Good Day Friends:
I am sending this note to let everyone know I am now an officially certified candidate for Secretary of the National Association of Black Journalists, 2007-2009.
As journalists of color, many of us are at a crossroads in our career because this is a difficult time for our ever-changing industry and in our lives. But I am seeking this office filled with hope and a strong desire to strengthen our profession.
I’m a longtime member of NABJ who has been active at the chapter level and on behalf of many past presidents. I owe almost every job on my resume to a job fair offered by NABJ or one of its affiliates, such as the Black Journalists of Southern California which helped me earn jobs at United Press International and The Washington Post. I am among the organizers of WABJ’s 20th Anniversary Celebration and NABJ’s 25th Anniversary Gala here in Philadelphia, having served on the boards of both chapters.
Currently, I mentor journalism students from Temple University and high school students through NABJ Founder Acel Moore’s career workshop. I am on the PABJ Banquet of Honors committee for this year’s dinner on June 9.
After years of working with chapters in Los Angeles, Washington and Philadelphia, I have decided to make a two-year commitment to our national organization to add fresh views to its leadership and to bring the innovative ideas that have been my hallmark.
By May, I will launch a website with more information about issues concerning NABJ, problems affecting the retention of veteran black journalists, and our need for innovative training in multi-media. You will find my vision for NABJ on this site and in future communications.
Several people have asked me how they can help. Below are a few ideas:
• Join or renew your membership in NABJ before July 1.
• Vote online beginning June 8 or by mail-in ballot by July 13.
• Plan to attend the 32nd Annual Convention and Career Fair from Aug. 8-12 in Las Vegas, "Revolutionizing Journalism, Transforming the Future." A discounted registration rate is available until July 1. Bally’s room rate is $104 per night for members. (Go to www.nabj.org)
• Contact me by phone at the office 215 854 2327 or by email and let me know your thoughts and ideas about NABJ.
• Endorse my candidacy. All donations of talents, services and financial contributions to this effort are warmly appreciated.
See you in LV,
Deirdre
2 comments:
Had the pleasure of meeting Deidre Childress at the June 12 gathering of NABJ in Washington, D.C. Her commitment to her work and her campaign is impressive.
Finally, after a 30-year lapse, I am reconnecting with my Philadelphia roots!
Below is a column I wrote a couple of years ago that is syndicated by my employer, Catholic News Service in Washington, D.C. where I've been working as an associate editor for special projects for the past 17 years. This sums up my time in Phialephia. I thank you for the opportunity to share it.
Journalists of Color
By Carole Norris Greene (2005)
Recollections of my life in Philadelphia, Pa., in the 1970s were triggered in August by the "UNITY: Journalists of Color Inc." convention in Washington, D.C. Comprised of the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Native American Journalists Association, UNITY's 7,500 members represented the largest and most diverse gathering of journalists in the world. Even President Bush addressed them. Not bad for groups that once labored in obscurity.
I lost touch with certain members of the National Association of Black Journalists. I knew them through what first was known only as the Association of Black Journalists, which began in Philadelphia in the early 1970s.
In 1972, I was hired as a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper. Months later, I was among the 20 or so black journalists who gathered at the home of newspaper editor and columnist Chuck Stone to establish ABJ. We came together then for the same reasons that journalists of color continue to network: to encourage one another while sensitizing all media to the importance of accurately portraying and seeking input from our respective communities.
I recall Stone and others insisting that ABJ's debut had to be made with a just fight that we were reasonably certain of winning. Otherwise we'd risk not being taken seriously. First we planned to picket Temple University for not having black associate professors teaching journalism, but two were hired a few days before the demonstration.
I was not at the Dec. 12, 1975, meeting in Washington when the National Association of Black Journalists -- some 4,700-strong today -- was founded by 44 journalists from across the country. Among them were key Philadelphia ABJ members, one of whom was my friend and former Inquirer colleague Acel Moore.
Moore and two other black reporters -- Dennis Kirkland and Bill Thompson -- began at the Inquirer as "copy boys," those who ran news copy from one desk to another and got coffee for editors and reporters. Then the unexpected happened: They were made reporters overnight!
Could this have had something to do with the fact that a flamboyant black attorney and social activist, Cecil Moore (no kin to Acel), had organized picketing at the now-defunct Evening Bulletin newspaper because it had no black reporters, and was headed to the Inquirer next?
Moore told me back then that one resentful colleague said to him, "You'll never amount to anything." But in 1977 Moore and fellow reporter Wendell Rawls Jr. shared a Pulitzer prize for their reports on conditions in a state mental hospital.
