FOUNDING
The People’s Voice Black Weekly News was one of the major outgrowths of the Wilkie Clark Memorial Foundation. African-Americans in East Alabama and West Georgia felt very strongly that they needed A VOICE!! And we were ready to fulfill that need. Believing that establishing a publication would also fulfill one of the important missions of the Clark Memorial Foundation — to put in place various “institutions” within our communities to remind us of the impact Wilkie Clark had on the community, WE WENT TO WORK TO GET IT DONE!
The newspaper was named “The People’s Voice” after much deliberation by Mrs. Jeanetta Stevens Springer, Christopher Daniel, Reverend William A. Dean, and Mrs. Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson. And it was decided that the paper would come out on Friday mornings… but because of conflicts with the printer, it was always usually Saturday morning.
In so doing, we succeeded in establishing East Alabama and West Georgia’s FIRST AND ONLY African American owned black newspaper publication (to our knowledge). That was a noteworthy achievement. The paper was very well received in all of the surrounding neighborhoods where it was distributed.
THE ECONOMICS OF PUBLISHING
The Newspaper was published for approximately 4 years (between July, 2005 and February 2009). During this period of time, the Wilkie Clark Memorial Foundation produced approximately 180 weekly issues of the newspaper… missing no more that 5 print dates over that period of time. During the years of publication, the newspaper was printed weekly at a cost ranging from $350.00 to $600.00 a week, depending on the number of pages and the color scheme, at a total cost of more than $70.000.00 over the years that the publication was in print.
In addition to the cost to print the publication, The People’s Voice was indeed a viable asset to the economy, producing revenue from newspaper sales, advertising sales, and annual subscriptions.
The People’s Voice was conceived and evolved through the efforts of the board members of the Wilkie Clark Memorial Foundation, who all felt strongly that there was a need for the African American community to own and control it’s own voice.
It was a wonderful idea and concept. But, in retrospect, we believe that it was roughly two decades too late to fully establish a full-fledged loyal following like similar black publications who came on the scene years earlier.
OPINIONS
As we continued to publish and distribute the newspaper, there were some board members who felt that we needed to remove the “BLACK” from the banner which read “The People’s Voice Black Weekly News.” Some felt we should use the “African-American” designation. And others felt we should use NO designation. There were always issues of one kind or another.
PERSONNEL
The entire board pitched in with the task of writing or recruiting writers, helping to get it out. REAL HIGH PRAISE is due to Mrs. Mary Turner, who diligently and faithfully mailed the paper and kept up with the subscriptions with meticulous accuracy.
REAL HIGH PRAISE IS DUE to Mr. Gene A. Thornton, who often went around to various events and took photographs and also wrote articles; and Mr. L.C. Thornton who wrote dynamic columns from week to week, that stirred the thinking of a community.
DESIGN AND LAY-OUT
Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of publishing The People’s Voice was the issue of design and lay-out.
We initially met with a gentleman — Mr. Monroe Thornton — from Birmingham, Alabama, who had initially agreed to do the lay-out work. He came to Roanoke, and met with us, and we discussed at length what would be required. However, we can’t really say what happened to that commitment.
After several “failed” attempts to contract with anybody who could design and lay-out the publication, this obstacle was eventually tackled and overcome by Mrs. Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson, who designed The People’s Voice, and laid the publication out weekly.
To Charlotte, it was the ONLY logical answer to the issue of design and lay-out, since she already had the background in designing and printing funeral programs for her mortuary business, which she had been doing since age 14. She also had a basic understanding of the process because of her broad experience with computers and digital print design… so believing that the learning curve wouldn’t be quite so steep for her, she concluded learning to do the lay-out was the ONLY logical way to tackle the problem of lay-out.
Essentially, in anticipation of establishing a publication, Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson had already purchased a $5,000.00 production software suite, and studied the documentation, mastered the software, and studied the art of newspaper lay-out and design, until the first issue was produced. After getting the first issue successfully laid out… it was a down-hill process, the rest of the way. From time to time, Charlotte experimented with various designs and lay-outs, in an effort to keep the newspaper both attractive and interesting.
Though Mrs. Clark-Frieson never intended to be the one performing the weekly function of
the design and lay-out of the pages, it ended up becoming her permanent assignment… one which she had initially vowed to train someone else to do.
The weekly lay-out of the publication was done in Ms. Clark-Frieson’s den, which also served as a home-office. Later, Mrs. Clark-Frieson was blessed by the assistance of Mrs. Carolyn J. Davis, who also learned the design software suite, and then she became a trusted assistant in page lay-out and design.
