CLAUDE LEWIS

I was working at the Evening Bulletin. I was associate editor and columnist.

As I recall, the very first meeting was held with Acel (Moore) and Chuck Stone and me. There probably were one or two others. The meeting was brief and we considered it bold back then. An association of BLACK journalists? Wow.

When we met with several others, there was one guy, Tom Johnson, who refused to join. Tom, a good friend of mine, now ill, said he could not join an association with the name "Black" in it because his editors would not like it. Eventually, Tom changed his mind and joined us. He was at the New York Times back then.

We were generally excluded from most journalism organizations and decided to form our own. After the initial Philadelphia meetings, we met in D.C. and the organization grew quickly. I believe there are more than 3,500 members today.

Claude Lewis was unable to attend the 30th anniversary celebration on Nov. 19, 2003. Bad weather at the end of a trip to Las Vegas delayed the departure of his plane.

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