New President Wants More Activist Association
‘I Will Act With the Urgency This Moment Demands’
Byron Allen Sells 40 Local Stations to Gray Media
Homepage photo by Richard Prince
From left, Roland Martin, Melony Roy, elections chair Lynn Norment, Errin Haines, Walter Smith Randolph, Khorri Atkinson and Steve Crocker. (Credit: Richard Prince)
New President Wants More Activist Association
Errin Haines, editor at large for the 19th, won a decisive victory Thursday over incumbent Ken Lemon and fellow challenger Dion Rabouin in a three-way contest for the presidency of the National Association of Black Journalists, winning 530 votes, or 57 percent, to 309, or 33 percent for Lemon and 92 votes for Rabouin, or 10 percent.
“What we saw was an overwhelming mandate for new leadership to carry us to the next 50 years,” Haines, 47, told NABJ members gathered as the results were announced at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland, where the journalists are holding a convention commemorating the 50th year of the association.
Asked earlier whether NABJ should play a role in confronting the attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion, led by President Trump, Haines said, “NABJ absolutely has a role to play in making the case for how journalism can and should bring clarity and honesty to the conversation about DEI.
“As the largest and oldest advocacy organization for journalists of color, we are uniquely positioned and mission obligated to confront attacks on the value of representation. For all journalists to tell the truth about the reality of the progress and work left to do in our country around inequality is to continue to reckon with the unfinished business of our democracy and to leave a more honest and accurate record of who and where we are as a nation.”
In other contests, incumbent Walter Smith Randolph (pictured) executive producer of investigations for WCBS-TV in New York, won by just one vote in the race for vice president-broadcast, winning 445 votes to 444 for his opponent, Raelyn Johnson, director of weekend news programming at MSNBC.
“I guess every vote counts,” Randolph told those assembled for the election announcement.
A total of 2,373 members voted, NABJ said.
For vice president-digital, internet-based entrepreneur Roland Martin (pictured) won in a four-way race, garnering 356 votes, or 39 percent, to 295 votes for Tre’Vell Anderson, founder and chief imagination officer at Slayzhon, former NABJ board member and presidential candidate who identifies as transgender; 211 votes, or 23 percent for Angela Smith, digital content manager, KWCH-TV in Wichita, Kan.; and 54 votes for Vince Lang, technical director at CBS News in New York and former president of the New York Association of Black Journalists.
Khorri Atkinson (pictured), senior labor and employment reporter at Bloomberg Law in Arlington, Va., and immediate past president of the Washington Association of Black Journalists, won decisively for secretary, with 427 votes or 48 percent, to 247, or 28 percent, for Bonita Sostre, coordinating producer at CBS News in New York. She is current president of the New York chapter. Marie Torres, managing editor at Spectrum Networks in Raleigh, N.C., received 214 votes or 24 percent.
Unopposed candidates Steve Crocker, reporter/anchor, WBRC-TV in Birmingham, Ala., won as a regional director and A’lauren Gilchrist, a student at Norfolk State University, becomes student representative on the board.
A constitutional amendment reinstating the fight against racism as a constitutional reason for NABJ’s existence passed overwhelmingly, 891 to 24.
The amendment reads, “We, the members of the National Association of Black Journalists, believing that Black journalists worldwide should bind themselves together in an effort to increase Black employment in all forms of media, to increase the number of Black people in management positions, to encourage and educate young Black people interested in pursuing a journalism career, and to monitor and sensitize all media to racism, do enact and establish this Constitution for the governance of its members.”
In the contest for director representing Region I, the Northeast and mid-Atlantic, incumbent Melony Roy (pictured), supervising producer at The Wall Street Journal, bested Eric Sellers, associate producer at ESPN.
Roy received 247 votes or 67 percent, to 124 for Sellers or 33 percent. Sellers is chairman of NABJ’s Broadcast Task Force and president of NABJ’s Southern New England chapter.
The 2025 election was only the third in which the NABJ president was permitted to run for re-election, the result of a constitutional amendment. Lemon’s predecessors, Sarah Glover and Dorothy Tucker, each served a second term.
Lemon told Journal-isms after the votes were announced, “The future of NABJ begins now. No matter what happens, we’re all in this together.”
A reporter at WSOC-TV in Charlotte, N.C., Lemon ran on his record.
“I helped to raise over $73,000 in scholarships for Black student journalists,” he said in his campaign announcement. “I led a team that raised nearly $100,000 for a regional conference that included coding for enterprising journalists and recognized individual work journalists across 11 states.
“I organized criteria for allocating $20,000 for local NABJ Chapters, created interdisciplinary programs for journalists, and established certified learning experiences to strengthen careers. I connected Black journalists with face-to-face meeting leaders at major news networks.”
Haines called for a more activist NABJ, which she called “a conscience of our profession” in her acceptance remarks.
Denise Clay-Murray of the Philadelphia Sunday Sun questions Errin Haines after her victory. (Credit: Richard Prince)
At a candidate forum this week at the convention, Haines said, “Black journalists are under attack. We can’t afford to do things the way they have always been done.” At a workshop earlier in the day about the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, Haines said that “voting rights cannot just be an issue for Black Americans” and that “journalists need to explain” to the public at large why they should care about those rights, which she called fundamental to democracy.
The third candidate, financial journalist Rabouin, found himself in agreement with Haines at the candidate forum in criticizing the incumbent’s stewardship of the organization, but he added his signature issue, that NABJ is not making the right investment choices and thus missing out on millions of dollars in revenue.
