In an era of media suppression, Black history reminds us why we must protect the truth

Sara M. Lomax | The Philadelphia Inquirer

This piece was initially published by the Philadelphia Inquirer on February 3, 2026.

Black media matters. Right here, right now, and more than ever before. We are the essential workers on the front lines of a growing resistance movement.

As the owner and operator of WURD Radio, Philadelphia’s only multiplatform Black talk radio station, my team and I are focused on a singular mission: fighting back against this administration’s attempt to destroy Black history, culture, institutions, and people. We provide our communities with our most powerful weapon: trusted, accurate, culturally specific information.

The recent arrest of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, two independent Black journalists, underscores the lengths this government will go to silence dissent — which, by the way, is protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The Black press has been fighting a system that has sought to weaken our institutions, marginalize our reporting, and underfund our organizations for centuries. And frankly, for too long, mainstream media has been complicit in maintaining that system of devastating racial oppression.

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