Wilbert Tatum 76 Activist Publisher dies

Spirit of Sankofa expresses.....

Much honor and respect to a great and courageous brother..
A deep brother that stood against police brutality, redling and other manifastations of discrimination. One of Harlems FINEST.
Our thoughts and our prayers go up for his wife and family. We should all strive to remember the sacrifices made for the community as a whole.
For brothers like him shown us the way.

We are so glad he passed this way.

Wilbert Tatum, 76, Activist Publisher, Dies

By DENNIS HEVESI

Published: February 27, 2009

Wilbert A. Tatum, the often provocative former publisher and editor of The New York Amsterdam News, whose name became almost synonymous with that of the oldest and best-known of the city's black newspapers, died Thursday while on vacation with his wife in Dubrovnik, Croatia. He was 76 and lived in Manhattan.

The cause was multiple organ failure, said Mr. Tatum's daughter, Elinor Ruth Tatum, who took over as publisher and editor of the weekly paper in 1998. Ms. Tatum said her father was diabetic, but added that the specific cause had not yet been determined.

The Amsterdam, as it is often called, was founded 100 years ago. Mr. Tatum bought it in 1971 with a group of prominent investors that included Percy E. Sutton, the former Manhattan borough president, and H. Carl McCall, the former New York State comptroller. Mr. Tatum assumed control of the paper in 1983; he bought out the last investor in 1996 and remained chairman of the board until his death.

With editorial offices in a fourth-floor walk-up on Frederick Douglass Boulevard between 125th and 126th Streets in Harlem, The Amsterdam News primarily covered what it called "a small town in a metropolis." It reported on Harlem's galas and local residents' achievements, weddings and deaths. But it also focused, particularly under Mr. Tatum, on issues of police brutality, redlining and other manifestations of discrimination. Although the paper's circulation fell significantly during Mr. Tatum's tenure - it was 58,907 in 1977 and 25,962 in 2000 - its imprimatur was always coveted by many politicians.

As Mr. Tatum clacked out editorial after editorial on his typewriter (he barely made the switch to computers), The Amsterdam was both cheered and vilified. Critics accused Mr. Tatum of fanning the flames of racial tension and of sometimes taking an anti-Semitic stance.

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