Accepting a strong recommendation from the NABJ Hall of Fame Screening Committee, the Board of Directors voted in April 2004 to induct 10 historical journalism figures as a one-time measure. The committee's rationale was that any legitimate Hall of Fame of black journalists must include these legendary figures and that 2004 revival of the Hall of Fame was the appropriate time to include them.

founded the Chicago Defender, which helped create the Great Migration to the North. co-publisher, Freedoms Journal, the nation's first black newspaper. a former slave and the nation's most prominent abolitionist and the publisher of the North Star. a NAACP founder and creator and first editor of its magazine, The Crisis. one of the most prominent black journalists in the post-Civil War era. First Lady of the Black Press, D.C. correspondent for Sengstacke Newspapers. journalist for Africa Times and Orient Review, publisher of Negro World. co-publisher, Freedoms Journal, the nation's first black newspaper. founder of Michigan Chronicle and publisher of Chicago Defender and Pittsburgh Courier. newspaper editor, crusader against segregation and lynching in United States.