Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Confessions of a CUB reporter at the Philadelphia Tribune 1978 - 1980


***************** H.D. was a fellow activist who was at the hart of the anti-gentrification movement in Philadelphia. As an almost- attorney he explained to me several times about the Year 2000 plan and how it would impact on Philadelphia’s BLACK neighborhoods and BLACK people living in the City of Brotherly LOVe. To say I had a crush on Mr. H.D. would be to say ``hay guys hasn’t the East Coast been rather warm here lately.’’  Tall slim, with a big smile, light-skinned, handsome – what was there not to like. H.D. let me take His official campaign picture when He ran for City Council at-large in 1979 and I was more than honored.  The crush I had on Him wouldn’t go away as I struggled to maintain a professional relationship with He being one of several people I interviewed frequently and me being a cub reporter for the Philadelphia Tribune. The opportunity I had to write for one of the oldest ``BLACK’’ papers in the country that has consistently published was an honor that took a year and a half to wear thin.  When they demoted Elaine Wells { who is BLACK } from City Editor back to a top reporter and hired a (I have to say it) Jewish woman as City Editor, I was floored and appalled.  Quitting was my only dignified option. I didn’t take anyone with me as I thought I might have, but I felt good searching for another job and planning to go to Temple.

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