From the NABJ President

Greetings PABJ:

Congratulations on your 30th anniversary.This is truly a milestone - both for black journalists and our community in Philadelphia, and for black journalists and our communities across the country. Your chapter's legacy of service to its members and its community deserves every accolade and more.

As a native of Camden, N.J., the journalism that many of your members produced in the 1970s helped inspire me and many others like me to follow in your footsteps. I fondly remember, in particular, listening as a teenager to the hourly news reports from WDAS radio and depending on black journalists to keep our community abreast of the issues affecting our lives.

So it was a great honor years later for me to not only work at the Philadelphia Inquirer as a reporter for more than six years, but to also join the PABJ during that time. Much of what I learned while with the chapter I am now working to help share with other chapters nationwide.

In 2005, NABJ will celebrate its own 30th anniversary. NABJ owes much to PABJ, not only for helping to create it in 1975, but for also grooming its future leaders. No less than five of our 15 national presidents - Chuck Stone, Arthur Fennell, Vanessa Williams, Will Sutton and myself - have either led or belonged to PABJ. So, too, have many other members of our national board of directors, including now NABJ Secretary Sarah Glover and Parliamentarian Melanie Burney.

Congratulations, again, PABJ. Keep up the great work. Continue to inspire.

Sincerely,
Herbert Lowe
NABJ President

BACK TO 30TH ANNIVERSARY PAGE