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April 2003 KCABJ Newsletter



President's Message

Anita Parran
Anita K. Parran


As we welcome spring, KCABJ is also on a new member/recruitment/retention mission. Each current member will be asked to serve as an ambassador for the organization and recruit just ONE NEW member for 2003. Past members will be asked to rejoin by sending in their application and dues of only $20 to KCABJ, P.O. Box 32744, Kansas City, Mo. 64111! We have new membership packets, and you will receive one accordingly -- so please help pass the word and help "up" our roster!

KCABJ is "on task" with the Strategic Planning Retreat objectives. Already, the organization has participated in its first two community events: the Candidate Election Forum, held on March 10 at the Hereford House. Thanks to immediate past President Benita Y. Williams for making this connection to our community! She contacted one of the event co-sponsors, and we joined with the Black Chamber, the Hispanic Chamber, SBC and the Convention & Visitors Bureau of Greater Kansas City. Mayoral and City Council candidates were presented to share their platforms on the issues. Our own treasurer/newsletter editor Lewis Diuguid partnered with Hispanic News Publisher Joe Arce to question the candidates.

The second community forum worth noting was KCABJ's involvement as a co-sponsor of a Privilege Conference at Johnson County Community College. The organization got great recognition at the tables during the luncheon of the all-day program and in the booklet that participants received.

Working with The Kansas City Star Newsroom Diversity Committee, KCABJ is co-sponsoring a community forum on Saturday, May 3 titled "Finding Common Ground: Advancing Race Relations in Kansas City." This event is part of the annual Time Out for Diversity Week. The program will be open and free to the community. The catalyst for the event was the "Mayor's Task Force on Bias Incidents/Hate Crimes," a report commissioned by Mayor Kay Barnes in 2002. Barnes, Kansas City Police Chief Rick Easley and Urban League President and CEO Gwen Grant are slated for the panel and will be joined by other community leaders. More details will appear on the KCABJ Web site as the date nears.

Be sure to spread the word about the KCABJ Urban Student Journalism Workshop at Rockhurst University! The deadline to apply is April 25, and we are asking all of you to encourage students to sign up! The dates of the program are June 16-27. Brochures/applications can be obtained by calling me at (816) 822-0588.

On another note, many of you and our colleagues in the business again will be tapped to participate in the workshop. I hope that when called, you will readily agree to help advance the journalism careers of our young people by sharing your expertise, experience and time!

--Anita K. Parran


KCABJ March Meeting Highlights

KCABJ members learned at the March meeting that the organization was successful in sponsoring two major events during the month. The Kansas City Association of Black Journalists was one of the sponsors of a Kansas City candidates forum with the Black Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce before the March 25 election.

More than 200 people attended to hear Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes and challenger Stanford Glazer as well as candidates and incumbents in the City Council races.

KCABJ also was among the sponsors of a Privilege Conference at Johnson County Community College. The presenters were Dr. Peggy McIntosh, associate director for the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, and Lewis Diuguid, treasurer of KCABJ. About 100 people took part in the all-day conference, including educators, high school and college students.

KCABJ is setting plans to co-sponsor a May 3 forum on race with The Kansas City Star Newsroom Diversity Committee. It will be titled, ``Finding Common Ground: Advancing Race Relations in Kansas City.'' It will be part of the newspaper's and KCABJ's ongoing participation in the nationwide Time Out for Diversity event. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Time-Out for Diversity and Accuracy. It generally runs from April 26 to May 2 and is sponsored by APME and the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

Possible panelists could be Mayor Kay Barnes, Urban League of Greater Kansas City President Gwen Grant and Kansas City Police Chief Rick Easley, Kansas City Star Editor Mark Zieman and Coalition of Hispanic Organizations Executive Director Christina Esteban. The forum will be built on new census data and the mayor's recent report on race.

The March KCABJ meeting also featured a presentation from Deborah Tansil Graham, area director of the United Negro College Fund. Graham said Kansas City was ranked third in the Midwest among cities that last year met their fund-raising goal. Kansas City was expected to raise $50,000, but it grossed $64,000 last year in the walkathon and netted $53,000. Columbus, Ohio, and Chicago were the only other towns to meet their goals. St. Louis, where Graham is based, fell short. KCTV-5 again will air the United Negro College Fund telethon.

Graham presented some interesting data to KCABJ members. She said the 49-year-old college fund provides financial assistance for low-income students to go to 40 historically black colleges and universities nationwide. A special college fund program enables area students who qualify to attend the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The fund not only provides money to black students but also to Hispanic, Asian American and Native American students. The United Negro College Fund some years ago expanded the race criteria beyond just African Americans. Graham also said ``the average donor to the United Negro College Fund is a white female in her 40s.'' That image of who gives to the United Negro College Fund is in spite the fund having helped more than 300,000 black men and women get a college education.

