By Gary A. Johnson, Publisher, Black Men In America.com

About 10 years ago I was sitting in my office editing content for this website and running my businesses.  The phone rang.  I pick it up and discover that George Curry was on the phone calling me.  I knew of George Curry from his days as a reporter for Sports Illustrated and as the Founder and Publisher of EMERGE magazine.  I thought to myself, “Wow!  George Curry is calling me.”  George said he was a fan of Black Men In America.com and that he wanted to meet and share his thoughts about how I could improve the site.  We met at B. Smith’s restaurant at Union Station and spent 2 hours talking about how I could improve the site.  George shared with me that he thought I was going soft in terms of my content.  He said, “This site is about black men.  I’m starting to see more articles about women.  What’s going on?”  I made a concerted effort to appeal to women in an effort to get more men to visit the site.  That strategy works and has proven to be a winner for me.  However, George was correct.  I shifted too far.  I went back to my roots and the site continues to flourish and grow when others have failed.  From time to time George and I would exchange emails.  He was a great advisor and I will NEVER forget how he reached out to help me and my business grow.

For those of you reading this article and you are not familiar with George Curry, let me share with you.

George Curry was a pioneering civil rights and Black political journalist.  He was known by many as the dean of Black press columnists.  He was the publisher of the groundbreaking magazine EMERGE and he wrote weekly commentary in Black newspapers across the country.  He died suddenly of heart failure on Saturday, August 20. He was 69.  George was also the Editor-in-Chief for the National Newspaper Publishers Association from 2000-2007 and again from 2012 until last year.

Rest in peace George Curry.