#NNPA BlackPress
COMMENTARY: Remembering the Silver Linings of 2020
NNPA NEWSWIRE — So, as the calendar turns to 2021, and many wish friends, family and associates, “Happy New Year!” we’ll place an overwhelming emphasis on the “New Year” portion of the sentiment.
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By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia
There was little to celebrate or be happy about in 2020, particularly for Black America. So, as the calendar turns to 2021, and many wish friends, family and associates, “Happy New Year!” we’ll place an overwhelming emphasis on the “New Year” portion of the sentiment.
The year began with devastating news as the world learned that a helicopter carrying NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gigi, had crashed into a mountainside just outside of Los Angeles. Bryant, his young daughter, the pilot and six other passengers were all killed in the accident.
In unfortunate, but anticipated news, 2020 headlines continued to report on two areas of disproportionate death tolls for Blacks: Police killings of unarmed African Americans, and the novel coronavirus pandemic, or COVID-19, which disproportionately affected communities of color.
While some might argue that detecting a silver lining over the past 365 days is difficult, there was good news.
The outgoing year saw many firsts and accomplishments for African Americans, including many from the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), representing the Black Press of America.
Presidential candidates Joe Biden, Tom Steyer, and Michael Bloomberg all sat for interviews with NNPA President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.
Chavis, a civil rights icon, also helped raise the profile of the Black Press when he launched The Chavis Chronicles, a national television show with American Public Television.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation continued a campaign with the NNPA to raise awareness about education barriers for students of color and bridging the learning gap for minorities. That partnership has proven even more vital during the pandemic.
The United States, and much of the world, underwent an awakened awareness that Black Lives Matter now more than ever in 2020.
Following the murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and others, major sports leagues, corporations, and others began acknowledging their responsibility in the fight for social justice and civil rights.
Led by LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers, NBA players exerted their popularity and authority by successfully demanding that the league honor the Black Lives Matter Movement.
Because of the players’ actions, the NBA opened its arenas to use as polling places, and the league agreed to promote social justice and civic engagement.
Major League Baseball and the National Football League also instituted initiatives with promises to do more for minorities at all levels.
The Google News Initiative (GNI) Innovation Challenge awarded Black Voice News (BVN) $300,000 in support of “Save the Black Press,” a bold call to action to innovate revenue and sustainability solutions at Black news organizations through the creation of the Data Access and Content Discovery Hub (DACDH).
Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts announced that Comcast would fight injustice and inequality against race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, or ability. With that, Roberts committed $100 million to a three-year plan to advance social justice and equality. The initiative includes a $75 million cash commitment and $25 million in media.
Facebook announced that 15 member publishers of the NNPA would receive $1.288 million in grants through the Facebook Journalism Project’s relief fund for local news.
The social media giant said more than 200 news organizations would receive nearly $16 million in grants, which stem from $25 million in local news relief funding announced in March as part of Facebook’s $100 million global investment in the news.
MSNBC named Rashida Jones the first Black person and Black woman president of the network. Jones, who quickly becomes the most prominent woman in cable news, is scheduled to step into the top role on Feb. 1, Black History Month, replacing Phil Griffin, who had been at the cable news channel for more than 25 years.
Mellody Hobson, a Princeton graduate who, in 2019, earned the Woodrow Wilson Award, the university’s highest honor, was named Chairwoman of the Board of Starbucks.
With the promotion, Hobson became the only African American woman to chair a Fortune 500 company.
Midshipman First Class Sydney Barber, a mechanical engineering major from Illinois, was named Brigade Commander for the spring semester at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Barber, a track star with a stated desire to work as a Marine Corps ground officer, becomes the first Black woman to lead the Naval Academy’s student body.
The Brigade Commander heads the Academy’s day-to-day activities and trains the class of approximately 4,500 midshipmen. Barber becomes the 16th woman to serve in that role.
There were significant changes in the world of entertainment as Valeisha Butterfield Jones, a leader, global influencer, and culture shifter, who co-founded the Women in Entertainment Empowerment Network (WENN) and served as the National Youth Vote Director for President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, was named the Recording Academy’s first Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer.
While the traditional annual festival which hosts more than 350,000 people on Los Angeles’ Crenshaw Boulevard wasn’t in the cards because of the pandemic, Bakewell Media and the Los Angeles Sentinel found a new way to bring even more people together. The 15th annual Taste of Soul, the largest one-day street festival in Southern California, took place virtually in October.
Carol H. Williams received Ad Age’s Vanguard Award during this year’s Women to Watch Awards event. Williams, the CEO of Carol H. Williams Advertising, was honored for a lifetime of significant achievements, including being named to the AAF Advertising Hall of Fame.
