| The following overview was adapted from the opening remarks of NABJ President Herbert Lowe at the Presidents Plenary: 30 Minutes in Time, held Thursday, Aug. 4, 2005, during NABJ's 30th anniversary convention at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta. The plenary was moderated by Kevin Merida and Donna Britt of The Washington Post and featured a panel discussion involving seven of NABJ's past presidents.
Good morning, everyone:
Thank you for joining us. From the founding of NABJ in 1975 to the launching of the first HBCU daily newspaper this year black journalists have created many important moments that have helped transform our industry and world.
There have been triumphs and inspirations that lifted our spirits. There have been setbacks and embarrassments causing shame and pain. And there have been momentous circumstances that have forced us to ask ourselves tough questions about who we are and what we do. We have broken barriers and broadened our influence exposed truths and demonstrated our excellence and, sad to say, become household names for reasons most would rather not.
As part of our 30th anniversary celebration, NABJ is presenting the best and worst of these feats and milestones with you, the industry and the world. 30 Moments in Journalism is an extraordinary and lasting collection of the most significant efforts involving black journalists between 1975 and 2005.
Heres how these moments came to be. Over the past several months, NABJ compiled a list of nearly 75 candidates. Next, we took time and then some more time to check our facts. Many thanks especially to Richard Prince, chairman of our Media Monitoring Committee, for his invaluable help with that part, and also to Kevin Merida of The Washington Post and NABJ Vice President-Print Bryan Monroe for their editing.
Next came the judging. We invited 100 of NABJ's past, present and future national and grassroots leaders to do the honors. I'm particularly proud to say that 77 out of the 100 leaders responded to our survey in the weeks time allotted. The survey was conducted via a secure online method that made it nice and easy.
Who are these leaders? Well, they included just about our entire national Board of Directors, 28 of our professional affiliate chapter presidents, the leaders of 13 NABJ committees and task forces, a few other respected NABJ members and nine of our past national presidents.
Remember to keep in mind two important factors:
1) We are only dealing with things that happened between 1975 and 2005.
2) We didn't limit the list to just things related to NABJ. We looked for and found the good, the bad and the ugly in journalism, wherever it happened.
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