“From the press and the pulpit, we have suffered much by being incorrectly represented. Our vices and our degradation are ever arrayed against us, but our virtues are passed by unnoticed....” John B. Russwurm.  When John B. Russwurm, founder of Freedom’s Journal, the first Black-owned and operated newspaper in the U.S., published those words in the paper’s first issue in 1827, he was expressing his view of the biased portrayal of African-Americans in the White-owned press. With Freedom’s Journal, Russwurm sought to give African-Americans a voice in the media so they would be accurately represented. From that point on, Russwurm wanted to ensure that the virtues of African-Americans would never again be “passed by unnoticed.”

Russwurm also was addressing a media divide, of “haves and have-nots,” that existed 175 years ago; the “haves” were White Americans whose newspapers gave voice to their important issues, as opposed to the African-American” have-nots,” who did not have newspapers to give a voice to their important issues.
Although much progress has been made over the past 175 years in areas of social justice, the divide in communications still exists and has taken on a new face known as the digital divide, that invisible yet vast gulf between those with access to the Internet and cutting-edge technology and those without.

Today, there is a digital media divide. While seemingly all mainstream newspapers have lively Web sites, the majority of the African-American press does not have the resources to establish robust Internet sites.
Many in our community have adopted a personal and professional mission to close both the social and digital divide by ensuring that the voices of minorities be heard through freedom of speech, and by expanding hardware and software infrastructure within minority communities.
Groups like the NAACP, which for decades have taken a proactive stance to increase the public’s awareness of restraints of freedom, has adopted “Freedom Under Fire” as its theme for its 2002 national convention.

And the National Newspapers Publishers Association (NNPA), which in 2001 developed a network to broaden its publishing capabilities by providing 200 of its member newspapers with the technology to disseminate news written to, for and about Black people over the World Wide Web.
United Parcel Service (UPS) provided the initial funding to assist the NNPA’s BlackPressUSA Network in the development of the customized Web sites.
To date, 50 community newspapers have come online. UPS is proud of its corporate partnership with the NNPA and its part in this historic, groundbreaking initiative.
Ben Jealous, executive director of the NNPA Foundation, said having the papers online provides them with cutting edge, affordable and easy-to-use publishing technology and affords them the opportunity to bridge the digital media divide.

Citing UPS’s commitment to help build strong communities nationwide, the NAACP recently presented the company with its coveted “Corporate Citizen of the Year Award,” which recognizes U.S. corporations for their involvement and support of critical community issues.
Having Freedom Under Fire is one such issue that, in its purest form, speaks to a threat to our ideal of one nation, “indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all,” and harks back to the need for all voices to be heard. We salute the NAACP and its national convention and are proud of our long history of collaboration with the nation’s preeminent civil rights organization.
And as the NNPA (better known as the Black Press of America) celebrates its 175th birthday, UPS remains committed to doing its part to help close the digital media divide, which would assuredly transform America’s Black community newspapers into international news sources.
As a long supporter of the NAACP, NNPA and other social conscious organizations, UPS will continue to help expand educational and economic opportunities for minorities and other citizens. Just as John B. Russwurm’s Freedom Journal, which was published in the same year that slavery was abolished in New York state, sought to give an outlet to an audience of 500,000 ‘free persons of colour’ and about 100,000 newly freed Blacks, the NAACP and the NNPA are seeking to keep the beacon of freedom aflame by serving notice that “Freedom is Under Fire.”
Evern Cooper is an African-American executive at UPS and president of The UPS Foundation, which provided the initial funding for the program to help expand the Black Press online.