DC Archives of the Day_ Sam Smith, “Fire”

Excerpt from ”Fire” from Multitudes: the Unauthorized Memoirs of Sam Smith 

Larry Rosen behind the counter of Smiths Store on 14th Street NW before the riots burnt the store to the ground. Doc Jones also pictured behind the counter. Photo Courtesy of Larry Rosen

 

Sam Smith is a legendary DC /American journalist and political activist. Smith, always steps ahead of his peers, was an early pioneer in alternative media with the longtime national journal, Progressive Review which has moved its headquarters from Washington DC to Freeport, Maine. 

“It was a city in which the American dream and the American tragedy passed each other on the street and did not speak. It was, finally, a city that had suffered a form of deprivation known primarily to the poor and the imprisoned, a psychological deprivation born of the constant suppression and denial of one’s identity, worth, or purpose by those in control. Washington to those in power was not a place but a hall to rent. The people of Washington were the custodian staff. And the renters were as likely to visit the world in which this staff lived as a parishioner is to inspect the boiler room of the church. The purpose of Washington’s community was to serve not to be. Its school children were not taught the history of their city; they were told little of its significant men and women. There was no city festival or parade.  

In fact, this repository of national history didn’t even have a local history museum. The city’s present was suppressed, its future was a hostage, and its past was ignored.  

This was the city that civil rights activists and other reformers determined to – and did – change. This change was cultural as well as political and increasingly the old ways and the new found themselves in conflict. For example, having discovered that there were more African-American books in the libraries in the white parts of town than in the black city, I decided I better check out the meetings of the library board of trustees. There I found not only an all-white board but a chair in his 90s serving his colleagues tea and cookies.”

The Washington Informer’s Blatant Betrayal of its Own Self-Professed Community

WashTimes Newspaper Box with some choice graff.

By: Napoleon Bushrod Uniontown Suggs III

Before world-renowned literary figure Oscar Wilde departed the world of the living in 1900, he observed, “There is much to be said in favour of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.”

The Washington Informer (WI) keeps its “More Than 50,000 African American Readers Throughout the Metropolitan Area” informed of the “ignorance of the community” in its predictable agitprop reporting and elementary editorializing.

Granted the WI edition that hit the streets today has the usual fare —- a understandably uncompromising story on Michelle Rhee, a critical piece speculating that the general public’s interest in the Haiti rescue effort will wane as the UN has suspended their search for survivors to focus on delivering humanitarian aid, a regurgitated press release from At-Large Councilmember Michael Brown’s office stating for the public record he will “challenge” Mayor Fenty if Council Chair Vincent Gray ultimately declines to run, and a guest editorial from Majority Whip of the US House of Representative James Clyburn predicting that despite the problems of President Obama’s first year in office, “We will make positive history once again.”

The WI rarely, if ever, deviates from the most basic commonplace, rudimentary, worn-out aged conventional wisdom from the city’s old line old guard.

Although The Washington Post and The Washington Times, on life-support as it has abandoned its local coverage, have yet to cover the opening of  Big Chair Coffee(BCC) at 2122 MLK Avenue SE, The Washington City Paper ran an article and photo in last week’s hard copy and was the first major news source to blog about BCC. DCist was quick to the story with most all River East bloggers have vigorously covered BCC, some daily; now the Washington Business Journal has jumped into the mix of local media who have deservedly covered the street news of Big Chair Coffee.

The reason Big Chair Coffee is news is because it provides further hard evidence that in River East, as Bob Dylan once sang, “Times They Are A-Changin’.”

For those who do not live in River East or even city proper or, even, for those who’ve not ever stepped foot on MLK Avenue, it is understandable to miss the social, political, historical, and economic implications of Big Chair Coffee’s opening. We understand if you don’t get it.

However, The Washington Informer’s address is 3117 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE.

In not covering Big Chair Coffee The Washington Informer lets the community know, unequivocally, where they stand; right alongside the most ignorant and regressive members of River East’s old guard.

Update: February 4, 2010 And, Now Anacostia has a nice update of all the media, including the blog roll, that have devoted time and space to BCC. Still missing from the list is the Washington Informer. Is anyone surprised? Someone should please tell their advertising contacts at Pepco, DC Gov, DC Dept of Health, Macy’s, NBC4, etc. that the WI is NOT in contact with the community and they should immediately stop upholding such a faux newspaper that doubles as toilet paper in these tough economic times.