After Trump At NABJ, Black Journalists Are Divided. Where Do We Go From Here?

I’ve now been suspended mid-air during two pivotal moments in American history. First, I was landing in Miami for a post New-Year beach escape when a mob of pro-Trump vigilantes stormed the capital during the January 6th insurrection in 2021. I still remember the look of sheer panic and confusion on the faces of other flight passengers when we touched down on the tarmac, and our group chats lit up with news of a domestic attack on our democracy. 

The second time I was on a plane as history unfolded was just last week, as I descended into the greater Chicago area over the fresh, sparkling, blue waters of Lake Michigan, beaming with excitement for my very first National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) conference. Donald Trump, now the 2024 presidential Republican nominee, was at the center of a firestorm once again, this time for taking the stage in front of an audience of Black journalists to, among other unsurprisingly racist remarks, discredit the ethnic background of the first Black, female Vice President and Democratic Presidential candidate, Kamala Harris.

Trump’s presence, and his unhinged probe at Harris’s Jamaican and Indian heritage, unleashed a slew of outrage aimed at the almost 50-year-old organization, as both NABJ members and former political spokespersons disparaged the move to feature the Republican candidate at the conference on social media.

“The reports of attacks on Black women White House correspondents by the then president of the United States are not myth or conjecture, but fact,” April Ryan, veteran White House correspondent wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “To have a presumed orchestrated session with the former president is an affront to what this organization stands for and a slap in the face to the Black women journalists … who had to protect themselves from the wrath of this Republican presidential nominee who is promoting an authoritarian agenda.”

Trump notably told Ryan to “sit down” when he didn’t like her line of questioning about voter suppression during a 2018 midterm-election White House presser. Moments later, Trump riffed about the media being “hostile.”

The fallout from Trump’s NABJ appearance reportedly sparked a flurry of death threats targeting ABC News reporter Rachel Scott, who co-moderated the discussion, thus, underscoring Ryan’s point about Trump’s invitation to speak at NABJ as a move that put already vulnerable Black female journalists at increased risk of harm. 

Karen Attiah, a columnist for The Washington Post, was slated to be co-chair of the moderated discussion with Trump, but stepped down the night before his appearance. She said in an opinion piece for WaPo that ​​she “could not be part of the production and promotion of performative, journalistic charades that degrade our communities, and further undermine trust in our profession.”

On the other side of the fence, journalists like Symone Sanders, who formerly served as Kamala Harris’ spokesperson, supported the NABJ’s decision to host Trump, writing on X that “some of the best journalists in the country are members of the NABJ ... .so why wouldn’t they interview Trump?” 

“He is the Republican nominee. Seems like the journalists complaining don’t understand their jobs are to actually ask the questions,” Sanders continued. “NABJ didn’t platform Trump. The voters in the Republican primary did.”

34-year NABJ member Eric Deggans, who wrote an analysis piece for NPR about Trump’s visit, said he didn’t see Trump’s invitation as a problem, writing, “the group has invited the major party candidates for president to its national conferences for many years to platform questions on issues involving people of color.” but he wrote that he “objected” to seeing an anchor from a “right-leaning cable channel Fox News” share the stage, and worried about the “optics” of seeing the candidate, who has a reputation for verbally attacking Black journalists, platformed. 

In a piece for Poytner, former NABJ president Herbert Lowe called the backlash against the NABJ “astounding” and “disappointing,” and he agreed with journalist Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post’s assessment that, “No other single interview or media encounter with Trump in this cycle has laid bare as much about the candidate or opened him up to as much criticism.”

A pre-appearance press release from NABJ stated that Harris was also invited to speak, and mentioned former presidents, including George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton, have attended the conference in the past either as presidents or candidates. 

In the early hours of July 31st, NABJ president Ken Lemon explained that the organization was “in talks with both the Democratic and Republican parties since January,” and shot around ideas for VP Harris to be on a NABJ panel before President Biden dropped out of the presidential race in July. Ultimately, NABJ was told Harris’ new campaign schedule couldn’t accommodate the visit. Lemon said while “we acknowledge the concerns expressed by our members, we believe it is important for us to provide our members with the opportunity to hear directly from candidates and hold them accountable.”

