Black
Newspaper publishers from across the country will meet 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 will be the 2011 NNPA Legacy of Excellence
Awards, which will be 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 take place on
Friday.
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 years 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.”
Full
information on the conference, including programming and registration details,
is available at www.nnpa.org.
