In those ten years, with an impressive circulation of 170,000 and more than forty national awards to its credit, Emerge became a serious part of the American mainstream. Time hailed its “uncompromising voice.” The Washington Post declared that Emerge “gets better with each issue.” Then, after nearly a decade, Emerge magazine closed its doors. Now, for the first time, here’s a collection of the finest articles from a publication that changed the face of African American news.
From the Clarence Thomas nomination to the Bill Clinton impeachment . . . from the life of Louis Farrakhan to the death of Betty Shabazz . . . from reparations for slavery to the rise of blacks on Wall Street . . . the most important people, topics, and turning points of this remarkable period are featured in incisive articles by first-rate writers.
Emerge may have ended with the millennium, but–as this incomparable volume proves–the quality of its coverage is still unequaled, the extent of its impact still emerging. Stirring tribute, uncanny time capsule, riveting read–The Best of Emerge Magazine is also the best of American journalism.
Author
George E. Curry
George E. Curry was editor in chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service and BlackPressUSA. His weekly column was syndicated by NNPA to more than 200 African American newspapers. Curry was also editor in chief of Emerge: Black America’s Newsmagazine from May 1993 until June 2000. He was past president of the American Society of Magazine Editors, the first African American to ever hold that position, and he was on the National Association of Black Journalists’ list of Most Influential Black Journalists of the Twentieth Century. Before taking over as editor of Emerge, Curry served as New York bureau chief and as a Washington correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. Prior to joining the Tribune, Curry worked as a reporter for Sports Illustrated and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He died in 2016.
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Sylvester Monroe
Sylvester Monroe is an assistant foreign editor at The Washington Post. He was a Newsweek reporter and a correspondent in the Los Angeles bureau of Time magazine.
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Les Payne
Les Payne is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, author, and former editor and columnist for Newsday.
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