By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent
There is a cruelty in this country that resurfaces whenever Black people dare to remember. It arrives wearing new clothes, new laws, new politicians, new lies, but the intention never changes. It is always the erasure of our truth. And standing between that erasure and the grave is the Black Press of America.
This is the time of year when people speak of giving. Yet this is also the time when the Black Press—the only institution that has defended our humanity for nearly 200 years—is hanging by its fingertips. Employees have gone months without pay. DE&I has been gutted. Corporate America has vanished. And Trump and Project 2025 are openly advancing policies meant to bury our history and silence our future.
If there were ever a season to save what has saved us, this is it.
Two Centuries of Truth — And a Present Held Together by Faith
Dorothy Leavell, the legendary publisher of the Chicago Crusader, once reminded us that the Black Press was born because white newspapers in the 1800s distorted our very existence. She said Black newspapers rose to defend “the dignity, honor and character of Black people.” That fight has never ended. The enemies simply changed their vocabulary.
And today, nearly 200 years later—publishers like Brenda Andrews of The New Journal and Guide are still fighting with nothing but conviction and thin resources. Andrews did not speak in metaphors; she spoke in testimony. Keeping the Black Press alive, she once said, can feel like “making bricks without sand; tying shoes without strings; pulling yourself up by your bootstraps without boots.”
And yet she rises each morning, driven by a belief that the story of Black America must be told from the mouths of Black Americans, not rewritten by those who fear what the truth reveals.
There is a scripture-like power in Andrews’ words. The great James Baldwin would have heard her and nodded—because he knew that survival in this country has always required us to make something out of nothing, to build cathedrals from scraps, to speak truth in a land where truth is forbidden.
But even Baldwin knew, faith alone cannot pay a reporter. Faith alone cannot keep a newsroom warm. Faith alone cannot resist structural erasure.
This season demands more than faith. It demands action. It demands giving.
When Black Voices Are Under Attack, Funding Becomes a Form of Protest.
Famed civil rights attorney Ben Crump clearly warned: “They have declared war on Black literature, Black history, Black media… everything Black.”
They are banning books. They are rewriting textbooks. They are stripping DE&I out of government, universities, foundations, and corporations. They are legislating us into silence. If they can starve the tellers, the truth dies quietly. This is why giving today is not charity. It is resistance.
Roland Martin Is Right — And So Is the Black Press
Roland Martin has done more for Black media than most in the last 30 years. His call for donors to help him raise $1 million by month’s end is righteous, necessary, and well-earned. But here is the deeper truth: If one platform needs $1 million, imagine what a two-century-old institution—the Black Press of America—could do with that same level of love.
The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) represents more than 235 Black-owned newspapers, reaching over 20 million people daily and 22 million in print each week. And yet it struggles to pay staff who have not seen a paycheck in months.
The season of giving is upon us, and Black America is being asked, once again, to choose which fires to keep burning.
This year, we must keep all of them burning. But the Black Press is the oldest flame of all. Without it, none of the others exist.
Erasure Is a Policy Now — But So Is Memory
Trust in mainstream media has collapsed to historic lows—only 28 percent of Americans express confidence. Meanwhile, trust in the Black Press remains strong precisely because we have never had the luxury of pleasing power; we have only ever had the obligation of truth. But truth cannot operate without resources.
Truth cannot be published without paychecks. Truth cannot survive on nostalgia. Truth needs us. Now.
A Call to Give — Not Later, Not Eventually, but Today
If you are reading this, you have already benefited from the Black Press.
It fought for your grandparents.
It documented your victories.
It exposed injustices the mainstream ignored.
It preserved your heroes when America called them agitators.
It told your story before anyone else believed it mattered.
Now, it needs you. Go to http://www.BlackPressUSA.com and click DONATE.
Give $50 if you can.
Give more if you are able.
Give because giving is an act of remembrance.
Give because giving is an act of defiance.
Give because giving is an act of love for a people who have always had to fight for their place in the American story.
Give because the Black Press has carried you for two centuries.
And all it asks is not to be left behind in the season when generosity is celebrated everywhere except where it is most deserved.
