Virginia Ali–who turned 90 in December–cofounded the legendary U Street eatery Ben’s Chili Bowl in 1958 with her husband, Ben Ali, who passed away in 2009. Ben’s has survived through 66 years, and Ali still greets diners there daily. “I really do enjoy people from all walks of life, and this place has provided me the privilege of doing that,” she says. “I’ve served presidents and judges and every profession you can name. But I’ve also served the heroin addicts, the crackheads, and the bums. And if you treat every one of them the way you would like to be treated, you don’t have a problem.” We spoke in January just before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, when Ali recalled watching the 1963 March on Washington take shape, in part, in Ben’s.
“Dr. King was spending a good bit of time in Washington in preparation for the march. So I got to sit with him a few times at Ben’s. He was making those plans along with A. Philip Randolph and sometimes John Lewis and also Bayard Rustin and a few of those leaders back in those days. Stokely Carmichael was in here every day in the spring of ’63.
“Dr. King always ordered the chili cheeseburger. That was his favorite. He was just a very calm, cool, self-confident, easy-to-be-around person. He was so passionate about what he was doing. Helping people—not just Black people, all people.
“We were a gathering place. I think it probably had a lot to do with the food being good, number one, and number two, the hours accommodating everybody.
“This was a classy, proud, dignified, self-supported, segregated Black community. If we were walking from here to the Howard Theatre on a Saturday evening, my husband and me, and we heard guys on the corner using profanity, we could call the police. Disorderly conduct was not allowed!
“There have been challenges, but for the most part, people treat you the way you treat them. That’s the secret. It’s not rocket science. It’s all about kindness.
“Ben and I were [at the march], of course. People ask me, ‘How did you get there?’ Well, we drove part of the way and we walked a long ways. Because there was just a sea of people. Wow, it was just breathtaking, because everybody was in a good mood. Everybody was listening to the speeches and the songs. And then when he did the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, it was over the top. And you just felt like change is going to come.”
This article appears in the February 2024 issue of Washingtonian.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
