In 1966 Henry hired Roberta, then a local music teacher, to sing in the pub. "She told me that if I could give her work three nights a week, she could quit teaching." Ms. Flack's hit songs :include "Killing Me Softly With His Song" and " The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."

Mr. Henry "..constructed an upstairs performance area especially for her, with its unforgettable church pew seating. People like Burt Bacharach, Al Hibbler, Carmen McRae, Kim Stanley, Eddie Harris, Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, Ramsey Lewis, and Johnny Mathis were in regular attendance, to name but a few. She would often share her stage and her piano stool with them, and even found herself playing with Liberace one night!"(source Roberta Flack's Website)

Henry was also a concert promoter and once brought Miles Davis to DAR-Constitution Hall.

 

The riots of April 4–8, 1968 devastated Washington, D.C. These days were marked by civil unrest in over 110 U.S. cities in the aftermath of the April 4 assassination of American Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

As word of King's murder by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee, spread on the evening of Thursday, April 4, crowds began to gather at 14th and U streets NW. By 11pm, widespread looting had begun.

Crowds of as many as 20,000 overwhelmed the District's 3,100-member police force, and President Lyndon B. Johnson dispatched some 13,600 federal troops, including 1,750 federalized members of the D.C. National Guard to assist them. Marines mounted machine guns on the steps of the Capitol and Army troops from the 3rd Infantry guarded the White House. At one point, on April 5th, rioting reached within two blocks of the White House.

The militry presence in Washington represented the largest occupation of any American city since the Civil War. Mayor Walter Washington imposed a curfew and banned the sale of alcohol and guns in the city. By the time the city was considered pacified on Sunday, April 8, twelve had been killed (mostly in burning homes), 1,097 injured, and over 6,100 arrested. Additionally, some 1,200 buildings had been burned, including over 900 stores. Damages reached $27 million.