The owner of an iconic DC restaurant who donated free food to Black Lives Matter protesters did the same 57 years ago for the March on Washington
Anneta Konstantinides
- From the March on Washington in 1963 to the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020, Virginia Ali has been there to feed protesters.
- Ali and her husband Ben opened Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street — then known as "Black Broadway" — in 1958.
- The restaurant is now considered a landmark in DC's dining scene, famous for its half-smoke covered in the family's secret homemade chili sauce.
- Ali spoke with Insider about her restaurant's incredible legacy, what she talked about with Martin Luther King Jr., and why she has so much hope in the Black Lives Matter movement.
Virginia Ali has witnessed the course of history — both the flames of great change, and the disheartening tolerance of the status quo — through a big window at the front of Ben's Chili Bowl.
Ali was 24 when she and her husband Ben, yes the Ben, opened their restaurant on U Street in Washington, DC, when the city was still segregated and the neighborhood was known as "Black Broadway."
She was 29 on that historic day in August 1963, when she and Ben fed some of the hundreds of thousands of people who streamed into the city for the March on Washington and heard Martin Luther King Jr. tell the world about his dream.
Now, on the cusp of turning 87, Ali is feeding Black Lives Matter protesters who are fighting the same fight for civil rights that she has witnessed her entire life.
"It would certainly be nice to have them before I leave this earth," she told Insider. "And I'm old."
Ali spoke with Insider about her restaurant's incredible legacy, what she talked about with MLK, and why she has so much hope in the Black Lives Matter movement.
Virginia Ali left her hometown in Virginia and came to Washington, DC — which was still segregated — in 1952.
It was there that she met and fell in love with Ben, who immigrated to the US from Trinidad and attended Howard University.
Shortly after they tied the knot in 1958, the newlyweds converted a former silent movie theater into their own "little restaurant" on U Street. It cost them $5,000.
"We wanted to be self-employed," Ali told Insider. "We decided on chili dogs because there were a lot of hamburger places already around."
From the cabinet maker to the electrician, the couple hired local African-American businesses to help build their restaurant.
"It was very new and modern-looking at the time," Ali recalled with a laugh. "Definitely colorful."
"And we had a big glass window in the front, you could see through the whole thing. It was a new and exciting place."
Ben's Chili Bowl became well-known (and loved) for its half-smoke, now considered a signature DC dish.
Tucked inside a warm steamed bun with mustard and onions, the half-smoke is topped with a generous heap of Ben's spicy homemade chili sauce — still a secret family recipe.
"Sober up with a chili dog," the restaurant's slogan used to read.
Just two blocks up from Ben's Chili Bowl was Martin Luther King Jr.'s satellite office.
"Whenever he was in town, he'd make his way to the Chili Bowl," Ali said. "I had the opportunity to sit with him and listen to his dreams and hopes, what he was going to do and accomplish."
Before they watched MLK speak during the March on Washington in 1963, Ali and her husband were handing out sandwiches to protesters as they streamed into the city.
"It was an ecstatic day," Ali said. "Filled with hope and pride because so many people came from all walks of life. Thousands of people were there, and Dr. King delivered that amazing 'I Have a Dream' speech."
"It was just a glorious day, that's how I remember it," she added. "A history-making day, a very peaceful day of demonstration and love and hope."
Less than five years later, MLK was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1964. The mayor of DC put the city under curfew as days of protests began.
"I remember that evening so vividly," Ali said, speaking of the day MLK died. "When someone rushed through the front door at Ben's Chili Bowl and said, 'Dr. King has been shot.' Then we found someone with a transistor radio and heard, 'He's no longer with us.'"
"People were crying, we're all in tears. That sadness turned to frustration, the frustration turned into anger, and that rising began."
In the days following MLK's assassination, referred to as the Holy Week Uprisings, there were protests in cities across the US. The nation's capital saw days of unrest that led to 13 deaths, according to a 2018 Washington Post article, which noted that MLK's "assassination ignited an explosion of rioting, looting and burning that stunned Washington and would leave many neighborhoods in ruins for 30 years."
