July 2006

George E. Curry Continues To Be One Of The Great Voices In Black America

I think that George E. Curry is one of the great “voices” in journalism and in black America. If you have not heard of him or read his work, here is your opportunity.

I became aware of George’s work about 18 years ago. I read one of his newspaper articles in the late 1980’s and was drawn to his “tell it like it is” style of writing. George E. Curry was named “Journalist of the Year” by the National Association of Black Journalists in 2003 and is listed by the organization as one of the most influential Black journalists of the 20th Century. He was president of the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME), the first African-American to hold the group’s top position. Curry has been in journalism for 36 years, starting as a reporter for Sports Illustrated, working as a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, as a Washington correspondent and New York Bureau Chief for the Chicago Tribune, Editor-in-Chief of Emerge: Black America’s Newsmagazineand now as a syndicated columnist and Editor-in-Chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) News Service. He is frequently in demand as a public speaker and appears frequently as a commentator on radio and TV.

Last week George Curry and I met in downtown Washington, D.C. In addition to having a great time, I walked away with some additional “life lessons.” In fact, I seem to always get one of those “a-ha or light bulb” moments after talking with George. One of the great things about George is that he is willing to share his vast knowledge and experience with folks who are willing to listen and take action.

Here is my exclusive interview with George E. Curry.

George E. Curry: A Voice That Needs To Be Heard

BMIA: First of all, George, thank you for taking the time to participate in this interview. How important has education been in your life?

GEC: Thank you for this opportunity. Education is and has always been the passport out of poverty. That was true when I was growing up in segregated Tuscaloosa, Ala. and that’s true today. More than any other factor, education determines what kind of life you, your children and grandchildren will have. In addition, it provides broad knowledge that is so necessary in everyday life.

BMIA: Tell us about your background.

GEC: As I mentioned, I grew up in Tuscaloosa, Ala., the oldest of four children and the only son. My mother did domestic work and my stepfather drove a dump truck at the University of Alabama during a period when African-Americans were not allowed to enroll. Neither of my parents completed high school, but they emphasized the importance of getting a sound education. Even growing up in public housing, we had subscriptions to The Tuscaloosa News, the local daily, and the Pittsburgh Courier, the Black newspaper that opened up a whole new world for me. I learned so much about Black history and Black accomplishments from the Pittsburgh Courier.

BMIA: That’s a great testimony to the importance of black newspapers in our communities. Do you have any other strong childhood memories?

GEC: Yes, I mentioned my mother doing domestic work. When she returned home from work, she had to ride in the back seat of the car. That angered me and it angers me to this day. As a boy and I told my three sisters, “They better enjoy this one because the only time any of us are going to be in anyone’s back seat is when we are being chauffeured.” Racism can cause you to react two ways: it can crush you or it can serve as a motivator. It motivated me. It made me more determined to succeed.

BMIA: How did you get into the newspaper business?

GEC: I’ve known since the 8th grade that I wanted to become a journalist.

BMIA: Since the 8th grade?

GEC: Yes. At the time, I had never met a Black journalist and the only way African-Americans appeared in the local newspaper was if they were athletes, entertainers or suspected of committing a crime. I knew there were many more stories in our community and I wanted to tell them. Ironically, I could and did get a job directly out of Knoxville College as a reporter for Sports Illustrated, the largest sports magazine in the world, but couldn’t get a job with my hometown newspaper. Looking back, they probably did me a favor. I should send them a thank-you note.

BMIA: What prompted you to become editor of EMERGE magazine?

GEC: That was in 1993 and by then I had worked at Sports Illustrated, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and for the Chicago Tribune, both as a Washington correspondent and as the New York bureau chief. When Bob Johnson, CEO of Black Entertainment Television (BET), offered me the job as editor-in-chief, I jumped at the opportunity. I felt I could draw on all of my past professional experience and develop Emerge into a true, cutting-edge, take-no-prisoners newsmagazine. And we did just that, winning more than 40 national journalism awards. It was the best job I’ve ever had.

When I took the job, my stepfather, William Polk, said, “George, you’re doing the opposite of what White people have done. They have usually raided the Black Press to hire reporters for White papers. But you have done the reverse, you’re taking Blacks from White papers and bringing them home.” I hadn’t really looked at it that way.

BMIA: How hard is it to operate and manage a print magazine?

