RETRO REPORT: “A critical voice of the Black Community”

Featured graphic created by Abbie Kinney.

With 2023 marking the centennial year for Ohio University’s journalism school and February being Black History Month, it is important to look at the intersections of the two. While the first student publication at Ohio U, The Green and White, published its first issue in 1911, the College of Journalism–now the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism–was not established until years later. The university’s creation of the Black Studies Institute 33 years after the journalism school, would mark the starting point of the university’s first Black student publication, the Black Bull.

The university first began offering news writing and editing courses under the English Department in 1923, according to a historical timeline made by the Scripps College of Communication. Thirteen years later, in 1936, the College of Journalism opened, providing Ohio U students with a more intensive journalism curriculum. In 1939, The Green and White ceased printing and another student-run publication would not come to fruition until the establishment of the Black Studies Institute in 1969, a year after the Civil Rights movement ended. The Black Studies Institute was renamed the African American Studies Institute in 1971, and is now the African American Studies Department.

In the first year of the department’s creation, students published a newsletter called The Black Bull under Ohio U’s Black Arts Workshop, which also offered courses in dance, theater and painting. The goal of the newsletter was to “facilitate political expression,” according to an Ohio U digital archive from 1978 listing the goals of the Afro-American Affairs newspaper. After receiving funds from the Black Studies Institute, The Black Bull transformed into the Afro-American Affairs newspaper, the first student newspaper at the school run completely by Black Ohio U students.

According to the same archive, the newspaper was created “to inform, educate and give direction to Afro-Americans in their continuing struggle for liberation.” The students involved hoped to advocate for Black self-awareness and self-pride and find solutions to the discrimination and marginalization of Black Americans. The newspaper also covered social issues related to education and other minority groups who lacked much coverage, especially in student media, at the time.

In a spread in the 1974 edition of Ohio U’s yearbook, the Athena, Afro-American Affairs Editor-in-Chief Ronald Johnson that year, commented on the newspaper’s purpose. 

Editor-in-Chief Ronald Johnson. Photo taken from the Athena yearbook, 1974.

“The paper is meant to serve as a basis for discussion of typical questions relating to blacks in this country and abroad, and to give local, state, national and international news,” Johnson said in a quote to the Athena. “We aren’t afraid to take a stand on an issue.”

According to an obituary, Johnson passed away in 2016 at the age of 64 but his legacy as one of the integral members of Ohio U’s journalistic history lives on. David Kidd, pictured with advisory board member Dwight Kirk, was the managing editor under Johnson and his right-hand man. He passed away three years before Johnson at the age of 62, according to a different obituary. 

After graduating from Ohio U, Kirk attended Howard University. He did racial justice work for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and worked with several politicians and musicians. Kirk also campaigned for former President Barack Obama during the run-up to the 2008 Presidential elections. 

David Kidd (left) looks over newspaper proofs with advisory board member Dwight Kirk (right). Photo taken from the Athena yearbook, 1974.

The first issue of the Afro-American Affairs newsletter was published on Nov. 3, 1970 and featured a photo of American political activist Angela Davis on the front cover. The pages included stories about the aftermath of the Kent State University shooting, editorial pieces, international relations news and other issues pertaining to Black Americans. The second paper was published in January 1971 and included similar content, acting as a news source for the Ohio U and Athens communities and serving as a “basis for the discussion of events affecting the lives of Afro-Americans.”

The first issue of Afro-American Affairs, published in 1970, featured activist Angela Davis on the front page. Photo taken from Ohio U’s Digital Archives.

Issues were published bimonthly in the beginning and students established both an advisory board and an editorial board to oversee the newspaper’s functions. The African American Studies Department faculty, staff and students served on the advisory board in an intermediary role. The Athens Messenger, established in 1848 and became a daily publication in 1907, printed 3000 copies of every issue of Afro-American Affairs. 

Afro-American Affairs’ arts section included poetry from Ohio U students, faculty and alumni. Alumna Margaret Bohanon submitted these poems to the May 1973 issue while teaching at Kent State University. Photo taken from Ohio U’s Digital Archives.

The newspaper consisted of five different sections: national and local news, international news, feature news, sports and an arts and culture section. Each was run by its own editor who, in turn, reported to the newspaper’s managing editor and editor-in-chief. Afro-American Affairs also had copy editors, photo editors and a production and graphics editor at the height of its publishing.

Issue publications would slow down significantly in 1975, with only one coming out per semester, and would officially cease in the winter of 1982. Over a span of twelve years, Afro-American Affairs acted as a diverse news source for the Ohio U community and served as a voice for the people who have lacked one for much of America’s history.

Timeline by Abbie Kinney.