Graham asked KCABJ to consider taking on the Sept. 20 walkathon as a project for the United Negro College Fund. She said KCABJ could handle the public relations for the effort to generate press releases and help with broadcast and newspaper promotions. The college fund also has difficulty getting students in the Kansas City School District to apply for the scholarships. Graham asked that KCABJ help recruit students to apply for the scholarships from the United Negro College Fund. Graham praised Kansas City for being more progressive, inclusive and supportive than St. Louis is. KCABJ President Anita K. Parran said she would get back to Graham with a decision on Graham's requests.


News Worth Noting

  • Women and minority reporters are becoming more visible on network evening news broadcasts, according to a new study. Women reported 29 percent of 12,179 stories on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts in 2002, the Washington-based Center for Media and Public Affairs said in March. Reporters of color accounted for 14 percent of the stories. Both numbers were record highs in the Center for Media and Public Affairs study, which has been done annually since 1990. In contrast, however, women represent about 52 percent of the population, and people of color constitute more than 30 percent of the population.

  • Sherry DuPree, Santa Fe Community College Professor of Student Development Instruction, created a new African American information resource on the Internet. It's called "A Roadmap to African-American Resources." You can find it at http://cisit.santafe.cc.fl.us/~sdupree/resorlik.htm.

  • Journalism-related peace workshops will be held this year at locations nationwide. They include Globalization for Peace and Development on May 8 and a workshop on Conflict Transformation by Peaceful Means on May 10-11 at Santa Clara University in California. Peaceful Conflict Transformation: The Transend Approach will be on May 9 at the University of California-Berkeley and Peace Building, Conflict Transformation and Post-War Reconstruction will be on June 2-6 in Cluj-Napoca Romania. For more information contact Lewis Diuguid at (816) 234-4723.

  • The U.S.-Japan Foundation Media Fellows Program is seeking applications from journalists interested in learning about Japan. For more information call Betty Borden at (212) 714-1214.

  • The National Society of Newspaper Columnists is having its 2003 Conference in Tucson, Ariz., from June 19-22. For more information call Lewis.

  • The Institute for Interactive Journalism is seeking entries for its Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism. It includes a $10,000 grand prize and two $2,500 awards.

  • ASNE once again is offering its summer institute for midcareer newspaper copy editors, and most of the costs including hotel and airline travel are covered by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Fundation. The institute runs from July 20-26. For more information check out http://www.ibiblio.org/copyed.

  • The Maynard Institute for Journalism Education is seeking applications for its management program at Northwestern University's J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management. For more information call Amanda Elliott at (510) 891-9202.

  • An Associated Press poll found that four in five Americans say it's important for colleges to have racially diverse student bodies. But only half of the people think affirmative action is needed to help blacks, Hispanics and other minorities. Among blacks, 89 percent said affirmative action programs were still necessary.

  • The Western Knight Center for Specialized Journalism is seeking applications for its four-day, expenses paid "Gimme Shelter: Homeownership and Affordable Housing" seminar. It will run from March 31 to April 3 at the University of Southern California. For more information call Vikki Porter at (213) 743-4976.

  • The National Hispanic Journalists Association called on the Federal Communications Commission to postpone issuing new broadcast ownership rules until a series of public hearings could take place.

  • The Black Entertainment Network is planning to continue its coverage of the war in Iraq. It plans to devote signficant time to black families who have relatives involved in the fighting.

  • Applications are available for the Kansas City Press Club's Heart of America Awards for 2003. For more information call Rebecca Shelton at (816) 809-7844.

  • The Western Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and USC Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California-Los Angeles are seeking applicants for the ``Looking in Your Own Backyard: Investigating Local Business'' workshop on April 3-4. For more information call Vikki Porter at (213) 743-4976.

  • The Journalism Fellowships in Child and Family Policy at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland is offering a fellowships for journalists Sept. 18-21, 2003, and Feb.1-6, 2004 in Washington, D.C. For more information call Beth Frerking at (301) 699-5133.

  • KSMO-TV, Channel 62 has openings for an account executive and local sales assistant. For more information send e-mail to karen.hamilton@reuters.com. Reuters also is seeking a journalist for its treasury desk.

    KC People

  • KCABJ's membership inched to 26 with the additions of Monica Evans-Trout with Sprint, Pamela Spencer, a new copy editor at The Kansas City Star, and Kevin Morris, a free-lance writer/columnist.

  • Christi Gipson-Diggs, former KCABJ president who works at KMBC-TV, Channel 9, said she and her husband are expecting their first baby. Stay tuned.

  • Charles Coulter, Opinion Page Editor at The Kansas City Star, is close to completing his doctorate at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Charles also was honored recently at a special dinner for longtime Kansas City Star employees. KCABJ treasurer Lewis Diuguid also was honored at the dinner. Each has been at The Star for more than 25 years.










    2003 Kansas City Association of Black Journalists
    P.O. Box 32744, Kansas City, Mo. 64111

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