NABJ Returns to Birthplace Hotel for 2005 Awards Gala; Marriott Wardman Park Hotel Was Home to Founding Meeting in 1975

NABJ Returns to Birthplace Hotel for 2005 Awards Gala; Marriott Wardman Park Hotel Was Home to Founding Meeting in 1975

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Association of Black Journalists held its awards gala in the same hotel where 44 men and women gathered 30 years ago to start an organization that would later become the nation's largest group for journalists of color.

The Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, the venue for the October 15th Salute to Excellence Awards Gala, had been the Sheraton Park Hotel when black journalists gathered in 1975.

"The Wardman is one of the premiere hotels in Washington," said NABJ Executive Director Tangie Newborn. "The ambience and atmosphere and the history drew us there. This is a full circle moment for us as NABJ celebrates its 30th anniversary."

While the Marriott didn't own the property when NABJ held its founding meeting on December 12, 1975, Thomas Blaszczyk -- the Director of Sales for the hotel -- fondly recalled its rich history. For example, he said when Thurgood Marshall came to the nation's capitol on the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, the young lawyer was refused lodging at several establishments.

"We were the hotel that took him in," said Blaszczyk, adding that the hotel built an exclusive VIP boardroom named after the late chief justice.

NABJ founder Leon Dash, now a Swanlund Chair Professor of Journalism at the University of Illinois, wasn't surprised the hotel didn't have a record of NABJ's historic meeting.

"We were all covering the National Association of Black elected officials," said Dash, who spent his entire journalistic career at the Washington Post. "We rented a suite. It was a smoke-filled room ... it took us about a day and a half to organize but the effort had been going on since 1967."

Dash said it's great to see NABJ continue to grow. The Salute to Excellence Awards gala was held for the second year outside of the annual convention in August in an effort to extend NABJ into a year-round organization.

This year, NABJ honored CBS' Ed Bradley; Andy Alford of the Austin American-Statesman; Krissah Williams of The Washington Post; Reginald Stuart of Knight Ridder; and the late Derek Ali, who had been a reporter at the Dayton Daily News at the time of his death.

"We are excited to honor journalists and to be back where it all started," said NABJ President Bryan Monroe, assistant vice president/news for Knight Ridder newspapers. "It's good to come home again."

Source: The National Association of Black Journalists

CONTACT: Lisa Goodnight of The National Association of Black Journalists, +1-301-445-7100 ext. 107, lisa@nabj.org

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