Former New York Times reporter and editor was NABJ’s first openly gay president.
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 24, 2007 -The National Association of Black Journalists mourns the passing of its eighth national president Thomas Morgan III.
Morgan, who served as NABJ’s leader from 1989 until 1991, died Monday in Southampton, Mass. while visiting family for the holidays. He was 56.
Friends say that Morgan, a Brooklyn resident, suffered a heart attack on Sunday night. Morgan was a 20-year newspaperman, mostly with The New York Times, before he retired in 1994, largely to concentrate on his personal fight against AIDS.
"Tom was a man of passion and compassion. He had the ability to walk into a room divided and help those who held opposing viewpoints find common ground,” said NABJ President Barbara Ciara. “His loss is not only a personal one for me, but a great loss for NABJ. As recent as last week he was making his voice heard as we debated the recent FCC ruling affecting minority media ownership. I will miss his counsel, his dedication to NABJ, and most of all his friendship." Morgan won NABJ's presidency in 1989 in New York City, after serving six years as national treasurer. With his election, Morgan became NABJ’s first openly gay president. According to a profile written by Katti Gray for NABJ’s “Committed to the Cause,” there were several members of the organization who wondered aloud whether a gay president “would be a pox on the public face of what is the nation's largest organization of journalists of color.”
"It was painful," said Morgan, at the time. "I struggled with how to represent NABJ without embarrassing the organization but while also being true to myself. I was elected as a black journalist, not a gay one."
"Tom has always been a sacred giant. An intellectual whose life was a shining example to so many who cared about doing good journalism, about the community and living a life filled with integrity,” said Frankie Edozien. “While I’ll forever have the unconditional friendship he offered over the years, I'm saddened for the throngs of journalists who never got to know the man and bask - like I did in - in his sage advice, warm smiles and hearty laughter. His example of living and thriving will not be in vain."
After Morgan retired, he devoted much of his free time as an outspoken HIV/AIDS awareness advocate, serving on several boards.
“He was actually becoming a great influence on people living with HIV/AIDS,” said former NABJ President Sidmel Estes-Sumpter. “He won the battle for so many years. He was still living a wonderful life and proving that people can live with the disease and have an active life. I teased him that we would grow old together talking about the good old days of NABJ.”
As a long-time reporter for the New York Times and a 1989 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, Morgan had represented NABJ well, long before he was elected president. According to Gray’s profile, when he became the organization’s treasurer, the financial records were literally in shoeboxes and the membership roster was a collection of index cards. He hired a black-owned accounting firm to conduct the first of what would become annual audits and the next treasurer was handed a $1 million stock portfolio.
“We couldn’t have had a better treasurer,” said Estes-Sumpter, who was a regional director on the board during that time. “It was a position that nobody wanted. He always kept our record straight, because he was fastidious about the details.”
As president, Morgan set up NABJ’s national office, expanded the organization’s mentorship and training programs for students and established relationships with outside organizations like the Poynter Institute. The Morgan administration also created NABJ's Hall of Fame and the Ethel Payne Fellowship for black journalists to travel to Africa for several weeks of research. Those projects continue today.
Estes-Sumpter said Morgan’s tenure also opened the doors for women to ascend to the NABJ presidency. Estes-Sumpter immediately followed Morgan as president, becoming the first of five women to hold the position since 1991.
When he left office, Morgan remained active in NABJ. In 2005, Morgan served as an advisor and guiding force for a group of NABJ journalists who went on to create NABJ’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Task Force.
“We were blessed to know Tom, and when we talk about standing on the shoulders of those who came before us, we mean Tom,” said Marcus Mabry, first chairman of the LGBT Task Force. “In a very real literal way, we are here thanks to him. When Frankie Edozien and I addressed the NABJ Board petitioning for the approval of this Task Force, it was Tom's intercession that I think turned the tide for many of the people sitting in that room in the middle of a January blizzard. I have been thankful for Tom every day, so in a sense little has changed.”
Morgan was inducted into the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association's Hall of Fame in September 2005. Several years ago, The New York Times created the Thomas Morgan Internships in Graphics, Design and Photography, a program to honor talented college journalists. The Times at one time sponsored an NABJ Scholarship in Morgan’s name.
“I remember when the board approved the LGBT Task Force,” said NABJ Vice President of Print Ernie Suggs. “It was a cold, miserable and snowy day in New York City, but he showed up and delivered a passionate plea about why this task force would be important to NABJ and its members. At the time, I didn’t know Tom that well, but I immediately was taken by his dedication and commitment.”
"I trace some of the high points in my career at The Times back to the time in the early 80's when I was a Metro reporter,” said New York Times senior editor Sheila Rule, “and Tom, then an assignment editor, stopped by my desk and asked me to write an Easter story. But "not just any story," he said. He didn't want the typical, traditional, tried-and-true story. He wanted me to find a black family and follow that family around for the day, as a way of capturing Easter's important place in the heart of Black America. And so I did.
After the story appeared, the executive editor stopped by my desk to tell me that it had deeply moved him. The next thing I knew, I was assigned to do a series on the struggles and aspirations of a black family in Brooklyn, which later won an award from Columbia University's School of Journalism. And then I was sent on temporary assignment to the Caribbean. And then I was made a foreign correspondent and sent to Nairobi. I trace all of those accomplishments back to the day when Tom stopped by my desk and asked me to write an Easter story, "but not just any story." I owe Tom a lot, and I'm grateful that I had the chance to say thank you.”
Funeral arrangements are pending. Morgan is survived by his long-time partner Tom Ciano.
