The Washington Post - USA (2022-01-19)

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 B3

MARYLAND

3 pedestrians killed in separate incidents

Three pedestrians were killed in separate traf fic incidents Monday in Montgomery Count y, according to police. Authorities described two as hit-and-runs. In one of the hit-and-run incidents, a woman was struck shortly before 6:30 p.m. while crossing Veirs Mill Road at Ferrara Avenue in the Wheaton area, police said. The driver of the vehicle did not remain at the scene, they said. About an hour earlier, “a traffic collision” involving a v ehicle near New Hampshire Avenue and Elton Road resulted in the death of a pedestrian, police said. The site is just no rth of the Capital Beltway in the Hillandale area of Montgomery. The vi ctims in those two incidents were not immediately identified, pending the notification of their families. In a t hird incident, a man was struck and killed on the inner loop of the Capital Beltway near the Colesville Road exit, according to the Maryland State Police. Officials said the incident happened just af ter 11 p.m. when a vehicle struck the man, who was later identified as Danny J. Beckford, 32, of D.C., killing him. State police said the vehicle’s driver left the scene. — Martin Weil and Dana Hedgpeth

Police ID man killed at Suitland Metro station

A man found fatally shot to death in a parking lot at the Suitland Metro station Friday afternoon was identified Monday as 29-year-old Eric Branch- Simpson, Prince George’s County police said. Branch-Simpson, who had no fixed address, was found suffering from a gunshot wound about 2:55 p.m. Friday by officers who responded to a report of a shooting in the 4500 block of Silver Hill Road in Suitland, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Prince George’s homicide detectives are working to identify a motive and suspects, and a reward of up to $25,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest and indictment, police said. — Spencer S. Hsu

LOCAL DIGEST

Results from Jan. 18

DISTRICT Day/DC-3: 2-4-9 DC-4: 8-6-1-4 DC-5: 8-9-1-3-8 Night/DC-3 (Mon.): 7-9-2 DC-3 (Tue.): 9-9-8 DC-4 (Mon.): 3-1-8-4 DC-4 (Tue.): 6-7-2-2 DC-5 (Mon.): 6-6-2-0-6 DC-5 (Tue.): 6-8-5-6-0

MARYLAND Day/Pick 3: 5-0-4 Pick 4: 1-6-8-0 Night/Pick 3 (Mon.): 3-7-9 Pick 3 (Tue.): 1-3-6 Pick 4 (Mon.): 5-3-1-7 Pick 4 (Tue.): 8-8-7-4 Multi-Match (Mon.): 1-9-10-16-27-43 Match 5 (Mon.): 1-5-16-33-39 *12 Match 5 (Tue.): 4-25-31-32-37 *19 5 Card Cash: 6H-9H-QD-7C-7S

VIRGINIA Day/Pick-3: 0-9-4 ^5 Pick-4: 2-2-5-0 ^6 Night/Pick-3 (Mon.): 3-4-8 ^9 Pick-3 (Tue.): 0-7-2 ^9 Pick-4 (Mon.): 4-6-8-2 ^4 Pick-4 (Tue.): 5-9-3-5 ^4 Cash-5 (Mon.): 1-4-10-23-31 Cash-5 (Tue.): 2-7-11-23-30

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LOTTERIES

the 16-disc box set, with accompanying 352-page book. I wrote last week that music historian Jay Bruder was able to track down many facts for the compilation but was unsure of the inspiration for “Big Sid,” a circa 1955 song by the 3 of Us Trio. To some collectors, the lyric “Can you ride, ride, ride Big Sid?/ You ride Big Sid and you might get thrown a mile” suggested the title character was a rickety trolley. Not so, said Barrett Swink of Gainesville, Va., who wrote: “Big Sid was a big, nasty rodeo bull, considered by most riders of the time to be un-ridable .... My guess is that Sid was around between 1945 and 1955.” Bingo. I searched newspapers and in October of 1947, B ig Sid was part of a rodeo at the Uline Arena. Newspaper ads promised: “$1,000 if you can ride ‘Big Sid’ the big bull. 10 seconds! Can you ride Big Sid?” It seems no one could, though in January of 1948 The Washington Post ran a story about a local boxer named Paul Lawrence “Stonewall” Jackson who, two nights before a bout, managed eight seconds atop the bull. Said Jackson: “If they had let me mount him backwards, I would have been up there all night.” [email protected] Twitter: @johnkelly

