Not long after Donald Trump exited the stage at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago last week, I texted three faculty colleagues at the University of Florida.
A great day for journalism. A great day for Black journalists and NABJ. He was finally asked tough questions related to a constituency deemed critical to determining the election outcome. The event made news that will last more than just one news cycle.
As a former national president for NABJ, the backlash against our association inviting the once and possibly future leader of the free world for a long overdue public Q&A, about his policies regarding and relationship with Black America, was astounding and disappointing.
The five-day convention drew record-breaking attendance — nearly 4,400 people — and solidified NABJ’s standing as hosting the world’s largest annual gathering of journalists.
Founded by 44 brave souls in 1975, when many Black journalists feared joining the diversity advocacy group would cost them their careers, NABJ each year offers a remarkable job fair and many professional development workshops and access to all types of newsmakers.
For many of our members, this presidential campaign marks their introduction to the association having consistently invited the major party nominees every four years.
That goes back to 1976, at NABJ’s first convention, at Texas Southern University in Houston. Incumbent Gerald Ford and challenger Jimmy Carter both declined founding NABJ president Chuck Stone’s invitation. Carter did, however, sit for a joint Q&A with several Black journalists at the White House during his presidency.
Bill Clinton visited NABJ three times: as the Democratic nominee in Detroit in 1992, as president in Chicago in 1997 and in Atlanta, for a Q&A that I moderated in 2005. While Trump falsely asserted that his appearance was delayed primarily because of audio problems in the hotel ballroom, Clinton happily extended his 2005 questioning. Even after his staff had ordered the sound system muted in a desperate effort to end the program.
In 1996, The New York Times put on its front page a photo of GOP nominee Bob Dole speaking with NABJ president Arthur Fennell onstage in Nashville. It was the first Black audience that Dole had addressed in his 18-month-long campaign, the Times reported, and he offered a “new civil rights agenda” while defending his support for ending affirmative action programs.
The Aug. 24, 1996 edition of The New York Times. (Courtesy: Herbert Lowe)
Dole’s running mate, Jack Kemp, also addressed NABJ that day, and the Times published excerpts of their respective remarks and their answers to questions from Black journalists there.
Vice President Al Gore — a former reporter at The Tennessean — represented Clinton at the convention that year as they sought reelection.
“We’re not here to make endorsements or form opinions. We’re here to create coverage,” Fennell said, according to The Tennessean, echoing a sentiment by current NABJ president Ken Lemon and most of our members today. “We’re not trying to influence the platform or shape any issues.”
In 1999, George W. Bush annoyed organization leaders when he appeared unannounced at the Unity: Journalists of Color convention in Seattle. Bush randomly shook hands with attendees, but left without having to answer questions publicly about his presidential intentions.
The Unity convention comprised NABJ and the national associations of Asian, Hispanic and Native American journalists. The groups held their next joint convention in 2004, to better attract that year’s nominees to an event drawing more than 6,000 journalists to Washington.
It worked. Both then-President Bush and Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic opponent, participated in Q&A’s on separate days. Secretary of State Colin Powell also addressed the gathering, as did lots of other newsmakers from business, entertainment, sports, etc.
Then-NABJ president Herbert Lowe greets President George W. Bush during the Unity: Journalists of Color convention at the Washington Convention Center in 2004. (Courtesy: NABJ File Photo)
In 2007, candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both visited NABJ in Las Vegas. The next year in Chicago, Obama addressed the Unity convention as the presumptive Democratic nominee. John McCain, the 2008 GOP standard-bearer, declined to come both years.
In 2012, neither Obama, by then seeking reelection, nor Republican nominee Mitt Romney appeared at the NABJ convention in New Orleans. Obama did send Vice President Joe Biden, though.
Four years later, Clinton, the Democratic nominee, came to a joint convention of NABJ and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in Washington. Trump declined to attend that year, just as he did as president for NABJ’s conventions in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. The 2020 convention was held virtually, but Biden, as the presumptive Democratic nominee, still addressed our membership and answered questions.
Trump’s visit last week wasn’t the first time some NABJ members regretted inviting a newsmaker. In 1992, president Sidmel Estes-Sumpter, the association’s first female leader, halted a session after a panelist, Treach (Anthony Criss), frontman of the hip-hop trio Naughty By Nature, repeatedly offended many in the room with sexist and misogynistic statements.
Four years later, NABJ struggled to control an appearance by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. (The minister had spearheaded the Million Man March in Washington the year before, but he was also decried by critics as antisemitic and racist.) A heavy presence of the Fruit of Islam, the Nation’s security force, and several all-white-clad women cheering loudly from the audience threatened to overshadow Farrakhan’s visit.
Trump’s visit caused more consternation within NABJ than anything else in nearly 15 years.
Consider 1984, and the debate after a Black reporter’s disclosure that the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a candidate for the Democratic nomination, had uttered a remark offensive to Jews; 1995, the criminal case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former radio reporter and local chapter president convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer; 2003, Jayson Blair, a young reporter who serially plagiarized stories while with the Times; and 2011, when NABJ ended its participation with the Unity collective.
Times have certainly changed, and so has journalism, and journalists of all colors and types.
I appreciate the many varied opinions about Trump’s visit, including Jelani Cobb’s intellectually interesting “Notes From A Fiasco.” I, however, agree more so with Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post: “No other single interview or media encounter with Trump in this cycle has laid bare as much about the candidate or opened him up to as much criticism.”
Here’s hoping NABJ continues its decadeslong legacy of holding newsmakers accountable. And that we stop, at least in this most recent case, trying to wrestle defeat from the jaws of victory.
Thank you, President Lowe! You said everything that needed to be said. Reposting and sharing now.