President Lowe receives award on behalf of NABJ from National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial.

NABJ President Herbert Lowe and Urban League President and Chief Executive Officer Marc H. Morial announced the partnership on March 9, during an evening reception at the Urban League’s Wall Street headquarters in New York, where the Urban League honored NABJ and black journalists for their service to society. Some 150 leaders, members, supporters and staff of both NABJ and the Urban League joined Lowe and Morial at the reception.

Lowe said it is appropriate for two organizations with similar missions to combat the issue of adding more black journalists to America’s newsrooms and ensuring fair and accurate coverage of the black community.

The National Urban League's "State of Black America 2004 report: The Complexities of Black Progress," is available free-of-cost to NABJ members. Please contact the League's publications department by calling (212) 558-5316 or sending an e-mail to rjefferson@nul.org if you would like a copy. Additional copies are available for purchase via the same contacts.

"It makes sense for us to be working together because we’re both doing economic and social justice," Lowe said.

Morial, the former mayor of New Orleans, and the husband of Michelle Miller, a longtime NABJ member and TV news anchor, said the paucity of blacks in newsroom has long troubled him.

"Let there be no mistake," Morial said. "We have come a long way but we are losing ground in this area."

A 2003 survey by the American Society of Newspaper Editors – the most recent – found the number of black journalists working at U.S. daily newspapers increased from 5.29 in 2002 to 5.33 percent last year. In broadcast journalism, the news isn’t much better. A 2003 survey by the Radio and Television News Directors Association found that the number of blacks in television newsrooms dropped from 9.3 percent to 8.4 percent, while radio newsrooms saw a slight increase from 4.1 percent to 4.8.

Both presidents said more details about the partnership’s goals would come later.

But Morial presented Lowe with a Notable Achievement Award while recognizing the achievements of black journalists and their pivotal role in strengthening diversity in the newsroom, and commending Lowe and NABJ for upholding the standards of journalistic integrity. The award’s inscription praised NABJ “for serving as a beacon of hope and inspiration for youth and a source of pride to our community” and cleverly used NABJ’s initials to describe the goals of the association and its members:

Notable achievements in reporting on issues pertinent to the African-American community and to the nation;

Advocacy in promoting diversity and upward mobility in management;

Blazing trials and navigating obstacles in pursuit of balanced media coverage;
Journalistic integrity at the highest level.

-- By Errol Cockfield, chairman, NABJ’s Council of Presidents, and immediate past president, New York Association of Black Journalists