. “And now we’re here. I’m fourth-generation.”
As a second-generation publisher — taking on the role 32 years ago, when her father, Dr. Calvin W. Rolark, died on Oct. 23, 1994 — Rolark Barnes said keeping the publication going hasn’t always been easy. However, the work, she emphasized, has been rooted in uplifting the community through reporting.
More than six decades after The Informer published its first edition, 135 years following the AFRO’s founding and nearly 200 years later since the start of the Black Press, the event showcased that the work is still going strong.
“Here we are,” Rolark Barnes said. ”We have survived.”
