NNPA NEWSWIRE — In a 2008 oral history interview, Watkins described himself as a capitalist without hesitation. Ownership, he said, was not optional for Black advancement. Newspapers were economic engines as much as civic institutions, and advertising dollars spent in Black communities should remain there.
Thomas H. Watkins, who died in December at 88, founded the New York Daily Challenge and made it the first Black-owned daily newspaper in the city’s history.
Thomas H. Watkins built a daily Black newspaper in New York City when few believed it could survive and even fewer wanted it to succeed…