Civil rights leader Stokely Carmichael obtained special permission to keep Ben's Chili Bowl open after curfew to provide food and shelter. The restaurant kept its usual business hours, staying open until 3 a.m. during the week and 4 a.m. on the weekend.
"You could see the fire across the street, glass windows shattering, buildings burning, tear gas all over the place," Ali said. "It lasted for three nights. When that period was over, we noticed that a lot of the businesses didn't reopen."
In 1988, Ben's Chili Bowl was hit by another challenge. The city dug up the entire street in front of the restaurant and began building a new Metro station.
"That was very, very hard," Ali said. "But I did make them have signs made, metal signs that said, 'This way to Ben's.' And I went down blocks and blocks and directed traffic to come to the one-way street behind us. If there happened to be three cars, they'd have to wait until everyone was served."
"We managed to hold on and hang in there and survive," she added. "In 1990, the subway opened and I had a banner across the building that said, 'We survived Metro.' The new businesses began to roll in."
In the last three decades, Ali has witnessed the revitalization of U Street, celebrated the restaurant's 60th anniversary, and served President Barack Obama.
Ben's Chili Bowl was one of the first establishments that Obama visited when he moved to DC two weeks before his inauguration.
"You don't get a warning or anything," Ali said. "The next thing you know, someone looks up and the Secret Service is there and he opens the door and here he comes!"
"He was escorted in by our mayor at the time and it was just, it was a dream come true to have him there," she added. "At my age, we certainly had no idea we'd see an African American become president of the United States of America."
As Obama was sworn in on his first Inauguration Day in 2009, the line was out the door to get into Ben's Chili Bowl. Many waited for up to three hours.
"Many people had read that his first outing in Washington, DC, had been at Ben's Chili Bowl, so can you imagine how many people wanted to come to Ben's because of that?" Ali said. "There was a line out there all day long on that cold January day."
Ben died in October 2009 from natural causes. The couple's three sons now run the restaurant.
"I'm not in the day to day things at my age," Ali said. "I have three wonderful sons that surprised us by becoming part of the business, and their wives as well. They do the hard work now. Restaurant work is truly hard work now."
While Ali is no longer at Ben's Chili Bowl every day, she is still very much involved. This month she joined her family's efforts to feed hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters, just as she did with Ben over 50 years ago.
Ali and her family have prepared and handed out hundreds of sandwiches, chili dogs, and burgers for protesters during the demonstrations in DC.
"I'm very proud of what we're seeing today in terms of protesting," she said. "I find it rather disheartening to know that they had to come back and do this again all these many years later, and fight for the same basic human rights laws that we fought for in the '60s. But I'm proud of the fact that they're doing it, and doing it well."
Ali and her family have also been donating as much food as they can to frontline workers, even as Ben's Chili Bowl faces new businesses challenges due to the pandemic.
"The pandemic has certainly affected our business severely, as it has all businesses in our community," Ali said.
But an outpouring of donations from locals and fans has allowed Ben's Chili Bowl to keep giving back to the community that it loves so much.
"Our Ben's Chili Bowl community has been tremendous, and I'm so grateful to them for that," Ali said. "We've got donations to help us and whatever we get, we turn into feeding the community and the local hospitals."
As with the many obstacles that Ben's Chili Bowl has faced in its 62 years, Ali said she knows it will survive the pandemic as well.
"This too shall pass," she said. "I'm the optimist."
And when it comes to the challenges of American society, Ali has hope that the next generation will bring change.
"Today we have the young people just coming out based on their own hearts, to protest for the basic human rights laws that we fought for, without that strong leadership of Dr. King that we had back then," Ali said. "And I just think that's tremendous. They're diverse — people from all walks of life, backgrounds, races. And not only is it in Washington, it's in every city in this country and all over the world."
"That's amazing to me, and that certainly has to speak to hope," she added. "And I encourage them to keep the pressure on and not give up."
"Because we need basic systemic human right laws — and we need them now."
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