Though Charlotte Clark-Frieson eventually mastered the art of page-design, even she confessed, it was not as easy a lift as she had presumed it was going to be. Laying out one issue of the newspaper took hours upon hours every week… often taking a huge toll on her health and mental state. She decided that the way to continue doing it, live through the process, and keep her sanity — was to limit the page-count. Therefore, with every passing week, she learned that brevity was the order of the day. The paper quickly went from a big 22-page documentary, to a 10-page efficient machine.
As it turned out, the task of laying out the newspaper was a huge one indeed… and often very stressful especially for Charlotte, who was also performing a number of other important tasks in connection with the newspaper.
TODAY Charlotte swears, she aged 15 years, during the publication’s 4+ years in print.
“It’s the hardest thing I ever did… but it was one of the most rewarding…. Publishing The People’s Voice ran a close 2nd to running the funeral home.”
PROBLEMS
One of the major issues we encountered in publishing the newspaper, was finding enough people with the skills, or willingness to learn the skills necessary to get the publication laid out efficiently from week to week. This meant the work of reporting, interviewing, assembling, laying-out and production and transmission to our printer, and finally distribution, fell on the shoulders of two or three people… IMPOSSIBLE!
Following the election of President Obama, in November of 2008, the People’s Voice began to die a slow death as the economy took a steep downturn. Businesses began to experience losses, and were forced to cut their budgets… particularly their advertising budgets. The other problem that our publication had — was the problem of acceptance. Those business owners who could have and probably SHOULD HAVE supported the publication through advertising were not open-minded enough to understand why the African American community was entitled to a publication focusing on their concerns and interests. Who couldn’t understand that they comprised a market, just like any other market?
In addition to all of the above, it also appeared that many of our in-store vendors became increasingly hostile toward the newspaper, which let us know just how POLITICAL the publication was, as well as how controversial.
In a country that purported to believe in democracy, there were those who actually resented our exercise of our First Amendment Right to a “Free Press.” This merely confirmed what we have known for centuries. They wanted the black dollar, but, they did not believe in black equality — NOT REALLY — NOT THE WAY THEY PRETENDED TO.
This was merely another example of the 1% controlling the fate of the 99%. There were not enough black business enterprises, and businesses to generate the real advertising revenue that was required in order for The People’s Voice to remain viable.
The market we targeted, although they were consumers… they were considered the underdogs… Nobody really wants to stand up for the underdog. And here was a publication that did just that.
So, as our financial resources began to decline, we were faced with the issue of being like every other run-of-the-mill newspaper … or publishing our convictions. What was the need of publishing, if we were going to be like every other publication.
In addition to the issue of ads and revenue, a second truth sealed the fate of our publication, and that was, numerous HUGE dailies were failing at an alarming rate as the impact of the “digital age” posed fierce competition with traditional print newspaper publishers who tried hard to compete with the lightening fast digital print media monster.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
During our short life-span, we accomplished some great things… such as gaining the attention of numerous local agencies and institutions who emerged from the “People’s Voice” era with the understanding that African American citizens had gained a new sense of empowerment through the printing press. That they now understood that the truest way to have a “free press” is to own it. They had learned some valuable lessons about their 1st amendment constitutional rights.
During our last days, we also managed to land on the front page of the New York Times in an article that was parroted on numerous news blogs and political blogs, including the Huffington Post, that explored the division among southern black voters in the Clinton-Obama contest during January of 2008.
FUTURE OUTLOOK
However, let it be understood that The People’s Voice is NOT ENTIRELY DEAD YET.
WE HAVE NOT BURIED IT. There’s not a day that passes that somebody doesn’t ask “When are ya’ll going to bring back The People’s Voice?”
Just recently, our Printer called me, wanting us to resurrect the newspaper, because we understand that we gave them some very good business (to the tune of $20,000.00 (more or less) per year. They miss that revenue!
ALSO, recently, there have been those who have frantically sought to “look us up” in an effort to encourage us to resurrect the paper; or some desiring to outright buy the paper; and others who wanted to imitate our newspaper.
In the final analysis, whether we resurrect the now silent People’s Voice, or not, one thing we can certainly say we gained from it, is some very very good lessons about the REAL POWER of publishing. Those who publish can truly make a strong impact in their community. Therein lies real power to change things… hopefully for the better.
ARCHIVAL
On this page and other pages linked to it, we are in the process of archiving all of the back issues of The People’s Voice Weekly News.
To view the archive, please continue to check back with this site from time to time, where I will take personal responsibility for maintaining the archive.
Click here to view official PDF archive
Click here to visit old People’s Voice Blog