Many people claim that Hip Hop is dead

Yet, many others claim it is evolving?

Can the same be said  for the the Black Newspaper?

They can almost be parallel in a sense.

Not Just a paper but a venue for change.

Like Hip Hop ,

the Black press was also originally used for advocating the rights African Americans did not have

and exposing the issues within  the African American community.

Not Just a paper but a venue for change.

Was it not Fletcher Martin ,

editor of the Louisville Defender

who opposed

3 other black men Black men  at a Lincoln University symposium, who claimed death upon the Black Newspaper?

Was it not he   who claimed that the Black Press would be needed even after the societal goals of African Americans had been met?

In fact, Was it not  Carl Murphy ,

the 1954 president of the National Newspaper Publisher’s Association

who said the Negro newspapers would change with time?

Was it not he ,who said that Negro facilities such as those, would be needed especially after the Jim Crow era in the South?

Not just a paper but a venue change.

And yet now the Black Press  has evolved to entertain

and portray  negative stereotypes of it's people something that Tom Burrell

founder and former owner of burrell communications

said was due to the largest  brainwashing propaganda in America:

A propaganda that we know well

a propaganda called slavery

Something  that still affects the black american today.

Not just a paper but a venue for change.

The Black Press!

When White papers did not understand

the purpose of  its content

The Black Press!

when angry mobs burned down  Black printing presses

when  African Americans were lynched

when wrongs were committed

when progress was hindered

the Black press was there!

So committed that men

who called themselves

sunset editors ,

worked in the day

and  wrote at night

because of their passion,

because they were committed

and

because they sought change.

Being a  Black American.

Living in two worlds.

Living a double standard.

I am a Black Journalist

and the Black press

is not just a paper

but a venue for change.