Howard organizes the annual Black Press Day of the National News Publisher Association

Last week the Howard's Moorland-Spingarn Center worked with the National New Paper Publishers Association (NNPA) to organize its annual event of the Black Press Day and present its new digital black press archi-performance.

The speakers of the gala included Karen Carter Richard, the current chairman of the NNPA fund, Benjamin Chavis, President of the NNPA and Benjamin Talton, the director of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.

A common topic of the majority of the speakers was the importance of honoring the legacy of Black Press for their role in the community and the legacy that it strengthened for future generations of storytellers. According to Chavis, the NNPA consists of over 250 media companies in black ownership, including newspapers, multimedia, social media and other media for storytelling.

In his speech, Chavis spoke the current state of Black Press, with a main problem until last year the lack of media organizations of the White House in black ownership.

With the procedures of the current presidential administration, Talson emphasized the need for Black Press to combat political ideologies that can harm the black community.

He remembered a conversation with a colleague from South Africa who told him during the government of former President George HW Bush: “I'm afraid of the Americans because they don't know what fascism looks like. When fascism comes, they won't recognize it. ”

After thinking about the arrest and delivery of the Pro-Palestinian Protestant Mahmoud Khalil, who was brought from ICE from his residence in New York to a detention center in Louisiana, Talton said: “Fascism is here now.”

Fascism, as defined by the Council for Foreign Relationships, is a mass -political movement that emphasizes extreme nationalism, militarism and the dominance of the nation towards the individual.

The public personalities, including John Kelly, the former chief of staff of President Trump, and Vice President Kamala Harris, President Trump, contributed to the conversation about facism and his presence in the modern political climate.

Talson continued: “The Black Press is now more important than ever, they all do the most important work in America.” When discussing the role of Moorland-Spingarn, he explained that Black Press did the work, but the center “does the work in maintaining this work”.

Talson was discussed in the fifth year of the fifth year of the Black Press Digitization of Moorland Springarn about the importance of just access so that readers can look at the archives from any place.

In addition, he spoke about the need to maintain smaller black ownership newspapers that are often overlooked.

Similarly, Bobby R. Henry Sr., the NNPA chairman, spoke about how the Black Press must continue to maintain truth and resilience while adapting to future challenges.

“The black press must continue to be a voice in which others are silent,” he said to the subject of the pioneers who have paved the way.

Henry added that the publishers honored in the room “more than just storytellers, they were guards of history, fearless in their persecution and steadfastly in their service to our people.”

One of the guards expressly honored this year was William H. Lee, the founder of Sacramento Observer. Lee, who died in 2019, was included in the NNPA gallery of the respected publishers during the event. Historically, the observer has gained a respected reputation, which was recognized by the NNPA seven times as “the best black newspaper of the nation”.

In addition to the foundation of the observer, Lee was also a member of the Board of Blue Cross California and was appointed chairman of Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Committee by the former California governor George Deukmejian.

Copy edited by Camiryn Stepteau