2020 also answered the question, “What do Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Delores Tucker, Roland Martin, Gayle King, and Brent Staples have in common?” Each has made the Ebony Power 100 List, which annually recognizes leaders in their respective fields whom the iconic publication’s editors say have, “positively impacted the African American community.”
Retired NBA Star Junior Bridgeman announced the purchase of Ebony for $14 million. Ebony’s archives were previously sold for more than $30 million.
With death and hospitalizations piling up from the pandemic, a Black woman, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, was at the forefront of a National Institutes of Health’s team that worked with Moderna on its coronavirus vaccine.
Corbett, an expert on the front lines of the global race for a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, will go down in history as one of the key players in developing the science that could end the pandemic.
Many others on the front lines of the fight to educate and advocate for African Americans are also celebrated. African American physicians at the University of Virginia, including Drs. Ebony Hilton, Leigh-Ann Webb, Taison Bell, Rochanda Mitchell and Cameron Webb all proved to be trusted and vital sources of objective information throughout the pandemic.
Critical care nurse Sandra Lindsay, an African American in New York, became the first person in the country to receive Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.
In November, the ticket of Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris earned 306 electoral college votes and recorded more than 81 million popular votes to defeat President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
Harris will become the nation’s first African American and first woman vice president.
In December, L+M Development Partners formally announced financing for a $349 million development project on the Bronx Harlem River waterfront in New York, including the Universal Hip Hop Museum. Construction is scheduled to commence in January.
The NNPA embraced online video and went “viral.”
With the goal of presenting each of the NNPA member media companies via an online panel format, the NNPA entered into online streaming aggressively under the theme, “Save Local Journalism.” Each of the streams featured up to four publishers who were able to share valuable insights, creativity, challenges and solutions.
Live audience interaction, in the form of questions and comments from those viewing the streams verified that the series of NNPA livestreams with African American newspaper publishers were an instant hit.
Other livestreams included interviews with superstars and legends like Ice Cube, Stephanie Mills, Ziggy Marley, Sugar Ray Leonard, Isiah Thomas, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and LL Cool J.
Because of the livestreams, the NNPA gained new followers on all of its social media platforms and a dramatic increase in visitation to the BlackPressUSA.com website.
The 2020 Virtual NNPA Annual Convention — a first completely online event for the NNPA — proved wildly successful with several hundred thousand attendees viewing the event live and over the days that followed.
NNPA Livestream guests included a host of Congress members, including Congressional Black Caucus Chair Karen Bass (D-Calif.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), and many others.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin, and Meharry Medical College President and CEO Dr. James Hildreth also appeared on livestreams with the NNPA.
Live broadcasts also included several from the 2020 Afro-Comic Con, including a special broadcast featuring comedian Sinbad. The NNPA’s Dr. Nsenga Burton hosted a series of livestreams on the future of higher learning post COVID featuring the presidents of America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). America was also introduced to the NNPA’s newest livestream series: “Ask Alma,” an interactive advice show.
The NNPA plans to broadcast even more live events in 2021.
#NNPA BlackPress
NAACP Sues Trump Administration Over Dismantling of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
NNPA NEWSWIRE — The lawsuit comes after a series of drastic actions following the ouster of CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. President Trump replaced Chopra with Russell Vought, who immediately instructed staff not to perform any work tasks and ordered the closure of the agency’s headquarters, taking steps to cancel its lease.
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By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia
The NAACP has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the legality of the Trump administration’s decision to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The civil rights organization argues that the move undermines protections for Black, elderly, and vulnerable consumers, leaving them exposed to financial exploitation. NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson condemned the administration’s actions, calling them a reckless assault on consumer protections. “Once again, we are witnessing the dangerous impacts of an overreaching executive office. The Trump Administration’s decision to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau opens the floodgates for unethical and predatory practices to run rampant,” Johnson stated. “We refuse to stand idly by as our most vulnerable communities are left unprotected due to irresponsible leaders. From seniors and retirees, disabled people, and victims of disaster to so many more, our nation stands to face immense financial hardship and adversity as a result of the elimination of the CFPB. If our President refuses to put people over profit, the NAACP will use every tool possible to put Americans first.”
The lawsuit comes after a series of drastic actions following the ouster of CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. President Trump replaced Chopra with Russell Vought, who immediately instructed staff not to perform any work tasks and ordered the closure of the agency’s headquarters, taking steps to cancel its lease. Vought also suspended all investigations, rulemaking, public communications, and enforcement actions. Keisha D. Bross, NAACP Director of Opportunity, Race, and Justice, said the organization maintains its commitment to restoring the bureau’s critical role in protecting consumers. “The CFPB is an agency of the people. From the protection from junk fees to fighting excessive overdraft fees, providing assistance to impacted victims of natural disasters, and holding predatory practices accountable, the NAACP stands firm in bringing back the CFPB,” Bross said. “The NAACP will fight to hold financial entities responsible for the years of inequitable practices from big banks and lenders.”
