National
Johnson Publishing Selling ‘Ebony’ and ‘Jet’ Magazine Photo Archives
Terry Shropshire, Special from the ATLANTA DAILY WORLD
(NNPA)—Johnson Publishing, the mothership company of the beleaguered yet iconic magazines Ebony and Jet has put their legendary photo archives on the market for an estimated $40 million.
The 5 million image archive have snapped the African American experience dating back to 1942, including exceptional, intimate photographs of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., singer Billie Holiday and boxer Muhammad Ali.
“Nothing exists like it. It’s almost like an African American Getty,” Johnson Publishing Chief Executive Desiree Rogers told Reuters, referring to the renowned Getty Images photojournalism archive.
“We are still the curators of the African American experience. That’s the mantle the editors wear,” she said.
Rogers has elicited market experts, including Mark Lubell, executive director of the International Center of Photography in New York.
Rogers would not comment on potential buyers or whether commercial or historical archives had expressed interest.
The company spent 18 months organizing the images but has digitized only about 6,000 of the millions of photographs and videos, said Rogers, President Barack Obama’s former White House social secretary.
Johnson Publishing makes little money off the rights to the images, she said.
Faced with declining readership and ad revenue, Jet magazine went digital-only last year. Ebony’s print and digital versions both went through expensive redesigns in recent years.
The archive includes the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo by Moneta Sleet, Jr., of Coretta Scott King with her daughter Bernice on her lap, at the funeral of her husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sleet in 1969 became the first African-American man to win a Pulitzer prize.
Over many years working for Ebony, Sleet photographed King and his family and covered the civil rights movement as well as black leaders and politicians such as Adam Clayton Powell, entertainers such as Stevie Wonder and sports greats.
The collection also includes many images of black business owners and professionals.
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Oakland Post: Week of May 24 – 30, 2023
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 24 – 30, 2023

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Oakland Post: Week of May 17 – 23, 2023
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 17 – 23 2023

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Oakland Teachers Strike Continues Over Wages, ‘Common Good’ Demands for Needs of Parents, Students
The OEA’s common good proposals are based on outreach with thousands of OUSD parents and community members. California districts that have bargained common good demands with teacher unions include Los Angeles Unified, Natomas Unified, Montebello Unified, San Diego Unified, West Contra Costa Unified, and Jurupa Unified.

By Ken Epstein
The strike of Oakland’s 3,000 teachers and other school staff is ending its first full week. Both sides are moving closer to a settlement, which could come soon, though observers close to the bargaining table say possibilities still exist for negotiations to break down.
Both sides appear to be near agreement on salary issues. The Oakland Unified School District is offering nearly $70 million in raises for teachers and other members of the Oakland Education Association, including nurses, social workers, psychologists, counselors, and substitutes.
A recent OUSD proposal offers an increase for first-year teacher salaries from $52,905 to about $63,000 and an increase for educators at the top of the salary scale from $98,980 to over $110,000.
A major sticking point has been the union’s “common good” demands, especially the demand for shared decision-making at community schools, which would mean that parents and teachers would have the right to vote on how money is spent at their schools.
In an interview with the Oakland Post, Ismael “Ish” Armendariz, OEA’s interim president, said, the district and some board members do not want to give up some of their authority to shared decision making. “They want to control,” he said.
“Under shared governance, people get to vote collectively on how the money at school sites is spent, not just advise the district, which is free to disregard the advice. That’s where the big disconnect is (in negotiations),” he said.
Other common good proposals include mental health services for students, support for unhoused students, implementation of OUSD’s Reparations for Black Students policy, limit or halt the closing of schools in flatland communities and protection and expansion of programs for students with disabilities.
Approved by the board in 2021, the Reparations for Black Students policy is designed to improve academic achievement and enrollment for Black students. The union’s proposal would give OEA the authority to select teacher members of the task force the resolution created.
The district has wanted to limit negotiations to traditional wage and hours issues. But the union says though wages are crucial to provide stability and a living wage for educators, these other issues also directly impact parents, students, and teachers.
“Our schools face safety concerns ranging from gun violence to asbestos and lead to mice and rat infestations to raw sewage to leaky roofs,” according to a union statement.

Teachers’ union President Ismael “Ish” Armendariz speaks to press at school picket line. Photo courtesy of OEA.
The OEA’s common good proposals are based on outreach with thousands of OUSD parents and community members. California districts that have bargained common good demands with teacher unions include Los Angeles Unified, Natomas Unified, Montebello Unified, San Diego Unified, West Contra Costa Unified, and Jurupa Unified.
Speaking at an OUSD press conference Monday, Board President Mike Hutchinson opposed the common good proposals.
“While we agree on the principles of the (common good) proposals, they simply do not belong in the contract language,” he said.
Three school board members who are sympathetic to the union’s demands, VanCedric Williams, Valarie Bachelor and Jennifer Brouhard, held their own press conference Monday to clarify their position to the public and to push Hutchinson and Boardmembers Sam Davis and Dr. Clifford Thompson to negotiate on the union’s common good proposals.
Bachelor told the Oakland Post that the common good proposals have grown in importance since the pandemic.
“The pandemic has made it really clear about the inequities in the community and what happens when we don’t address them. The bread-and-butter issues are important, but I’m glad the OEA has brought these common good demands to the community attention, to the state’s attention,” she said.
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