BLACK JOURNALISTS: THE NABJ STORY - Softcover

Dawkins, Wayne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0963572008 ISBN 13: 9780963572004

Publisher: August Press, 1993

Synopsis

Dawkins, Wayne

About this title

Review

Wayne Dawkins' book on the National Association of Black Journalists answers one critical question for those who have observed the group over the years: If the organization is supposed to have begun so small that the first meeting could have been held in a phone booth, how can so many people claim to be founders? The answer is that on 12 December 1975, 44 journalists in Washington, D.C. founded what has become the largest organization of journalists of color in this nation. ... Dawkins traces NABJ through the 1983 convention, the first year in which the board did not have a founder. By then the group had grown to more than 400. [For the 1994 Unity convention, NABJ registered more than 3,000 participants]... Dawkins is faithful to his purpose: to capture the stories of NABJ's past and to preserve those events for younger journalists and others. --American Journalism, Winter 1995

This book is a welcome addition to the literature on blacks and the media, but there is still more to do on the topic. ... Within the context of the period covered, Dawkins does a very good job of showing how it was not always smooth sailing for NABJ, particularly the early years. Dawkins tells readers of the personality conflicts, factional [e.g. print vs. broadcast, urban vs. smaller markets] disputes, and failed and successful grabs for power during this period of the organization's adolescence. ... In summary, "Black Journalists" is a needed addition to the literature of media history, but readers should be reminded it is "a" story of the National Association of Black Journalists and not the whole one. --AJ Book Reviews, Fall 1996

An informative, sometimes indelicately gossipy backstage story ... Most valuable are inspirational interviews with numerous leading black journalists [including Les Payne, Chuck Stone, and Jeannye Thornton], whose stories testify to both their determination and the obstacles minority journalists confront. --American Journalism Review, Nov. 1993

Edition details

• Publisher: August Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0963572008
• ISBN 13: 9780963572004
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 198