We are thrilled to share that our Founding Director, Dr. Allissa V. Richardson, will be speaking on an esteemed panel for the Black Media Initiative’s event, How Black Media Archives Black History.
Hosted by the Center for Community Media at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, this conversation will explore the critical role Black media plays in preserving and monetizing historical archives. Dr. Richardson will be joined by other distinguished panelists, including Brandon Nightingale of Howard University and Savannah Wood of Afro Charities, for this important discussion on February 13, from 4:00–5:00 PM ET. The event will be held virtually via Zoom.
Join us as we share how we built the Second Draft Project and provide a demonstration of how it works. Additionally, you’ll learn about:
- Approaches to growing an archive
- How other leaders are monetizing their archives
- Historical moments covered by Black media
Speakers
Brandon Nightingale, Howard University
Dr. Allissa V. Richardson, University of Southern California
Savannah Wood, Afro Charities
Register for “How Black Media Archives Black History”
If you do not receive a confirmation email after registering or if you have any questions about the event, email the Center for Community Media at ccm@journalism.cuny.edu.
Speakers
Brandon Nightingale is a historian and the Black Press Archives digitization project manager at the Moorland Spingarn Research Center at Howard University. Brandon’s project: to research and document the history of the Black press. The Black Press Archive was started at Howard in 1973, donated by the National Newspaper Publishers Association. Now, fifty years on, the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation has gifted the Archive $2 million to digitize the historic collection.
Dr. Allissa V. Richardson is an associate professor of journalism at USC Annenberg, and the founder of the Charlotta Bass Journalism & Justice Lab. She researches how African Americans use mobile and social media to produce innovative forms of journalism — especially in times of crisis. Richardson is the author of Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones and the New Protest #Journalism (Oxford University Press, 2020). The award-winning book explores the lives of 15 mobile journalist-activists who have documented the Black Lives Matter movement using only mobile and social media.
Savannah Wood, an artist with roots in Baltimore and Los Angeles, is the Executive Director of Afro Charities, where she leads efforts to increase access to the AFRO American Newspapers’ archives. She has guided the organization through growth, initiated new programming, and attracted support from national funders. Wood graduated cum laude from the University of Southern California and is a 2024/2025 Johns Hopkins University Tabb Center Humanities Fellow. She lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland, sharing and preserving Black stories.
About the Black Media Initiative
The Black Media Initiative is a national capacity building initiative for Black owned and controlled media. Its aim is to support Black media by providing research, training and connections. We are a part of the Center for Community Media which is housed at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
April 2, 2025 
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm 
Wallis Annenberg Hall (ANN), Sheindlin Forum (106) 