black history month

This Black-Owned Newspaper Tells Texas Community's Stories

NBCUniversal, Inc.

Black newspapers, often referred to as the Black press, have been around for decades.

Those publications served many purposes. Among them, ensuring the voices of Black people were lifted and that information pertinent to Black life was disseminated.

One of the longest-running Black-owned publications in North Texas is the Dallas Weekly. Patrick and Jessica Washington now oversee the publication's operations in which Patrick’s family acquired in 1985 from Tony Davis. Davis started the paper in 1954.

“We are essentially archivists of history and we tell the stories that a lot of mainstream people don’t want to tell or don’t have the time to tell,” Jessica said.

They both agree the importance of the Black press has transcended generations and cultures now more than ever before.

“It’s going to take a while and it’s going to take the hearts and minds of people to change in ways that take generations. We have seen young white children challenging their parents on their ideas of race on social media. We’ve seen ally ships coming to communities that we didn’t even know we had allies in and that is only because of the awareness and spreading of the information. People are seeing the positive imagery that we put out representing ourselves,” Patrick said.

"The Black press is obviously very pertinent to the community. But it’s not the instrument, it’s the information that we are giving that’s important. It doesn’t matter if it’s coming from something tangible, I’m going to do whatever it takes," Jessica said.

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