As Americans wade through tidal wave after tidal wave of unprecedented times, it is the clarion call of Black journalists to wave the torch of truth against a dark storm of propaganda. Traditionally, inviting both candidates to speak during an election year is a part of heeding that call, but Trump is not a traditional candidate (after all, he is the first former US president to be a convicted felon), and the media has visibly struggled with how to handle him during the course of his political tenure. Just moments before Trump was set to take the stage at NABJ, he refused to comply with fact-checking measures, Axios reported, which delayed the talk by almost an hour. Lemon told the outlet he was prepared to make a statement to the crowd about why Trump would no longer appear on the panel, but then Trump walked on stage. 

The former president was greeted by a crowd of 2,000 with sparse cheers amid weighty silence, which could be felt viscerally, even through the livestream. The tense vibe continued, as Trump quickly shot back at Scott, telling her that her opening question about why the Black community should trust him was asked in “such a horrible manner,” and he accused ABC of being a “fake news network.” The audience audibly responded with moans of uproar. How do you play by the rules with a candidate who is so diabolically opposed to order, process, and decorum? NABJ tried to figure that out in real time, and they have the bruises of backlash to show for it.

I have admittedly wobbled between opinions as I’ve meandered through social threads and conversations with my professional peers. Yes, the history of inviting candidates and former presidents preceded this catastrophe, but there are moments in history that call for new stories to be written. Nothing Trump said on the NABJ stage elevated or informed anyone in America. As a matter of fact, it reopened generational wounds inflicted on bi-racial Black and Brown folks, who, like Kamala, have been challenged by racists peers about the validity of their very existence. Trump’s appearance didn’t allow for pressing policy conversations concerning Black Americans to be addressed, no, it was a bullying session that put a Black woman journalist at risk just for doing her Black job. Trump took the stage for the sole benefit of the Trump show, another extension of his reality TV persona. As long as he’s in the public eye, even if it’s for notoriously cruel and racist behavior, he sees it as a win. So what did we win in the process? Intraracial chaos and confusion? It’s hard to not feel that was his plan all along.

I will close with this, it’s important to not allow a candidate who has built his platform on a mantle of dissension to drive a deeper wedge of distrust between Black press and the Black American public, especially in a time where we need each other more than ever. Black press’ influence can not be separated from history-defining 19th and 20th century Black cultural advancements. Some of the earliest Black media outlets, like Freedom’s Journal and Frederick Douglass’ NorthStar were established in the early 19th century and argued for the abolition of slavery and the political and social rights of Black folks. The Chicago Defender (established in 1905) played a pivotal role in “The Great Migration” as the popular newspapers’ coverage of the lives of Black people in the midwest triggered a mass movement of Black folks fleeing racial terrorism in the South.

Iconic Black writers, like Langston Hughes and Ida B. Wells, were contributors to the periodical at that time. And The Pittsburgh Courier was the originator of the “Double V” campaign in 1942, that argued for the rights of Black Americans domestically during World War II. The goal was to achieve victory over discrimination at home while securing military victory abroad. In 1968, it was Ebony Magazine that published Pulitzer-Prize winning photos of Coretta Scott King and her daughter at Martin Luther King’s funeral, And in 1955, it was Jet Magazine that published photos of Emmett Till after he was brutally lynched by a mob of white men In Mississippi, sparking nationwide outrage and a launching pad for the Civil Rights Movement. 

The Black press was birthed from the spirit of truth to protect Black Americans during times when our basic interests were most ignored and shunned, and I optimistically believe that spirit is still alive and active today as it was in the past. With NABJ’s mission to serve the people, and its members, that also comes with active listening, even if that means braving the fires of harsh critique. 

I suspect the conversation between NABJ, its members, and the Black community to be ongoing, a charge NABJ leadership must spearhead as we inch closer and closer to an election day where the futures of Black folks’ medical decisions, employment opportunities, and legal protections, are at stake. 

Despite the controversy, my first NABJ attendance, almost a decade into my career, was really a dream come true. There is no other singular environment that I have been privileged to be a part of that has felt more supportive of Black journalists and our work. My hope is that NABJ sees the fair feedback from its members as a call to re-evaluate, evolve, and offer solutions on how to repair some foundational cracks that chip away at the organization’s esteemed reputation. In an election year that threatens to rip us at the seams, the Black press in unity with the community we serve as journalists is the most radical choice we can make. 

Winning, for Black people, has always meant unity. It’s the power that brought us out of the darkness of the past, and it’s the force that keeps us reaching for a freer future, one where our lives more closely reflect the equal and inalienable rights we deserve. But that progress won’t happen if we allow Trump’s legacy of division to divide us further.