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Black Newspaper publishers from across the country met at the annual
National Newspaper Publishers Association (The Black Press of America)
conference June 22-25 at the Drake Hotel in Chicago.
Among the highlights of this year's convention was the 2011 NNPA Legacy of
Excellence Awards, which was given to Xernona Clayton, founder, president
and CEO of the Trumpet Awards Foundation and Garth C. Reeves, publisher
emeritus of the Miami Times and America's oldest living Black newspaper
publisher.
The Legacy of Excellence Award was created to honor Black publishers whose
life works mirror the courage, commitment, sacrifice and achievement
demonstrated in publishing Black newspapers throughout America and the
world. The event will took place on Friday June 25, 2011.
The Trumpet Awards is a prestigious event highlighting African American
accomplishments and contributions. Initiated in 1993 by Turner Broadcasting,
the Trumpet Awards has been televised annually and distributed
internationally to over 185 countries around the world.
Clayton began her television career in 1967 and became the South's first
Black person to have her own television show. The Xernona Clayton show
was a regular feature on WAGA-TV, a CBS affiliate in Atlanta.
She worked at Turner Broadcasting for nearly 30 year where she served as a
corporate executive. In 1988, she was appointed corporate vice president for
Urban Affairs with the broadcasting company. In this capacity, she directed
internal and external projects and served as liaison between Turner
Broadcasting (TBS SuperStation, CNN, Headline News, TNT, Atlanta Braves
and Atlanta Hawks) and civic groups in Atlanta and across the country. As a
corporate executive, Clayton was one of the highest-ranking female
employees in Turner Broadcasting System.
Clayton moved to Atlanta in 1965 where she accepted a position with the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference and worked closely with the late
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Clayton also traveled extensively with Coretta Scott
King on her nationwide concert tours.
Dedicated to promoting racial understanding, Clayton has been a leader in
civic projects and civil rights activities for several years. In 1966, she
coordinated the activities of Atlanta's Black doctors in a project called Doctors'
Committee for Implementation, which resulted in the desegregation of all
hospital facilities in Atlanta. This project served as a model and a pilot for
other states throughout the country and received national honor from the
National Medical Association for its impact.
Her persistent fight against the prejudice and bigotry was never more
apparent than in 1968, when the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan
denounced the Klan and credited her influence with his change.
Clayton's dedication to the community is reflected in the many hours she
spends promoting human relations through bi-racial groups devoted to
improving racial understanding.
A recipient of numerous media awards, she has been widely honored for her
contributions to humanity.
Reeves, now 92, used his newspaper as the voice of Miami-Dade's Black
community during his 50-year tenure as the newspaper's publisher.
He worked at the printing plant owned by his father, Bahamian native Henry
Reeves. After graduating from Miami's Booker T. Washington High School and
Florida A&M University, and then serving in the U.S. Army, Reeves got into the
family newspaper business and returned for good to Miami.
In the Army, he was treated "like a second-class soldier," he said in a 2009
interview with a local newspaper.
"When I came back, I wasn't happy with what I saw here, either, and I
decided that something had to be done about it, or I was gonna end up in a
world of trouble," he said.
From then on, he has been involved in almost every battle on behalf of Black
Miamians. The Miami Times, "one family serving South Florida since 1923," has
reported on almost all of the major events affecting Black Miami over the last
80 years.
Reeves, a former national president of the NNPA, called it "quite a ride." He
said he thought of doing nothing else and gave his daughter, current
publisher Rachael Reeves, credit for new innovations and the continued
success of the publication.
Entertainment at the awards gala will be provided by the Legendary
Temptations.
Among the other highlights at this year's event include a debate between
National Action Network founder and civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton and
Dr. Cornel West, Professor of Religion and African American Studies at
Princeton University on the subject of President Barack Obama and the Black
Agenda Friday at 12:30 p.m.
Also featured will be a national leaders forum moderated by Charles Ogletree,
the Harvard Law School Jesse Climenko Professor of Law and featuring Chuck
Morrison of Ford Motor Co.; Dr. Benjamin Chavis, co-founder, president and
CEO of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network; Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, academic
and professor of sociology at Georgetown University; Rainbow PUSH founder
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson; NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous; Dr. Maulana
Karenga, professor of Africana Studies at California State University, Long
Beach and founder of the U.S. organization; and Rev. Al Sharpton taking place
Friday from 2 p.m.-4 p.m.
Thursday at 9 a.m. Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III, senior pastor of
Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, will speak on the topic of the Press
& the Pulpit.
Fortune 500 companies including AT&T, Ford, GM, Nielsen, and Wells Fargo will
join NNPA Chairman Danny Bakewell for a discussion on the importance of
advertising in the Black press on Friday at 10:30 a.m.
This year's event will also feature forward-looking dialogue with a focus on
growing revenue and audience in today's marketplace. Topics include: mobile
innovation, social media, advertising customer insights, increasing digital
loyalty, growing circulation, and much more.
Throughout the conference AT&T will host a CyberCafe and host a Multi-Media
Platform workshop on Thursday.
"Black newspapers are formulating and adopting aggressive new strategies
to grow our audience and drive up revenue, our annual conference offers
newspaper publishers the critical opportunity to share success stories and
learn about innovative strategies," said NNPA Chairman Danny J. Bakewell, Sr.
"In addition to exceptional programming, the conference allows attendees to
get in front of over 200 major Black publishers and for major advertisers to
meet our members and to learn about the role the Black press plays in
America."
