Black Journalists

Mumia Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death in connection with the Dec. 9, 1981, slaying of a Philadelphia police officer. The date was incorrectly reported in an article and photo caption in Sunday's Perspective section.The Sun regrets the error.I could imagine him fighting with his pen or his voice, not shooting a police officer.I don't know whether or not Mumia Abu-Jamal is guilty of killing Philadelphia police Officer Daniel Faulkner on a fateful night in December 1991, when their destinies became entwined.

Carl E. Morris, 73, founder of the National Association of Minority Media Executives, died Aug. 27 at his home in Reston, Va. The former newspaper reporter and editor also was a director of the National Association of Black Journalists.

A DECADE ago, a colleague excitedly approached me about a job opening at an important journalism organization that, finally, he said, wanted to seriously consider an African-American for the post of director.Neither I nor any other nonwhite was interviewed or even contacted for that position. A few years later, the job opened up again; my friend called again, but this time with a little less enthusiasm in his voice.He said I ought to apply for the post because, "We should at least force them to consider us."

DALLAS - Those at the National Association of Black Journalists who stood and gave National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice a standing ovation Thursday were few and far between in the Landmark Ballroom of this city's downtown Hyatt Regency Hotel. Rice strode into the ballroom after Gwen Ifill of PBS introduced her. There were no boos, catcalls or jeers as the audience applauded, but there wasn't the thunderous, almost unanimous standing ovation given another NABJ speaker seven years ago. It was in 1996 that Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan spoke at the NABJ convention in Nashville, Tenn.

HOLLYWOOD -- Four weeks before the opening of his widely anticipated film "Malcolm X," Spike Lee, the director, has laid down a challenge to newspapers, magazines and television stations around the country. He has told them that he prefers black journalists to interview him.The request has touched off a storm.Mr. Lee's request was rejected Wednesday by the Los Angeles Times but met with approval by Premiere magazine and some other journals.[The Sun has requested an interview with Mr. Lee, but has not received a response yet.]

NASHVILLE, Tenn.-- Giving black journalists a severe tongue-lashing yesterday at their convention, Louis Farrakhan defended his controversial trip to pariah states in Africa and the Middle East earlier this year and said he had asked the U.S. government for permission to accept money from Libya.The Nation of Islam leader told members of the National Association of Black Journalists that, because they worked for white-owned media, they were not free to tell what they knew to be the truth. He indirectly criticized The Sun's recent series on slavery in Sudan, whose Islamic fundamentalist regime he supports.

It's part job fair, part schmooze-fest, part educational forum. And, increasingly, it's part political rally.As thousands descend on Washington today for the start of the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists, many already are looking to next year's gathering in Seattle.Debate is broiling among many members over whether to boycott that meeting because of Washington state's Initiative 200, a controversial anti-affirmative action bill to be decided in November. An NABJ pullout could undermine the gathering, because the NABJ is the largest organization in the so-called Unity Convention that, every four years, gathers together members of black, Asian, Latino and Native American journalists' associations.

Carl E. Morris, 73, founder of the National Association of Minority Media Executives, died Aug. 27 at his home in Reston, Va. The former newspaper reporter and editor also was a director of the National Association of Black Journalists.

CHICAGO -- What do you call someone you invite to your house as a guest only to see him dump trash all over the carpet and wet all over your walls?There are words for such a guest, words that aptly describe Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan's recent appearance in a Nashville church at the invitation of the nation's largest annual gathering of black journalists.Speaking at the National Association of Black JournalistsConvention in Nashville, Mr. Farrakhan thrashed journalists of African descent who work in mainstream newspapers and other media, calling us ''slaves'' to white media owners.

HARVARD religion and Afro-American studies professor Cornell West easily out-orated the field at the recent National Association of Black Journalists convention in Philadelphia.His lecture on the state of black America had the audience at times rolling with laughter, at times biting their lips to keep from crying. People were ready to apply to Harvard for a chance to be in one of his classes.The only time Mr. West seemed to lose confidence was when he tried to explain his endorsement of the "Million Man March" that Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and former NAACP executive director Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. are planning for Washington on Oct. 16.After having chastised black journalists for sometimes telling only "two-thirds of the truth" to keep a job, Mr. West admitted that in the case of the proposed march he is having to compromise his true feelings about the NOI.He said he does not agree with the Nation of Islam's apparent homophobia, its subjugation of women or lack of tolerance for Jews, but the march is about one thing -- "black suffering" -- and that he could support Mr. Farrakhan in a demonstration about that.

