THENABJ
CONVENTION’ S
gathering was just that— a meeting, not a convention. It was held just 10 months after 44 Black journalists put their names on the sign-in sheet of our formative meeting.
Philadelphia Daily News columnist Chuck Stone was the“ mover and shaker” behind the group’ s creation. Stone issued a call that brought us together in a Washington hotel suite on the sidelines of a conference for Black local, state and congressional elected officials. And it was at this meeting that Stone became NABJ’ s first president.
Our formative meeting didn’ t generate any big sparks, but our first convention a year later certainly did. Many of those gatherings had some drama. But that first one, which drew 80 to 100 Black journalists to the campus of Texas Southern University in October 1976, was so contentious that, for a brief time, it was doubtful that we would have a second NABJ convention.
“ It was in the convention’ s business session, during our deliberations
5 about NABJ’ s structure and membership, that the sparks began to fly,” recalled DeWayne Wickham, another NABJ cofounder who would serve as the group’ s 7th president.“ After some heated exchanges, a majority of the members in attendance voted to exclude journalism professors from membership in NABJ,” he said.“ It was a stark decision that brought the convention to a crash ending.”
Upset that NABJ denied membership to faculty members of the historically Black university, Texas Southern responded by shutting down the
4 convention just“ hours before a scheduled closing banquet and sent us packing,” remembered Wickham, who is the founder and dean emeritus of Morgan State University’ s School of Global Journalism & Communication in Baltimore, and the current director of its Center for New Media & Strategic Initiatives.“ Most of us retreated to a Ramada Motor Inn that was a couple miles from campus,” he said.“ Our first convention hotel was a two-story building that was wrapped around a small courtyard and pool.”
Instead of the elegant dinner event that NABJ convention-goers now expect,“ we held our closing meeting and banquet poolside,” Wickham said.“ We ordered pizzas.”
Despite this controversy, the first convention marked NABJ’ s initial foray into the national spotlight. On the second day of the three-day meeting, NABJ issued a press release denouncing Earl Butz, Republican President Gerald Ford’ s secretary of agriculture, for a racist joke he told in a private conversation.
When asked by Pat Boone, a White pop music star, why more Blacks didn’ t vote for Republicans, the presidential cabinet member offered this vulgar reply, as reported by Rolling Stone:“ I’ ll tell you what the coloreds want. It’ s three things: first, a
tight pussy; second, loose shoes; and third, a warm place to shit.”
On Saturday, October 2, 1976, NABJ joined a chorus of protests from Black leaders when Chuck Stone issued NABJ’ s first press statement. He called for Butz to resign or be fired.
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