Our Time PressThe Local Paper with the Global View

A Look at the Black Press
By Errol T. Louis

My life as a journalist started with a bang in the summer of 1982: a front-page story in The New York Amsterdam News. I was 19 years old, and it was the first time one of my stories was published professionally.  I bought up as many copies as I could carry that Thursday, and went around happily handing them out to friends, family and neighbors. The front page of the Amsterdam News!
As it turned out, people were a little thrown off by the gift I was proudly bestowing on them.  Maybe it was the headline of my story: POLICE BREAK CHILD SEX RING IN BROOKLYN.  And here I was, shoving it in people’s faces: Look!  They ran my article on the front page!  The usual response was a polite, “Um, yes, uh, very nice.”
But for an aspiring writer born in Harlem, it didn’t get much better.  For me, it wasn’t just the start of a career: it was history.  In the 1940’s, when my father was a boy, he’d sold the AmNews on the streets of Harlem to make a little extra money.  In high school, when I wrote school reports on the civil rights movement, I’d spend hours at the Schomburg, looking at back issues of the Amsterdam News from 1968 and 1969.
As a journal of record for New York’s African-American community-especially in Harlem-nothing matches the history, prestige and all-around popularity of the Amsterdam News, which has been in print for 89 years.  But a host of younger black papers (including Our Time Press) are betting that there is a large and growing market for even more information outlets that are for, by and about the African-American community.
Some of these papers, like the Queens Voice, the New York Beacon and the Brooklyn-based Daily Challenge, have long provided general-interest news with an outer-borough perspective, largely by covering events outside of Harlem that might not make the Amsterdam.  The Challenge, in fact, has 25 years under its belt as the city’s only black daily newspaper.  The New York CaribNews has built a solid following by supplying vital news to New York’s Caribbean community-everything from Brooklyn politics to sports, culture and exchange rates throughout the Caribbean.  Readers of French have long flocked to the Haiti Observateur and Haiti Progress.
But another wave of black newspapers has appeared in recent years. These newest newspapers tend to zero in on different segments within the black community.  The Brooklyn-based Network Journal focuses on business; the New York World covers arts and entertainment; and the Christian Times carries stories about black churches throughout the city.  A brand new paper, EboniX Communications, made its premiere in January of this year and is distinguished by, among other things, its advocacy of teaching methods that use African-American vernacular, or “Ebonics.”  Another new paper, the African Press, is targeted at the many immigrants from the motherland who have settled in New York and are looking for news from home.
Many of these new papers are distributed free within a neighborhood, to ensure a solid readership, which, in turn, helps attract advertisement.  Despite its name, for example the Crown Heights News is dropped at stores and supermarkets in Crown Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Prospect Heights and Ft. Greene.  Our Time has a Brooklyn flavor but is distributed in Westchester and Harlem, as well.
Where did all this activity come from?  For one thing, advances in computer technology have made it cheaper and easier than ever for entrepreneurs to start a newspaper. Ten years ago, cutting, pasting and editing newspaper text used to require a typesetter that could easily cost $25,000 or more.  Today, layout can be done with a $600 desktop publishing software package and a $400 laser printer.
Virtually anyone with a personal computer can automate key functions like editing and laying out stories. Writers can now write, spell-check, edit and file stories electronically, eliminating yet another costly set of face-to-face meetings with editors and the time-consuming retyping of articles.  This article, for example, will be composed, edited and sent to the publisher over a phone line within minutes.  And although I’m sending it from a brownstone in Brooklyn, I could just as well be sitting in Paris, Dakar or Hong Kong.

