Content area
Full Text
Influential Black Journalists of the 20th Century
For months, the powers that be in the worlds of art, culture and communication released "Best of the Century" lists.
There were lists for the most significant American films and English-language novels. Time magazine and CBS News have chosen their 100 most significant people to shape world events in groups of 20; the January-February issue of Columbia Journalism Review picked its "heroes & bums" in the last 100 years of journalism.
As these assessments of the century roll in, Black journalists must define themselves. Who were and are our best and brightest? Take Robert Sengstacke Abbott. He masterminded African American migration from the agrarian South to the industrial North. In a racially segregated United States, a robust and fearless Black-owned press thrived in the first half of this century. And in the last half of this century the story changed.
It was about civil rights, desegregation and integration of the mainstream news business.
Other men and women were builders and innovators of the industry. Robert C. Maynard was a superb writer, editor and publisher, but his lasting mark on this century will be in building the institute that trained hundreds of men and women of color to integrate and change the culture of newsrooms into islands of inclusion.
And still many other African American men and women toiled in obscurity or were marginalized by the White majority. Nevertheless, their dedication, stamina and smarts in the face of oppression and near impossible odds against success warrant wider recognition. They endured great pain, humiliation, even violence so that most of us can work and excel in all mediums of journalism.
Here is an alphabetical list of African American journalists who made a difference this century. Three dozen people or groups are highlighted as especially noteworthy. Thanks to Bill Alexander, staff writer, Youth Today; Alice Bonner Ph.D, journalism and communications, UNC; Todd Burroughs, Ph.D candidate, Univ. of Md., columnist, "Drums in the Global Village," NNPA; Richard Prince, copy editor, The Washington Post; and Alice Tait, professor of journalism, Central Michigan University for suggesting names and offering insights and sources in order to produce this list.
The List
Robert S. Abbott, (deceased), launched the Chicago Defender in 1905. The Defender added...