Moore continues at the Inquirer as an associate editor and director of recruiting. Kirkland eventually left the Inquirer to handle public relations for then Mayor Frank Rizzo. And Thompson distinguished himself as a prolific writer.
ABJ's veteran members also helped those still evolving.
I remember asking KYW radio news reporter Joe Donovan for pointers on writing better. I had just interviewed Philadelphia's newly appointed czar in charge of gang control, Zach Clayton. Donovan wanted to know my first impression of Clayton. Animatedly I talked about Clayton's boyhood, the clothes he wore, his love of sports, his goals.
"Then write it like that, (expletive deleted)!" Donovan thundered, hitting the table with his fist. I nearly jumped out of my skin.
My editor did not accuse me outright of not having written the story, although his puzzlement at the improved material was visible. Instead he politely asked me if I had done anything differently in my approach to the feature.
Stone was inducted in NABJ's "Hall of Fame" this year for being "a man who always spoke truth to power and was never afraid to say the words that made the establishment squirm."
Had the pleasure of meeting Deidre Childress at the June 12 gathering of NABJ in Washington, D.C. Her commitment to her work and her campaign is impressive.
Finally, after a 30-year lapse, I am reconnecting with my Philadelphia roots!
Below is a column I wrote a couple of years ago that is syndicated by my employer, Catholic News Service in Washington, D.C. where I've been working as an associate editor for special projects for the past 17 years. This sums up my time in Phialephia. I thank you for the opportunity to share it.
Journalists of Color
By Carole Norris Greene (2005)
Recollections of my life in Philadelphia, Pa., in the 1970s were triggered in August by the "UNITY: Journalists of Color Inc." convention in Washington, D.C. Comprised of the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Native American Journalists Association, UNITY's 7,500 members represented the largest and most diverse gathering of journalists in the world. Even President Bush addressed them. Not bad for groups that once labored in obscurity.
I lost touch with certain members of the National Association of Black Journalists. I knew them through what first was known only as the Association of Black Journalists, which began in Philadelphia in the early 1970s.
In 1972, I was hired as a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper. Months later, I was among the 20 or so black journalists who gathered at the home of newspaper editor and columnist Chuck Stone to establish ABJ. We came together then for the same reasons that journalists of color continue to network: to encourage one another while sensitizing all media to the importance of accurately portraying and seeking input from our respective communities.
I recall Stone and others insisting that ABJ's debut had to be made with a just fight that we were reasonably certain of winning. Otherwise we'd risk not being taken seriously. First we planned to picket Temple University for not having black associate professors teaching journalism, but two were hired a few days before the demonstration.
I was not at the Dec. 12, 1975, meeting in Washington when the National Association of Black Journalists -- some 4,700-strong today -- was founded by 44 journalists from across the country. Among them were key Philadelphia ABJ members, one of whom was my friend and former Inquirer colleague Acel Moore.
Moore and two other black reporters -- Dennis Kirkland and Bill Thompson -- began at the Inquirer as "copy boys," those who ran news copy from one desk to another and got coffee for editors and reporters. Then the unexpected happened: They were made reporters overnight!
Could this have had something to do with the fact that a flamboyant black attorney and social activist, Cecil Moore (no kin to Acel), had organized picketing at the now-defunct Evening Bulletin newspaper because it had no black reporters, and was headed to the Inquirer next?
Moore told me back then that one resentful colleague said to him, "You'll never amount to anything." But in 1977 Moore and fellow reporter Wendell Rawls Jr. shared a Pulitzer prize for their reports on conditions in a state mental hospital.
Moore continues at the Inquirer as an associate editor and director of recruiting. Kirkland eventually left the Inquirer to handle public relations for then Mayor Frank Rizzo. And Thompson distinguished himself as a prolific writer.
ABJ's veteran members also helped those still evolving.
I remember asking KYW radio news reporter Joe Donovan for pointers on writing better. I had just interviewed Philadelphia's newly appointed czar in charge of gang control, Zach Clayton. Donovan wanted to know my first impression of Clayton. Animatedly I talked about Clayton's boyhood, the clothes he wore, his love of sports, his goals.
"Then write it like that, (expletive deleted)!" Donovan thundered, hitting the table with his fist. I nearly jumped out of my skin.
My editor did not accuse me outright of not having written the story, although his puzzlement at the improved material was visible. Instead he politely asked me if I had done anything differently in my approach to the feature.
Stone was inducted in NABJ's "Hall of Fame" this year for being "a man who always spoke truth to power and was never afraid to say the words that made the establishment squirm."
June 18, 2007 3:01 PM
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