Anwar Saleem · 2015 Honoree

In 2013, when H Street Northeast received a Great American Main Street Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, no one was happier or more excited about it than Anwar Saleem. For much of the past twenty years he has been at the forefront of the commitment shared by many to restoring H Street as the heart of the commercial and social life of Washington, D.C. that it lost in April, 1968 when riots broke out there following the assassination of Martin Luther King. Growing up nearby, Anwar had roamed the neighborhood, from the grounds of the Capitol and the Supreme Court, to the Northeast library where his mother sent him to hang out so he’d be safe, to H Street where he bought his first pair of good jeans and worked his first jobs. The love he felt then for the neighborhood has never changed.

Watching H Street burn wasn’t the only memorable event in Anwar’s youth. As a boy he heard Malcolm X speak on a street near the Capitol and, inspired partly by that, learned more about Islam and decided to convert. Though his father was Methodist and his mother had raised him Baptist, his family was accepting of his decision. His mother chose his new names – Anwar meaning “reflection of light,” Shakir, “grateful and thankful,” and Saleem, “peaceful or safe.” At McKinley Technical High School Anwar was a percussionist in the band and played football; but he also remembers struggling with questions about the momentous events around him and being encouraged by a teacher there to appreciate the accomplishments of African Americans.

Anwar worked for the Post Office and, later, the Metro Area Transit Authority where he was employed for 27 years; but his true passion has been the redevelopment of H Street. After going back to school for a cosmetology degree, he opened his own salon and, sensing opportunity there, chose to do it in a space he rehabbed on H Street. In 1996 his shop was featured by Salon magazine which praised the space’s design but didn’t want to print the address. Since then Anwar has been to countless meetings with neighborhood residents, community leaders, commercial developers and others, sharing his enthusiasm and confidence in the possibilities for a revitalized H Street. In 2014, as Executive Director of H Street Main Street, Anwar was part of a contingent of American business leaders invited to South Africa by chambers of commerce in Johannesburg and Capetown to share insights and to observe urban development projects there.

Anwar’s wife, Monica, is a retired teacher and school librarian who also works as a fitness instructor. His family includes a daughter, Khadijah, and three sons, Mustafa, Anwar and Rashad as well as two step-children Jeana and Sadiq. His two grandchildren are right in the neighborhood as students at Two Rivers Public Charter School.