Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 2 April 2009 — Page 33

The Muncie Times • April 2,. 2009 • Page 31

News Briefs

continued from page 29 ence and wisdom will be missed by me and so many others that he influenced in his journalistic and activistinspired leadership.” NNPA Chairman John B. Smith Sr., who has known Tatum more than 30 years, describes him as “a true and stellar newspaperman, who personified fairness, justice and determination to better the 'beloved community ... He made certain, throughout his four decades at his publication, to [write] truth-to-power editorials to advance the African American Diaspora, in particular, and the nation and world, overall.” Tatum, highly esteemed as a businessman as well as a publisher and civil rights leader, gained respect from every facet of society and across political lines. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a former Democratic U.S. senator from New York, said, “Bill was a dear friend, an inspiration, and a leader among journalists and indeed throughout his community. As the longtime publisher of the Amsterdam News, New fork City’s oldest African American newspaper, and former deputy bprough president of It** 1 * * * f ...% *****»*'**•*.'• * *

Manhattan, Bill’s leadership and advocacy on behalf of civil rights, his community, and journalistic integrity is an inspiration to all of us.” Republican Mayor Michael Bloomburg, with whom Tatum frequently sparred, saluted him in a heartfelt statement upon his death. “It’s a big loss for a paper that has been influencing and reflecting city politics for over 100 years now,” said Bloomberg. “Bill helped build the company into a major employer in Harlem, but the paper’s voice really was heard across the city and, on many occasions, around the world. He covered issues of concern to African Americans in ways that other media outlets.did not and he gave many young writers r opportunities they might not otherwise have had.” From politicians to civil rights activists, Tatum carried major influence. New York Action Network President A1 Sharpton described Tatum as “an iconic and vitally important figure in both journalism and c ivil rights. I firSt met him when I was a teenager involved in civil rights work in New York and have known hmi^oyer 30

years,” he said. “His courage, his tenacity, his sagacity and his advocacy are unparalleled in African American journalism. We have lost a great advocate, a penetrating writer, an unmatchable institution builder, and for me, a great friend and father figure.” The Amsterdam News was founded in 1909 as a black-owned and operated institution. In 1996, Wilbert Tatum bought out the last remaining investor. Though he stepped down as publisher, he continued serving as the publication’s publisher emeritus, CEO and chairman of the board. Tatum was a journalist and businessman who began his career as a community activist more than half a century ago, as executive director of the Cooper Square Committee. Cooper Square served as a housing organization of the New York’s Lower East Side, which aimed. to stop the city’s Slum Clearance Committee, under the chairmanship of the legendary Robert Moses, from leveling housing for the poor in that area and replacing it with high-rise, highincome housing. In the effort to defeat the ^city’s £lan and replace k

with the Alternate Play for Cooper Square, Tatum came to the attention of then Congressman John Lindsay, who supported the plan during his first successful run to become New York City mayor. Shortly after his election, Lindsay set in motion the machinery that would designate=2 OCooper Square an urban renewal area and allocated the first city funds that began the implementation of the Alternate Plan. In the 1960s, the Amsterdam News, not yet owned by Tatum, had become the premier newspaper for the Civil Rights Movement and black nationalists movements. The paper gave a platform*10 the non-vio-lence, civil disobedience philosophy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and black nationalist teachings of Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. • Tatum, along with a group of businessmen, purchased • the Amsterdam News in 1971. Under the AmNews Corp. the paper was observed to have made a transformation to a more iioeral* viewpoint, until i9S-L when Tatum bought the Amsterdam News outright and became its publisher and editor. t ****•*» n •*« tr, « « «**«-<*»** ■*

Tatum had a brief stay in the mainstream media in 1993, when he was named publisher and editor of the New York Post amid the bankruptcy fight at the paper, as well as discrimination allegations at both the Post and New York Daily News. Both publications had no reporters of color on their city desks and no minority editorial managers. Under Tatum's guidance, the Amsterdam News continued to publish, amid the disappearance Y other black newspapers across the country. He took the paper back to what had been described as a “more militant and progressive position.” Under , the leadership of his daughter. Elinor, the paper continues to be a venue for the issues, concerns and voices of the African American community. =E 2With Mr. Tatum's passing, we lose not only a wise and scholarly elder, but also a vanguard, says Marquez Claxton, a co-founder of the 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Caa " who cultivated: a solid and irreplaceable institution in the form of the continued on page 3|2 * -* « * « a • « « • «. « * « * ****** * «