Opinion

To borrow from the insurance company’s TV commercial, “Like a good neighbor, D.C. is there.”

For a more than two decades I’ve said that former D.C. police chief Charles H. Ramsey, now a frequent guest expert on talk shows, made one mistake that would affect people of color and the effectiveness of the police department in our…

A highlight of Inauguration Day was Amanda Gorman’s delivery of her poem “The Hill We Climb,” which ignited interest in news anchors and home viewers alike. Gorman’s biographical note of having been selected as the first national youth…

I hope, like so many others, that 2021 will bring a sense of normality. But in D.C., that’s still far away, with enhanced Phase 2 restrictions in place at least until March. As the owner of a small gym, protecting the health and well being…

Reacting to the latest proposal to grant statehood to the District of Columbia, the sole member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Dakota recently introduced legislation to merge most of D.C. with Maryland instead.

On the first day of Black History Month, a time that calls for reflecting on the past, a well-known D.C. developer, a longtime city activist and three local lawmakers stood together on an outdoor stage in Southeast Washington and talked…

When the death notice for Evelyn Newman Duckenfield shows up on The Washington Post’s obituary page a few days from now, it will say that she was 81 and that she died on Jan. 25. It will also note that she was preceded in death by her…

Imagine if a country today took a plurality-Black population, stripped those citizens of any meaningful political power, and relegated them to the whims of a few privileged Whites who ruled in comfort and majesty.

On Jan. 30, with a snowstorm bearing down on Washington, Carla Hayden, the librarian of Congress, tweeted a picture of a snowball fight at the U.S. Capitol. The 1923 photograph was a bittersweet glimpse into the archives, a reminder of a…

The snow-day ritual is an old and familiar one on the East Coast.

Canceled appointments. Insufficient doses. Contradictory eligibility rules. Infuriating websites.

Few American public high schools are anything like the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C. It has been educating future artists and entertainers for 47 years. It also ranks in the top 7 percent of U.S. schools in…

NOW THAT facts are back in fashion, it’s useful to recall the ones that argued in favor of relocating the FBI headquarters, an architectural eyesore in downtown D.C. notable for its crumbling facade, inadequate security, antiquated…

Jennifer Carl stepped out of the gas station bathroom and gasped at what she didn’t see.

More than 240,000 students have experienced gun violence at their school since Columbine in 1999. For the students whose schools have been spared, drills meant to simulate and prepare for the experience ensure that the threat is…

In the corner of a D.C. home sit four stacks of handwritten cards.

The statistics make clear that Washington, D.C. experienced four-straight years of a decrease in murder, from 144 in 2008, to 88 in 2012. There were many reasons for this steady decline, including community organizations like my former…

In a cellphone video taken by her husband, Folasada Butler lies in a hospital bed after giving birth to twins. The doctor who delivered them, Lynne Lightfoote, holds a newborn in each arm. Butler and Lightfoote are wearing protective…

I am honored that D.C. residents have twice elected me D.C. attorney general, based in large part on my commitment to integrity, racial justice and innovative juvenile justice reform. However, because D.C. is not a state, we are denied…

Vigils. Concerts. A coat giveaway. A Mother’s Day brunch. An LGBTQ youth fashion show. Each of those events drew people to an outdoor lot in Southeast Washington that has become known as the “Secret Garden,” even though its existence is…