William Raspberry: Maverick of The Black Press
As a twenty-something working as an editor on Ida Lewis’ stand-out Black newsmagazine, Encore, I became aware of the achievements of two veteran journalists, William Raspberry and Carl Rowan; both of them would serve as role models for my later years at The Daily News.A Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post, Raspberry died July 17 in his home at 76 of cancer. He wrote a column for The Post for four decades before his retirement in 2005, with 200 mainstream newspapers carrying his observations in syndication.While Rowan seemed to be the ultimate insider with significant Beltway connections, Raspberry bucked the liberal stereotype, refusing to go along with the popular commentary of the times.Raspberry was born in Okolona, Mississippi in 1935. One of five children, he always spoke of growing up in segregated South as coming to maturity “in apartheid.” After attending Indiana Central College, he worked at The Indianapolis Recorder, a mainstay of the Black press. He worked as a public information officer with the Army after graduating. In 1962, he was hired as Teletype operator but quickly rose through the ranks to serve as one of the first reporters at The Post.I was impressed by his columns about social and political concerns affecting African Americans, including education, poverty, voting rights, gun control, crime, and Black youth. Civil rights leader Vernon Jordan called him “a truth-teller.” Some of the memorable pieces of Raspberry were the coverage of the 1965 LA riots, the Clarence Thomas Justice hearings, the O.J. Simpson trial, the shabby state of Black education and the rampant killings of people in the inner city.Here are some of the insightful things Raspberry wrote: “The civil rights leadership, for all its emphasis on desegregating schools, has very little to improve them.” (1982)“How different are parts of Somalia from parts of the United States? And how much more like Somalia would the United States become if the gun rights people have their way?” (1993)“What is happening to the Black family in America is the sociological equivalent of global warming: easier to document than to reverse, inconsistent in its near-term effect – and disastrous in the long run.” (2005)In 1974, Time Magazine stated Raspberry was “the most respected Black voice” on any White U.S. newspaper. He went after the leading civil rights organizations for ignoring practical, logical remedies for the social problems of our community. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 and earned the National Association of Black Journalists with its Lifetime Achievement Award.I remember a conversation with the late writer and Columbia Professor Phyl Garland, over a meal and jazz, where she lauded the press achievements of William Raspberry. She believed young Black journalists could learn a lot from his example. Clarence Page, the Pulitzer winner from The Chicago Tribune, called Raspberry and Rowan trailblazers, “not only as journalists but as voices of courage against the narrow ideologies of the left or right.”While I was a young reporter, I imagined I could meet the standards of William Raspberry as a man and a journalist. It was a goal worth having.“Speaking Truth To Empower.”
Black News 
As a twenty-something working as an editor on Ida Lewis’ stand-out Black newsmagazine, Encore, I became aware of the achievements of two veteran journalists, William Raspberry and Carl Rowan; both of them would serve as role models for my later years at The Daily News.
A Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post, Raspberry died July 17 in his home at 76 of cancer. He wrote a column for The Post for four decades before his retirement in 2005, with 200 mainstream newspapers carrying his observations in syndication.
While Rowan seemed to be the ultimate insider with significant Beltway connections, Raspberry bucked the liberal stereotype, refusing to go along with the popular commentary of the times.
Raspberry was born in Okolona, Mississippi in 1935. One of five children, he always spoke of growing up in segregated South as coming to maturity “in apartheid.” After attending Indiana Central College, he worked at The Indianapolis Recorder, a mainstay of the Black press. He worked as a public information officer with the Army after graduating. In 1962, he was hired as Teletype operator but quickly rose through the ranks to serve as one of the first reporters at The Post.
I was impressed by his columns about social and political concerns affecting African Americans, including education, poverty, voting rights, gun control, crime, and Black youth. Civil rights leader Vernon Jordan called him “a truth-teller.” Some of the memorable pieces of Raspberry were the coverage of the 1965 LA riots, the Clarence Thomas Justice hearings, the O.J. Simpson trial, the shabby state of Black education and the rampant killings of people in the inner city.
Here are some of the insightful things Raspberry wrote: “The civil rights leadership, for all its emphasis on desegregating schools, has very little to improve them.” (1982)
“How different are parts of Somalia from parts of the United States? And how much more like Somalia would the United States become if the gun rights people have their way?” (1993)
“What is happening to the Black family in America is the sociological equivalent of global warming: easier to document than to reverse, inconsistent in its near-term effect – and disastrous in the long run.” (2005)
In 1974, Time Magazine stated Raspberry was “the most respected Black voice” on any White U.S. newspaper. He went after the leading civil rights organizations for ignoring practical, logical remedies for the social problems of our community. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 and earned the National Association of Black Journalists with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
I remember a conversation with the late writer and Columbia Professor Phyl Garland, over a meal and jazz, where she lauded the press achievements of William Raspberry. She believed young Black journalists could learn a lot from his example. Clarence Page, the Pulitzer winner from The Chicago Tribune, called Raspberry and Rowan trailblazers, “not only as journalists but as voices of courage against the narrow ideologies of the left or right.”
While I was a young reporter, I imagined I could meet the standards of William Raspberry as a man and a journalist. It was a goal worth having.
“Speaking Truth To Empower.”