National Newspaper Publishers Association (The Black Press of America)
conference June 22-25 at the Drake Hotel in Chicago.
Among the highlights of this year's convention was the 2011 NNPA Legacy of
Excellence Awards, which was given to Xernona Clayton, founder, president
and CEO of the Trumpet Awards Foundation and Garth C. Reeves, publisher
emeritus of the Miami Times and America's oldest living Black newspaper
publisher.
The Legacy of Excellence Award was created to honor Black publishers whose
life works mirror the courage, commitment, sacrifice and achievement
demonstrated in publishing Black newspapers throughout America and the
world. The event will took place on Friday June 25, 2011.
The Trumpet Awards is a prestigious event highlighting African American
accomplishments and contributions. Initiated in 1993 by Turner Broadcasting,
the Trumpet Awards has been televised annually and distributed
internationally to over 185 countries around the world.
Clayton began her television career in 1967 and became the South's first
Black person to have her own television show. The Xernona Clayton show
was a regular feature on WAGA-TV, a CBS affiliate in Atlanta.
She worked at Turner Broadcasting for nearly 30 year where she served as a
corporate executive. In 1988, she was appointed corporate vice president for
Urban Affairs with the broadcasting company. In this capacity, she directed
internal and external projects and served as liaison between Turner
Broadcasting (TBS SuperStation, CNN, Headline News, TNT, Atlanta Braves
and Atlanta Hawks) and civic groups in Atlanta and across the country. As a
corporate executive, Clayton was one of the highest-ranking female
employees in Turner Broadcasting System.
Clayton moved to Atlanta in 1965 where she accepted a position with the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference and worked closely with the late
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Clayton also traveled extensively with Coretta Scott
King on her nationwide concert tours.
Dedicated to promoting racial understanding, Clayton has been a leader in
civic projects and civil rights activities for several years. In 1966, she
coordinated the activities of Atlanta's Black doctors in a project called Doctors'
Committee for Implementation, which resulted in the desegregation of all
hospital facilities in Atlanta. This project served as a model and a pilot for
other states throughout the country and received national honor from the
National Medical Association for its impact.
Her persistent fight against the prejudice and bigotry was never more
apparent than in 1968, when the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan
denounced the Klan and credited her influence with his change.
Clayton's dedication to the community is reflected in the many hours she
spends promoting human relations through bi-racial groups devoted to
improving racial understanding.
A recipient of numerous media awards, she has been widely honored for her
contributions to humanity.
Reeves, now 92, used his newspaper as the voice of Miami-Dade's Black
community during his 50-year tenure as the newspaper's publisher.
He worked at the printing plant owned by his father, Bahamian native Henry
Reeves. After graduating from Miami's Booker T. Washington High School and
Florida A&M University, and then serving in the U.S. Army, Reeves got into the
family newspaper business and returned for good to Miami.
In the Army, he was treated "like a second-class soldier," he said in a 2009
interview with a local newspaper.
"When I came back, I wasn't happy with what I saw here, either, and I
decided that something had to be done about it, or I was gonna end up in a
world of trouble," he said.
From then on, he has been involved in almost every battle on behalf of Black
Miamians. The Miami Times, "one family serving South Florida since 1923," has
reported on almost all of the major events affecting Black Miami over the last
80 years.
Reeves, a former national president of the NNPA, called it "quite a ride." He
said he thought of doing nothing else and gave his daughter, current
publisher Rachael Reeves, credit for new innovations and the continued
success of the publication.
Entertainment at the awards gala will be provided by the Legendary
Temptations.
Among the other highlights at this year's event include a debate between
National Action Network founder and civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton and
Dr. Cornel West, Professor of Religion and African American Studies at
Princeton University on the subject of President Barack Obama and the Black
Agenda Friday at 12:30 p.m.
Also featured will be a national leaders forum moderated by Charles Ogletree,
the Harvard Law School Jesse Climenko Professor of Law and featuring Chuck
Morrison of Ford Motor Co.; Dr. Benjamin Chavis, co-founder, president and
CEO of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network; Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, academic
and professor of sociology at Georgetown University; Rainbow PUSH founder
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson; NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous; Dr. Maulana
Karenga, professor of Africana Studies at California State University, Long
Beach and founder of the U.S. organization; and Rev. Al Sharpton taking place
Friday from 2 p.m.-4 p.m.
Thursday at 9 a.m. Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III, senior pastor of
Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, will speak on the topic of the Press
& the Pulpit.
Fortune 500 companies including AT&T, Ford, GM, Nielsen, and Wells Fargo will
join NNPA Chairman Danny Bakewell for a discussion on the importance of
advertising in the Black press on Friday at 10:30 a.m.
This year's event will also feature forward-looking dialogue with a focus on
growing revenue and audience in today's marketplace. Topics include: mobile
innovation, social media, advertising customer insights, increasing digital
loyalty, growing circulation, and much more.
Throughout the conference AT&T will host a CyberCafe and host a Multi-Media
Platform workshop on Thursday.
"Black newspapers are formulating and adopting aggressive new strategies
to grow our audience and drive up revenue, our annual conference offers
newspaper publishers the critical opportunity to share success stories and
learn about innovative strategies," said NNPA Chairman Danny J. Bakewell, Sr.
"In addition to exceptional programming, the conference allows attendees to
get in front of over 200 major Black publishers and for major advertisers to
meet our members and to learn about the role the Black press plays in
America."
| Garth C. Reeves |