The Nubian Message will celebrate its 25th anniversary on Thursday with its anniversary publication on Wednesday. The Nubian Message was founded in 1992 with the purpose of providing news and information about the African-American community on campus. The publication came from rocky beginnings, but has grown through the years and is hopeful to see another 25 years.
Prior to the establishment of the Nubian Message, there had been attempts by other black student organizations to start publications. There was a desire to have an outlet tailored to the African-American community on campus, according to Keilah Davis, a third-year studying physics and managing editor of the Nubian Message.
“There had been other newsletter-type things through places like the Society of Afrikan American Culture and other black student organizations on campus, but none of them had really lasted too long,” Davis said.
The Nubian Message was founded in 1992 by Tony Williamson, the publication’s first editor-in-chief, in response to what he called “unfair and unjust media coverage of the African American community” on NC State’s campus.
“There was lots of things happening along the lines of race on campus and near campus,” Davis said.
In 1992, the final spark for the establishment of the Nubian Message came after Technician printed a hateful and inflammatory column in the opinion section that harshly criticized demands for an African-American cultural center on UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus. In response to this, Williamson decided to take action.
“Tony Williamson, the founder of the Nubian Message, decided that if the Technician was not going to accurately represent the African-American community in their paper then he would begin one that would,” said Anahzsa Jones, a fourth-year studying English and editor-in-chief of the Nubian Message. “He did not get any funding or anything from NC State at first so he had to go do the layout at NC Central, an HBCU in the area, and they let him use their facilities since he didn’t have access at NC State.”
Since the Nubian Message’s founding as an independent publication, it has found its place within Student Media with support from the university.
“I don’t think people expected this much university support for something that had such contentious origins, but it is really exciting to see how long we have stuck around and it’s cool to have support from the university,” Davis said.
For the 25th anniversary, the staff of the Nubian Message has been working on putting together the history of the paper and reflecting over the last 25 years. The anniversary publication is going to contain the history and milestones that the Nubian Message has seen over the years.
“While we have been preparing for our 25th anniversary, we have reached out to quite a few alumni, whether they were editors-in chief or just on the Nubian’s staff,” Davis said.
Readers can look forward to timelines, history, highs and lows of the Nubian’s publications, and a feature of the first letter from the editor that was published by Tony Williamson. Furthermore, the staff of the Nubian Message has used this time to look at where they plan on going for the next 25 years.
“Going forward, I want to take a step back into the Nubian Message’s roots,” Jones said. “Going forward, it’s just going to be a lot of trying to find that balance between being true to who we are and making sure we are representing and not alienating the other communities that we are trying to include.”
The staff, past and present, are very excited for the anniversary and are excited to see what the next quarter century holds for the publication.
“We wouldn’t exist without the community we serve, and thank you everyone for continuing to support us,” Jones said.
