As you may have noticed, the Ward 6 Dems are ramping up our public events for 2019. They are the backbone of our mission to educate and engage our community, and we need your help.

 Our Events Committee, led by Ethan Van Ness, is responsible for planning:

• Quarterly Ward 6 Matters panel discussions
• Quarterly Ward 6 Democrats salons (intimate policy conversations)
• Periodic happy hours
• Ward 6 Democrats presence at neighborhood festivals (like the H Street Festival and the Barracks Row Fall Festival)
• Candidate debates in election years

 We need help with:

• Choosing topics 
• Lining up speakers/special guests
• Site management at events
• Coordinating events with the DC Democratic State Committee and other local and national partners 

 For more information or to join the Events Committee, contact Ethan Van Ness at ethan.vanness@gmail.com  

On Thursday, March 7, more than 125 DC residents met at the Community Action Group's Hal J Gordon Building for "Addressing Inequality in DC," a forum discussion about how to move the needle in the DC public school system. Co-sponsored by the DC Democratic State Committee and the Ward 6 Democrats, the forum addressed issues our students, parents, and entire school system face in treating all our students equitably and in fairly and appropriately providing the services they need. We thank the many volunteers who stepped up on short notice to make the evening a success.

At the DC DSC's monthly meeting, state committee members discussed moving the date of the 2020 DC primary election up two weeks to June 2, 2020 to raise awareness of the DC Statehood movement and to increase the impact of the District's vote. This recommendation will shortly be forwarded to the DC city council for a final decision. 

Join DC City Council Chair Phil Mendelson for an open conversation on current issues impacting our community Tuesday evening, March 19, from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. in the upstairs room at Mr. Henry's (601 Pennsylvania Avenue SE).  

The conversation will be facilitated by one of your Ward 6 Democrats officers, and the evening will focus on five policy areas: Education, Policing, Public Space, Affordable Housing, and the Equality Gap. Come prepared with your questions for Chairman Mendelson.

Mr. Henry's will be offering extended happy hour specials and pricing. RSVP is required, as we are limiting this event to 25 Ward 6 residents to ensure that everyone has a chance to speak.
RSVP at https://www.ward6dems.org/ward_6_dems_salon_mendo. 

March is Women’s History Month and Ward 6 Democrats are continuing their recognition of Women in Ward 6 by honoring Ruth Ann Overbeck, a Capitol Hill historian and teacher.

The Women of Ward 6 initiative is a non-partisan recognition of Ward 6’s women, which honors women who have worked or lived in Ward 6 and who have made significant contributions to better our lives.

The initiative, in partnership with the National Woman’s Party and the Hill Rag, will culminate in the 2020 100^th anniversary of the ratification of the 19^th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

Ruth Ann Overbeck, who died in April of 2000, is buried in Ward 6’s Congressional Cemetery. Her gravestone, by design, has no birth or death date. Instead it is engraved: “Look it up!”

Overbeck bought her house on Capitol Hill in 1968, a few weeks after the riots following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King – a time when many people were fleeing the city. She spent the next 30 years restoring her own house as well as building a historical research business. She doggedly mined the community for oral histories, photographs, maps and other documentation and thus, contributed a wealth of information about the neighborhood’s history.

She chaired the original effort to define and establish the Capitol Hill Historic District. She researched hundreds of house histories for homeowners and designed and conducted more than 35 DC walking tours for the Smithsonian Resident Associates on various historic themes.

She received both her B.A. and her M.A. from the university of Texas, Austin. She was never allowed into a PhD program because she was a woman.

Want to nominate a women to be honored as a Woman of Ward 6? Here’s the nomination form:  https://www.ward6dems.org/women_of_ward_6_nomination

Interested in helping out with the initiative? Contact Marci Hilt, marcihilt@aol.com.

The Hill Center (921 Pennsylvania Avenue SE) will be hosting their seventh annual Volunteer Capitol Hill on Saturday, April 27 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. This event is designed to showcase the wide variety of opportunities for volunteer service in our community. The Ward 6 Democrats will have a table, and we need some volunteers to help us recruit more volunteers (how meta).

