Black Press Feels Neglected
The NNPA represents about 300 black-owned newspapers. Executive director Steve G. Davis told us that the theme of last month’s convention was “Forging a way for the underprivileged of the world,” and that the NNPA had dedicated the convention to Mandela even before the publishers knew that he was planning to visit the United States.
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“I said, ‘What am I going to tell the publishers in Chicago as to why this man Mandela cannot speak to the men who supported him all these years, even while he was in prison?’ That didn’t move her. She said, ‘Tell them we’re coming to Chicago on the next trip.’ I said, ‘That doesn’t do us any good.’”
The Mandela episode (which they attribute not to Mandela but to various parties with a say in his American schedule) was one affront too many–“the straw that broke the camel’s back,” according to Davis. Did no one take the black press seriously any longer? NNPA’s board of directors composed a resolution ringing with protest and self-justification.
Davis was maddeningly unspecific about who exactly the publishers feel offended by, but apparently it’s lots of people. “They send us all their propaganda,” said Dorothy Leavell, “but when they’re making their decisions, such as the historic visit by Mandela, they completely ignore us.
Chavis writes a column called “Civil Rights Journal.” Do you carry it? we asked Leavell. “Occasionally I do,” she said, “but I’m taking another look at it now. I doubt if I’ll ever be running it again. I’m angry as hell.”
“His second movement possessed the kind of phrasing that was filled with subtlety and an enormous lyrical flow . . . and the following movements came with a brilliant ‘tour de force’. . .
