the-washington-informer-june-25-2015

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This Month’s Edition of “The Bridge” Inside

I N S I D E

VOL. 1, NO. 5

JUNE 2015

I N S I D E

MOVING TO THE BEAT OF OUR OWN DRUM

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Update on South Carolina Tragedy, Pg. 5

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Black Theatre Festival Back in D.C. , Pg. 28

Vol. 50, No. 37 June 25 - July 1, 2015

Informer’s Senior Editor Succumbs to Illness, Pg 4

Washington Informer Publisher Denise Rolark Barnes greeted by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), at the 75th Annual Meeting of the National Newspaper Publishers Association where she was elected to serve as chairman on Friday, June 19. /Photo by Shevry Lassiter

NNPA Celebrates 75th Year Informer’s Rolark Barnes Elected as Chairman By D. Kevin McNeir WI Managing Editor The black press boasts a long and colorful history and has weathered a host of storms since 1827 when “Freedom’s Journal” became the country’s first black-owned newspaper. And last week in Motown, the 205 owners of America’s black newspapers, members of an elite group now known as the National Newspaper Publishers Association [NNPA], celebrated the organization’s 75th anniversary. This year’s theme: Empowering a New Generation of Leadership. During the five-day annual event (June 16-20), the NNPA, under the direction of Chairman Cloves C. Campbell, Jr. and their president and CEO, the Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., hosted training sessions, honored two black members of Congress, presented awards in various categories to member newspapers and chose a new slate of officers who will lead the organization for the next two years.

Second-generation publisher Denise Rolark Barnes, who took over the Washington Informer following the death of its founder, also her father, Dr. Calvin Rolark, got the nod from her colleagues to lead the NNPA as its newest chairman. The D.C.-based publication recently celebrated its 50th anniversary at a gala event in Northwest. Rolark Barnes, accomplishing something that her father was unable to do, has the unique position of leading a mostly-female executive committee. The other elected officers include: Karen Carter Richards, Houston Forward Times, first vice chair; Francis Page, Jr., Houston Style Magazine, second vice chair; Janis Ware, Atlanta Voice, treasurer; and Shannon Williams, Indianapolis Recorder, secretary. Other officers elected at the close of the convention included: Thomas H. Watkins, Jr., New York Daily Challenge, region 1 president; Ernie Pitt, Winston Salem Chronicle, region 2

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Attorney General Lynch is sworn in by Associate Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor as President Barack Obama looks on. (Freddie Allen/NNPA News Wire

Lynch’s AG Installation Overshadowed by Charleston Tragedy By Freddie Allen NNPA Senior Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON – On same day that Loretta Lynch was sworn-= in as the 83rd attorney general of the United States with a Bible that belonged to Frederick Douglass, nine church members were shot to death as they studied the Bible at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, the oldest A.M.E. church in the South. The next day, Lynch announced that the Justice De-

partment would investigate the mass murder as a hate crime. She vowed that the person who was responsible for the “unspeakable acts” would be found and would face justice. “As we move forward, my thoughts and prayers – and those of our entire law enforcement community, here at the Department of Justice and around the country – are with the families and loved ones of the victims in Charleston,” said Lynch. “Even as we struggle to comprehend this heartbreaking event, I want everyone in Charleston – and everyone who has been affected by

this tragedy – to know that we will do everything in our power to help heal this community and make it whole again.” The confessed perpetrator, Dylan Roof, 21, was apprehended in Shelby, North Carolina, shortly after Lynch made her statement. Multiple news outlets reported that he admitted to planning the attack and that he almost didn’t go through with it because the church members were so nice to him. During Lynch’s investiture ceremony, President Barak

Celebrating 50 Years of Service / Serving More Than 50,000 African American Readers Throughout The Metropolitan Area

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