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Charles
Tisdale: Newspaper and Community Man
By C. Liegh
McInnis
Owner, publisher, and editor
of the Jackson Advocate, Charles Tisdale has made
his transition to the other side. Besides being an
excellent newspaper man, Tisdale’s thirty-year legacy is
two fold. One, he used the Jackson Advocate
to provide a voice to African Americans when they were
poorly represented in the mainstream media. Two, he
provided opportunity for most of the African American
journalist in the Jackson Metro area to be published.
Although my background is creative writing, my first
publication was an article in the Jackson Advocate
about the legislative changes in drug rehabilitation
programs. Former Mississippi Link editor and
journalist Nikki Burns and I used to discuss all the
time that at one point most of the African American
writers working at the Clarion Ledger got their
starts under Tisdale.
Despite his desire to create
a competitive paper, Tisdale remained steadfast to the
notion that for the Jackson Advocate to be
vital it must remain a community paper. For instance,
no matter what many of us went on to do, he always
treated us like we worked for the Advocate.
Once, Tisdale and many of us were at some rally for some
cause, and several of us were lingering after the
event. As I was leaving the event, Tisdale, barely
acknowledging my presence, stated to me, “Have me an
article about this by 5:00 p.m. tomorrow.” To which my
response was, “Yes, sir.” By the way, I missed the
deadline, but Tisdale was able to get it in the paper
somehow.
In fact, one of my goals as a
writer was to rise to the level of Dr Jerry W. Ward and
Dr. Ivory Paul Phillips who always have a column
reserved in the Advocate. To me, that is what it
meant to be a real writer—to be so accomplished that you
can always publish somewhere. Yet without Tisdale,
Afro-Mississippi writers would not have this goal
because Tisdale made sure that the paper survived
bombings, attacks from other media outlets, and a lack
of advertising and subscriptions. With pocket change
and a prayer, Tisdale kept the Jackson
Advocate alive so that the voice of the
Afro-Mississippian would remain alive in all of its
forms.
A complex man, Tisdale was
not afraid of controversy. He called it like he saw it
even if he was the only person who saw it that way. In
his many editorials, Tisdale not only challenged whites
whom he felt were hurting the black community, he had no
problem challenging and chastising blacks, especially
black elected officials whom he often placed in the
Brown Society. Once when my father was placed in the
Brown Society because he and Tisdale disagreed on a
decision that my father made as Executive Director of
the Hinds County Democratic Party, my father replied,
“Well, at least he told me that I was going to be in the
Brown Society over lunch.”
For the entire time my father
was in the Brown Society, Tisdale continued to publish
various articles by me as well as have lunch from time
to time with my father. At his core, Tisdale was about
the discourse, the discussion, the verbal/written
debate. He was an idea man who understood the
importance of African Americans being able to voice
their ideas, be exposed to other ideas, and make
sovereign decisions about the types of ideas that
governed and framed their lives. We will miss his fire,
his dedication, and his leadership for he made so many
of our dreams into reality while making sure that we
were represented equally and fairly.
C. Liegh McInnis is an author of seven books and a
former publisher/editor of Black Magnolias Literary
Journal. He can be contacted at Psychedelic Literature,
203 Lynn Lane, Clinton, MS 39056, (601) 925-1281,
psychedeliclit@bellsouth.net .
Sources:
PBS /
Flashpoints * * *
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posted 8 July 2007 |
