Black Agenda Report
In the fall of 2006, Glen Ford, Bruce Dixon, Margaret Kimberley and Leutisha Stills of CBC Monitor left Black Commentator, which Ford had co-founded and edited since 2002, and launched Black Agenda Report.
Executive Editor Glen Ford: A Certified Elder of the Black Journalism Tribe
Historic "firsts," "mosts," and "onlys" are the hallmarks of Glen Ford’s long career.
The son of famed disc jockey Rudy “The Deuce” Rutherford, the first Black man to host a non-gospel television show in the Deep South – Columbus, Georgia, 1958 – Glen was reading newswire copy on-the-air at age eleven. Glen’s first full-time broadcast news job was at James Brown’s Augusta, Georgia radio station WRDW, in 1970 – where ‘The Godfather of Soul” shortened Glen’s surname to “Ford.”
Glen Ford worked as a newsperson at four more local stations: in Columbus, Georgia, Atlanta, Baltimore – where he created his first radio syndication, a half-hour weekly news magazine called “Black World Report” – and Washington, DC. In 1974, Ford joined the Mutual Black Network (88 stations), where he served as Capitol Hill, State Department and White House correspondent, and Washington Bureau Chief, while also producing a daily radio commentary. In 1977, Ford co-launched, produced and hosted “America’s Black Forum” (ABF), the first nationally syndicated Black news interview program on commercial television.
ABF made Black broadcast history. For the next four years, the program generated national and international headlines nearly every week. Never before – and never since – had a Black news entity commanded the weekly attention of the news services (AP, UPI, Reuters, Agence France-Presse – even Tass, the Soviet news agency) and the broadcast networks.
While still host and co-owner of ABF, Ford in 1979 created “Black Agenda Reports,” which provided five programs each day on Black Women, History, Business, Sports and Entertainment to 66 radio stations. The syndication produced more short-form programming than the two existing Black radio networks, combined.
Ford also produced the McDonald’s-sponsored radio series “Black History Through Music,” aired on 50 stations, nationwide.
In 1987, Ford launched “Rap It Up,” the first nationally syndicated Hip Hop music show, broadcast on 65 radio stations. During its six years of operations, “Rap It Up” allowed Ford to play an important role in the maturation of a new African American musical genre. He organized three national rap music conventions, and wrote the Hip Hop column for Jack The Rapper’s Black radio trade magazine.
Ford co-founded BlackCommentator.com (BC) in 2002. The weekly journal quickly became the most influential Black political site on the Net. In October, 2006, Ford and the entire writing team left BC to launch BlackAgendaReport.com (BAR).
In addition to his broadcast and Internet experience, Glen Ford was national political columnist for Encore American & Worldwide News magazine; founded The Black Commentator and Africana Policies magazines; authored The Big Lie: An Analysis of U.S. Media Coverage of the Grenada Invasion (IOJ, 1985); voiced over 1000 radio commercials (half of which he also produced) and scores of television commercials; and served as reporter and editor for three newspapers (two daily, one weekly).
Ford was a founding member of the Washington chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ); executive board member of the National Alliance of Third World Journalists (NATWJ); media specialist for the National Minority Purchasing Council; and has spoken at scores of colleges and universities.
Managing Editor Bruce Dixon: Longtime Activist, Habitual Troublemaker
A habitual troublemaker and incorrigible activist, Bruce Dixon has been comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable since 1968.
As a rank and file member of the Black Panther Party in 1969-1970, a 1970s rank-and-file union activist in a string of factories, plants and workplaces, a 1980s community organizer in what were then some of the nation's poorest neighborhoods, to organizing and consulting through the 1990s Dixon has built an impressive record of service in and to the cause of human liberation.
In 2002 he began writing articles for Black Commentator, the predecessor of this publication, and broke the first accurate analyses of the phenomena around the election of Denise Majette over Cynthia McKinney in Georgia that year.
In 2006, with Glen Ford and Margaret Kimberley, Dixon co-founded Black Agenda Report. As managing editor at BAR Dixon is chiefly responsible for maintaning this web site. He currently resides in Marietta GA, and is a member of the state committee of the Georgia Green Party.
Senior Columnist & Editor Margaret Kimberley
Margaret Kimberley is a New York based writer and activist for peace and justice issues. She has been a columnist for Black Agenda Report since its inception, and was for four years the weekly columnist for Black Commentator. Her work has also appeared in the Dallas Morning News, the Chicago Defender, and on web sites such as Alternet, Counter Punch, Tom Paine and Buzzflash.
Ms. Kimberley is a member of the War Resisters League speakers bureau, Stop the Merchants of Death (SMOD.) SMOD speakers are committed to informing the public about corporate connections to American military activity, especially the occupation of Iraq. She is also a member of Clergy and Laity Concerned About Iraq. In 2006 Ms. Kimberley moderated a forum entitled, "People of Faith for Peace and Justice." The forum addressed the need for politically progressive Christians to have a greater voice in public policy debates.
Margaret Kimberley has spoken at Riverside Church in New York City, at seminars hosted by the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, and to student groups at institutions such as Mount Holyoke College and Drew University. Ms. Kimberley has also been a guest on radio talk shows around the country.
Leutisha Stills - CBC Monitor
Leutisha Stills currently serves on the Faculty/Administration at George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia, as an Equal Opportunity Specialist since 2006. Prior to her employment at George Mason, Ms. Stills served as an Equal Opportunity Specialist with the City and County of San Francisco, Department of Public Health, as well as the U. S. Departments of Labor and Transportation since 1989. Ms. Stills is also a member of the CBC Monitor Group, an organization devoted to monitoring and reporting on the legislative performance of the Congressional Black Caucus, and she is also the founder of the Black Progressive PAC, a political action committee devoted to the education of, and encouragement of increased civic participation and the preservation of a democratic society. Additionally, Ms. Stills also serves as Legislative Liaison for the American Association for Affirmative Action, a 32-year organization that promotes and advocates affirmative action initiatives domestically and internationally.
Ms. Stills has a B. A. in Political Science from St. Mary's College of California; a Master's in Public Administration from California State University, East Bay (formerly Hayward), and has completed pre-doctoral studies in Political Science at San Francisco State University. Her pre-dissertation papers in this area are "Facilitating Accountability on the Part of Black Elected Officials: Part I" (December 2005), and "Facilitating Accountability on the Part of Black Elected Officials: Part II (August 2006), while awaiting acceptance as a Doctoral candidate in the School of Public Policy/Political Science at one of three colleges: George Mason University, George Washington University, and University of Maryland, College Park.
Ms. Stills' "CBC Monitor Report" articles have been published by BuzzFlash, The Progressive Beacon, OpEd News, The Political Junkies, and other weblogs. She was a former radio co-host of the show "Labor on the Job", on Pacifica Radio Network (station KPFA) in Berkeley, California, and has appeared on the "GW on the Hill" radio show on XM Satellite Radio and FreeMix Radio Network shows, discussing the CBC Monitor Report Card, all from Washington, DC. She is a frequent blogger at Jack and Jill Politics, where she appears as the Christian Progressive Liberal.