 For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/john-kelly.

presentation, “Suburban Wasteland: Punk Culture in Montgomery County from 1977 to 2002,” is on Jan. 29. Davis grew up in the county, played in such bands as Q and Not U and Title Tracks, and is now an archivist at the University of Maryland performing arts library, where he has assembled a collection of punk material. Davis is intrigued by what he calls “the granular nature of punk,” how each region had its own scene, including bands, venues and zines. There were some unlikely venues back then, including the Outside Inn, a spot in a Boiling Brook Parkway strip shopping center that hosted Government Issue and Black Market Baby. One of the earliest zines was Vintage Violence, created in the spring of 1977 by Mike Heath in his Silver Spring house. Bands of the era included Artificial Peace, Bloody Mannequin Orchestra and Gray Matter. Said Davis: “The point is to highlight this sort of subterranean history of what went on in this place that isn't necessarily known for being countercultural.” Tickets to the virtual Montgomery County History Conference range from $25 to $75. For information, visit montgomeryhistory.org.

A bunch of bull While we’re on the topic of local music, let us revisit “R&B in DC,”

opened later that year,” Buglass said. In 1973, the much bigger Capital Centre opened. “The first Capital Centre concert was the Allman Brothers, who had played at Shady Grove three years before,” Buglass said. In 1977, S hady Grove was closed, then torn down. A business park, Grove 270, sits where Steve Miller once tarried too long onstage. The same year Shady Grove Music Fair closed, a record store opened in Rockville. Skip Groff’s Yesterday & Today Records would become a vital incubator for the area punk rock scene. “I consider that store to be a real anchor or a hub during that important period,” said John Davis whose history conference

2,500-seat building. “When it went to a permanent structure, it was year-round, so they had to fill the calendar,” Buglass said. That meant booking rock acts. Jefferson Airplane was among the first. Buglass combed through old newspapers, play bills and concert websites to compile a list of every act to appear at Shady Grove. A highlight was the Jackson 5, who had a week-long residency in 1975. As they did in every town, the Jackson 5 challenged local DJs to a basketball game. They trounced the radio jocks, 57-41. Competition eventually put Shady Grove Music Fair out of business. “In 1971, Wolf Trap opened. The Kennedy Center

The Steve Miller
Band doesn’t
seem like the sort
of group to
inspire violence,
but on Nov. 24,
1973, eight people
were arrested at
the band’s
performance in
Gaithersburg, Md.
“It was the worst of a series of
disturbances at rock concerts in
the county,” Clayton Ervine,
director of Montgomery County’s
Environmental Protection
Department, told the
Washington Evening Star.
Fans with tickets to Miller’s
late show threw rocks and
bottles when the early show ran
long. Some stormed the doors.
The melee was at the Shady
Grove Music Fair, a venue that’s
the subject of a presentation at
the Montgomery County History
Conference, which runs online
Friday through Jan. 29.
The Shady Grove Music Fair
opened in 1962 off what is today
Interstate 270. At first, the
theater-in-the-round was in a
tent, said Ralph Buglass, who is
presenting at the conference.
That meant it operated only in
the summer months, a setting
mainly for Broadway road
shows. It was the brainchild of
Philadelphia promoters Shelly
Gross and Lee Guber, who
operated multiple Music Fairs,
from Long Island to Baltimore.
In its fifth season, the tented
structure was replaced by a

Playing the notes of Montgomery’s musical past

John
Kelly's

Washington

MONTGOMERY HISTORY The Shady Grove Music Fair, opened in 1962, at first hosted mainly Broadway shows. Later, rock and punk were added to the mix.

