What is it about?
In chapter 15 of "City Son," City Sun Publisher Cooper is named 1987 National Association of Black Journalists journalist of the year. He is recognized because of the Brooklyn weekly's coverage of the Daily News Four trial, and for overall excellence in covering politics, local news and culture in Black Metro New York.
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Why is it important?
The Daily News Four -- Davie Hardy, Steven Duncan, Joan Shepard and Causewell Vaughn -- successfully sued the nation's largest newspaper for racial discrimination. The trial was ignored by the news media, except for the black-owned Brooklyn weekly. A City Sun writer also covered the bizarre case of Bronx drug deal who survived a gunfight siege by police and wounded multiple officers. Larry Davis, according to the reporting, tried to end a relationship with drug-trafficking cops.
Perspectives
1987 was a pivotal year in late 20th century New York. Mayor Ed Koch was midway through his third term as mayor and citizens began to tire of his abrasive style. Cooper's City Sun was a tenacious critic. The Howard Beach, Queens, N.Y. case shocked the city. There were convictions late that year in the racially charged death of a black male walked through a white enclave late at night. Also, Cooper's 3-year upstart City Sun engaged in a competition with Wilbert Tatum's Harlem-based Amsterdam News, the latter the city's leading black-owned newspaper since 1909.
Wayne Dawkins
Morgan State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: . Journalist of the Year, July 2012, University Press of Mississippi,
DOI: 10.14325/mississippi/9781617032585.003.0015.
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