Now that publishing is easier, we are seeing a revival of the great tradition of small, scrappy publishers submitting their vision and views to the public.  The result is a wonderful, noisy marketplace of ideas.  Every month, for less than $10, you can buy five or six daily, weekly and monthly African-American newspapers, and check out a broad spectrum of ideas, from true-blue capitalism (the Network Journal) to die-hard nationalism (The Final Call, published by the Nation of Islam).
All this activity continues a tradition that dates back to 1827, when John Russwurm began publishing Freedom’s Journal and calling for an end to slavery.  The paper’s slogan declared, in Biblical tones, “Righteousness Exalteth a Nation.”  Frederick Douglass, in the same abolitionist tradition, took $1,000 he earned from sales of his autobiography and began publishing the North Star in 1847.  By the time of the civil war, more than 40 black newspapers were being published-not simply to report routine news, but to argue a point, with passion and urgency.
From that time forward, every significant strand of African-American opinion has found expression in a paper of one type or another.  Labor activist A. Philip Randolph published The Messenger.  The legendary Harlem minister and congressman, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., started The People’s Voice in 1942.  In any given week-side by side with Powell’s fiery editorials attacking condition in New York City-you might find poems or essay by the likes of Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson or Ann Petry.
The fact that most of these papers no longer exist is hardly a cause for mourning.  Frederick’s North Star was a crusade for the end of slavery, and stopped publishing once its purpose had been served.  By the same token, Powell’s rise to national prominence gave him the raw power needed to make changes in Harlem-and made The People’s Voice less of a necessity.  And, in the end, there was always the Amsterdam-as feisty, funky and opinionated as its tens of thousands of loyal readers

At this meeting several parents made presentations and Chancellor Crew assigned a person from his office to more fully hear their concern. 
Tireless activist Carol Taylor spoke on the topic of police in the schools.  because you are only allowed three minutes, her list of names of young men killed by police had to be cut off.  
These names should not be forgotten, and we give them to you for the record.
“No Blue Fools in Our Schools”Carol Taylor

 ” I hereby lodge the strongest possible protest against cops in our children’s public schools! 
The police of NYC are no longer role models:
* In 1989 they rioted; (egged on by Giuliani)
*The police are already invasively using the kids’ pictures with their mug books.
*Most of the schools that already have cops, over 130 of them, are  Black schools!
*Our children understand the fearsome certainty that cops don’t shoot white males in the back!
*The Black community fights the cop intimidation on the streets – our kids do not need to face oppressive psychological and physical intimidation in their schools! 
 *We taxpayers have already paid out over Ninety-Eight Million Dollars in jury award or settlements for police brutality during “Giuliani Time”.
*The majority of brutality/terrorism by cops involves Black Africans-mostly Black African males!
*If Chancellor Crew had incorporated our Racism Quotient Test Program – we asked him to four years ago, and as we repeatedly ask the NYPD to use on its racist/colorist cops before they’re let loose on our citizenry – we wouldn’t need this Hearing on cops in our schools! The following incomplete list of cop-murdered Black males is the best reason for no cops in our schools:
 Nicholas Heyward*, Peter Bailey*, Kevin Cedeno*, William Whitfield, Timothy Hudson, Joseph Stevens, Nathaniel Gaines, Jr.*, Steve Excell*, Anthony Rosario*, Hilton Vega*, Johnny Cromartie, Jonnie Gammage, Malice Green, John Afrika, Abdul Mateen, Ed Perry, Antwar Sedgwick, Christopher Wade, Ernest Sayon, Eric Thomas, Eric Pitt, Reginald Bannerman, Rudy Buchanan, Malik Jones, Shawn Montague, Richard Austin, Joseph Stevens, Arthur Miller, Arthur McDuffie, Don Taylor, Michael Taylor, Michael Stewart, Michael Donald, Michael Clark, Michael Phillips-Phillip, Pannell, Douglas Fischer, Sean Bennett, Nicholas Bartlett, Anthony Baez, Allan Blanchard, Keshawn Watson, Keith Richardson, Charles Campbell, Jason Nichols, Dario Diodonet Mohammad Assassa, Stoney Huggee, Abe Richardson, Juan Rodriquez, Steven Kelly, Kathurima Mwaria, Dennis Gross, Shu’Aib Latif, Laurence Meyers, John Jordan, Thomas Branch, James Baker-Paul Trotman, Bobby Rodriguez, Morris Duncan, Annibal Carasquillo, Bernard Gardner, Julio Tar-quino, Joseph Gould, Julio Nunez, Joseph Orlando, Robin Williams, Owen Williams, William Leonard, Robert Tyler, Loyal Garner, Kevin Thorpe, Ronald Stokes, Warren Battle, Randy Evans, Clifford Glover, Jimmie Lee Bruce, Clement Lloyd, Cornell Warren, Jose Reyes, Winston Hood, William Green-Louis Baez, Arthur Slade, Dane Kemp, Andre London, Alfred Sanders, Demont Lawson, Casey Merchant/William Smith, John Kelly, Andel Amos, Roy Lee Jones, Richard Deem, Edmund Powell, Claude Reese, Hector Jones, Alfonso Fernandez, Jose LeBrun, Howard Caesar, Jay Parker, Abdul Salaam, Terrence Kean, Kenneth Simpson, Timothy Howell, Neville Johnson, Ricahrd Luke, Richard borden, Jesse Davis, Lester Yarbrough, Charles Stamper, Timothy Bolden, Tycel Nelson, Clarence Smith, Charles Burnett, Ricky McCargo, Joseph Robertson….(*Shot in the back.)

