By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Correspondent WASHINGTON, DC — With a lively and capacity crowd inside the Renaissance DC Downtown Hotel in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, Sept. 12, National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., and NNPA Chair Karen Carter Richards presented the annual National Leadership Awards. The 2019 honorees are the Honorable Karen Bass, U.S. Representative (D-CA); the Honorable Elijah E. Cummings, U.S. Representative (D-MD); the Honorable Bobby Scott, U.S. Representative (D-VA); the Honorable Bennie Thompson, U.S. Representative (D-MS); Ray Curry, Secretary-Treasurer of the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agriculture (UAW);…
Author: Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire
By Stacy M. Brown WASHINGTON, DC — After a half-century in the automobile industry, James Farmer has certainly seen it all. And, after receiving a lifetime achievement award from the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers (NAMAD) recently, Farmer took time to reflect. “I’ve seen this industry grow – and grow for African Americans,” Farmer said. “I can remember at a NAMAD banquet there were two tables, maybe three at a conference of minority dealers,” he said. “But I watched it grow to the level that it is today with many [tables] and, to be in a position within General…
By Stacy M. Browny Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Correspondent An informal gathering of National Newspaper Publishers Association board members and publishers has galvanized the 79-year-old organizatio n and has served to renew its commitment as the voice of Black America. Though it was not an official board of directors meeting, the two-day planning session and retreat in Houston included NNPA executive board members: NNPA Chair Karen Carter Richards; First Vice Chair Janis Ware; Second Vice Chair Fran Farrer; Treasurer Brenda Andrews; and Secretary Jackie Hampton. NNPA President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., also attended the gathering and Sonya…
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Correspondent CINCINNATI, OH — Karen Carter Richards, the publisher of the Houston Forward Times, has been elected to serve as the chair of the National Newspapers Publishers Association (NNPA), the trade organization that represents African American-owned newspapers and media companies throughout the country. Richards, who in 2018 won the NNPA’s Publisher of the Year Award, succeeds Dorothy Leavell, publisher of the Chicago and Gary Crusader Newspapers. “We did it!” Richards exclaimed during an NNPA Legacy Awards presentation at the Cincinnati Westin Hotel on Friday, June 28. The organization also selected a new first- and…
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Correspondent CINCINNATI, OH — One night after many pundits said he acquitted himself well in the debate in Miami between himself and other 2020 Democratic Presidential hopefuls, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders arrived in Cincinnati to deliver the keynote address at the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) Legacy Awards Dinner. Sanders addressed a large local and national media contingent, which also included many members of the Ohio press. Earlier this month, Sanders was the lone candidate to accept an invitation to speak at the gala, which is part of the NNPA’s weeklong national convention. The…
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Correspondent Since the founding of the Black Press 192 years ago, African American-owned newspapers have served their communities in ways that no other publications have. Historically, these publications have operated on “shoe-string” budgets, are usually understaffed, and also face other severe limitations. Yet, the Black Press always has maintained its mission as the voice of Black America. That tradition has held true through many transitions and has continued during the 79-year history of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA). The NNPA is the trade organization representing America’s Black-owned newspapers and media companies. The organization’s…
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Correspondent Delucca “Lucca” Rolle, the 15-year-old high school student who was punched and had his head slammed against the concrete by law enforcement officers last month, joined his attorney and several prominent civil rights activists in a peaceful demonstration in Florida to denounce police brutality. Rolle and others chanted, “Justice will be served,” as they marched toward New Mount Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale. “Our children’s lives matter. No one seems to understand that but us,” said Fulton, whose unarmed son, 17-year-old Trayvon, was shot and killed in Miami Gardens in 2012 by neighborhood…
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Correspondent Part 3 of an 11 part series on slavery in America “It started with slave ships… There are more records of slave ships than one would dream. It seems inconceivable until you reflect that for 200 years ships sailed carrying cargo of slaves. How can man be nonviolent… in the face of the… violence that we’ve been experiencing for the past (500) years is actually doing our people a disservice in fact, it’s a crime, it’s a crime.” — Public Enemy- “Can’t Truss It.” The transatlantic slave trade is often regarded as the…
Part 2 in a Series on Slavery in America By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Contributor “When the missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the missionaries had the Bible. They taught us how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible.” — Jomo Kenyatta, First President of Kenya, Africa Washington, D.C.- September 4, 2018 – The Catholic Church played a vital role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, according to historians and several published thesiis on the topic. The trans-Atlantic slave trade was introduced by the coming of…
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent WASHINGTON, DC — With one of pop music’s most profound voices performing during a ceremony that included a video tribute featuring tributes from a mayor, a congressman, a school superintendent and a university president, Tennessee Tribune Publisher Rosetta Miller Perry clearly was the star of the night. On Friday, Jan. 25, Perry received the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) Lifetime Achievement Award before a festive and appreciative gathering at the Hilton Orlando Hotel during the NNPA MidWinter Training Conference in Florida. “Two years ago, it was Bob Bogle being honored from the Philadelphia…