We need:

• Two volunteers from 9:30 – 10:30 a.m. (who will also help with setup)
• Two volunteers from 10:30 – 11:30 a.m.
• Two volunteers from 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. (who will also help us pack up)

If you can help, contact Dorinda White at dorindaw@gmail.com

March is Women’s History Month and the Ward 6 Democrats are continuing our recognition of notable women in Ward 6 by honoring Ruth Ann Overbeck, a Capitol Hill historian and teacher.

Overbeck, who died in April of 2000, is buried in Ward 6’s Congressional Cemetery. Her gravestone, by design, has no birth or death date. Instead it is engraved: “Look it up!”

Overbeck bought her house on Capitol Hill in 1968, a few weeks after the uprising that followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, at a time when many people were fleeing the city. She spent the next 30 years restoring her own house as well as building a historical research business. She doggedly mined the community for oral histories, photographs, maps, and other documentation and thus, contributed a wealth of information about the neighborhood’s history.

She chaired the original effort to define and establish the Capitol Hill Historic District. She researched hundreds of house histories for homeowners, and designed and conducted more than 35 DC walking tours for the Smithsonian Resident Associates on various historic themes.

She received both her B.A. and her M.A. from the University of Texas, Austin. But ironically, she was never allowed into a Ph.D. program because she was a woman.

The Women of Ward 6 initiative s a non-partisan recognition of Ward 6’s women, honoring women who have worked or lived in Ward 6 and who have made significant contributions to better our lives. It is run in partnership with the National Woman’s Party and the Hill Rag and will culminate in the 2020 centennial celebration of the ratification of the 19^th Amendment. 

You are invited to nominate women, current or historical, to recognize. Our categories include, but aren’t limited to: arts, writing, medicine, labor, media, law, retail, food service, professional services, government, community service, military, religion, education, athletics, women under age 21, lobbying, non-profit, and science. Each woman must have lived or worked in Ward 6.

Join your fellow Ward 6 Democrats for a happy hour in the upstairs room at Mr. Henry’s (601 Pennsylvania Avenue SE) on Tuesday, March 26, from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.

We’ll have a special guest, DC Attorney General Karl Racine, and extended happy hour specials and pricing. AG Racine has quietly become a major figure in the national movement to resist the Trump administration, through his leadership of the ongoing emoluments lawsuit against Donald Trump (with Maryland AG Brian Frosh), and his role as co-chair of the Democratic Attorneys General Association.

Find out more about AG Racine in this recent Politico profile and join us on the 26th to meet this dynamic local and national political leader. 

RSVP here

Join DC City Council Chair Phil Mendelson for an open conversation on current issues impacting our community Tuesday evening, March 19, from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. in the upstairs room at Mr. Henry's (601 Pennsylvania Avenue SE).  

The conversation will be facilitated by one of your Ward 6 Democrats officers, and the evening will focus on five policy areas: Education, Policing, Public Space, Affordable Housing, and the Equality Gap. Come prepared with your questions for Chairman Mendelson.

Mr. Henry's will be offering extended happy hour specials and pricing. RSVP is required as we are limiting this to 25 Ward 6 residents to ensure that everyone has a chance to speak.

RSVP here

Are you ready to take the plunge and help advocate for DC Statehood in 2019?

Wednesday, Feb. 27 (note the revised date) is the statehood movement’s annual lobbying day on Capitol Hill. There are morning and afternoon shifts available, and training and meals are provided.

Never lobbied before? Don’t worry – experienced leaders of the statehood movement will be with you to guide the way. Experienced citizen lobbyist? That’s great, too. Either way, the movement needs you. Sign up to participate at https://www.facebook.com/events/1937302779700951/.

The Ward 6 Democrats urgently need five or six – or more – volunteers to form a Steering Committee to flesh out our Women of Ward 6/Suffrage Centennial Project. 2020 is the centennial of the passage of the 19^th amendment, which gave women the right to vote. We are working with the National Woman's Party (https://www.nationalwomansparty.org/) on the centennial celebration.