NAACP to publish magazine
The release date for the newsletter is Feb. 6.
Published Jan. 24, 2006
As early as next month, MU students could have another diversity magazine to choose from amid a flurry of other recent diversity publication releases.
The MU chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People plans to introduce its own publication, The Minority Report. The first issue of The release on Feb. 6, will include a community events calendar, a listing of minority businesses and a word search of famous black inventors.
"It's a magazine that focuses on diversity on campus and getting all the minority groups aware of their events and businesses in Columbia," NAACP Vice President Alicia Turner said.
Erica Wright, president of the MU chapter of the NAACP, said the 12-page newsletter would be an assimilation of advice, information and news that focuses on the black community in Columbia.
"We wanted to bridge the gap between minority groups on and off campus," Wright said.
Wright and Turner worked together with Editor in Chief Alton Iverson to create The Minority Report.
Iverson said the NAACP publication stemmed from an idea to heighten MU chapter participation and bring important community events to a public forum.
"People like to read, so we figured we'd give some interesting articles that people would like to read," Iverson said.
Iverson said preliminary distribution plans for The Minority Report are to divide 250 copies of the newsletter equally between on- and off-campus venues. He stressed the importance of building a relationship between NAACP students and minority-owned businesses.
One specialized feature of The Minority Report would be an online section where MU NAACP members could exchange opinions.
"I'd be satisfied when we have an open forum online," Iverson said.
News of The Minority Report came after the Legion of Black Collegians promised to release its black community newspaper The TRUTH, an acronym for Thematic Retrospection in Understanding Our True Heritage, sometime this semester.
In December, the Missouri Students Association released its diversity publication Verge'N. The second edition of Verge'N is scheduled four days before the release of The Minority Report.
Despite having three diversity-focused magazines on campus, editors from each of the three publications said the magazines offer different perspectives on a similar community.
LBC Vice President Travis Gregory said he was under the impression The Minority Report spoke beyond the borders of the university.
"It was just my own understanding that they wanted to go in their own direction, focusing on issues that come from the national chapter," Gregory said. "We offer our full support for the umbrella organization and to the printing of the MU chapter publications."
Verge'N Editor Terrence Chappell said there is a place for each magazine at the university.
"There definitely needs to be magazines for specific groups," he said about The Minority Report, "but Verge'N is an umbrella magazine."
Chappell also emphasized there is no competition among the publications.
"We're about uniting people," Chappell said. "We don't want to create tension between the magazines."
The MU NAACP members stressed the importance of strengthening social groups, even if they overlap, rather than breaking them.
"Instead of trying to compete, I'd rather try to add to whatever they want to do," Iverson said.