National

New NNPA Officers Elected; Denise Rolark Barnes Elected Chair

Published

10 years ago

July 1, 2015

From left to right: Karen Carter Richards, Shannon Williams, Francis Page, Jr., Denise Rolark Barnes and Janis Ware (Photo by Shevry Lassiter)

DETROIT (NNPA) – Denise Rolark Barnes, publisher of the Washington Informer, has been elected chair of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a federation of more than 200 African American newspapers.

Rolark Barnes succeeds Cloves C. Campbell, Jr., publisher of the Arizona Informant, who served two, 2-year terms. After graduating from Howard University with a degree in communications, Rolark Barnes enrolled in the Howard University School of Law. She served as editor of The Barrister, the law university’s student newspaper, before graduating in1979. She is a second-generation publisher, following in the footsteps of her late father, Dr. Calvin W. Rolark.

“I am honored and proud to represent the NNPA as chairman of this historic and impactful organization,” Rolark Barnes said. “Since 1827, the Black Press has listened to and spoken for the African American community. The future looks bright for the team of publishers elected during our 75^th anniversary convention in Detroit, Michigan; three of the new officers happen to be second-generation newspaper publishers. We are committed to fulfill the promises we made to our nearly 200 fellow publishers and we will work hard to propel the Black Press into dynamic 21^st century media companies.”

Also elected were:

First Vice Chair: Karen Carter Richards, publisher of the Houston Forward Times
Second Vice Chair: Francis Page, Jr., publisher of Houston Style
Treasurer: Janis Ware, publisher, Atlanta Voice
Secretary: Shannon Williams, publisher, Indianapolis Recorder
Directors-at-large: Bernal Smith, publisher of the Tri-State Defender, and Larry Smith, publisher of The Community Times

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The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 12 – 18, 2025

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March 16, 2025

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Fighting to Keep Blackness

BlackPressUSA NEWSWIRE — Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C.

Published

2 weeks ago

March 7, 2025

Oakland Post

By April Ryan

As this nation observes the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, the words of President Trump reverberate. “This country will be WOKE no longer”, an emboldened Trump offered during his speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. Since then, Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell posted on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter this morning that “Elon Musk and his DOGE bros have ordered GSA to sell off the site of the historic Freedom Riders Museum in Montgomery.” Her post of little words went on to say, “This is outrageous and we will not let it stand! I am demanding an immediate reversal. Our civil rights history is not for sale!” DOGE trying to sell Freedom Rider Museum

Also, in the news today, the Associated Press is reporting they have a file of names and descriptions of more than 26,000 military images flagged for removal because of connections to women, minorities, culture, or DEI. In more attempts to downplay Blackness, a word that is interchanged with woke, Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C. Mayor Morial Bowser is allowing the name change to keep millions of federal dollars flowing there. Black Lives Matter Plaza was named in 2020 after a tense exchange between President Trump and George Floyd protesters in front of the White House. There are more reports about cuts to equity initiatives that impact HBCU students. Programs that recruited top HBCU students into the military and the pipeline for Department of Defense contracts have been canceled.

Meanwhile, Democrats are pushing back against this second-term Trump administration’s anti-DEI and Anti-woke message. In the wake of the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, several Congressional Black Caucus leaders are reintroducing the Voting Rights Act. South Carolina Democratic Congressman James Clyburn and Alabama Congresswoman Terry Sewell are sponsoring H.R. 14, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Six decades ago, Lewis was hit with a billy club by police as he marched for the right to vote for African Americans. The right for Black people to vote became law with the 1965 Voting Rights Act that has since been gutted, leaving the nation to vote without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. Reflecting on the late Congressman Lewis, March 1, 2020, a few months before his death, Lewis said, “We need more than ever in these times many more someones to make good trouble- to make their own dent in the wall of injustice.”