Inter-American Press Association

So you just couldn't get the papers to pay their bills on time--now, this is probably, no matter what kind of service you had, it probably would be an issue in the black (unclear) (simultaneous)--$$ (Simultaneous) Yeah. And because of--I mean, that was the beginning of the thing--of the black--of the black press. You know, the black press had been at its high point in the '60s [1960s]. And then as is so frequently the case, once white folks start doing it, the black folks go out of business, you know. And it was always clear to me from my days at the Courier [Milwaukee Courier] that so much of the advertising in the black press at that time was not consumer driven. Then the advertising came primarily out of the public relations budget of the supermarkets. But they weren't really trying to get black folks to buy their cabbage and coleslaw. They were just trying to look good. And even to this day, a lot of advertising toward ethnic publications is not consumer driven. You know, it's public relations driven. And the black press had really been good until white folks started covering the Civil Rights Movement, 'cause up until that time, if you wanted to read about what was happening in the South, you had to read the Chicago Defender and the Afro-American Newspapers; the Atlanta Daily World, you know. The black press told you about the lynchings. The white press did not. And so I was part of the generation, probably on the tail end of the generation of people who came out of the black press into mainline newspapers, you know.$$I've been told not just in journalism, but in many other fields, doors for opportunity, you know, popped up after the '68 [1968] riots.$$ Oh, yeah.$$And (unclear) mean black people who had not even--didn't even dream about being in a riot were able to get a job, you know, in so many fields. They were the first African American--I interviewed the, you know, the first African American to do this or do that, anything you can think of almost.$$ Yeah.$$You know, so. They were actually recruiting people to be a part of like, Newsweek or Time or whatever.$$ If you read the Kerner Commission report on the chapter on the news media, it paints a whole picture of what life was like for black folks in the media at that time. I mean, Carl Rowan was the only black syndicated columnist. The only one, you know. And there were hardly any editors or--because, you know, essentially, white guys cover the Civil Rights Movement, and that was their springboard to higher positions in the news media, you know.$ (Simultaneous) Right. And I, and I wrote a, I wrote a series on Minneapolis finances that became part of my packet that I sent out looking for a job. And so I started looking for a job after I'd been--I had already been turned down by the Dayton Daily News, and turned down by The Philadelphia Inquirer a year earlier. And so I get this letter from the woman who's in charge of recruiting for The Washington Post newsroom, because I had applied for another job in Philadelphia [Pennsylvania]. I put Maynard [Robert C. Maynard] down as a reference, and Maynard had given this woman the clips, and she wanted me to come and interview at The Post. And so I had three interviews set up. One at The Washington Post, thanks to Maynard; one at The Philadelphia Inquirer, and one at the Washington bureau Newsweek. I had these three interviews. And so I come down and do these--all the interviews, and I get back to Minneapolis [Minnesota], so Faye [Coleman's wife, Faye Edwards Coleman] says, "Well, what's the story?" I said, "Well, I have two interviews--I have two job offers. I have one from The Philadelphia Inquirer, and one from The Washington Post." She said, "Which one's the better offer?" I said, "Well, actually The Philadelphia Inquirer has the better offer." She said, "Why?" I said, "Well, if I go to The Washington Post, I'll be covering government and politics in Montgomery County of Maryland. If I go to The Philadelphia Inquirer, I'll be covering the governor." She said, "Where's the governor?" I said, "In Harrisburg [Pennsylvania]." She said, "I hope you have fun." I decided to come to Washington [D.C.] (laughter). But it was a good offer in both places, but she was not about to go to Harrisburg. Wise woman that she was, 'cause Three Mile Island occurred a year or so later. And so that's how I wound up coming to The Post. And I--while I was in Minneapolis, I was mentored by, not only by Maynard, but by Joel Dreyfuss, who later became all kinds of things including the managing editor of theroot.com. But Joel was--I would write stories and send clips of those stories to Joel, and Joel would critique them in a no holds barred way, and Maynard and Austin Scott, who at the time was with The Washington Post, but had been with the Associated Press. And Joel taught me to always be concerned about who your editor is and to try to get an editor who would not only tell you why your story is no good, but would help you understand how to make it better. And I learned that from Joel, and I learned how to write better from Joel, 'cause Joel was--Joel at the time was at The Washington Post, and he was on the style staff and, in fact, when I came down for interviews, I stayed in Joel's apartment in Washington, 'cause I had my interviews in Philadelphia--in Harrisburg on, like, a Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. And my interviews at The Post were, like, on Monday and Tuesday. So I came down to Washington and stayed in Joel's apartment. He was away. And Joel, himself, had been the center of controversy, because he had trapped--he had been on the job as a Los Angeles [California] correspondent for The Post, and had been denied that job in a very public way, 'cause Ben Bradlee wrote a memo to Joel saying that, "Joel, you're a good reporter. Everybody wants a good reporter in Los Angeles, but nobody wants a pain in the ass," and all of that had become public. And so when I came down here, I told Joel. I said, you know, "Joel, if I'm offered a job at The Post, I'm not so sure I'd take it." And Joel said, "Why?" And I said, "Well, because of what went down between you and Bradlee." And Joel said, "You'd be a fool if you do that. What happened between me and Bradlee is between me and Bradlee." And Joel said very prophetically, "You might be able to do things at The Washington Post that I could never do." So with that advice from Joel and the sage advice of my wife (laughter), I came to The Washington Post.