Warmth and good cheer filled the Forum ballroom. So did some 300 members and guests of the Association of Black Media Workers -- the Baltimore affiliate chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists -- gathered for the group's "2001 Annual Kwanzaa Celebration." The evening began with the traditional Kwanzaa libation ceremony, honoring several local community leaders for representing the different principles of Kwanzaa. One of the most heartfelt moments came when Joanne Martin accepted the plaque for Kugichagulia (self-determination)

AN EDITOR once told Angelo Henderson that he wasn't cut out for journalism. Henderson, who is African-American, spent years feeling underappreciated and alienated as a reporter, says a story in the Columbia Journalism Review. Then in 1999, a few years after joining the Wall Street Journal, Henderson won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. His story had a happy ending. But many other minority journalists have not received the kind of encouragement that Henderson finally found at the Wall Street Journal.

BOSTON -- Long regarded as a feisty tabloid, the Boston Herald this week shocked the journalism world and surprised its own staff by suspending a reporter after he wrote a hard-hitting series on a major Boston bank. The reporter, Robin Washington, who is president of the Boston Association of Black Journalists, was indefinitely released without pay days after publicly suggesting that Herald editors censored his coverage of FleetBoston. The financial institution routinely advertises in the paper and, according to public documents, holds the $20 million mortgage on the Herald building.

A DECADE ago, a colleague excitedly approached me about a job opening at an important journalism organization that, finally, he said, wanted to seriously consider an African-American for the post of director.Neither I nor any other nonwhite was interviewed or even contacted for that position. A few years later, the job opened up again; my friend called again, but this time with a little less enthusiasm in his voice.He said I ought to apply for the post because, "We should at least force them to consider us."

A coalition of minority journalists' groups has ended one of the most fractious, if least visible, civil rights debates of the year, agreeing to keep its convention in Seattle despite Washington state's vote against affirmative action.The decision by the coalition, Unity: Journalists of Color, came after a debate that threatened to cripple the organization, which brings black, Asian, Hispanic and American Indian journalists under a single roof. Organized 10 years ago in the belief that nonwhite journalists have common goals, Unity nearly split over how to confront the rollback of affirmative action around the country.

It's part job fair, part schmooze-fest, part educational forum. And, increasingly, it's part political rally.As thousands descend on Washington today for the start of the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists, many already are looking to next year's gathering in Seattle.Debate is broiling among many members over whether to boycott that meeting because of Washington state's Initiative 200, a controversial anti-affirmative action bill to be decided in November. An NABJ pullout could undermine the gathering, because the NABJ is the largest organization in the so-called Unity Convention that, every four years, gathers together members of black, Asian, Latino and Native American journalists' associations.

What is one to make of the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther and radio journalist who has been on Pennsylvania's death row for the last 13 years awaiting execution for the 1981 murder of a white Philadelphia police officer?Quite aside from the issue of his guilt or innocence, the case raises troubling questions for Abu-Jamal's fellow black journalists, who held their annual meeting last month in Philadelphia. The case drew a well-attended panel discussion in which both the prosecutor in Abu-Jamal's original trial and the lawyer handling his appeal participated.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- I think I have how this questioning thing works now.Last Wednesday Louis Farrakhan did what he does best. He huffed, he puffed, scolded and intimidated a group of black journalists into not asking him the hard questions that needed to be asked. He charged black journalists with being cowards afraid to defend him to their white bosses when he's attacked for anti-Semitism. He had the coward part right. If anyone heard the faint sound of clucking anywhere in the United States around 5 p.m.on Aug. 21, that would have been the noise of journalists at this convention turning chicken.

It's time now to hand out the Chutzpah Awards for 1996 to those brazen souls who showed such public audacity that it should, in some way, be recognized.Chutzpah, for those who need reminding, is defined by Webster's New World Dictionary as a Yiddish word meaning shameless audacity. The classic example of chutzpah is the guy who murdered both his parents and then asked the court for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan. The folks listed below might not reach the classic level of chutzpah, but it wasn't because they didn't try.Ninth runners-up: Those folks who insisted that professional basketball player Mahmoud Adbul-Rauf's refusal to stand for the playing of the national anthem was all but a threat to national security.

THE LOVE AFFAIR between South African President Nelson Mandela and the country's media outlets, which are mostly controlled by the white minority, seems to be over. In recent weeks, the 78-year-old president has repeatedly attacked the press and has charged that senior black journalists were being used by conservative owners of white newspapers to undermine the African National Congress government.Mr. Mandela first became irritated toward the media after Lillian Arrison, one of his secretaries, agreed to be photographed nude for Hustler magazine and revealed she liked sex, particularly in the shower.