‘A go-to source’: Upcoming event to celebrate 50 years of the Winston-Salem Chronicle, the city’s first and only Black newspaper

Featured photo: Old issues of the Winston-Salem Chronicle (courtesy of the Winston-Salem African-American Archive)

Ernie Pitt never thought that the little newspaper he started 50 years ago would still be in existence today.

“I never thought it would last as long as it has and it certainly has exceeded all of my expectations,” Pitt says. “It became exactly what I wanted it to become.”

On Sept. 5, 1974, when Pitt started the Winston-Salem Chronicle, the city’s first and only Black newspaper, he did so with a fire in his heart. 

As reported by outlets in the past, as a senior in UNC-Chapel Hill’s journalism program, Pitt had written a story about how Black law students at NC Central University were failing the bar exam at disproportionate rates compared to white students. When he tried to find a local paper to publish the story, no one would print it. That’s how the Chronicle was born. Now, five decades later, a pop-up exhibit hosted by MUSE Winston-Salem and the Winston-Salem African-American Archive will showcase the legacy and impact of the paper in an event on Sept. 5. The pop-up exhibit will be available for viewing on Friday, Sept. 6 from noon-4 p.m. and on Monday, Sept. 9, from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. The event will include an exhibit of artifacts from the W-S African-American Archive, including past issues of the Chronicle, as well as a panel discussion between Pitt and former Chronicle staffers.

“In our heyday, we set the tone for coverage of the African-American community,” Pitt said. “We were a resource for the community, something the people could read that was positive about their community and know that it was the truth.”

In 2017, Pitt sold the paper to the Chronicle Media Group, LLC which is owned by Winston-Salem City Councilmember James Taylor and former state representative Derwin Montgomery. The paper continues to operate and produce stories weekly.

“The Chronicle as a Black newspaper of record is a go-to source that gives insight into parts of the community that no other outlet does,” explains Mike Wakefored, the executive director of MUSE Winston-Salem.

As an organization that focuses on the history of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, Wakeford says that the stories that the Chronicle has produced over the last five decades has been instrumental for MUSE Winston-Salem.

“We turn to its online archive constantly for insights into the last 50 years of this city’s history,” Wakeford says.

Much of that archive is now owned and operated by the Winston-Salem African-American Archive, which acquired past copies of the Chronicle when Pitt retired in 2017.

“We have all of the copies of the paper,” Billy Rich, the president of the Winston-Salem African-American Archive says.

They also have photos from the Chronicle’s archives, as well as artifacts from the office like one of the first desktop computers used in the newsroom — an original, old-school Macintosh PC.

Part of the goal of presenting these objects in an exhibit is to show attendees the physical effect that the paper had on the city, Wakeford says.

“They were helping to define, shape and sustain the Black community,” he says. “They were bringing the issues and challenges and concerns of the Black community to a broader, connected audience.”

The way in which the Chronicle was able to accomplish that for so many years, according to Pitt, is by having the right people.

“I could not have achieved anything without the people with whom I was fortunate enough to employ,” he says. “I had great writers. The key to whatever secret I may have had is to find good, competent, ambitious people who know and understand the mission you hold and then give them the pass. Leave them alone and let them do it.”

Many of those individuals —  like Allen Johnson, Robin Adams Cheeley, James Parker and Angela Daniels — will join Pitt for a panel discussion during the event on Sept. 5.

One of the subjects that both Pitt and Wakeford mentioned will likely come up during the discussion is the Chronicle’s coverage of Darryl Hunt.

“Had it not been for the Chronicle, the real story of what happened to him would never, never have seen the light of day,” Pitt says.

Darryl Hunt was a Black Winston-Salem man who was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of Deborah Sykes, a white woman in 1984. After spending almost 20 years in prison, Hunt was exonerated in 2004. He died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 2016.

“It was good journalism; it was good reporting, good editorial investigation,” Pitt says. “It was staying on the case; it was all of those things that brought the truth to light. Because our mission, in everything we did, was to get to the truth.”

In 2022, Pitt and the Chronicle were inducted into the NC Media and Journalism Hall of Fame.

But the importance of the Chronicle wasn’t just about the hard-hitting news, Wakeford says. It was about the more mundane, everyday moments in the Black community, too.

“What a newspaper does is not just about breaking the big story,” he says. “It’s also about being a source of information about the uncelebrated daily lives and goings-on in a community.”

Reflecting on the Chronicle’s last 50 years and its role in the city, Pitt also thinks about how the landscape of the Black press has changed since he began the paper in 1974.

“I think to some extent today, it has lost its significance,” Pitt says. “Because I don’t think it has kept up with the changing technology for one thing. So I think we have some catching up to do.”

Most recently, the National Association of Black Journalists, the largest organization of Black news workers in the country, came under fire for inviting former president Donald Trump to their annual convention. Still, even with some of the challenges the Black press has faced in recent years, Pitt says that the importance of those institutions — especially local ones — is as strong as ever.

“I think there is still a place in this world for Black newspapers and the Black press,” says Pitt, who is 78 years old. “It is my prayer that something will occur for someone to reignite the Black press and chart a different and more relevant future for it.”

The pop-up event will take place on Sept. 5 at 6 p.m. at MUSE Winston-Salem which is located at 226 W. Liberty Street in Winston-Salem. The event is free and open to the public. Learn more at musews.org.