A Reliable
Voice in the
Community

Volume 6
Issue 30
Oct. 7 - 13, 2009

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Paving the way

This past weekend is definitely one I won’t soon forget.

Not because I did anything illegal and/or immoral. It was about an “older soul” who taught this old soul the true meaning of “passing the torch.”

On Saturday night, the Bay Area Black Journalists Association hosted its sixth annual Young Journalists Scholarship Gala. As vice president of print for the organization, it was a must attend.

More than 200 people from all areas of the Bay Area — journalists and non-journalists — attended the event, the main goal being to raise scholarship monies for student journalists.

Photos by Z'ma Wyatt

Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Belva Davis and BABJA President Bob Butler

We awarded two $2,500 scholarships this year: The Luci S. Williams Houston Memorial Scholarship, in memory of the former San Jose Mercury News photojournalist, was given to UC Berkeley graduate student N’Jeri Eaton, and Martin Ricard, also of University of California, Berkeley, was presented with the Chauncey Wendell Bailey Jr. Scholarship, named in honor of the slain journalist killed on the streets of Oakland two years ago.

The evening also included dinner, dancing and a tribute to veteran journalists who have paved the way for those of us who work in the industry today and for those who have yet to come.

BABJA President Bob Butler, Luci S. Williams Houston scholarship winner N'Jeri Eaton,
BABJA Scholarship Chair Ellison Horne and BABJA Treasurer John W. Ellis IV

This year, award-winning journalist Belva Davis was honored with the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Not only has she spent more than 40 years in the industry, but in the mid-1960s, she successfully moved from segregated radio and newspaper to become the first black woman hired as a commercial television news reporter on the West Coast.

I am proud of Belva and appreciate all she has done to make the reporting road a little smoother for me personally. However, it was her husband, Bill Moore, who really impressed me the other night.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve known and love Belva and been blessed to glean from her experience and wisdom, but I’d never had the opportunity to talk with Bill until Saturday. It was halfway through dinner when he turned to me:

“So … what is it you do?” he said, a small grin on his face.

Caught a little off guard, I quickly listed my various “jobs.” I thought that would suffice, but he wanted more.

“So tell me about them.”

BABJA President Bob Butler and Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Bill Moore

The next several minutes I spent trying to convince him my various work was important while he continued to quiz me on the significance of each. But he wasn’t one of those hard-nosed veteran writers who has put in his time at the old typewriter — or in Bill’s case, the old film camera — and in his mind, will always be the master of his domain. It was the look in Bill’s eye as he hung on my every word that made me want to tell him more and take in all he had to say.

I could see the fire that I often feel when talking to journalists younger than me. I listened to him share his thoughts on newspapers and our industry with such dedication and love. I then really understood why our organization had decided to surprise Bill with his own Lifetime Achievement Award, following his wife’s tribute and accolades.

Chauncey Wendell Bailey Jr. scholarship winner Martin Ricard

Bill Moore and Belva Davis are more than the past for journalists like myself. They are the current, continuing to guide their colleagues along the way, and the future, examples of all we can be. And there are people like Bill and Belva in industries of every kind — those who became the first, those who made a difference, those who never stop giving back.

Look for your own Bill and Belva. And once you find them, don’t ever take for granted how much they’ve impacted your life.

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