The lawsuit, filed alongside the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), the National Consumer Law Center, the Virginia Poverty Law Center, and the CFPB Employee Association, argues that the administration’s actions violate the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act. According to the complaint, the Trump administration has taken deliberate steps to dismantle the CFPB, including firing 70 employees via form email, canceling over $100 million in vendor contracts, and shutting down the agency’s consumer complaint system, which processes hundreds of thousands of cases monthly. The plaintiffs warn that these actions will leave millions of Americans defenseless against financial fraud and predatory lending practices. The lawsuit details the harm already inflicted by the agency’s closure. Among those affected is Rev. Eva Steege, an 83-year-old pastor with a terminal illness who was seeking student loan forgiveness through a CFPB-facilitated program. Her meeting with CFPB staff was abruptly canceled, leaving her without recourse to resolve her debt before passing.
The NAACP and other plaintiffs seek an immediate injunction to halt the administration’s actions and restore the CFPB’s operations. The legal challenge argues that the President has no unilateral authority to dismantle an agency created by Congress and that Vought’s appointment as acting director is unlawful. President Trump has made no secret of his desire to eliminate the CFPB, confirming last week that his administration was working to “totally eliminate” the agency. Tech billionaire Elon Musk, a key player in Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” celebrated the move with a social media post reading “CFPB RIP.”
If successful, the lawsuit could force the administration to reinstate the agency and resume its enforcement actions against financial institutions accused of predatory practices. “Neither the President nor the head of the CFPB has the power to dismantle an agency that Congress established,” the plaintiffs argue. “With each day the agency remains shut down, financial institutions that seek to prey on consumers are emboldened—harming their law-abiding competitors and the consumers who fall victim to them.”
#NNPA BlackPress
Robert Kennedy and Healthcare. Is There Trust?
NNPA NEWSWIRE — Kennedy, an anti-vaxxer is the new face of healthcare in America. He was confirmed by the US Senate in a vote split along party lines, 52-48. Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell voted with Democrats opposing the nomination.
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By April Ryan
“When you erode trust you lose your democracy because it is based on trust,” according to Black Obama Administration Surgeon General Regina Benjamin. She is responding to the United States Senate’s confirmation of Robert Kennedy Jr. as the new Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy, an anti-vaxxer is the new face of healthcare in America. He was confirmed by the US Senate in a vote split along party lines, 52-48. Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell voted with Democrats opposing the nomination. The Alabama-based former Surgeon General declares, “We’ve had anti-vaxxers for years, but they became prominent during COVID,” creating “new” trust issues.
From Benjamin’s professional understanding, “that’s when we started to see people not trust science,” loudly. Her position is that as health matters changed over time so did the medical responses. Controversy swirls around Kennedy’s anti-vaccination stance, however, he is lauded for his posture on preventative medicine. Benjamin is hopeful Kennedy will focus on prevention as she denotes it is “the key to solving many problems in our healthcare system.” When Benjamin was the nation’s top doctor from 2009 to 2013, the Obama administration released a national prevention strategy, which she deemed “a roadmap.” During that job, she worked to move Americans “from sickness and disease to one of health and wellness.” Benjamin is hopeful that this new administration will “focus more on prevention.”
One of the pressing issues Secretary Kennedy will face is the shortage of healthcare professionals. “We’ve had workforce issues for a long time. The number of doctors, the number of nurses and we don’t have enough to cover everyone.” Benjamin points out there are regional issues with a lack of healthcare professionals. “You see those decreases particularly in rural areas.” There is a short-term fix according to Benjamin, “We have to turn to telemedicine because we don’t have [enough] doctors.” She cautions, ” It will get worse before it gets better.” With February being American Heart Month, Benjamin recommends particularly for those in the Black community to “be as healthy as you can…so you can be resilient and respond to things.” She acknowledges that overall when it comes to our health and wellbeing, “we have to train ourselves where to go for trusted information.”
#NNPA BlackPress
American Heart Association Partners with the Black Press for Groundbreaking Black Health Symposium
NNPA NEWSWIRE — The event brought together leaders in healthcare and media, emphasizing the critical need for collaboration in addressing health disparities impacting Black Americans.
