Remembering Our Purpose – A Tribute to James Alfred Washington

By Bobby R. Henry, Sr. While in Dallas to memorialize our dear friend, James Washington, my visit routinely found me engaged in stimulating conversations as I saw old friends and met new ones. The common thread in all these conversations was the future or the plight of America’s Black Press. While I said the common “thread”; it would be more appropriate to label it the common “lament.” EVERYBODY I spoke to agreed that the “old liberating voice” of the Black Press is needed now – more than ever! For too long others believe they can speak for us. There was unanimous support for the need to rekindle the Spirit evident in our documentary “Soldiers Without Swords,” to report the news “without fear or favor” and use the pages of our newspapers to “Light the Road to Freedom.” We cannot afford – literally – to fail heeding Frederick Douglass’ admonition that “Power concedes NOTHING without a DEMAND!” So, I start my “demand” brothers and sisters of the NNPA-the Black Press of America, with US. We must invigorate the content in our pages. As the one true, trusted source of news and information expressly for the benefit of Black People, we have...