GEC: Journalistically, it was no different from operating at any other place. The challenge was that because it was a monthly, there was always a struggle to remain timely. Most people don’t know this, but there is a three-month lead time in magazines. That means I had to look three months into the future and predict, as best I could, what the world would look like when that issue would be published. So we would time our Clarence Thomas stories, for example, to the opening session of the Supreme Court. Our Kemba Smith story was first published in May, when students were graduating. In fact, our first cover story on Kemba featured her in a cap and gown. It wasn’t always easy – sometimes we were good and at other times, we lucked out.

BMIA: What were the challenges that led to the demise of EMERGE magazine?

GEC: How much time do you have? Where shall I begin? Let me begin by stating that for the seven years that I was editor of Emerge, Bob Johnson and Debra Lee, the publisher, granted me complete freedom to run the magazine as I saw fit. As you know, we were pretty controversial. We ran Clarence Thomas on the cover with an Aunt Jemima-style handkerchief on his head and depicted affirmative action foe Ward Connerly as a puppet, replete with the strings. At no point did Bob or Deb say, “Tone it down” or ask me to go easy on anyone. I think it’s important to state that for the record.

Emerge was closed in the summer of 2000 to make way for Savoy magazine. Perhaps I shouldn’t say this, but I am going to say it anyway – Savoy was nothing but Ebony on steroids. It was a fluff magazine. At the time, Bob Johnson was in the process of selling BET to Viacom and essentially farmed out the company’s magazines to Keith Clinkscales, whose plan was to kill Emerge and start Savoy. What eventually happened was that Keith killed at least five Black magazines over a two-year period – Emerge, Heart & Soul, BET Weekend, Honey and a couple of others. That’s his legacy.

What irked me more than anything else was that Emerge was on the verge of making money; we were close to breaking even. In the magazine industry, it often takes a while to earn a profit, but once magazines turn the corner, they can earn millions every year. At the time they killed Emerge, our circulation was larger than the Nation, the New Republic and the Weekly Standard, all magazines that had been publishing longer than Emerge. But they had owners sensitive to how long it would take to make a profit and they were supported. We didn’t enjoy that support and, hence, the closing of Emerge.

BMIA: What was the most important lesson you learned when you were running EMERGE magazine?

GEC: A.J. Liebling, the famous media critic, said: “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.” My next step will be to own a media entity, not working for someone else. If I own it, I can determine its fate. I never want to go through the experience I went through with the shutdown of Emerge.

BMIA: I understand that EMERGE may be on its way back to the newsstands. Is this true?

GEC: Let me put it this way: I will not be happy until I own a news outlet and that may or may not be in the form of Emerge. I am determined to come back out with something that does not insult the intelligence of our people. That’s the most I wish to say about it at this point, but stay tuned.

BMIA: You’ve written three books. Although, they’re somewhat different, what do you want readers to learn or “get” from your work?

GEC: You’re right, all three are different. The first, written when I was 29-years-old, was about Jake Gaither, the legendary former football coach at Florida A&M University who won 85 percent of his games over 25 years and never had a losing season. The second was, “The Affirmative Action Debate” and the last one was, “The Best of Emerge Magazine.” I am at work on book #4, which I will discuss once I’ve finished writing it.

More than anything else, I want readers to appreciate the enormous contributions of African-Americans. I hear many African-Americans complain about Whites writing about Black history. Two of them --David Garrow and Taylor Branch – have won Pulitzer Prizes for books they wrote on the Civil Rights Movement. But if we don’t write our own history, we forfeit our right to complain.

BMIA: Who are some of the people that you admire?

GEC: Historically, W.E. DuBois is my all-time favorite. I also admire William Monroe Trotter, Paul Robeson and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. As an adult, Nelson Mandela is clearly in a class by himself. I am also a huge fan of Mary Frances Berry, the former chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

The people who influenced me the most growing up are not nationally-known: Robert L. Glynn, the head of McKenzie Court, my housing project in Tuscaloosa; Mr. Robert Wade and his family were considered the First Family of our housing projects and set some pretty high standards for all of us; my high school principal, McDonald Hughes, was legendary and influenced thousands of us; Mrs. Johnnie Giglio, my first-grade teacher; Mrs. Hazel Hackett, my homeroom teacher and high school guidance counselor; Mrs. Dorothy Smith or Miss Dot, as she is known, a neighbor who knew me before I knew myself; Henry Holbert, my high school football coach, and my football coach at Knoxville College, I.G. Brown. Dr. Robert Owens, the president of Knoxville College at the time, impacted me greatly. Of course, my mother and stepfather as well as my uncles and aunts had more influence on me than anyone.

