Dear Afrigeneas Writers:

For those of us who admired Gerald M Boyd, former Managing Editor of the New York Times, it was heart wrenching to read of his passing in November.

Les Payne, Editor at Newsday wrote that the NY Times' Gerald Boyd, "had led coverage that won the newspaper three Pulitzers."

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/columnists/ny-oppay024999727dec03,0,5188965.column?coll=ny-opinion-columnists

The National Association of Black Journalists remembered him:

"During his tenure and under his leadership, the Times won Pulitzer prizes for stories on the first World Trade center bombing, poverty and the stunning series on Race in America. Boyd would achieve even greater acclaim for his leadership of the Times during the September 11th attacks, which earned the paper six additional Pulitzer prizes."

http://www.nabj.org/newsroom/news_releases/story/52849p-80326c.html

I remember the Times' "Race in America" and musing and debating with friends about how far we'd come, and how far we hadn't.

But it was the September 11th coverage of "A Nation Challenged" "PORTRAITS OF GRIEF" that touched so many New Yorkers and me. Each morning as the rerouted Path train bypassed Ground Zero on its way to New Jersey, I would read the portraits of the victims of September 11th. They were real people, not just thousands of faceless victims. They were white and black, Latino and Asian working class people from the boroughs; middle and upper-class Whites, Asians, and Blacks from Manhattan and the suburbs; Christian, Muslim and Jewish; West Indian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern and Asian immigrants. Boyd and the Times' journalists gave us a needed compassion to overcome our personal grief, fear and vulnerability. We were Americans of every color and faith united in a new age of terror.

But the general market press remembered Gerald M. Boyd a different way. And it was heart wrenching too.

George Curry's condemnation of the press is at the link directly below. It's entitled:

"Gerald Boyd Deserves a Better Send-Off"

Please join me in remembering Gerald M. Boyd.

Write Away