National
Black Press Hosts Leadership Awards Reception
Rep. Charles B. Rangel speaking at NNPA 2014 Leadership Awards. (LaTrina Antoine Washington/Afro-American Newspaper)
by LaTrina Antoine
Special to the NNPA from the Afro-American Newspaper
The National Newspapers Publishers Association recognized four individuals for their leadership skills in the Black Community and also highlighted the significance and need that the Black Press still has in America at their Leadership Awards Reception Sept. 25.
The event, which was hosted at the Renaissance Washington D.C. Hotel, was held in conjunction with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 44th Annual Legislative Conference.
Speakers at the event included several congressmen, the award recipients, NNPA chairman Cloves Campbell Jr. and Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., the new president and CEO of the NNPA.
“We have made progress,” Chavis said, thanking the news publishers and writers in the room.
Award recipients included, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), civil rights leader; Lana “MC Lyte” Moorer, award-winning Hip Hop artist; Margaret Fortune, president and CEO of Fortune School of Education in Sacramento, Calif. and Melvin Foote, founder, president and CEO of the Constituency for Africa, an Africa support group.
“Thank you for telling the story when no one else would tell the story,” Lewis said, in reference to the news articles on the death of Emmett Till, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the freedom rides, the March on Washington and other occurrences in the African- American community’s struggle for freedom.
“May all you brothers and sisters find a way anyway. Thank you for using your pen to find trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble [but] we need to use it more,” Lewis said in reference to voting.
Lewis announced he was going back to Montgomery, Ala., for the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march.
“We’ve invited all of the living presidents to come,” he said.
All of the speakers, including Chavis, highlighted the strength the Black Press and stressed that there is more work that needs to be done.
