Anacostia Hosts First Unifest Since '07 Accident

Event Organizers Increase Security

Unifest returned to Anacostia yesterday with heightened security, two years after a woman who was high on crack injured dozens by plowing her car through the street festival.

The celebration of African American culture and history was called off last year to give organizers time to retool it after the previous year's incident. But yesterday it was all back on Martin Luther King Avenue -- the music, the chicken-on-a-stick, the ribs, the hula hoops, the cheerleaders and dance squads.

"It's great," said Dorothy Riley, 60, who has been attending the festival since it started 26 years ago. "You can't let one little accident stop you."

Tonya Bell's 2007 accident, however, was anything but little.

Bell drove her Volvo through a barricade and began mowing down spectators. By the time police managed to stop her car, 49 bystanders, including 10 children, were injured, many of them seriously.

Bell pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault while armed and assault with a dangerous weapon, as well as one count of cruelty to children. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Vernon Hawkins, executive director of the Unifest Foundation, said the incident was so traumatic that he and other officials decided to cancel the festival last year.

"We had to be sensitive to those individuals who were injured and the community itself," Hawkins said. "We needed to retool things, get better planning and develop a broader program."

Hawkins sat down with Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier a few weeks ago to coordinate security.

Yesterday, Martin Luther King Avenue was protected by a fortress of barriers and police cruisers, creating a buffer that appeared to stretch almost a mile.

"'We have more officers and we are making sure every place has a hard barrier," said D.C. Police Commander Joel Maupin, who deployed 200 officers to the event. "Everything that touches King Avenue is blocked, and no one can get through."

Charles Matthews, 65, said Unifest means too much to the city's African American community for it to have been abandoned.

During its early years, the festival featured little more than a street parade called the Chitlin' Strut and Chicken Stroll. In recent years, more than 100,000 people descended on the festival, although there appeared to be only a few thousand there yesterday at mid-afternoon.

"We need this kind of holiday," Matthews said. "All around the city, they have things for different ethnic groups. This is the only thing for us over here" in Southeast.

Organizers worked with city agencies to offer social services at this year's festival, including booths for HIV testing, free medical and dental screenings, and credit and foreclosure prevention counseling.

"Some people thought it wouldn't ever happen again," Latonya Ramsey, 38, said as she hawked $1 bottles of water. "I am glad they are trying to get this back right."

Yvonne Austin, 64, said the symbolism of the festival's rebirth in economically depressed Anacostia cannot be understated.

"That [accident] was a freak thing, but it is important for the community to reflect where it's been and where it's going," Austin said. "It gives us hope things can resurface again."