The Washington Informer also celebrates 60th anniversary
By Ashleigh Fields
Special to the AFRO
Journalists from all descents and backgrounds are expected to gather at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., on March 16 to celebrate two significant milestones: the 198-year-long legacy of the Black Press and the 60-year anniversary of The Washington Informer’s founding.
Credit: Courtesy image
“For nearly two centuries, the Black Press has played a pivotal role in informing our communities. Today, our industry is under attack, and many newsrooms have chosen to capitulate to the whims of oligarchs,” Phil Lewis, president of the Washington Association of Black Journalists (WABJ), said.
He added, “Newspapers that tell the truth, like The AFRO and The Washington Informer, are just as important now as they were at their founding. It is up to us to continue to support them.”
Members of WABJ are expected to help celebrate the achievements of the two pillars of Black media, paying homage to their contributions to history within the nation’s capital and across the globe.
“I’m blessed and grateful that we’ve been able to survive for 60 years from the support of our readers and really dedicated staff members that we’ve had over the years,” Denise Rolark, publisher of the Washington Informer, told the AFRO.
“We’re one of the youngest of the Black newspapers because there are so many like the AFRO and the Pittsburgh Courier, who have 100 years under their belt. They inspire me.”
Rolark credited the Black Press as the repository of Black history in America.
“People don’t always give the Black Press the homage it deserves,” she said. “The Black church, HBCUs, Greek letter organizations and Black-owned businesses have long histories, but the press is one of our oldest institutions and one that has been a significant recorder of our history and one of the most reliable.”
In its 60-year history, The Washington Informer, founded by Rolark’s father, Calvin, detailed the everyday concerns of African Americans in the District as it did the advocacy of former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, Black Power leader Stokely Carmichael, civil rights activist and politician Rev. Walter Fauntroy and many more who participated in Freedom Summer and protests focused on voting rights and equal justice.
The outlet also chronicled and highlighted major events, such as when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the ratification of the 24th Amendment, which abolished poll taxes in federal elections.
“With $500 donated by his wife, an activist lawyer, and the help of a close friend who hand-drew the newspaper’s original masthead, the first issue of The Washington Informer rolled off the presses of a printer in LaPlata, Maryland. Dr. Rolark personally drove the 1,000 copies back to D.C. and distributed them to barber shops, beauty salons, churches, Safeway stores, and by mail to subscribers who paid $10,” Rolark wrote in an Informer editorial marking its diamond jubilee.
“The Washington Informer is still here 60 years later, following the passage of the baton from my father that now rests in my hands,” she concluded.
The publisher is now instilling the values of the family business in her son, Lafayette, who works on The Bridge newsletter as an extension of the Informer.
With her eye focused on the next 60 years of the newspaper’s impact, Rolark has noted digital expansion as a viable path forward for the Black Press with an emphasis on their presence in the artificial intelligence (AI) realm.
“As people explore all of these platforms we certainly want to be where they are. Even when it comes to AI, I often say if we aren’t in there it won’t have our voices… we writing ourselves out of history,” Rolark said. “Even though we still hold true to our print publications, we still have to explore the other options to make sure we are in a place to guide, educate and inform our readers.”
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