Black Ink celebrates its 40th anniversary

The first edition of Black Ink Newspaper featured a spread on the groundbreaking start of the Malcolm X College in Chicago.

Through a 40-year history, the Black Student Movement publication survived the civil rights movement and pushed for the construction of a black cultural center.

More recently, it reported on the election of the nation’s first black president.

And while it is the same publication, its tone and role have evolved.

That’s what current Editor-in-Chief Kirstin Garriss found out when she met Monday afternoon with Cureton Johnson, Black Ink’s first editor, in honor of the publication’s 40th anniversary.

Johnson, a 1971 graduate, said Black Ink involved “agitation and advocacy” in battling segregationist views in the classroom, protesting in the Food Service Workers’ Strike and mourning the death of Martin Luther King Jr.

“Students loved it not because it was so great, but because it was ours,” he said. “It was a hot item.”

He said it offered the minority voice in hostile times, one that didn’t always have white support.

“We could say things in Black Ink that we couldn’t in The (Daily) Tar Heel,” Johnson said.

The publication had a shaky start after administrators took away funding after two issues, citing the magazine’s controversial and incendiary articles.

“By the time we were geared up, we were out of business,” Johnson said, adding that funding was later returned to the group.

Johnson, now a minister at Fayetteville’s First Baptist Church, majored in journalism and said he’s been published in several N.C. newspapers and The Washington Post since his start.

But he told Garriss he doesn’t want to see inflammatory speech in Black Ink now. “Y’all got to put aside some of the old junk the older generations had,” he said.

Garriss said she liked hearing a different perspective on what student life was like during the civil rights movement.

“It was very empowering,” she said. “Now I feel like I’m doing something bigger than what I initially thought.”

In the past few years, Black Ink has struggled with organization and diminished in prominence. Garriss, who said she’s got a strong 20-student staff, plans to revive it this year. And she said she’d take Johnson’s advice to heart.

“Be creative and enjoy it,” he told her. “Enjoy the ride.”



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.