A nuanced, visually appealing celebration of a pillar of American journalism.
Writers and scholars reflect on the history of a journalistic institution.
Founded in 1975, the National Association of Black Journalists presented a direct challenge to an American news media ecosystem that was “overwhelmingly a White, male juggernaut” concentrated in a handful of elite newspapers and television networks. In this celebration of NABJ’s 50-year anniversary, editor Dawkins, a professor of journalism at Hampton University Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications in Virginia, gathers eminent scholars and journalists to reflect on the body’s history. The book’s first half features 10 essays from various authors providing diverse perspectives on the organization’s past. While the collection is generally celebratory, the opening essay, written by Dawkins, surveys both the highs and lows of the organization, from its massive growth in the 1980s through navigating the Jayson Blair plagiarism and fabrication scandal of the early 2000s. Other essays follow a similarly nuanced approach, such as Gayle Terry’s piece on the internal conflicts within the organization when it considered expanding its membership to public relations professionals, disc jockeys, and advertising agents. A particularly powerful essay by Cheryl Devall surveys the legacy of Black photojournalists, who had long fought for respect and parity among their peers in print journalism and became a major source of fundraising support within the NABJ through auctioning their work. The volume’s second half, described by Dawkins as “a book within a book,” is an “Almanac” of the NABJ’s history in the 21st century, walking readers through a timeline of NABJ activities from the Sept. 11 attacks and War on Terror through the Black Lives Matter movement and the presidential elections of Donald Trump. Visually stunning, the volume features high-resolution, full-color photographs throughout. True to the journalistic roots of its editor and contributors—who include Washington Post journalist Hamil Harris; former editor-in-chief for Essence.com, Ingrid Sturgis; and the former American Press Institute’s Director of Inclusion and Audience Engagement, Letrell Crittenden—the anthology features an impressive array of footnotes and scholarly references.
A nuanced, visually appealing celebration of a pillar of American journalism.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9780979168673
Page Count: 250
Publisher: National Association of Black Journalists
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A football star’s bracing account of his battle for racial equality—and how powerful forces arrayed against him.
A principled athlete strives for social justice.
Kaepernick forthrightly details the activism that earned him global renown but cost him his NFL career. In 2016, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback “was filled with disgust” after police shootings of fellow Black men in several American cities. Before a preseason game, he made a spontaneous decision: “It hit me in that moment that I should find a seat” during the national anthem. He did the same at two more games before reporters noticed. Kaepernick will forever be associated with “taking a knee” during the anthem, but he credits Eric Reid—a teammate who agreed with Kaepernick’s message—for suggesting that they kneel together during subsequent anthems. The protest changed everything for Kaepernick. President Trump vilified him. Kaepernick and his wife received death threats. And though he’d taken the 49ers to a Super Bowl, no teams would sign him. He will likely make news for his take on Jay-Z, whose lucrative partnership with the NFL was criticized as an attempt to launder the league’s reputation. Visiting Africa, where Kaepernick learns about “African leaders who willingly sold their own people to the enslavers,” he “couldn’t help but to think about Jay-Z and the NFL.” In opening chapters, Kaepernick recalls suffering traumatic racial abuse as a child. Being in “white spaces”—he was adopted by white parents—placed him “under a microscope every minute of every day.” He isn’t always nuanced, depicting some people he disagrees with as cartoonishly clueless. But his writing about how college and pro teams “lied” to him about injuries underlines his “feeling of being a disposable commodity.” A decade has passed since Kaepernick played in the NFL, but he stays fit in case “a team needing a QB” calls.
A football star’s bracing account of his battle for racial equality—and how powerful forces arrayed against him.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781538777879
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Legacy Lit/Hachette
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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