As Kenneth Morris Jr. thinks about America’s birthday, he said he wants to be proud of his country.

The D.C. native is co-founder of the , a nonprofit working to combat modern slavery, including human trafficking.

Douglass, one of the foremost abolitionists of the 19th century, is Morris’ great, great, great grandfather. Author and educator Booker T. Washington is his great, great grandfather, he said.

“Because their blood flows through my veins, I will take the liberty to say that I think that Frederick Douglass would look at the nation and while there’s still a lot of work to do, we have made incremental progress — slow, incremental progress,” he said.

Some of that progress Morris mentioned includes the elections of former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I think that he would be pleased to see that we elected an African-American president, and most recently we had a female vice president of color,” Morris said. “I think that he would be pleased at that progress, but I also think that he would be outraged that there’s still so much work to be done.”

Morris said this monumental moment in American history is a time to reflect.

“Let’s think about how each and every one of us can use our talents, our creativity, our intellect, and do the work that’s important to us, with the passion that I know many of us have to want to make this country a better place and to bring us together,” Morris said.

He said that could include pushing politicians — at the local, state or federal levels — to enact policies that “benefit social justice and equality.”

“Whatever your talent is, use it to affect change in the world around us,” Morris said.

Morris said he doesn’t “feel any kind of way about how other people choose to celebrate” America’s 250th anniversary this year.

He, and the foundation that bears his ancestor’s name, will celebrate by educating others. That includes uplifting the work of Douglass’ wife Anna Murray Douglass, who Morris calls a radical freedom fighter in her own right.

The Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives has also partnered with the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.

“They have an exhibit called ‘,’ and it’ll be running throughout 2026 in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the country,” Morris said. “And in that exhibit is a first edition printing of Frederick Douglass’ Fourth of July speech. ”

That famous 1852 speech, “What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?” forcefully reminded fellow abolitionists that Black people were not free July 4, 1776.

Morris feels hopeful about the future, saying the founders gave people “the promise of liberty, and each generation decides whether the promise lives or dies, and so we all have an obligation to make sure we’re carrying the torch forward.”

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Although the Capitol Hill Little League from D.C. led much of their game, they lost against a team from Delaware 8-7.

Earlier, the Montgomery County Little League team, affectionately known as the “Wolfpack” and representing Maryland, fell 7-2 to a team from Uwchlan Township in Pennsylvania. Catcher and pitcher Jackson Poe was 1-2 and drove in both runs for the team from Germantown, Maryland.

“They had a positive attitude despite the loss,” Wolfpack manager Adam Weber said. Weber said he told the team they need to win three games to win the tournament and it doesn’t matter in what order those games are won.

“I also told them that I was proud of how they competed and stayed in the game despite being down 7-0. We showed fight towards the end there, scoring a few runs,” he said.

Both losing D.C. area teams will play each other Monday afternoon, as the winners advance to a game on Tuesday. The regional championship game is Friday.

“We are feeling good,” Weber said about the Wolfpack’s spirits. “We play D.C. Capitol Hill (Monday) for bragging rights in the DMV, and we have our ace pitcher going.”

The regional tournament takes place at the East Regional Little League headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut, just outside the ESPN campus.

Both teams are vying for a spot in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

The Little League World Series initially kicks off with more than 6,500 teams, 6,000 of which are eliminated in the first three weeks of the event, according to officials. There are a total of seven divisions in the league and about 45,000 games are played in total leading up to the World Series.

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The PenFed Foundation is auctioning two tickets in its suite for several upcoming games where Ovechkin, potentially, could either reach or surpass Gretzky’s career total of 894 goals.

“The winner of these tickets will have a great view of Ovechkin as he tries to break the mark,” said PenFed Vice President of Operations Katie Watson.

The money raised through the raffle will fund programs for veterans who are transitioning from service to civilian life, according to Watson.

These programs include efforts to support veterans in education and — perhaps cutest of all — service dog training for veterans and others with disabilities.

They’re “thrilled to raise money for veterans,” Watson said.

And what a thrill it would be to catch the Great 8 making history as well.

The auction for the games is on the

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Washington Commanders super fan Melba Jacobson recently turned 100 years old! I met her at training camp 10 years ago, and she’s still going strong with her fandom.

