Oral history interview with Paul Wyche, 1973.

Biographical Note

Paul H. Wyche is a retired communications and public relations executive who grew up in Miami, Florida. He graduated from Archbishop Curley High School in Miami, the first school in Florida to desegregate, and was one of the first black students to integrate the school. Wyche has written for the Miami Times, the Miami News, and Ebony before establishing the National Black News Service (NBNS) in 1973. Wyche was also a senior legislative aide to Representative John J. Moakley, a Democrat from Boston and was Associate Director of Public Affairs at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He is the founder and president of his own PR firm, Wythe & Associates, in Orlando, Florida.

Scope and Contents

In this interview conducted by Henry La Brie III, Paul H. Wyche discusses the logistics and problems in running the National Black News Service (NBNS), which at the time of the interview was three and a half months old. Wyche views the black press as a necessity for educating all people. He explains how he gathered news from correspondents and freelance journalists, as well as the technical aspects of printing and shipping the news to primarily black newspapers across the country. Wyche compares the NBNS to Claude Barnett's operation, the Associated Negro Press (ANP). He looks at how both groups expanded their respective scope to mainstream media.

Subjects

• African American journalists.
• African American press.
• African Americans--Civil rights.
• Associated Negro Press.
• Interviews.
• Journalism--Political aspects.
• Journalists--Interviews.
• La Brie, Henry G., interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
• Miami (Fla.)--Newspapers.
• Newspapers--Circulation.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• United States--Race relations.
• Wyche, Paul--Interviews.