to buy a mobile pregnancy unit that will function as a kind of roving crisis pregnancy center with free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds. “Just because Roe may get overturned doesn’t mean our work is done,” McCoy said. “I think it’s just beginning. We still have the issue of how do we change these pregnancies from unwanted to wanted. There has to be a shift there, and we have to have the resources to back that up.” Florida will also host its own marches this weekend, but An- drew Shirvell, executive director of Florida Voice for the Unborn, plans to travel to D.C. for the national march. He attended his first March for Life when he was a sophomore in college, and he has attended 10 or so others in the two decades since. He has marched in the snow, he said, and he plans to march next year, too, no matter what the Supreme Court decides. Though Florida lawmakers recently intro- duced a bill that would prohibit abortion after 15 weeks, the state does not yet have a law that would ban the procedure outright if Roe is overturned. “Roe being overturned doesn’t mean abortion would be illegal all over the country,” Shirvell said. “There’s going to be huge battles over abortion in the state legislatures and even at the local level. What we’d ultimately like to see is a constitutional amendment en- suring the right to life in every state, but that’s probably a long way in the future.” [email protected]

virus cases continues to surge nationwide, Day said she is wor- ried that the march will be a superspreader event. “I think it says everything about the antiabortion movement that they are busing in hundreds of people from Ohio, a state that has been leading the nation in this pandemic surge, to celebrate their false flag of life,” she said. Antiabortion activists in other states say they plan to stay home this year to focus on local efforts. In Kansas, antiabortion advocates are busy organizing the state March for Life, which takes place Jan. 25. McKenzie McCoy, executive director of North Dako- ta Right to Life, said she had to forgo the national event this year because she’s the keynote speaker at her state’s march, which will happen in tandem with the national event Friday. “The state marches are so important because we’re the ones with the boots on the ground,” McCoy said. “We get tired. We get beat down. Sometimes we feel like we’re running on this tread- mill alone, and it’s good to go to events like this where you can fill that tank back up. Your fire gets rekindled. You get reminded of why you got into this movement.” Although North Dakota has a trigger law that would ban abortion if Roe falls, McCoy said her organization is working on a plan to reach people who may still want, or try, to terminate their pregnancies, no matter what the law says. Her organization is workin g with another local group

cates of Ohio, said her group will continue to fight to protect abortion access. Her group has more than 3,000 people signed up to testify against the bill. “The citizens of Ohio face some of the most egregious attacks in the country when it comes to preserving the constitutional right to abortion,” she said. “But the facts speak for themselves: Abortion is legal in Ohio and in America, and most Ohioans sup- port safe and legal access to abortion.” Day’s organization is aware of the March for Life, and she has seen young antiabortion activists return home energized from the trip, but her group won’t send counterprotesters during a pandemic. As t he number of corona-

to the Guttmacher Institute, local legislatures have enacted more than 480 abortion restrictions since 2011. Texas so far has suc- ceeded in banning abortions after six weeks, and all but one abortion clinic in Mississippi closed. Ohio has passed more than two dozen restrictions over the past decade, Range said. Range said he’s depending on the march to renew enthusiasm in Ohio as his group works to pass Senate Bill 123, a trigger law that would ban all abortions in Ohio if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe. Abortion rights activists are working to stop that bill, which they say is unconstitutional. Ai- leen Day, communications director at Planned Parenthood Advo-

abortion rights activists protest
the rally each year, but March for
Life organizers don’t expect a
large crowd of counterprotesters
this week.
Dozens of abortion opponents
have noted on the March for Life
Facebook page that they will not
attend because of a new D.C.
mandate that requires anyone
over the age of 12 to show proof of
at least one coronavirus vaccine
shot before going inside restau-
rants, conference rooms and oth-
er public spaces. The march hap-
pens outside, but the program
includes several indoor events.
March organizers held most
events virtually last year because
of the pandemic.
Range said his group will also
be smaller than usual: He usually
takes about 700 young people
from Toledo to the march, but this
year only 110 are signed up for the
eight-hour bus ride. Still, Range
said he sees the annual event as
an integral piece of activism.
Many young people leave the
weekend inspired to start anti-
abortion groups at their colleges,
and others begin demonstrating
and praying outside of abortion
clinics.
“It’s a joyful event,” Range said.
“There’s a s pecial holy spirit that
is present that charges people up
to come home and fight locally for
the right to life.”
That’s what happened to
Range’s generation. The years
since Range first attended the
march have been banner ones for
antiabortion activists. According

