Weaver took a short train ride to Washington, and when she arrived at the station in the nation’ s capital met for the first time Les Payne, an investigative reporter who had come from New York. The two of them shared a cab ride to the Sheraton Park Hotel where they would join with 42 other Black journalists to create the National Association of Black Journalists.
With a newly acquired network of kindred spirits to consult and commiserate with, Weaver returned to work and wrote her way onto the News Journal’ s front page. In 1977, she landed a job at the Philadelphia Bulletin and moved to the Philadelphia Inquirer five years later. There, she rose through the ranks to become a managing editor and later vice president for newsroom operation for the Inquirer and its sister publication the Philadelphia Daily News.
In August, the National Association of Black Journalists will celebrate its 50th anniversary at a national convention in Cleveland. There will be a special recognition ceremony for the 44 founders, whose organization now has more than 4,000 members. NABJ’ s accomplishments will be showcased – the workshops for budding journalists, the mentoring programs; scholarships will be given to deserving students, and the awardwinning work of journalists will be recognized. There will be good food, great company and lots of parties.
Weaver, who now chairs the NABJ Founders Task Force, marvels at the endurance of this organization and said she is awed by the steady stream of young journalists still eager to enter a profession that is undergoing tough times.
As newspapers continue to shutter and journalists are laid off in droves, Black reporters tend to be disproportionately affected. A Pew
NABJ members Joe Davidson and Randall Pinkston and NABJ executive director Drew Berry at the 2023 NABJ Convention in Birmingham, AL.
Left to right: Detroit Judge Craig Strong, NABJ founders Bill Dilday and DeWayne Wickham, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Research survey in 2022 found that only six percent of reporting jobs at U. S. newspapers were held by Black people. That’ s just one percent more than the five percent of newspaper editorial jobs held by Blacks in 1968. The Kenner Commission used the five percent figure to lambast the media for being“ shockingly backward” in his hiring practices.
The presence of just six percent of Blacks in today’ s newsrooms has
Roland Martin, DeWayne Wickham and Garry Howard at the 2022 NABJ Convention in Las Vegas
Photo by Diane Harris drawn no such outrage. This paltry number is irrefutable evidence of the failure of the media’ s diversity efforts over the past half century.
“ They are still the first to be downsized,” Weaver said of Black journalists.“ This is a setback but a setback only if we stop pushing forward. We can’ t stop telling the truth about our communities, we can’ t let our history be erased. They have to stand up for themselves, stand up for the truth. Some are just not used to doing that.” The hope is that through their involvement in NABJ some will learn how to stand up and push back.
Joe Davidson, also a founder, has a knack for speaking up. A native of Detroit, he got his first newspaper reporting job during the riots that shook that city in 1967.
Photos courtesy of NABJ, Jason Miccolo Johnson
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