In his victory remarks, Martin, too, promised change. “One of the reasons I ran is that they’re not even livestreaming this event,” said the founder and CEO of the digital Black Star Network, who is also a former board member and an NABJ Journalist of the Year. Martin additionally hosts and is managing editor of the daily digital show, #RolandMartinUnfiltered, and a commentator for iHeartRadio’s Black Information Network.
“You can guarantee this will never happen again now that I’m vice president – digital,” Martin continued.
The election ended just three days after Lemon announced a new executive director for the organization, rebuffing prominent NABJ veterans and candidates for NABJ office, including Haines, who urged the board to go slow on the selection process and to make it transparent.
Among the objections to the timing of the selection of Elise Durham, a communications strategist and television news manager in Atlanta, was the prospect of new board members preferring a different candidate.
What happens now?
“We’re going to have to see,” Haines told Journal-isms.
Errin Haines in a brief campaign video. (Credit: YouTube)
‘I Will Act With the Urgency This Moment Demands’
Remarks by Errin Haines on her victory, as prepared for delivery:
Standing here as your next president is truly one of the greatest honors of my career and my life. Tonight, I am filled with deep gratitude — for the trust you’ve placed in me, for the example of our founders, and for the power of this organization that has sustained and inspired me since I was a student journalist.
Fifty years ago, 44 Black journalists came together in a Washington hotel room and took a risk for the sake of truth, representation, and justice. They stood up in an industry that too often sought to erase us and insisted: *We belong here, our voices matter, our stories matter.* That courage built the foundation we stand on today.
We honor those 50 years — of bold reporting, of advocacy, of mentoring, of opening doors and refusing to close them behind us. But we also recognize that the work is far from finished. In fact, the attacks on Black journalism, on the truth, and on our democracy make it clear: our next 50 years must be just as courageous, just as relentless, and just as visionary as our first.
I want to take a moment to thank my fellow candidates. Running for this role is not easy. It takes a love for NABJ and a belief in its mission to even put your name forward. We may have had different ideas about how to lead, but our shared commitment to this organization is what matters most. I ask each of you — and every member of NABJ — to join me now in unity. We will need all of us, together, to meet the moment ahead.
Because the truth is, we are facing a time when the forces of erasure and exclusion are working overtime to silence Black voices, distort our history, and undermine our role as truth-tellers. This is not a time for division. This is a time for us to lock arms, to advocate fiercely, to innovate boldly, and to ensure NABJ remains not just relevant, but indispensable.
Our next 50 years will be defined by how we respond right now — by how we fight for newsroom equity, how we defend press freedom, how we nurture the next generation, and how we insist on telling the full, unvarnished story of America.
I promise you this: I will lead with transparency, I will listen with intention, and I will act with the urgency this moment demands. Together, we will honor our legacy not just by preserving it, but by pushing it forward.
Thank you, NABJ family. Let’s get to work on Our story. Our moment. Our future.
- Sam Allard, Axios: Cleveland to host 50th NABJ convention this week
- Melanie Eversley, NABJ Black News & Views: Haines of The 19th News elected president of the National Association of Black Journalists
- Chris Nishiwaki, Joy Sauce, AA+PI journalists convention looks to the industry’s future while honoring its past
- Philadelphia Tribune: National Association of Black Journalists names new executive director
- Mathew Schumer, Baltimore Sun: University of Maryland renames diversity office amid federal DEI scrutiny
- Susan Snyder, Philadelphia Inquirer: Penn’s law school pauses scholarship honoring its first Black female graduate, plans to close equal opportunity office
- Nick Stoico, Boston Globe: GBH’s Callie Crossley to be inducted into Black journalists’ Hall of Fame
- WKYC, Cleveland: Leon Bibb [and Susan Moses]: Then and Now | NABJ Convention comes to Cleveland, shining spotlight on the city’s Black press legacy
Byron Allen Sells 40 Local Stations to Gray Media
“Byron Allen‘s local TV liquidation has begun,” Alex Weprin wrote Friday for the Hollywood Reporter.
“The comedian turned media mogul’s company Allen Media Group says that it has sold 10 of its local TV stations to Gray Media in a $171 million deal.
“The stations, mostly in the south and midwest, largely complement Gray’s existing station portfolio of about 180 local stations in 113 markets by creating duopolies. However Gray says that the deal will also bring it into three new markets: Columbus-Tupelo, Mississippi; Terre Haute, Indiana; and West Lafayette, Indiana, once it closes.
“The stations that Allen is selling span ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox affiliates, and include WAAY in Huntsville Alabama; WSIL in Paducah-Cape Girardeau-Harrisburg; WEVV in Evansville Indiana; WFFT in Ft. Wayne Indiana; WCOV in Montgomery Alabama; KADN in Lafayette Louisiana; WTVA in Columbus-Tupelo Mississippi; WREX in Rockford Illinois; WTHA in Terra Haute Indiana; and WLFA in West Lafayette Indiana.
“Gray says that it expects the deal to close in Q4, pending FCC approvals.
“Allen Media Group put its portfolio of 28 local TV stations across 21 local markets up for sale back in June . . . ”
Allen also owns the Grio, which has cut back staffing.
- Cynthia Littleton, Variety: Byron Allen Reaches Settlement in $10 Billion Lawsuit Against McDonald’s Over TV Advertising (June 13)
- E.B. Solomon and Katherine Clarke, Wall Street Journal: Byron Allen Just Sold His Aspen Mansion for More Than Double What He Paid For It (Sep. 4, 2024)
