Each week more than 150,000 Tennesseans read The Tennessee Tribune to keep a watchful eye on news and events shaping our community. They turn to The Tribune because it speaks to their needs with language and perspective, which reflects their way of life. Unlike other weeklies that have lost touch with important issues facing today’s Black families, The Tribune offers a fresh and encouraging view on people and events that have a positive impact.
Our staff consists of professionals dedicated to the mission of providing a quality publication that will be read and remembered each week. And because we are also members of the same community we serve, we have more than just a philosophical attachment to our readership. Rather, we have a commitment to provide objective commentary and present issues often side-stepped by major media outlets. So, if you’re looking for a weekly newspaper that reaches the heart of Tennessee’s Black community, then look no further – The Tennessee Tribune is it!!
History Of The Tribune
The early 1990′s saw a number of eventful times for the African-American community both nationally and in Nashville. Nelson Mandela was freed after serving 27 years in a South African prison and George Augustus Stallings became the first Bishop of the African-American Catholic Church. While Ebony Magazine celebrated its 45th anniversary on November 1, Nashville’s African American community was getting a new magazine Contempora, Inc., all its own. Rosetta Miller-Perry, who created Nashville’s newest magazine, also launched a newspaper specifically designed to serve Nashville’s diverse community.
Rosetta Irvin Miller-Perry, daughter of the late Anderson and Mary Irvin was born in Coraopolis, PA. She worked during high school as a dinner assistant for a Pittsburgh Judge, and whose daughter is a retired Northeast surgeon and was Rosetta’s classmate during the day and in the evening became her superior. After graduating from Coraopolis Senior High School, Miller-Perry served in the United States Navy, married, had three children and obtained an undergraduate degree from Memphis State University (currently known as University of Memphis). She was among the first African-American students to graduate from Memphis State University fifty years ago.
Miller-Perry later moved to Washington D.C. to attend Howard University Law School. Shortly afterwards she worked for the United States Commission on Civil Rights and moved south where she divided her time between Memphis and Nashville serving as Director of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under Clarence Thomas, now a Supreme Court Justice. After working for the United States government for more than a quarter of a century, Miller-Perry retired. Of course retirement means different things for different people, and in true Miller-Perry fashion, retirement for her meant more work – so she decided to try her hand at publishing.
In 1990, she founded Perry & Perry & Associates Inc. and launched Contempora Magazine. The following year, she created The Tennessee TRIBUNE, a newspaper highlighting the African-American and minority community locally, regionally and nationally. Like her newspaper, Miller-Perry has spread her positive influence locally, regionally and nationally.
During the early 1990′s, approximately 200 African-American newspapers were published nationwide. Denied funds from local banks, Miller-Perry invested $70,000 from her personal savings into the TRIBUNE and watched as it became one of the most influential African-American publications in Tennessee.
Locally, within five years Miller-Perry, purchased her first building on Morena Street. But wanting to be in the “heart of the African-American community,” she found a 60-year old building in need of repairs, purchased and renovated it and then moved her operation to historic Jefferson Street. Following renovation of the old historic Universal Insurance Building, Miller-Perry’s publication now had a permanent home in the center of Nashville’s most affluent African-American community located with near Fisk University, Meharry Medical College and Tennessee State University.
Regionally, Miller-Perry founded the Nashville’s Black Chamber of Commerce and Anthony J. Cebrun Journalism Center. Since completing the one-year program with Leadership Nashville, she participates with this organization as a panelist. She is also active with Leadership Middle Tennessee, College Trust Fund, and the North Nashville Community Development Agency. She is a Golden Heritage Member of the NAACP. Miller-Perry has received more than 100 awards during her career. In light of her altruistic contributions and accomplishments, a scholarship was established in her name at the University of Memphis. Miller-Perry’s name was placed on an award that honors outstanding African-American filmmakers nationally and internationally at the Nashville Film Festival. She has since transferred that award to minority/majority students who travel abroad during the summer months, requiring them to write about their experiences for her subscribers/readers when they return stateside.
Nationally, Miller Perry was nominated and accepted as a member into HistoryMakers. This organization represents the largest archival project of its kind in the world. The HistoryMakers is unique among other collections of African-American heritage, because of its massive scope. Like other oral historical collections, the HistoryMakers’ collection date back to the earliest and most authentic efforts to capture the voice of a people, while introducing state-of-the-art technology to increase accessibility. The History Makers provide living proof that African-American history did not begin or end with the civil rights movement. Additionally, the HistoryMakers number in the thousands nationwide and their names are not just Harriet Tubman, W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ella Fitzgerald; but include Tennesseans such as Rosetta Miller-Perry, John Britton, Leatrice Mckissack, Dr. Jayme Williams, Rev. Benjamin Hooks, Judge D’Army Bailey and Nikki Giovanni.
Under Miller-Perry’s regime, The TRIBUNE has become the most effective African-American weekly in Middle Tennessee. For more than 21 years, the paper has championed the cause of Civil Rights and leadership of African-Americans. Miller-Perry remains at the helm of the publication.