By Jackie Hampton and Wiley Henry
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Although she received more than 500 local, state, and national honors for her extraordinary contributions to publishing, journalism, civil rights, education, and for her support of economic empowerment within Nashville’s African American business community, Rosetta (Irvin) Miller-Perry sought only to help others succeed in life.
Miller-Perry was smart, relentless and unwavering in her pursuit of excellence while reaching the pinnacle of success. She was a preeminent newspaper publisher, entrepreneur, business owner, advocate, and a warrior for justice. On Friday, June 26, she rested from her labor. She was 91.
Though hearts are heavy, Miller-Perry’s legacy endures. What she accomplished in her lifetime is etched into the annals of history.
Born in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, on July 7, 1934, to her parents Anderson Irvin and Mary Hall Irvin, Miller-Perry understood that her life would be dedicated to something greater than herself. The Spirit moved her to reach for the brass ring in life and to help aspirants along the way.
Her journey began in the classrooms of McKinley Elementary School, Coraopolis Junior High School, and Coraopolis Senior High School, where she graduated in 1952. She would later matriculate at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Herzl Community College in Chicago.
In 1955, Miller-Perry enlisted in the U.S. Navy. But she did not stop there. She went on to work at the Pentagon and for the Adjutant General’s Office in Germany.
In 1956, she graduated from the University of Memphis with a B.S. in chemistry, and in 1957 from the John A. Gumpton School of Mortuary Science with her D.M.S. In 1958, she attended Tennessee State University and Meharry Medical College for nurse training while working at Southern Funeral Home in Nashville.
While Miller-Perry was pursuing an education, the Civil Rights Movement was teetering on the edge of uncertainty. The Klan was on a warpath across the South and hellbent on maintaining the status quo. Shejoined the fight for justice in the fury that divided the nation, working in the trenches in Nashville alongside giants like Z. Alexander Looby, Reverend Kelly Miller Smith, Curley McGruder, and countless others who risked everything in their pursuit of justice.
Miller-Perry moved to Memphis and worked closely with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., serving first as a clerk typist for the U.S. Civil Rights Commission in 1960. She was a field representative and a trusted observer monitoring Civil Rights activities during the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike in 1968.
While the struggle for freedom was ongoing, Miller-Perry remained vigilant. The fight in her never waned. In 1975, she took a job as director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for the Nashville area and challenged an unjust system that discriminated against African Americans and other marginalized communities.
After retiring from government service, the entrepreneurial spirit in Miller-Perry tugged at her, and she answered the call. In 1990, using her own money, she and her husband, Dr. L.O.P. Perry, who was recognized as the first black gastroenterologist in Nashville, founded and launched Contempora, a Tennessee-focused African American magazine.
In 1991, Miller-Perry recognized a void in positive media coverage of the African American community, and The Tennessee Tribune was born. Miller-Perry poured all her resources into this new weekly newspaper to ensure that African Americans’ voices would no longer be silenced by neglect from mainstream media.
She refused to allow others to define the narrative. For more than 35 years, Miller-Perry built a media empire without shrinking from her vision and provided a vehicle for others to tell their stories. She also gave young journalists opportunities to work under her tutelage when the doors at white newspapers were seldom open for upstarts.
As a member of The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), the largest and most influential Black-owned media resource in America, Miller-Perry served several terms on the Board of Directors of the association and the NNPA Fund.
NNPA President/CEO Dr. Ben Chavis stated, “The living legacy of Rosetta Miller-Perry is vital to the future sustainability and progress of the Black Press of America. As Queen Mother of the Black Press, Rosetta Perry exemplified the Black Press’s genius and conscious commitment to freedom, justice, and equality, as NNPA. We pledge to keep Rosetta’s memory alive as we approach the 200th Anniversary of the Black Press in 2027.”
For her work in media and community service, Miller-Perry received the NNPA Lifetime Achievement Award on January 25, 2019, during the NNPA Mid-Winter training conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.It was at that gathering that she earned the title of “Queen Mother of the Black Press.” Bobby Henry, a former chair of NNPA, recalls roasting her during this event. “I teased her about being a mortician and how she could do away with people who did not treat her right and nobody would ever know,” Henry said. “She smiled and gave me a look that said it was possible.”
“She had a good sense of humor, but along with all her business savvy, she was a loving, private woman. She had the genuine sweetness of your favorite aunt and the wisdom and sage of your gangster uncle. She was just a well-rounded person full of love and wisdom,” Henry stated.
Never one to rest on her laurels, Miller-Perry established the Greater Nashville Black Chamber of Commerce in 1998 and that same year created the Anthony J. Cebrun Journalism Center in partnership with Dell Computers to prepare young people for careers in journalism.
“She had a good sense of humor but along with all her business savvy, she was a loving, private woman. She had the genuine sweetness of your favorite aunt and the wisdom and sage of your gangster uncle. She was just a well-rounded person full of love and wisdom.”
Bobby Henry, a former chair of The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA),
Miller-Perry also founded the Nashville chapter of the Coalition of 100 Black Women, Les Gemmes, Inc., Nashville Chapter, and the National Council of Negro Women. She was also instrumental in building the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., meeting facility in Nashville and in countless initiatives dedicated to service and empowerment.
Even in her later years, Miller-Perry continued to climb the proverbial ladder of success. She was still making headway in journalism and business until an illness slowed her stride. Despite her health challenges and eventual transition, Miller-Perry lives on through her family, friends, business associates, and those she helped to succeed in their respective careers.
Calvin Anderson, president of the Tri-State Defender board of directors, said Miller-Perry was a highly respected publisher who cared deeply about her publication and the Black press overall.
“Rosetta collaborated with the Tri-State Defender and other NNPA publications to advance the Black press and inform its readers and subscribers,” said Anderson, who also counted her as a friend. “Her contributions will be lasting, and her friendship will be missed.”
Dr. John Warren, NNPA chairman and publisher of the San Diego Voice, called Miller-Perry’s passing “one of the great losses of our time and our century.”
“In every respect, she was the virtuous woman that Proverbs spoke about in the Bible. She was a woman who lived a life of service to the community, to government, the military, to business and to the people around her,” Warren added.
“She reminds me of the poet Samuel Longfellow, who said: ‘Lives of great ‘women’ remind us we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time.’”
Celebration-of-life services for Miller-Perry will be held on Friday and Saturday, July 10-11, in Nashville. Visitation will be at 4-6 p.m. Friday at First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill, 625 Rosa L. Parks Blvd. Nashville, TN. Viewing begins Saturday at 10 a.m., followed by the funeral at 11 a.m. at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, located at 2261 Murfreesboro Pike, Nashville, TN 37217. Lewis & Wright Funeral Directors has charge.
Jackie Hampton is publisher of The Mississippi Link newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi, and vice president of The National Newspaper Publishers Association.
Wiley Henry is a journalist, visual artist, and photographer, having worked as deputy editor and senior writer of the Tri-State Defender.
Based on reporting by Tri-State Defender.
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