But it's so often it's it's hard to
know what we do today and how it will
impact the future and how it will
impact our family and our community.
Our first story highlights what
many would consider to be the
best possible scenario, yes,
and it all started with a man who
noticed that Seattle didn't have a
newspaper serving the black community.
In Seattle's ever evolving Madrona
neighborhood, you can still find a
historic gem. A newspaper founded
61 years ago, still delivering the facts.
I didn't realize the importance
of what I'm doing. Marla
Beaver was just a little girl when she
started working for her dad Fitzgerald
Beaver and his fax newspaper. It's
always been positive news actually
rubbed elbows with him in the business
and really watched him operate
in 1991 when he passed away.
I thought 10 years and
here we are at 30 years
and beyond these walls.
Fitzgerald Beavers legacy
continues to expand. Here we go.
This is converged media's daily
morning show in Minneapolis, walked
out. The press conference
converge produces digital content
specifically for the Northwest
Black community. The founder,
Omari Salisbury credits Beaver for
planting the seeds that got him here.
One of the first jobs that my
dad had was a staff photographer
at the facts newspaper.
But my my father's dream was
to open a photography studio.
And he would talk to Mr.
Beaver about that and Mr.
Beaver was the one who actually
literally put my dad in business, and
Omari says watching his dad's career inspired
his own after graduating from college.
He traveled the world working in media.
When I returned back to the US in 2016,
I knew that there was a gap in
our community in one of those
biggest gaps, being that delivery
of content in a video. Format
right 'cause we still had the newspaper
and the radio, but we didn't have this.
Yeah and in videos tough people have
taken to the streets out there.
Converge now produces 13 shows and
a centerpiece is the black Media
Matters Studio in downtown Seattle.
There it is man and in short
time he is shaking things up.
The police haven't told the
full story King 5 interviewed
on Marie after his investigative
reporting led to the discovery that
the Seattle Police Department.
Yuzuru's during the Black Lives Matter
protest of 2020 and right after the
swearing in of Seattle's new mayor,
the first question came from Omari.
My first question is what you
gonna do for black people?
Congratulations, thank you very much.
Thank you. I think Omar actually
knows the answer but is giving
me an opportunity to display the
answers that I was elected on.
Actually because we want to operationalize
equity that's important to be there,
because if we weren't there who was
going to ask that question? But
what is also important to ELMARY is
history remembering and honoring it.
The best thing about this was is a constant
reminder of of where we come from.
Here in the City of Seattle.
And that's why he wanted to invite the
Beaver family to the Converge studio.
First of all, I really want you to
say thank you, and it is such an honor
and a pleasure to have you and your
family here in our studios today.
The amount of. Of respect and honor
that like that we have for for the
Beaver family and for the fax it
it's almost hard to put in words.
Mr Beaver has started the facts,
you know, help my dad to get in
business here I am here at converge.
My son is studying broadcasting out
their loyalty university in Chicago
and Mr Beavers granddaughter
is also following in her
trailblazing families footsteps.
The UW student writes a column for the
newspaper so we're all self taught. We
are all self taught here. And the
beauty of that is that we've been able
to sustain the bylines may
have changed over the years.
But the fax remains a family
business with a rich history
that generations can draw from.
For inspiration, I
tell Marla Beaver all the time,
I said, man, I hope that we're
doing your father's legacy justice.
I hope that we're created enough
opportunity for other people.
It feels good to be.
Apart in to carry the legacy that my
dad has started and I wish she was
here just to to see that, you know.
Yeah, I know he would be so proud
of just everything that's unfolded
since he started that newspaper and
the facts and converge are working
on a nonviolence campaign together,
so they're continuing to to
create this partnership.
Oh, I can't wait to hear what they do next.
Yeah, we'll keep you posted, awesome.