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Tom Joyner Among NABJ Hall of Fame Inductees

Tom Joyner, Garry D. Howard, Bob Black, Wanda Lloyd and WaPo Metro Seven to be Inducted

NABJ Unveils its 2019 Hall of Fame Inductees as
Annual Convention Approaches
 
Tom Joyner, Garry D. Howard, Bob Black, Wanda Lloyd and WaPo Metro Seven
to be Inducted

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 5, 2019) – The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) unveiled today the names of its 2019 class of Hall of Fame inductees. Every year, NABJ pays homage to legendary black journalists who have made outstanding contributions to the industry over the span of their careers and beyond.

Bob Black, Garry D. Howard, “The Fly Jock” Tom Joyner, Wanda Lloyd and the members of the Washington Post Metro Seven will be inducted at the Hall of Fame Luncheon during NABJ’s National Convention & Career Fair in Miami on Friday, Aug.9, 2019, at the JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort & Spa – Aventura. Tickets can be purchased here.

“This year’s Hall of Fame inductees have made significant contributions to not only their respective fields within the journalism community but also in the black community worldwide,” said NABJ President Sarah Glover. “They have blazed trails and opened doors that have helped black journalists who have come after them to thrive and survive in the industry.”

The inductees and an abbreviated overview of their accomplishments are listed in alphabetical order below.
 
Bob Black

Bob Black is a distinguished photojournalist who started his career in 1965 at the Chicago Daily Defender as a staff photographer and in 1968, Black became the first African American photographer at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he remained for 38 years until his retirement in 2006.

Black is known for his work capturing key historical moments such as the aftermath of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. Black, one of the founders of the NABJ Visual Task Force and a mentor to many NABJ college students, is also a founding member of the Chicago Alliance of African American Photographers. He has been the recipient of numerous awards including collecting first place at the World Press Photo Competition.

“It is with deep humility and gratitude that I thank NABJ for this honor. I will always cherish this experience forever,” said Black. “To be recognized by your peers is one of the highest honorsone can receive, there are no words to express how I feel. I thank you NABJ from the bottom of my heart.”
Garry D. Howard

In the early 1980s, Howard began his journalism career at the Trenton Times as a Sports Reporter but, with several promotions, would move quickly into the sports news leadership ranks becoming executive sports editor at the Milwaukee Journal in 1994. His role at the Journal made him the only African American sports editor at a major metropolitan daily at that time. Howard is a past president of the Associated Press Sports Editors and was the first African American to hold that position in the 45-year history of the organization.

In 2009, he received the NABJ Sports Task Force Sam Lacy Pioneer Award and served as president of the NABJ Sports Task Force from 1999-2001. Howard was named director of Corporate Initiatives at American City Business Journals in April of 2014, after serving as editor in chief of The Sporting News for three years. He now serves on the Dow Jones News Fund Board and multiple journalism school boards. He was also inducted into the Milwaukee Press Club Hall of Fame.

“It’s a phone call from the president of the National Association of Black Journalists that brings tears to your eyes... After working tirelessly for over 35 years as a journalist, it is a thrill to be inducted into the NABJ Hall of Fame,” Howard said.
“The Fly Jock” Tom Joyner

Legendary radio personality, entrepreneur and philanthropist Tom Joyner rose from a morning drive time position at KKDA in Dallas in the mid-1980s to being one of the most recognized media icons of today. The host of the nationally syndicated radio program “The Tom Joyner Morning Show,” Joyner empowers, educates and entertains while reaching more than 10 million people via radio, the internet and social media. Joyner serves as one of this year’s honorary chairs of the NABJ Convention & Career Fair.

Joyner has led many national awareness campaigns on voter registration laws, family/health initiatives and minority discrimination and created The Tom Joyner Foundation, 22 years ago, to help keep students in historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Joyner’s foundation has raised more than $65 million and assisted more than 29,000 students. He proudly holds honorary degrees from every HBCU in the continental U.S. and U.S. Virgin Islands. He was presented with a Radio Hall of Fame Award, NAACP Image Award and Impact Magazine’s Joe Loris Award for Excellence in Broadcasting.

“Thank you, NABJ. I'm so honored to join so many of these legendary members of the Hall of Fame. You know for more than 25 years, I've done my best to party with a purpose. And the Tom Joyner Morning Show has been a big part of how I've tried to make sure we tell stories for and about black people in this country. NABJ has always been there with me to ‘fight the power’ to lift and support the roles of journalists at a time when we need to make sure our voices are heard."
Wanda Lloyd

Wanda Lloyd has worked as an editor at seven daily newspapers, including The Washington Post and USA Today, over her four-decade career. She retired from daily journalism in 2013 as executive editor of the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, a Gannett newspaper. Lloyd has served as associate professor and chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at Savannah State University and is the author of the upcoming memoir “Coming Full Circle: Jim Crow to Journalism,” to be published in early 2020.

Lloyd was the founding executive director of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University, which trained people of color seeking mid-career shifts into daily newspaper journalism careers. As a long-time member of NABJ, she directed the organization’s landmark study “Muted Voices: Frustration and Fear in the Newsroom,” a survey of black journalists and newsroom managers. In 2007, she was inducted into NABJ’s Region III Hall of Fame. Lloyd is a former director of the American Society of NewsEditors and her honors include the NABJ Ida B. Wells Award and Robert G. McGruder Award – both for media diversity.

“There is no bigger and no better honor than to be recognized by one’s peers,” said LIoyd. “I was more than thrilled when I learned I was selected to be inducted into the NABJ Hall of Fame.”
The Washington Post
Metro Seven

In 1972, seven African American journalists -- Ivan C. Brandon, LaBarbara A. Bowman, Leon Dash, Penny Mickelbury, Ronald A. Taylor, Richard Prince and the late Michael B. Hodge, who died in 2017 – took a stand against alleged discrimination while working at The Washington Post. They filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which alleged that the paper was “denying black employees an equal opportunity with respect to job assignments, promotional opportunities, including promotions to management positions and other terms and conditions of employment,” according to writer Steven Gray in the NABJ Journal.

The group of journalists was heralded as the first in U.S. history to file this form of a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Known as the Metro Seven, the group inspired other co-workers, including women employed at the paper, and journalists worldwide that would come after them to advocate for their own right to equal treatment in hiring, promotion and compensation practices.

During a press conference in 1972, Metro Seven member LaBarbara A. Bowman, a past recipient of the NABJ Ida B. Wells Award, stated, “the complaint to the EEOC represents our belief that this discrimination cannot continue to exist at a publication in a city that is 71.1 percent black…. (the complaint) came after very much thought, very much consideration. We’re very sorry we had to take this step. There is no alternative.” Since the activism of the Metro Seven, the Washington Post has been considered to have made many advancements in the areas of diversity and inclusion.

"The principles we fought for in the Metro Seven have guided my entire professional life. Thank you, NABJ,” said Richard Prince, also a past NABJ Ida B. Wells Award recipient and author of the "Journal-isms" column.

Leon Dash, a founder of NABJ andPulitzer Prize-winning author, added, “It is truly an honor to be inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists’ Hall of Fame with the other members of the Metro Seven.”

The Hall of Fame Luncheon is powered by AARP.
 

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Media Contact:
Kanya Stewart
Director of Communications
kstewart@nabj.org
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