Caribbean-American Journalists
Form Media Group

WASHINGTON, D.C.: August 6, 2007 – In a groundbreaking effort, Caribbean-American journalists across the United States have formed a professional trade organization: the National Association of Caribbean-American Journalists, (NACAJ).

Ann-Marie Adams, an award-winning journalist and Ph.D. student at Howard University, was elected president of NACAJ Saturday, July 28, 2007 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
 
Adams, who lives in D.C., is a former staff writer for The Hartford Courant and other newspapers in Connecticut and New York. She has also worked for People magazine, FOX NEWS, NBC4 New York and the Jamaica Gleaner.

“I’m honored to lead this charge to empower Caribbean-American journalists and our community,” said Adams, who was born in Jamaica. “Caribbean people have been in America since its founding in the 1600s, to the Black Renaissance in the 1920s, the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and the present, yet are still marginalized and voiceless. It’s time for a change.”  
 
Aimed at facilitating partnership with and prominence for the Caribbean and its Diaspora, NACAJ was founded June 24, 2007, a day after the historic Conference on the Caribbean was held in D.C.  Journalists, community activists, ambassadors and prime ministers from the United States and the Caribbean convened a postmortem meeting at the National Press Club after witnessing the sparse coverage of the conference by mainstream and ethnic media in the U.S. While some blamed it on ineffective planning by conference organizers, others contributed it to the lack of organization among Caribbean-American journalists, which renders the community powerless to push more visibility for its people and its issues.  

NACAJ will help foster the creation of a network of Caribbean-American journalists across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, Adams said. The network is to provide, among other things, a support system, improved communication about issues that affect the Caribbean and its Diaspora, training and job opportunities, as well as advocacy for Caribbean-American journalists and its community.
 
Those in attendance at the meeting in June included community activists from Barbados, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, New York, Washington, D.C and the metropolitan area. The meeting also included Prime Minister and then Chairman of  the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ralph Gonsalves; CARICOM Secretariat Edwin Carrington; Prime Minister of St. Kitts, Denzil Douglas; Ambassador of Grenada and Dean of the CARICOM Ambassador in the U.S. Denis Antoine, and Jamaica Consulate in Boston Kenneth Guscott.  
 
For more information, e-mail nacaj@nacaj.org.