We reminisced about our first meeting and all the players — past and present — Jacobson has met over the years. Former quarterback Joe Theismann, who spent 12 years with the team, is one of them. He shared a birthday greeting with the now centenarian that also fulfilled a promise.

“Hello, Melba. When you turned 99, I told you I was looking forward to wishing you a happy 100th birthday. Well, here we are. So happy 100th. And may you have many, many, many more. You are a very special person. Matter of fact, you’re my hero. Enjoy your birthday.”

Jacobson moved to D.C. from Texas in 1941 and has been a fan of the Burgundy and Gold ever since: “I just love it!”

She refers to the coaches and players as “her boys.”

Her family threw a party for the 100-year-old matriarch Sunday. About 80 family members and friends were there from Maryland, Virginia, Arizona, West Virginia and beyond. They had a three-tiered birthday cake decorated with the words, “100 Years of Love.”

There were toasts, stories and a lot of love for the woman who has lived through 17 presidents. She has four children, 15 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

Her secret to reaching her age? She said is to just enjoy life.

I first spotted Jacobson while covering training camp for a D.C.-area TV station. She had a sign saying she was celebrating her birthday by spending time with her favorite team. That was in 2014, but Jacobson remembers it clearly.

“You were first,” she said.

The photographer and I tried to make sure the team’s top brass noticed Jacobson. And boy, did they!

“Every training camp since, other than, of course, the COVID years, she’s been back there and the team has treated her royally,” her son Jay said.

There are plenty of pictures and videos that demonstrate his statement.

One of my favorite images is Chase Young, who wore the number 99 when he was with Washington, holding up his jersey next to the one Jacobson was wearing that said, “younger.” And it all happened on her 99th birthday.

Before we hung up our call on Monday, I asked Jay how he thinks his mom has lived so long.

“Sometimes, good things happen to good people, and she’s the best,” he said.

No lies detected there!

On Tuesday, Melba will attend another Washington training camp with her four children.

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One of the most exciting players in college sports will be in the D.C. area this weekend, closing in on the all-time scoring record in women’s college basketball.

Caitlin Clark is just one chapter in the story of women’s sports popularity.

The Maryland Sports Information department says it usually receives about 60 credential requests for a woman’s conference game. For Saturday’s upcoming Iowa Hawkeyes-Maryland Terrapins matchup, they’ve received 90. That’s the Caitlin Clark effect.

USA Today columnist and CNN contributor Christine Brennan said Clark “is the greatest show in sports. This is Title IX personified. We’ve never seen anything quite like this. Basically, even going back all the way to the ’99 Women’s World Cup.”

Brennan added that Clark is wrapped up in a much larger story about how the country has fallen in love with what Title IX created.

“It’s the story of opportunity — you give the other 50% of our population an opportunity to play sports, and they are absolutely killing it. And it’s also about creating a stronger nation. I mean, whatever that girl you see in the kitchen every morning, whatever she’s going to be, whether she’s going to be a doctor, a lawyer, a businessperson, a coach, a mom … some combination thereof, she will be better at it because she played sports because of Title IX,” Brennan said.

Clark is the reigning national player of the year in women’s college hoops. Fox TV will have the “Caitlin Cam” streaming on following her every move Saturday.

She’s on track to do something never accomplished by a woman’s college basketball player: appear on all four broadcast networks in the same season.

That’s likely to happen, depending on where Iowa lands in the Big 10 Tournament and March Madness rankings.

Women’s sports viewership continues to increase. During 2023’s March Madness, nearly 10 million people watched the Iowa-LSU game featuring Caitlin Clark and Angel Reece. Over nine million watched the Rangers and Diamondbacks in baseball’s biggest games.

Those numbers led Brennan to say something she never thought she would: “The NCAA Women’s Basketball [Championship] had basically an average of a million more viewers than the World Series, our national pastime. That is a sentence I never thought I would be able to utter.”

Brennan said women’s team sports are flourishing because Title IX is working its magic.

“Now, almost 52 years old in this country where not only are girls and women’s sports accepted, they are the biggest thing going,” she said.

СÂÜÀòÓ°ÊÓ’s Will Vitka contributed to this report.

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