(NNPA)—Amidst last week’s annual convention of the National Newspaper Publishers Association Annual Convention in Portland, Ore., I was reminded repeatedly that Black Americans have had a long, storied tradition of newspaper publishing. Since the first publication of Freedom’s Journal in 1827, Black American publishers have worked heroically to earn the title “Voice of Black America.” From the east coast to the west coast, in big cities and in small towns, NNPA publishers continue have a sustainable economic development impact within the heart of the Black American community.
For more than 187 years, the Black Press in America has stood courageously to articulate and print the news interests of Black America. But please do not take this history lightly or for granted. We must never forget how the long struggle to attain the right to vote was “blood soaked” by the sacrifices and sufferings of civil rights leaders and activists.
Similarly, the historic struggle of Black Americans to engage in the enterprise of freedom of press has been also soaked with sacrificial blood, facing down lynch mobs, and enormous economic inequality challenges. There is a long list of Black newspapers in the U.S. that have been dynamited, deliberately destroyed and the target of successive arsons.
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