Maurice Fitzgerald was looking through some old papers in his Prince George’s County home recently and came across a program celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Washington Informer.
“I looked at the program and I saw pictures of Roy Lewis, Victor Holt and Khalid Naji-Allah, all great photographers of The Washington Informer,” said Fitzgerald, 69, who was a freelance photographer for the District newspaper. “I said to myself ‘this is really cool.’ The Washington Informer has come a long way and survived a lot.”
The Washington Informer, founded by Dr. Calvin Rolark on Oct. 16, 1964, as a weekly print newspaper, is celebrating 60 years of publishing news across multiple platforms. The focus of The Informer is providing positive news of the Black community, something that was often missing from other publications, whether white- or Black-owned, a point Rolark often stressed.
One of The Informer’s earliest columnists was U.S. Rep. Wright Patman (D-Texas), who wrote weekly about national issues. Rolark, a native of Texarkana, Texas, knew Patman through his father, who served as the congressman’s automobile mechanic.
The Informer has served as a force for the annual parades and peace walks honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and is the official sponsor of the Scripps Spelling Bee in the District and Prince George’s County, Maryland.
In addition to the print edition, The Informer offers readers a website, newsletters and a social media presence on all the major channels.
The company broadcasts a weekly digital program, “Let’s Talk” that airs on Fridays starting at noon.
Dr. Rolark died on Oct. 23, 1994, and his wife, Wilhelmina, served as president of the company prior to her death on February 14, 2006.
Rolark’s motto, “If it is to be it, it is up to me,” continues to serve as a guiding light for The Informer.
The company presently is led by Rolark’s daughter, Denise Rolark Barnes, as its publisher.
The Informer’s Importance, Legacy
Fitzgerald said The Informer reminds him of a Black newspaper published during the antebellum period in the United States.
“The Informer is like Frederick Douglass and the North Star, the newspaper he published that fought slavery and fought for the rights of Blacks,” he said. “We are part of that. We have to keep it going.”
Winston Chaney, a board operator who worked with Dr. Rolark on his weekly radio show on WYCB-AM 1340, highlighted The Informer’s legacy of reporting positive Black news, accomplishments and achievements over the 60 years and emphasized that it must continue.
“Rolark was brilliant, and he was one of the greatest minds of our time,” said Chaney, 70, who said Rolark’s show ran through the early 1980s to his death in 1994. “He always stressed to me the importance of getting an education. I was glad to call him a friend. I remember closing his show saying “the only people who can save us is us.”
Chaney, an on-air gospel personality on WHUR-FM, said he was fortunate to have worked with the radio hosts Rolark and Petey Green, a popular District personality known for his street humor and candor about the city’s people and its politics. He said The Informer has been around for decades because it “kept us informed on the issues.”
“The other newspapers, The [Washington] Post and The [Washington] Times, wrote about general issues, but The Informer brought light to what the Black community faced,” he said.
Virginia Ali is the co-founder of the Ben’s Chili Bowl restaurant chain. Ben’s opened in 1958, a year prior to Dr. Rolark setting up a public relations firm, CW Rolark & Associates, in the District after working a few years in Richmond, Virginia.
“I met Calvin and Wilhelmina Rolark in the 1960s,” said Ali, 90. “When he set up his newspaper, people were very excited. Black people had another choice when it came to news.”
Ali said the Rolarks were a prominent political couple in the city. She said The Informer is “a service to the community and a big asset to Washington, D.C.”
Ali said Ben’s Chili Bowl advertised when it could and helped the newspaper anyway it could.
“Throughout the years, The Informer has written articles about us and we appreciate that,” she said. “Those articles helped us keep our business alive.”
Ali said The Informer is part of a group of noted Black businesses that flourished during the 1960s, before the city became fully integrated.
“Black people had what we needed,” said Ali. “We had Black newspapers like The Informer, Black banks like Industrial and businesses such as Lee’s Flower Shop and others that sustained the Black community.”
Ben’s Chili Bowl celebrated its 75th anniversary in August 2023. As the publication celebrates its 60th year, Ali expressed confidence that The Informer will reach that milestone and continue to operate for years to come.
“I would tell The Informer to keep on going,” she said. “They are doing a great job. Denise is doing a great job. She has got it. Her dad taught her well.”