Media Icon and Pioneer Thomas H. Watkins, Publisher of The Daily Challenge, Remembered and Honored
Thomas H. Watkins Jr. was more than a newspaper publisher. He was a media visionary, a community institution-builder and an unapologetic defender of the Black community’s right to tell its own stories.
Watkins, the founder, owner and publisher of the New York Daily Challenge, passed away on December 19, 2025, following health challenges. He was 88 years old. Raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Watkins devoted much of his life to building Black-owned media platforms that informed, empowered and employed the communities they served.
Long before social media gave everyone a platform—and before many mainstream outlets considered Black communities worthy of consistent, serious coverage—Watkins understood something the pioneers of the Black Press had known for generations: We cannot depend on others to tell our stories accurately, fairly or completely.
We must own the presses. We must control the platforms. We must employ the reporters, editors and photographers. Most importantly, we must decide which stories matter.
That was the challenge Thomas Watkins accepted.
Building New York’s First Black Daily Newspaper
In 1972, Watkins founded the New York Daily Challenge, widely recognized as New York City’s first and only Black-owned daily newspaper. Operating from Bedford-Stuyvesant’s Restoration Plaza, the paper offered New Yorkers a daily source of news presented through a Black perspective.
Think about what that meant.
Publishing a newspaper once a week is already a demanding undertaking. Producing one every day requires an entirely different level of commitment, staffing, financing, reporting, printing and distribution. Watkins did not simply dream about Black media ownership—he built the infrastructure necessary to make it real.
The Daily Challenge covered the stories that directly affected Black New Yorkers: police misconduct, housing discrimination, educational inequality, political campaigns, economic development, community violence and struggles for justice. It also provided coverage of national and international issues affecting people throughout the African diaspora—subjects that were frequently ignored, distorted or minimized by mainstream media.
At its height, the publication reached thousands of readers, employed dozens of African Americans and attracted advertising from major corporations. Watkins expanded his media footprint through publications that included the Afro Times, the New American, the Jersey City Challenge, the Patterson-Passaic Challenge and the Newark Challenge.
He was not merely publishing newspapers. He was building a Black media network.
A Voice When Our Communities Needed One
The true value of the Black Press has never been measured solely by circulation figures or advertising revenue. Its greatest value has always been its willingness to stand with the community when doing so was difficult, unpopular or financially risky.
Rev. Al Sharpton remembered Watkins as a fearless publisher who consistently covered boycotts, police-related controversies and political campaigns. Sharpton credited Watkins and his family’s newspapers with supporting activists and emerging leaders long before larger media institutions considered them worthy of attention.
That is what independent Black media is supposed to do.
It does not wait until a person becomes nationally recognized before acknowledging their work. It does not wait until an injustice becomes fashionable before reporting it. It does not wait for mainstream approval before recognizing the importance of a Black voice, a Black organization or a Black movement.
It reports our struggles while we are still in the midst of them.
It documents our leaders while they are still leading.
It records our history as it happens.
Under Watkins’ leadership, the Daily Challenge became an essential source of information during some of the most politically and racially charged moments in New York City. Its coverage of the 1986 Howard Beach killing of Michael Griffith helped place the newspaper in the national spotlight during a period of intense racial tension and growing demands for justice.
The newspaper was present when the Black community needed more than headlines. It needed context, courage and a platform that understood the stakes.
Creating Opportunities for Black Journalists
One of Watkins’ greatest contributions was the opportunity he provided to generations of writers, editors, columnists and photographers.
A newspaper is not only a publication. It is also a classroom, a training ground and an incubator for talent. Watkins created space for journalists to sharpen their skills, build their reputations and write about issues that mattered to their communities.
Former employees and contributors have credited him with opening doors that may otherwise have remained closed. Bishop Herbert Daughtry, who wrote regularly for Watkins’ publications, said the opportunity helped him improve his writing and influenced the more than 20 books he later authored.
That part of Watkins’ legacy cannot be overstated.
The Black Press has historically provided opportunities to talented people who were overlooked, underestimated or excluded by mainstream institutions. Watkins continued that tradition by creating platforms where Black journalists did not have to convince an editor that Black life was newsworthy.
They did not have to explain why police brutality mattered.
They did not have to defend the importance of covering Black elected officials, clergy members, activists, business owners, artists or neighborhood organizations.
They were able to report from within the community rather than looking at it from the outside.
Black Media Ownership as Economic Empowerment
Watkins also understood that Black media ownership was about more than controlling the narrative. It was about controlling resources.
He viewed entrepreneurship as a vehicle for lifting Black families and communities out of poverty. His newspapers were designed to be owned by Black people, written by Black people, and supported by the readership and economic power of Black communities.
That vision remains just as relevant today.
It is not enough for Black people to appear in media. We must also own media.
It is not enough to be quoted. We must be the reporters asking the questions.
It is not enough to be featured in the publication. We must own the publication.
It is not enough to create content for platforms controlled by others. We must build institutions that cannot erase our voices whenever our truth becomes inconvenient.
Watkins served as president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association from 1989 through 1992 and remained a strong advocate for the independent Black Press. He understood that Black newspapers could serve as economic engines—employing Black workers, developing Black businesses and keeping advertising dollars circulating within our communities.
That was not simply a publishing strategy. It was a philosophy of Black economic and political power.
Carrying the Tradition Forward
Thomas H. Watkins Jr. stood in a tradition that stretches back to Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm, who founded Freedom’s Journal in 1827 because Black people were tired of being misrepresented, attacked and spoken for by others.
Their declaration remains the foundation of everything the Black Press represents: We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us.
Watkins accepted that responsibility and carried it forward.
He built a daily newspaper when many believed a Black-owned daily could not survive. He covered our communities when other publications treated us as an afterthought. He created opportunities for journalists, activists and community voices that mainstream institutions often ignored. He demonstrated that Black media ownership could be a source of information, employment, activism and economic empowerment.
Dr. Benjamin Chavis, president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, described Watkins as an icon in the evolution of the Black Press and an outspoken defender of truth, freedom, justice and equality.
That is the legacy Thomas H. Watkins leaves behind.
For those of us who continue doing this work—publishing community newspapers, operating independent news websites, hosting radio programs, producing podcasts and documenting Black life from a Black perspective—his journey is both an inspiration and a reminder.
The work is never easy.
The resources are rarely equal.
The support does not always match the sacrifice.
But the mission remains necessary.
Thomas H. Watkins Jr. did not wait for permission to tell our stories. He created the platform, built the institution, and accepted the daily challenge of keeping the Black community informed.
Now it is our responsibility to continue what he helped build—to protect the Black Press, support Black-owned media and ensure that our communities never lose the power to speak for themselves.
Rest in power, Thomas H. Watkins Jr.—media icon, pioneering publisher, institution-builder and fearless defender of the Black Press.