It is our earnest wish to make our Journal a medium of intercourse between our brethren in the different states of this great confederacy; that through its columns an expression of our sentiments, on many interesting subjects that concern us, may be offered to the public; that plans which apparently are beneficial may be candidly discussed and properly weighed; if worthy, receive our cordial approbation; if not, our marked disapprobation. 
Useful knowledge of every kind, and every thing that relates to Africa, shall find a ready admission into our columns; and as that vast continent becomes daily more known, we trust that many things will come to light, proving that the natives of it are neither so ignorant nor stupid as they have generally been supposed to be. 
And while these important subjects shall occupy the columns of the Freedom’s Journal, we would not be unmindful of our brethren who are still in the iron fetters of bondage.  They are our kindred by all the ties of nature; and though but little can be effected by us, still let our sympathies be poured forth, and our prayers in their behalf, ascend to Him who is able to succor them.
From the press and the pulpit we have suffered much by being incorrectly represented.  Men whom we equally love and admire have not hesitated to represent us disadvantageously, without becoming personally acquainted with the true state of things, nor discerning between virtue and vice among us.  The virtuous part of our people feel themselves sorely aggrieved under the existing state of things – they are not appreciated.
Our vices and our degradation are ever arrayed against us.  But our virtues are passed by unnoticed.  And what is still more lamentable, our friends, to whom we concede all the principles of humanity and religion, from these very causes seem to have fallen into the current of popular feeling and are imperceptively floating on the stream-actually living in the practice of prejudice, while they abjure it in theory, and feel it not in their hearts.  Is it not very desirable that such should know more of our actual condition, and of our efforts and feelings, that informing or allocating plans for our amelioration, they may do it more understandingly?  In the spirit of candor and humility we intend by a simple representation of facts, to lay our case before the public, with a view to arrest the progress of prejudice and to shield ourselves against the consequent evils.  We wish to conciliate all and to irritate none, yet we must be firm and unwavering to our principles, and persevering in our efforts.
If ignorance, poverty and degradation have hitherto been our unhappy lot; has the eternal decree gone forth, that our race alone, are to remain in this state, while knowledge and civilization are shedding their enlivening rays over the rest of the human family?  The recent travels of Denham and Clapperton in the interior of Africa, and the interesting narration which they have published; the establishment of the republic of Hayti after years of sanguinary warfare; its subsequent progress in all the arts of civilization; and the advancement of liberal ideas in South America, where despotism has given place to free governments, and where many of our brethren now fill important civil and military stations, prove the contrary. 
The interesting fact that there are five hundred thousand free persons of colour, one-half of whom might peruse, and the whole be benefitted by the publication of the Journal; that no publication, as yet, has been devoted exclusively to their improvement – that many selections from approved standard authors, which are within the reach of few, may occasionally be made – and more important still, that this large body of our citizens has no public channel- all serve to prove the real necessity, at present, for the appearance of the Freedom’s Journal.
It shall ever be our desire so to conduct the editorial department of our paper as to give offense to none of our patrons; as nothing is farther from us than as to make it the advocate of any partial views, either in politics or religion.  What few days we can number, have been devoted to the improvement of our brethren; and it is our earnest wish that the remainder may be spent in the same delightful service. 
In conclusion, whatever concerns us as a people, will every find a ready admission into the Freedom’s Journal, interwoven with all the principle news of the day.
And while everything in our power shall be performed to support the character of our Journal, we would respectfully invite our numerous friends to assist by their communications, and our coloured brethren to strengthen our hands by their subscriptions, as our labour is one of common cause, and worthy of their consideration and support.  And we do most earnestly solicit the latter, that if at any time we should seem to be zealous, or too pointed in the inculcation of any important lesson, they will remember, that they are equally interested in the cause in which we are engaged, and attribute our zeal to the peculiarities of our situation, and our earnest engagedness in their well being. 
The Editors

