Chicago Reporter (https://www.chicagoreporter.com/category/key-issue/race-and-culture/page/3/)
There are valuable lessons from this powerful historical moment that continue to challenge us to “negotiate, demonstrate, resist.” Everything that matters is set in motion when we cast our votes.
Freedom Summer began 50 years ago this season with a terrifying act of oppression. Attorney Martin Popper called it “the first interracial lynching in the history of the United States.” The brutal June 21, 1964 murders of young activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Mickey Schwerner were committed to send a message. And the murderers—including Ku Klux Klan members—were committed to sending that message in the most clear and impacting way. That’s what a lynching is all about.
It was a provocative question. Simple and complex all at once. “What are the consequences of media failure to cover social difference effectively?”
The students attending the two-day regional summit of National Association of Black Journalists campus chapters wanted an answer. But they wanted something more from the panel of journalism professionals and professors brought together by NABJ student organizers at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, last weekend. They wanted a vocabulary to deal with the issues of media responsibility they undoubtedly will confront as professionals.
Sept. 18 was my first day as editor and publisher of The Chicago Reporter. It’s rare when you can bring your values and skills to a job. I’m privileged to do that at the Reporter, an organization that shares my commitment to investigating race and poverty.
The philosophy, posed in the inaugural editorial in The Chicago Reporter, was the mission of McDermott’s life and his most lasting legacy.
Former newspaperman was drawn to the Reporter by founder, friend.
Washington comes back to her roots to help grow the Reporter’s future.
Former publisher reflects on Chicago’s turbulent politics.
Staying relevant during a challenging time in journalism wasn’t easy.
