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October 27, 1989
Black Ink Celebrates Twenty Years Of Journalism
By Victor E. Blue
Editor-in-Chief
Twenty years ago, amid the
social and racial turmoil of the
sixties, it began.
During a period when the
Black student community had
gained a foothold as a segregated
South Campus colony; when civil
rights’ activist Jesse Jackson
donned an afro; when UNC’s
Charlie Scott waged periodic
hardcourt battles with John Ro
che and a lily-white South Caro
lina basketball team; when inner
city riots were more rule than
exception, Black Ink was born.
The “official newspaper of
UNC’s Black Student Move
ment” began in 1969 as the tab
loid offspring of an earlier BSM
newsletter. The first issue was
published in November 1969.
Like all Black publications, the
Ink started out as a protest paper.
Cureton Johnson, the first editor,
directed the paper’s operations,
wrote most of its articles and
even took some of its photo
graphs.
“If at all possible,” Johnson
said, the “BSM’s new newspa
per would be printed in black
letters on black background. In
essence, Black Ink will do its
best to represent the wave of
Neo-Pan-Africansim.”
The second issue, published
and distributed in December of
1969, came on the heels of a
successful UNC food workers’
strike. The headline streamer
read “African People See Every
Day as a ‘Black Monday’ For
prompted UNC’s Student Gov-
em-ment to freeze the newspa
per’s funds, so a third issue for
1969-70 failed to appear.
In its early stages, the pages
of Black Ink were filled with
revolutionary ardor by launch
ing verbal attacks at “The Man”.
Although Ink did offer some
news and feature stories, much
of its content was concerned with
“telling the man where to go and
If at all possible the BSM's, new newspaper would be
printed in black letters on a black background. In essence
Black Ink will do its best to represent the wave of Neo-Pan-
Africanism
Cureton Johnson
Liberation.” A larger staff was
gathered for work on the second
issue that made the quality and
content “more desirable”.
Johnson said, “The paper was
well received on campus where
it was spld for anything from a
dime to 25 cents.” In the Black
community, it was given free.
The paper’s militancy and ad
vocacy in the food workers’ strike
how to get there” as editor Allen
Mask did in his columns from
1970 to 1971.
As the years progressed, the
Ink became increasingly more
pro-fessional, staffing more jour
nalism majors. Yet, the Ink did
not lose its militant editorial
voice.
According to former editor
Allen Johnson (1976-1978), the
engineer of the drastic improve
ment in the paper’s technical and
physical renaissance was Val
erie Batts (1972-73). Under
Batts, Ink became a regular
publication and achieved seven
regular distribution dates during
that school year. “Valerie set
standards for Black Ink ,”
Johnson said. “She made the Ink
come out so often that the people
in Student Graphics couldn’t get
used to it. They were used to us
coming out every blue moon.”
The editors that followed
Batts, Emma Pullen (1973-74),
Maelsrael (1974-75),andTonya
Widemon (1975-76), all main
tained the quality of the paper.
In 1975, under the editorship
of Tonya Widemon, UNC’s
Student Government froze the
paper’s funds again and the Ink
was only published five times.
“If she’d had the financial suport
and staff support that she de
served,” one editor said, “she
would have been the best editor
we’ve ever had.”
Instead, that honor must go to
See Ink page 7
Letters To The Editor
To the Editor:
Several UNC Students were
sent to the Black Congressional
Caucus in Wahington, D.C. on
Sept. 13-16. To quote from the
Daily Tar Heel, “the students
include African-American stud
ies majors, members of the BCC
planning commitee, and stu
dents who have demonstrated
black leadership on campus.”
There was one AFAM major,
one person from the BCC plan
ning commitee, and three who
hold leadership positions in open
campus organizations. Since
this only equals five, who were
the rest?
Let’s look at a concrete defini
tion of the word “leader”. Ac
The Black Ink
Editor-in-Chief Victor £. Blue
Associate Editor Dana Lumsden
Sports Editor Reg^e Alston
Managing Editor Tim Little
Feature Editor Felts Lewis
Advertising Manager Ingrid Jones
Layout Editor Erika Campbell
Circulation Manager Terrence Garrison
Staff Writers: Rita Brown, Ana-Marie Burgos.Nicole Majette, Chandra Mclean,
Sherry Waters.
Layout Staff: Teresa Frazier, Tonya Locke, Nicole McNair, Kim Williams,
Akinwole N’Gai Wright.
Photographer: Tammy Newton
cording to the Oxford-Ameri-
can Dictionary, a leader is a
person who has the principal
part in the head of a group and
whose example is followed.
With this definition in mind, I
wonder what the selection proc
ess was (since this definition
was obviously ignored) snd what
criteria was used. Being an RA
does not make you a leader,
Winning a pagent does not make
you a leader. Reciting Black
poetry does not make you a
leader. Having a great GPA
does not make you a leader.
Granted all of these things are
positive and great for a resume,
but for a leadership conference,
I think not.
Out of the thirteen students sent
to Washington, eight are in
Black Greek organizations.
Precentage-wise, this is not
demonstrative of the Black lead
ers on campus since the major
ity of students who hold viable
positons (Student Congress
members, officers in the BSM,
Student Goverment) are not in
Black Greek organizations. In
essence, the Greek students who
were sent were eight leaders of
each other. To break it down
further, of the eight students,
seven were of a brother/sister
organization . I began to think
it may have been a Black Greek
Caucus, with a special invita
tion sent to Alpha Phi Alpha and
See Letters on next page