Black journalists fuming after Trump invitation to their association’s annual convention

Some Black journalists are furious with their professional organization for inviting former President Donald Trump to participate in an event on stage Wednesday during the group’s annual convention in Chicago. 

Mr. Trump’s scheduled appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists Annual Convention and Career Fair has provoked irate opposition from some of the group’s members, one of whom called it “a slap in the face” to Black women journalists. The GOP presidential nominee is set to take questions from a panel of three journalists.

Amid the furor, the convention’s co-chair, Karen Attiah, announced Tuesday that she was stepping down from her role as an organizer of the meeting.

“To the journalists interviewing Trump, I wish them the best of luck,” Ms. Attiah, a longtime Washington Post columnist, said on X. “While my decision was influenced by a variety of factors, I was not involved or consulted with in any way with the decision to platform Trump in such a format.”

Journalist April Ryan, whom Mr. Trump called a “loser” when she covered his presidency, said, “The reports of attacks on Black women White House correspondents by the then president of the United States are not myth or conjecture, but fact.” The NABJ named her its journalist of the year in 2017, Mr. Trump’s first year in office.

“To have a presumed orchestrated session with the former president is an affront to what this organization stands for and a slap in the face to the Black women journalists (NABJ journalists of the year) who had to protect themselves from the wrath of this Republican presidential nominee who is promoting an authoritarian agenda that plans to destroy this nation and her democracy with his Project 2025,” she said on X. “I object to this NABJ session with Donald Trump in Chicago.”

Project 2025 is a policy document authored by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank. Mr. Trump has said it is not part of his platform but Democrats have presented it as his agenda.

Mr. Trump’s event will be moderated by Rachel Scott, senior congressional correspondent for ABC News, Fox News’ Harris Faulkner and Kadia Goba, politics reporter at Semafor. His campaign said he will answer questions “that will concentrate on the most pressing issues facing the Black community.”

NABJ President Ken Lemon said they’re looking forward to “attendees hearing from former President Trump on the critical issues our members and their audiences care about most.”

“While NABJ does not endorse political candidates as a journalism organization, we understand the serious work of our members, and welcome the opportunity for them to ask the tough questions that will provide the truthful answers Black Americans want and need to know,” Mr. Lemon said.

Ms. Ryan became the longest-serving Black woman White House correspondent in 2022. In 2018, while she was the White House correspondent and Washington bureau chief for American Urban Radio Networks, she had an encounter with Mr. Trump in which he wound up calling her a “loser” and “nasty.” He also repeatedly told her to “sit down.”

“[It] was one of the ugliest moments I have ever seen or felt in my life,” she told “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski in 2022.

On X, Jim Trotter, the 2023 NABJ journalist of the year, called the invitation of Mr. Trump “a poor decision,” so much so that “it’s difficult to put into words.”

Publicist Lauren Paige called it a “horrible choice,” in her statement on X.

“NABJ, I understand being unbiased but having the man who has and continues to actively disrespect media and Black media like did we forget how he treated April Ryan and other journalists?” she wrote.

Mr. Trump has touted that he has done more for Black Americans during his time in office than other presidents, with a “possible exception” of President Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Polls taken before President Biden dropped out of the race earlier this month showed Mr. Trump making significant gains among Black voters compared with the 2020 election.

“Historic rates of Black voters now support President Trump, and the reason is simple: Black voters know that President Trump is the only presidential candidate who can deliver results on day one because he already has,” the campaign said in a statement.

Vice President Kamala Harris was also invited to participate in the convention, according to the association, but her confirmation is pending.

The Washington Times has reached out to NABJ and Ms. Harris for comment.