Dear Reader:
Many of you have commended OUR TIME PRESS for our stories on current, historical and local events.  The articles on reparations have been extremely well received and we are grateful for your comments and encouragement. 
However, for the Month of March, we’re going to take a “commercial break” and tell you about our advertisers.  Because this paper is free to you, it is our advertisers who make it possible for us to pay our bills and bring you the best paper we can.  They don’t do this just because they feel the information we bring to you is important, they do it to bring to your attention the services and goods they have to offer.   They need our support to build their businesses and we need their businesses to build our communities.  We also need them to deliver the best possible service in a competitive marketplace, so don’t be hesitant about making suggestions as to the kind of service and product selection you want and expect.  Give them the opportunity fulfill your needs.
Many of you already support our advertisers and we are grateful for that.  However, statistics say that many do not.  African Americans spend the fewest dollars in our own community of any ethnic group.  The stock market is booming, and yet Black stores and offices are not sharing in the booming economy.  And in many cases, it’s not because the owners are not “ready”, not up to “standard” or any of the other rationalizations used.
The small businesses in these pages are owned by people who are expert in their craft or service.  Their ice is as cold as any other ethnic groups ice.   Take Spice Island Kids as an example.  Here, Mrs. Joseph and her sister offer school uniforms that are indistinguishable from those purchased at non-African American stores.  There is no reason why Spice Island Kids is not the recommended supplier of uniforms for private schools in our community. 
Regarding price – We know the importance of every dollar today, but everything cannot be reduced to dollars and cents.  There are moral and racial concerns that transcend the dollar.   We see that in effect in white corporations all the time.  In fact, Anti-discrimination and Affirmative Action laws had to be passed and enforcement agencies created, because white-owned businesses make these judgements all the time.   Because white employers have a continuing history of looking beyond merit, and qualifications.  Africans in the Americas have to also look beyond the occasional dollar price difference, and look at the convenience of shopping in the neighborhood, and the jobs that are generated by your doing that.  For example, look at the Brothers Community Hardware on Myrtle Avenue.  They recently moves to a larger space and have all the hardware supplies that you, your church or your business may need.  Call and ask for Mel or Bob.  If you now do your shopping at Home Depot, or Adami or Weinstein’s or Sid’s, consider giving Brothers Hardware some of your business, particularly with spring fix-up right around the corner.   If you can’t do it yourself, call Perry Patterson, of “We Are Handy”.  Perry will come with his van of gadgets and thingamajigs, and fix what’s broken around the house, and do those odd-jobs that need doing.  With Perry you have a professional Mr. Fixit who stands behind his work.

Dentist Dr. Charles Grannum, has been in every issue of Our Time Press from the beginning.  His modern offices at 136 St. James Place are always busy with two state-of-the-art operating rooms.  Dr. Grannum is joined in his practice by Dr. Bolden, Periodontist, (specialist in gum diseases), and  Dr. Kevin Johnson, Endodontist (root canal specialist). 
For foot problems you could walk a few blocks to see Podiatrist,  Dr. Dennis Castillo at De Kalb and Washington.   The doctor and his wife Victoria, run a very efficient office, and Dr. Castillo is affiliated with SUNY Health Science Center, The Brooklyn Hospital Center and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center.  If you are a diabetic, it is important that you take care of your feet.  A stubbed toe or ingrown nail can lead to losing a foot or a leg.
Tax time is here and if you don’t do them yourself, have them done by accounting professionals that are in practice the whole year, and did not just spring up for the season.  Barton, Greene and Vance on So. Oxford Place, James & Scott on Court Street, and Lillian’s Accounting Services on Fulton Street, all have businesses that you can count on and hold accountable.

