Legend goes that the enslaved family had the forward-thinking to craft a quilt that they used to send messages about supposed routes on the Underground Railroad in the North, places they had never traveled. Not logical — or true, according to quilthistory.com. There were times when messages were delivered at Black church gatherings and prayer meetings, but not about the day and time that Tubman would be coming to town, according to the Many Rivers documentary. The risk of betrayal about individual escapes and collective rebellions was too great.
This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.
For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.
Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.
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Freedom Quilts?