MARCH FROM B1

March for Life organizers expect reduced turnout amid pandemic

JAHI CHIKWENDIU/THE WASHINGTON POST Antiabortion protesters gather at a D .C. Planned Parenthood location as part of last year’s March for Life on Jan. 29.

BY ELLIE SILVERMAN

Twenty-eight people were ar-
rested outside the U.S. Capitol on
Tuesday as a group of college
students, faith leaders and civil
rights organizers on a hunger
strike demanded that the Senate
pass federal voting rights legisla-
tion.
After months of advocacy and
in the absence of legislative ac-
tion, voting rights activists have
said they would keep escalating
their tactics to make sure their
voices are heard.
“This is a desperate time,” said
Shana Gallagher, the co-founder
and executive director of un-PAC,
an advocacy group that launched
in March, employs student orga-
nizers and describes itself as non-
partisan.
The people arrested about
noon Tuesday were charged with
crossing a police line and with
“crowding, obstructing and in-
commoding” under the District of
Columbia code, according to Tim
Barber, a Capitol police spokes-

man. The Revs. Jesse L. Jackson and William J. Barber II were among about 200 people arrested outside the Capitol in August. Mem- bers of the Congressional Black Caucus have been arrested during nonviolent demonstrations, including Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D -Tex.), who was arrested in July outside the Hart Senate Of- fice Building. And relatives of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. were detained and issued citations in November for obstructing traffic outside the White House during a voting rights demonstration. Tuesda y’s demonstration comes a day after Martin Luther King Jr. Da y, when members of the late civil rights icon’s family marched across the newly rebuilt Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge with several hundred other activists and residents and demanded that the Senate pass voting rights legislation. On Tuesday, the Senate began debating the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, a combination of bills already passed by the House in a package that would create national rules for parts of the electoral process, such as voting by mail, and restore the federal government’s authority to re- view certain state voting laws to prevent discrimination.

Voting rights advocates are calling for changing the Senate filibuster so the bills can be passed without meeting a 60-vote threshold — something President Biden endorsed last week in a voting rights speech in which he compared Republican opposition to the legislation to opposition to civil rights bills in the Jim Crow era. But Democratic Sens. Joe Man- chin III (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sine-

ma (Ariz.) have said they would oppose attempts to change the filibuster. The protesters on Tues- day included people from West Virginia who are hoping to meet with Manchin, un-PAC’s Gallagh- er said. The groups at the Capitol were part of two hunger strikes, including college students and re- cent graduates who were outside the White House last month for an earlier hunger strike, calling

for the Senate and Biden to enact voting rights legislation. The group of 25 faith leaders on Day 13 of their own hunger strike includes the Rev. Stephen A. Green, chair of the Harlem- based Faith for Black Lives — a coalition of faith leaders and activists — who led protesters in song over the summer as they blocked traffic outside Reagan National Airport. “We intend to become ungov- ernable if the Senate fails to protect the right to vote because it is that important,” said Green, who was one of the protesters arrested on Tuesday. “More direct action, more protests in streets, more airport shutdowns, because that’s what it took to get the first Voting Rights Act to pass, and we know it will take that plus more for us to protect the democracy again.” [email protected]

THE DISTRICT

Dozens arrested at Capitol during action to back voting rights

Students, faith leaders carry message to Senate in a ‘desperate time’

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES Police prepare to arrest voting rights demonstrators outside the Capitol on the day the Senate began debating related legislation. Some want to change the filibuster so the bills can be approved.

“More direct action,

more protests ... more

airport shutdowns.” The Rev. Stephen A. Green, sharing what is planned if the v oting rights measures die

N0302 1x2.5

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