When we support African American businesses, we are not just reading about reparations, we are demonstrating our seriousness by taking the dollars from our pockets to build the community we envision for ourselves.  In the past, African-Americans have been accused of suffering from the “paralysis of analysis”.  We have studied in great detail the nature of our oppression in the United States and can cite chapter and verse the obstacles that are put in front of us.   Supporting Black businesses is one way that everyone can join in the fight and bring the obstacles down.  As an attendee at a recent economic conference said, “It makes no difference how much information we put on the table, it makes no difference hom much each of us knows, unless it moves us to change our behavior.”  One of the patterns to change are the choices we make as we shop. 
To help see the choices more clearly, Ray Hammond and David Youngblood have opened Clinton Hill Opticians on Myrtle Avenue.  With 18 years as an optician, Ray is now bringing his services to the community.  They have several showcases of brand name frames and they can help you select the right frames for you.  Clinton Hill Opticians has the mirrors, the small chairs, the carpet on the floor and the eye exam equipment.   The only difference is that the owners are African-American men; don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.  Call for an appointment to see the Optometrist on Fridays and Saturdays.  (P.S., they give 20% off with your union card, and 10% off for children).
Two doors down on Myrtle, is OBE computer services.  If you’re working on a newsletter, paper or any project where you need pictures and images processed for print, check them out.  They have MAC’s and IBM’s to rent, color copiers, Cyclone and Fiery printers, scanners,  zip drives, 11 x 17 printers, etc.  It’s like having a Kinko’s near home.  They’ll do business cards, letterheads and work with you to get your advertising copy camera-ready.

There is a lot of real estate activity taking place in Fort Greene/Clinton Hill, and Barbara Haynes can help with your buying, selling or renting.  If your looking in Stuyvesant Heights, then Stuvesant Heights Brokerage owner Charles Atwell may have the home or apartment for you.  If you know someone who’s moved in, and you’re shopping for a house-warming gift, a gift in general (either for yourself or someone special), then Zawadi Gift Shop on Atlantic Avenue, or 4W Circle on Fulton Street, have all the cards, gifts, memorabilia, dolls, earrings, jewelry, crafts, etc. that you can ever need.

When it comes to computers, you can buy them or fix them by shopping in Our Time Press.  The Ivey League has good deals on computer systems, and Leon The Computer Doctor makes house calls when you feel your machine is just flirting with disaster, or falls head over heels and crashes.  (Of course everyone does regular backups so a crash is just a momentary glitch, right?)  Leon can also upgrade your system, and let it know you care.
When you hear a variation of the following phrases, “it’s a steal at $150,000”   “You have the right to remain silent.”  “You are directed to appear…”,  “In 30 days you will vacate…” you know your life is about to change and you need a lawyer.  Cheryl ‘Ife Griffin is a community attorney you can call for your general legal concerns.  Sultana Ali is a para-legal offering rates on divorces and name changes.  (Sultana called to say the ad is really working well for her.  It made us go….Hmmmm.)  For immigration concerns, and mal-practice, David Scheinfeld’s the man.  His office is a virtual United Nations of lawyers, para-legals, etc.

