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Updated: Saturday, October 8, 2005 Published: Monday, September 13, 2004

Derek Ali

RELATED LINKS Remembering Derek Ali Dayton Daily News coverage Read the online guestbook Other passings PRESIDENT'S CORNER LINKS Past Messages President's Biography Letter to the FCC On Minority Media Ownership

The shooting death of Derek Ali, a past president of the Dayton Association of Black Journalists, is compelling to me on various levels.

Right up front, I don't know if I ever met Ali. But after gleaning hundreds of online tributes in his memory, including those from many black journalists whose lives and careers he touched, I wish that we had for sure.

We both grew up in the same small but struggling city, Camden, N.J., both studied journalism and pledged Alpha Phi Alpha while in college, and both ended up working as newspaper reporters in distant places, all the while remaining huge fans of our beloved Philadelphia sports teams.

While I, like many others, moved from city to city along the career ladder, Ali took a different path. He spent 20 years at the Dayton Daily News in Ohio and at the end because another reporter at the paper is in Iraq fulfilling military duties was its only black male metro reporter and one of just two black male reporters in the citys mainstream media.

But also, and perhaps sadly atypical for a journalist, Ali was active and well known in his adopted city, so much so that a former colleague described him in her online tribute as Mr. Dayton. In doing so, Ali proudly and rightly became what can be said of not enough journalists: a true link between our newsroom and our community.

Derek managed to endear himself to public officials as well as everyday citizens, said Stephanie Jones, assistant features editor at The Commercial Appeal in Memphis and director of NABJ's Region VI, which includes Ohio. Such an accomplishment takes a depth of character many of us wish we had.

Ali, 47, a father of three daughters, was shot and killed early Sept. 5 while pushing a woman away from gunfire as he was working as a disc jockey at a private party at a Dayton community center. Authorities have charged a 16-year-old boy for Alis murder and aim to put him on trial as an adult.

The tragedy is that if Derek had met this young man, he would have helped this young man, the Daily News quoted its managing editor, Steve Sidlo, as saying in its coverage.

I've heard that refrain too many times during my three years of covering homicide trials in Queens courts for Newsday. Too many times a beloved community figure devoted to mentoring youths and fighting crime and violence dies from senseless murder. Now that figure is one of our own.

And it hurts. As journalists, we become immune to the cycle of violence adversely affecting our communities. But the pain and concern is certainly deep when the victim is a colleague, chapter member or NABJ member.

That was the case when Luci Williams Houston, a photographer at The (San Jose) Mercury News, was shot and killed in 2001. Her husband is serving a prison sentence of 40 years to life for the crime.

That was the case when a hit-and-run driver struck Sade Baderinwa, an anchor/reporter at WABC-TV in New York, while she was covering a flooding story in New Jersey in July. Her station reports that she is expected to recover fully while police continue to search for the driver.

And that was the case in Dayton, where NABJ members found themselves helping to report the story of their fallen colleague, role model and friend.

Jason Roberson is president of the new Greater Dayton Association of Black Journalists. We chatted on Friday, the day before 1,000 people turned out for Alis funeral, when I called to convey NABJ's condolences.

Roberson is a Daily News business reporter. But he worked 10 hours on Labor Day while taking on the tough task of writing the second-day story about Alis death. He also joined NABJ member Kelli Wynn and others at the paper in producing a story about why teenagers use guns to resolve issues. And he covered the funeral for the paper.

Derek never missed an opportunity to encourage me and the handful of other black reporters at our paper, Roberson, who has five years experience and whose wife, Takisha Roberson, is a local TV reporter, wrote in an e-mail.

I've encountered situations and obstacles at the Dayton Daily News that only another black reporter would understand, said Roberson, who reports that the paper has black journalists serving as deputy managing editor, columnist, night sports editor and line editor. Like an older brother, Derek had a way of keeping me under control, but giving me enough fighting words to keep on keeping on. Derek Ali will be missed.

GDABJ has been quite active since reestablishing itself a year ago. Its 15 members regularly visit city high schools, and have sponsored a high-school journalism boot camp and organized a forum on race in the media that attracted city and media leaders and local activists, Roberson said.

All of whom, it seems, knew and respected Ali.

So its notable, again, that while many black journalists honed their skills in Dayton before moving elsewhere, often for jobs in bigger cities and with bigger paychecks, Ali stayed. And he made a difference, professionally and personally. Just look at the nearly 400 friends and acquaintances from across America who posted entries in the online guest book the Daily News devoted to him. Several entries are from NABJ members who once worked with Ali in Dayton and considered him a friend and mentor.

Derek was passionate about seeing that black journalists, whether print or broadcast, had access to the opportunities in a newsroom, wrote Carla Kimbrough-Robinson, Alis successor as Dayton chapter president and now associate editor for staff development at The Denver Post. Derek taught me and I'm sure many others lessons worth remembering.

Perhaps Alis greatest lesson is that more important than any story we might be responsible for as journalists is how much we act, away from the newsroom, as though we are responsible for our community.