Two-Term Presidency: A Unique History
By Wayne Dawkins
In 2014, the National Association of Black Journalists membership voted 193-46 to revise its constitution. Among a handful of sweeping changes, for the first time, the president could serve a second, two-year term. Sarah Glover, elected in 2015, is NABJ’s first two-term president. Previously, the tradition for decades was presidents served one, two-year term then remained on the Board of Directors for two more years as ex officio voting members, providing institutional memory and continuity to incoming presidents. Condace Pressley – the 2001-2003 president – said she was the last ex officio member because of a previously amended constitution. The 2014 constitutional change that extended the presidency was decided by 20% of eligible members and passed with little-to-no rancor, which was unlike a previous, tumultuous attempt to change the rules during NABJ’s infancy. Charles Sumner “Chuck” Stone, Jr., a Philadelphia Daily News columnist, was elected president at the historic December 1975 meeting in Washington, D.C., where NABJ was founded. Back then, the constitution called for the president to serve a one-year term. The following summer in Houston, at the inaugural 1976 conference, Stone persuaded members to suspend the rules and allow him to serve an additional year, I reported in the seminal book “Black Journalists: The NABJ Story.” In 1977, the summer convention was in Baltimore, where attendance was triple the size of the intimate Houston gathering. Many conferees were 20-somethings, who resemble the new Millennial majority membership today. Those once young 1977 conferees are now Baby Boomer retirees, or soon-to-be. Stone, one of the rare, iconic elders of the association back in the day, once again asked the Board for a suspension of the rules so he could continue to lead the association that was essentially a toddler as far as maturity. DeWayne Wickham, a younger co-founder and lead host of the Baltimore gathering, balked. “Why have a constitution that prescribes a term office, but then we constantly suspend the rules?” he explained in “The NABJ Story.” Joe Davidson, another co-founder who at that time was regional director for the Northeast area, where Stone was based, said the debate between Stone and Wickham became intense. When the tense Board meeting ended, the officers went to their respective regional caucuses and then reconvened to vote whether to suspend or follow the rules. The Philadelphia delegation — Stone’s region and probably the largest caucus — overwhelmingly voted to follow the association constitution. “Instead of suspending the rules again, NABJ implemented a single twoyear term for president and elected Vernon Jarrett its second chief executive,” said Wickham, who is now dean of the Morgan State University School of Global Journalism and Communication. Morgan established the Jarrett Medal for journalistic excellence in honor of the late co-founder and Chicago journalist. JOURNAL | SUMMER/FALL 2019
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