In 1991, tensions were high on NC State’s campus when the African American Cultural Center (AACC) opened in the new Student Center Annex and white students began to complain about perceived “reverse racism.” A Technician column written by Nathan Gay, a white student, was published Feb. 8, 1991 and asked, “Why are three floors of the Student Center Annex allocated for an African American Cultural Center (AACC) when there is nothing of equal space for other races represented on campus?” Gay also expressed his discomfort with displays of black pride in NC State’s Ebony Man beauty pageant, stating “One race is being singled out solely because of physical appearance. That sounds like racism to me.”
Then, in 1992 NC State students joined UNC Chapel Hill students, including the Black Awareness Council (BAC), to rally to get free-standing black cultural centers on both campuses. On Sept. 22, black NC State students went to a Student Government forum to advocate for better management of the AACC, which had no budget at the time, and condemned the university for failing to complete its promise to give it a free-standing building. The Student Center Annex, where the center was housed, gave space to other departments, including Technician, which drew rebuke at the meeting for unfair reporting. The next day students criticized Technician’s coverage of the forum calling it unfair, further increasing tension.
In the same issue Technician ran a piece by staff columnist Steve Crisp in which he criticized BAC and mischaracterized its efforts, saying the students’ goal was to assert black superiority. He even used a racial slur, describing the students as “Ku Klux Blacks.” Technician also ran a letter to the editor by student Jeff Rom who called the BAC members terrorists.
The inflammatory edition of Technician was a breaking point.
The next day, more than 200 black students gathered in the Brickyard to burn copies of Technician. While the public demonstration lasted a day, the upheaval sparked the enthusiasm for an independent black newspaper that would endure.
In an extended letter to the editor Technician ran the following week, senior Tony Williamson took apart Crisp and Rom’s ignorant arguments and elucidated how the use of “Ku Klux Blacks” was an affront “to African Americans as a whole.” He also expressed upset that their views were far from anomalous on campus. That public rebuke set the stage for Williamson to ensure that black students would have their voices heard and concerns taken seriously.
Less than a month later, Nubian Message was born. The Campus Echo Editor-in-Chief Jason Williams at NC Central University, a historically black institution in Durham, gave the newly formed Nubian Message staff access to their facilities and help putting the paper together. A 12-student staff published the first issue of Nubian Message on Nov. 30, 1992.
In the issue Williamson, Nubian’s first editor, addressed a letter to African American students on campus, saying, “It’s been a long time coming, but we’re finally here and yes, we’re here to stay!” He was right.
Several African American-centered publications existed prior to the creation of Nubian Message including the Minority Affairs Adhoc Newsletter, Peer Mentor Newsletter and Erudition In Black, but none lasted long.
For the first two years of its existence, Nubian Message was not recognized as an official publication at NC State. In March of 1994, the NC State Student Media Authority unanimously voted to officially recognize Nubian Message as a permanent publication on campus and gave it funding and advisory support.
Today, Nubian Message publishes every other week and recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. The paper’s office, along with the rest of Student Media and the AACC, are in the Witherspoon Student Center, originally the Student Center Annex. In 1995 the center was renamed to honor the university’s first African American professor Augustus M. Witherspoon, who helped students lead the charge for a cultural center in the 1970s according to an article in the first issue of Nubian Message. In the last five years the publication has expanded its coverage with a multicultural take to focus “on issues relevant to any underrepresented community at NC State” according to a recently updated mission statement, though it still “serves as the Black student publication at NC State.”
About 200 students gathered in the Brickyard on Sept. 24, 1992 to protest a racist Technician column by burning copies of the paper in a trash can.
