Throughout The Washington Informer’s 60-year legacy, the award-winning newspaper has dedicated itself to uplifting the Black community locally and abroad. With Washington Informer (WI) Charities (circa 1989), the media outlet has not only been able to tell stories, but further its mission to create a culture of advocacy, social justice and recognition in the DMV.
“[Dr. Calvin Rolark] always stressed the importance of education and literacy, suggesting that if folks are illiterate, they won’t be able to read his newspaper,” said Washington Informer Publisher Denise Rolark Barnes. “We collaborate with organizations that have a shared mission, and we will be continuing to expand our programs to include digital literacy in the near future.”
Washington Informer Charities, Inc. was established in 1989 to rally, support, educate and nurture marginalized communities. The nonprofit is guided in the missions instilled by Washington Informer founder Dr. Calvin Rolark, who established the legacy newspaper on Oct. 16, 1964.
Coupled with the Black Press, Rolark served an instrumental role in the bounds of literacy advocacy and African American preservation, founding many of the citywide traditions that Washingtonians honor to this day. He started the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Parade – established in 1979 and continued through the MLK Holiday DC Committee – and the D.C. Spelling Bee in association with the National Scripps competition.
WI Charities began sponsoring the Prince George’s County Spelling Bee in 2015. This year’s Prince George’s Bee was on March 14 and the District held its 43rd series on March 15, which will stream on DCE Network on April 9.
Now, under the continued leadership of 31-year publisher Rolark Barnes, the combined efforts of The Washington Informer and WI Charities supports these events with sponsored investments, collaborative coverage, and a commitment to driving youth development and empowering generations of African Americans.
“If it’s not for the fact that Calvin Rolark…made sure that this was front and center, we probably would not have drawn the attention nationally that we did [to] create this space,” said Stuart Anderson, co-chair of MLK Holiday DC. “It is still true today that the Black Press is so important–very necessary and needed in telling stories like the life and legacy of Dr. King.”
Informer Charities Uplifts Black Legacies in the DMV
Anderson said he read about the celebrated MLK Parade & Peace Rally in The Washington Informer for years before he assumed the role of co-chair in 2009.
Conceived in 1977, the parade honoring the life and legacy of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., began through the collaborative spirits of Dr. Rolark, former Ward 8 Councilmember Wilhelmina J. Rolark, Esq., and radio personality Ralph “Petey” Greene.
The renowned civic leaders fought to honor King’s work following his death on April 4, 1968 and succeeded with the parade’s first commemoration in 1979. Today, committee leaders Anderson and Rolark Barnes work diligently to catapult that mission 46 years later.
“I never thought that I would even be in a room…to pick up the work that they created, and to be able to carry it for 12 years,” Anderson told The Informer. “It’s just wonderful to be able to borrow from them, as they borrowed from others, to move America forward.”
The now coined Annual MLK Peace Walk and Parade has solidified its mark as a staple celebration in the District, regularly bringing out thousands. Past attendees and speakers include former and current public officials, famed musicians, and civil rights legends like the late Dick Gregory, who spoke at the 2014 Peace Walk.
Anderson jokes that he used to have his “own office” at The Washington Informer building in Southeast, adding it was there he felt “propelled” into his role as co-chair, and it was where much of MLK Holiday DC’s movement expanded.
In addition to Informer Charities’ fiscal sponsorship, he applauds the namesake newspaper for its in depth coverage of the annual holiday series, noting the precedent of collaboration and organization among Black institutions to advance Black culture.
“Ten, 20, 30 years from now, people are going to be talking about what Denise Rolark Barnes, Stuart Anderson and our committee have been doing to keep the story and the relevance of the life and legacy of Dr. King alive,” Anderson said. “Who knows what that story will look like if the Informer was not telling it?”
Outside of civil rights leaders, The Washington Informer platform also works to champion Black legacies in neighboring communities. Every summer, WI Charities host the African American Heritage Tour to engage residents in sacred spaces of Black ancestry in the DMV.
“It’s almost like a little known Black history fact,” said Ron Burke, director of marketing and programming at The Washington Informer. “There’s so many places that have African American history in our area that people don’t know about.”
Past tour stops include the historic house and garden of the Tudor Place in Northwest, D.C., where free and enslaved Africans once worked, and landmark cities in Maryland like Annapolis, Baltimore and Boyds, where last year’s group toured the Boyds Negro School–the only public school for African Americans in the Boyds area from 1895-1936.
Moreover, Burke noted, the WI Charities event stands as a bridge to African American empowerment for people of all backgrounds.
“We want to do something to keep our people connected to their culture,” said Burke, “and if they’re from other cultures, to give them some insight into African American culture.”
The Washington Informer is the Local Bees Needs
Further, Washington Informer Charities has established a tradition of championing youth development by annually hosting the citywide and Prince George’s County regional Scripps Spelling Bee tournaments.
Presented by The Washington Informer and Washington Informer Charities, students registered from schools across the District of Columbia and Prince George’s County, leverage the local spelling bees to increase literacy, build confidence, and establish a foundation for lifelong learning.
Retired educator and WI Charities board member, Dr. Elizabeth Primas, let it be known that the continued success of the local tournaments started with Rolark’s leadership as a publisher.
“Let me just say that The Washington Informer has been a beacon for D.C. public schools, and Prince George’s County Public Schools,” Primas said. “Because of [Rolark’s] actions, D.C. got a spelling bee.”
As an avid advocate for youth literacy, Rolark took matters into his own hands back in 1982, when local newspapers denied the nation’s capital a sponsor for the spelling bee, which was further implicated by a rule that prohibited weekly publications – like The Washington Informer – from sponsoring in the local tournament.
Rolark petitioned the National Scripps Spelling Bee to permit weekly newspapers to sponsor, paving the way for African American owned publications to partake in a tradition that represented what many, himself included, stood for.
“Dr. Rolark used to say that, ‘In today’s world, kids will never be able to survive if they don’t know how to read, and they’ll never know how to read if they don’t know how to spell,’” Burke told The Informer. “And so, he took over the spelling bee.”
Now in its 43rd year as a sponsor, and 10th for Prince George’s County, Washington Informer Charities reflects the values of the Rolark tradition and showcases the strength of youth scholars on a local and national platform. The Informer and Primas work together to provide students with spelling coaches and support, while The Informer continuously promotes youth literacy through essay contests, community engagement and inclusive reporting.
Other supportive avenues of the Informer Charities that gauge youth development include financial literacy and supporting high school and college students pursuing careers in journalism.
Primas lauded Rolark as a “groundbreaker,” commending his leadership that opened doors for equity and inclusion in the National Scripps Spelling Bee–for both sponsors and participants. She noted the importance of continuing to uplift scholarship in communities of color, particularly in a crucial time of turmoil for diversity protocols and educational institutions.
“They do not want to acknowledge our excellence. They do not want to acknowledge our potential, and they do not want to acknowledge our contributions,” Primas said, referencing mainstream denial of the Black community. “It’s a must that The Washington Informer and other Black newspapers continue to offer these opportunities for students to show their worth.”
As The Washington Informer prepares its 60th anniversary gala, in which all proceeds will go towards Washington Informer Charities, the charitable board member touted the institution’s enduring legacy of truth, justice and inclusion that each charity event and partnership represents.
“I’m so very proud to be a partner in collaboration with anything that they do,” Primas said.