BMIA: What role did they play in your personal and/or professional development?

GEC: Each of them, in his or her own way, gave me guidance, inspiration, encouragement and tenacity. Amid rigid segregation, they told us that we could excel and accomplish anything we desired. They didn’t place limitations on our dreams and made sure no one else did, either. Remember, I attended all-Black schools in Tuscaloosa. When the school system was finally desegregated, the down side of integration was that the best Black teachers were often assigned to the predominantly White schools and the worst White teachers were assigned to the Black schools. I am so blessed to have attended school under the care of loving, caring and demanding Black teachers.

BMIA: How do you define success?

GEC: I define success as what you do for others, not what you do for yourself. What have you done to impact and uplift the people who need it the most? That’s the test, that’s the yardstick.

BMIA: What has been your greatest success?

GEC: That’s an easy one. In 1977, I, along with my friends in the Greater St. Louis Association of Black Journalists, began a workshop for Black high school students. We held intense, daylong sessions for seven or eight consecutive Saturdays. With the help of local chapters of the National Association of Black Journalists, I started similar workshops in Washington, D.C. and New York. Overall, there are about 15 workshops, all of them still running, patterned after the St. Louis model.

Working with Northwestern University, I also taught in a special Washington-based program for students from historically Black colleges. Prior to that, I taught summers at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo. At different points, I have been able to read an Associated Press story by Bennie Currie or a Chicago Tribune story by his wife, Celeste Garrett, whom he met in the St. Louis program. I can turn on CBS-TV and see Russ Mitchell, one of my former students, or BET and see Jacqui Reed, another former student. If I travel to Nashville, I can stop by to see E.J. Mitchell, the editor of the Tennesseean. If I go to Columbus, Ga., Ben Holden is the top editor there. If I am in Orlando, Mark Russell is managing editor of the Orlando Sentinel. Another former student, Ann Scales, used to cover the White House for the Boston Globe. My former students have worked for the Wall Street Journal, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the New York Daily News, the Newark Star-Ledger, the Atlanta Constitution, the Philadelphia Inquirer, ESPN magazine, TV and radio stations and too many other places to name.

Of course, these students probably would have made it anyway, but I am delighted to have helped them along the way.

Even more satisfying than having my former students become my colleagues is that some of them started their own workshops. There is nothing more satisfying than that. Nothing. Not only did they appreciate what we had done for them when they were young, they understood that they have an obligation to train the next generation of Black journalists. It doesn’t get any better than that.

BMIA: Tell us about Black Press USA?

GEC: the official Web site of the NNPA, the National Newspaper Publishers Association. It is actually administered by the NNPA Foundation and contains stories published in our member newspapers.

BMIA: How many people do you “reach” through your various media outlets?

GEC: More than 15 million.

BMIA: What’s the state of Black journalism? Do we need more journalist of color in our community?

GEC: As I mentioned in my speech at the Millions More Movement, my fear is that Black-owned media is at risk of being taken over by White-owned companies. Look at what’s been happening to Black businesses in general. Motown Records was sold. Johnson Hair Products in Chicago was sold. BET was sold to Viacom. Essence was sold to Time, Inc. Black Voices.com is owned and operated by AOL, a Time-Warner subsidiary. Over the next 50 years, the U.S. population is expected to grow by 50 percent. During that period, the White segment of the population is expected to increase only by 7 percent. Shortly after the year 2050, Whites will be a minority in this country. So, there is nowhere else to expand except to purchase our valued Black institutions and businesses. To avoid that, some Black papers and broadcast outlets may need to merge in order to become stronger.

As for journalists, yes, we need greater and broader representation, but not representation simply for representation’s sake. It’s not enough to hire someone with a Black skin and a White mind. We should have learned that from the Clarence Thomas experience. We need journalists of color in these newsrooms who know that they bring different perspectives to the table and are not afraid of defending those perspectives. They must not be what Nathan Hare calls “Black Anglo-Saxons.”

BMIA: What role does journalism play in today’s political process?

GEC: Journalists should be watchdogs for the public. But too many of them have become lapdogs for those in power. Some are nothing more than glorified stenographers.

BMIA: Are Black journalists held to a higher standard? Should they be?

GEC: Not just Black journalists, generally most Blacks in all walks of life are held to a higher standard. Is it fair? No, but it is reality. What we must do, particularly with our young people, is to remind them that despite that double standard, they can still be successful. We don’t tell them that enough.

BMIA: How has the Internet changed life for Black folks?