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By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia
For the first time, a major corporation has chosen to broadcast a significant health initiative exclusively through the Black Press of America. The American Heart Association (AHA) partnered with the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) to present “Changing the Future of Health for Black Communities: Public Health and Media Symposium,” a virtual event streamed live on NNPA’s YouTube channel as part of Black History Month. The NNPA is the trade association representing the more than 200 African-American-owned newspapers and media companies in the United States, which only known as are commonly known as the Black Press of America.
Initially planned as a hybrid event in Washington, D.C., the symposium transitioned to a fully virtual format due to inclement weather. The event brought together leaders in healthcare and media, emphasizing the critical need for collaboration in addressing health disparities impacting Black Americans. The panel featured distinguished health professionals, including Dr. Regina Benjamin, the 18th U.S. Surgeon General and founder of the Bayou Clinic; Dr. Keith Churchwell, president of the American Heart Association; and Katrina McGhee, AHA’s chief marketing officer. Media figures included Sharí Nycole, co-host at Reach Media; Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr., NNPA president and CEO; and April Ryan, senior White House correspondent and Washington Bureau Chief for BlackPressUSA.com. Sybil Wilkes, the veteran journalist known for her role on The Tom Joyner Morning Show, moderated the discussion.
Black Health in Crisis
Dr. Churchwell laid out stark statistics highlighting the disproportionate impact of cardiovascular disease on Black Americans. “Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in the Black community,” Churchwell said. “Between 2017 and 2020, nearly 59 percent of Black men and women over the age of 20 had some form of cardiovascular disease, including coronary disease, stroke, and hypertension. In 2022 alone, almost 65,000 Black men and 59,000 Black women died from cardiovascular disease.” Hypertension remains one of the most prevalent health concerns. “The incidence of hypertension in the general population is 47 percent, but among Black men, it’s 57 percent, and among Black women, it’s 58 percent,” Churchwell said. “That’s the leading risk factor for heart disease and stroke.”
Dr. Benjamin emphasized that addressing these health disparities requires more than just medical intervention. “We’ve learned that to truly reduce and ultimately eliminate health disparities, we must address social determinants of health, such as poverty, education, and access to care,” Benjamin said. “Studies show that poverty and dropout rates are as important a health risk factor as smoking.” She stressed the necessity of prevention, adding, “Quality health outcomes depend on access to the right information, tools, and technology. But it also depends on communication—our patients understanding us, and us understanding them.”
Media’s Role in Shaping Black Health Outcomes
NNPA President Dr. Chavis underscored the Black Press’ role in disseminating accurate health information and combating misinformation. “We must recognize that Black media has the power to inform, educate, and sustain critical messaging about health,” Chavis said. “One-shot messaging doesn’t work. We must repeat these messages consistently to keep them in the consciousness of our community.” April Ryan pointed out how urgent the matter is in Black communities. “We are still the community with the highest number of negative health outcomes in almost every category,” Ryan said. “We need to continue this conversation beyond today. This isn’t about a news cycle—it’s about life and death.”
Sharí Nycole stressed that the media must inform and lead by example. “We can’t just tell people what to do—we have to model it,” Nycole said. “We need to be visible examples of prioritizing our health, whether through social media, community events, or personal engagement.”
CPR: Creating a “Nation of Lifesavers”
The symposium spotlighted the AHA’s Nation of Lifesavers campaign to ensure more Black families are equipped with CPR knowledge. The initiative gained national attention following Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin’s on-field cardiac arrest, which immediate CPR mitigated. “Nearly three out of four cardiac arrests that happen outside a hospital occur in the home,” McGhee said. “This means the life you save is likely someone you love. Yet Black people are the least likely to receive bystander CPR. That must change.” Churchwell pointed to a recent AHA study revealing that while bystander CPR rates have improved nationwide, Black women are the least likely to receive immediate CPR assistance. “This presents a massive opportunity for intervention,” Churchwell said. “More people need to be trained, and we need to break down whatever barriers are preventing Black women from receiving life-saving care when they need it most.”
A Call to Action
Chavis announced that the NNPA will make Black health a top editorial priority and extend coverage beyond Black History Month. “We cannot afford to lose a single day without focusing on healthcare,” Chavis said. “Health is not just an issue for February. It’s an issue for all 12 months, every single year.” Ryan asserted that it’s crucial to make health a communal effort. “We have to hold each other accountable,” she said. “Host CPR nights with your girlfriends, bring healthcare conversations to the barbershop, get cholesterol checks at your church health fair. These small changes can save lives.”
McGhee also urged action. “We need to move from awareness to action,” she said. “One person in every household should know CPR. If you don’t, today is the day to start. Visit heart.org/nation to learn more.”
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