Some people in our community are doing incredibly interesting work that often gets overlookedCthey are flying under the radar, quietly making moves.  Here are five people who I predict are going to do great things in 2001.
Anjeanette Allen is the New York State director of the NAACP National Voter Fund.  The NVF is a new NAACP division that can get more directly involved in voter registration and education.  Last November, Angie directed a massive effort to boost voter turnout in Central Brooklyn.  She did an incredible job, and was rewarded with the directorship of the new office.  Watch for big things from this group in the 2001 citywide elections. (718-398-7535)
For the last few years, Fort Greene architect Norris McLeod and a few other young brothers have been building Design + Development Group, a one-stop design and real estate development company based in Long Island City.  Look for DDG to play a key role in developing and/or acquiring buildings and lots around Central Brooklyn this year.  (718-729-7696).
Greg Branch, a documentary producer, used to work for Ed Bradley at 60 Minutes.  He and another TV news producer, Claudia Pryor, walked away from their salaries and perks to set up their own shop in Fort Greene, called Network Refugees, with a mission of making in-depth, network-quality documentaries from an Afrocentric perspective.  They=ve been filming in Crown Heights housing projects and African villages and have amazing footage that, hopefully, will end up on your TV set someday soon.
While attending Harlem=s Abyssinian Baptist Church over the last few years, I had the pleasure of hearing Brooklyn=s own Clinton Miller preach from time to time while he served as youth minister under Rev. Calvin O. Butts.  Rev. Miller has come home to Brooklyn, where he was recently named pastor of the Brown Memorial Church.  Look for Rev. Miller to emerge as an important local leader in the days ahead.
Ishal Shabaka recently opened Idefine Gallery, at 561 Myrtle Avenue between Classon and Emerson (718-636-4291).  Shabaka, a well-known local artist, is the bro. who designed the iron work at the Park Place station of the Franklin Shuttle, which takes the shape of African masks.  The new gallery has work from a range of local artists, and will serve as an exhibition space.

Crown Heights School Crisis
In professional sports, athletes who can=t perform at a professional level get cut from the team.  In the legendary jazz bands of the 1930s and 40s, a player who didn=t know the tunes would show up for work one night and find another musicianChis replacementCsitting in his chair on stage.  Corporations are well known for sacking whole crews of executives when a division doesn=t turn a profit.  Even scholars like Cornel West and Adolph Reed regularly square off against each other in debates and literary duels.
The competition can be brutal, but it definitely has an upside.  A determination to be the best is how the Chicago Bulls kept winning championships; it=s how the Count Basie Band made magic for so many years.  We may not like to think about it, but champion performers like Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Miles Davis and Venus Williams have always been the product of fierce, rough competition and intense rivalries.  
Sympathy for the losers in these competitions is understood to be, shall we say, somewhat limited.  (In the course of his  career, Muhammad Ali won 56 bouts, 37 by knockout. Does anybody remember the names of more than a few of the three dozen men that The Greatest left in a bloody, twitching heap over the years?)
When it comes to the education of our children, for some reason, a different kind of logic often seems to be at work.  The newspapers recently reported that the Schools Chancellor wants to turn over five of the city=s lowest performing schools to the Edison Company, a private educational management firmCa fairly drastic step.  In the course of justifying the plan, the papers reported that grades at I.S. 320 in Crown Heights were so bad that less than 4% of the students were at or above grade level in mathematics.  Think about it: more than 96% of the kids are behind in math, and they haven=t even reached high school yet.
When 9.6 out of 10 students haven=t learned their required lessons, it means, for all intents and purposes, that nobody in the school is learning.  I assume that most parents in Crown Heights have drawn the proper conclusions from this startling information, and will vote to dismiss the current leadership and bring in the Edison folks to run the school.
But two questions come up.  First of all: why do we tolerate poor performance from public schools for years and years, until this kind of educational disaster is revealed?  A car factory would be shut down within hours if 96% of the cars off the assembly line on any given day weren=t working properly.  A basketball coach would be fired long before the team lost 96% of its games. When we see poor performance in our schools, the response should be swift and decisive: heads should roll.  It may not be pretty, but since when does excellence come easy?

The second question is: why not link up public schools with local universities?  I.S. 320 sits directly across the street from Medgar Evers CollegeCwhy not find a way to connect up the students and faculty from both institutions?  The same goes for Pratt Institute, where I teach.  We=re right down the street from P.S. 270, which consistently comes up on the lists of low-performing schools.  It shouldn=t be too hard to create a program that would recruit college professors and college students to work with elementary school teachers with the goal of providing a better learning experience for the kids.  Anybody interested in talking more about this kind of project can contact me at 718-467-1100.