Bringing The World Home To You

© 2024 WUNC North Carolina Public Radio
120 Friday Center Dr
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919.445.9150 | 800.962.9862
91.5 Chapel Hill 88.9 Manteo 90.9 Rocky Mount 91.1 Welcome 91.9 Fayetteville 90.5 Buxton 94.1 Lumberton 99.9 Southern Pines 89.9 Chadbourn
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Remembering Kenneth Edmonds, Publisher Of Durham’s Black Newspaper

Grant Holub-Moorman
/
WUNC

The Carolina Times faces an uncertain future after its publisher Kenneth Edmonds died Saturday, May 2.  His tenure at the historic black newspaper started when he was just 4 or 5 years old. 

Credit Courtesy of Christian Edwards
Kenneth Edmonds

Helping out his grandfather, founder Louis E. Austin, “Kenny” Edmonds sold papers on the corner and eventually graduated up to writing obituaries. He was also known for his basketball skills, which he honed at Hargraves Community Center in Chapel Hill and later the Laurinburg Institute and East Carolina University. But he eventually left behind sports to take up the family business. During his time as publisher, Edmonds covered stories for and about African American communities in Durham and across the state, many of which other newspapers ignored.

Host Frank Stasio talks with Andre Vann, North Carolina Central University’s archivist and a close friend of Edmonds, about his life and the future of the state’s black press.

Stay Connected
Grant Holub-Moorman coordinates events and North Carolina outreach for WUNC, including a monthly trivia night. He is a founding member of Embodied and a former producer for The State of Things.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.