The National Press Club is a professional organization and social community in Washington, D.C. for journalists and communications professionals. It hosts public and private gatherings with invited speakers from public life. The club also offers event space to outside groups to host business meetings, news conferences, industry gatherings, and social events. It was founded in 1908.
23-950: The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "there are no categories, no nominees, and therefore no losers." The Award is administered by the multi-cultural focused nonprofit Before Columbus Foundation , which established it in 1978 and inaugurated it in 1980. The Award honors excellence in American literature without restriction to race, sex, ethnic background, or genre. Previous winners include novelists, social scientists, philosophers, poets, and historians such as Toni Morrison , Edward Said , MacKenzie Bezos , Isabel Allende , bell hooks , Don DeLillo , Derrick Bell , Robin Kelley , Joy Harjo and Tommy J. Curry . In 1980,
46-486: A multi-cultural distribution project, but evolved into a service organization devoted to the recognition of Hispanic, African-American, and Native American authors whose literature of quality might be neglected by the literary mainstream, which, according to the directors, continues to be segregated and fifty years behind the south in terms of diversity—a mainstream that limits its inclusion of minorities to tokenism. Through classrooms, poetry readings, symposia, and publications
69-575: A special building committee to plan for a permanent club headquarters. The Ebbitt Hotel was demolished, and the Ebbitt Grill moved to the Albee building . The new National Press Building, at 14th and F Streets NW, was completed in August 1927, and included retail space and office space intended for Washington, D.C.–based news bureaus with the club occupying the 13th and 14th floors. In order to increase their funding,
92-801: The Great Depression , the club struggled financially as it was beginning to be recognized as an influential group. It managed to find additional funding from wealthy individuals. Regular weekly luncheons for speakers began in 1932 with an appearance by president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt . Since then the club has hosted an average of 70 luncheons each year with prominent people. Over the years Nikita Khrushchev , Soong Mei-ling (Madame Chiang Kai-shek), Golda Meir , Indira Gandhi , Muhammad Ali , Charles de Gaulle , Robert Redford , Boris Yeltsin , Elizabeth Taylor , Nelson Mandela , Yasser Arafat , Dalai Lama , Angelina Jolie , George Carlin , Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , and Elizabeth Warren have all spoken at
115-661: The National Press Club , and arranged by the late Daniel Shore . Awards are given annually for books published in the US during the previous year that make contributions to American multicultural literature. In 1992, the Beyond Columbus Foundation published two anthologies of award-winning selections (one poetry and one fiction). Though severely underfunded, it has survived through what Executive Director Gundars Strads called "blind persistence". Its directors are drawn from
138-458: The ethical standards of the profession ." With $ 300, the founding members moved into its first club quarters on the second floor of 1205 F Street NW. By 1909, the club had outgrown its new quarters and moved above Rhodes Tavern at the corner of 15th and F Streets. Once again the club outgrew its residence and moved to the Albee Building (formerly Riggs) at 15th and G Streets. At its founding,
161-468: The ' Washington Press Club Foundation Congressional Dinner , is its signature fundraising event, with its video archived by C-SPAN since 1985. African-American journalists founded the Capital Press Club in 1944. The first African-American male journalist ( Louis Lautier ) was accepted for National Press Club membership in 1955. Reporting on that event, TIME said: Negroes are admitted to
184-544: The 4th floor of the National Press Building, a full-service video production with facilities for webcast and video conference solutions, video production capabilities, global transmission portals, and web enabled multimedia. The National Press Club Journalism Institute , the non-profit arm of the National Press Club, trains communications professionals in a changing media environment, provides scholarships to
207-471: The Black, Hispanic, Italian, Irish and Jewish communities. One of the current directors is Juan Felipe Herrera , Poet Laureate of California from 2012 to 2014 and US Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017. National Press Club (United States) The club has been visited by most U.S. presidents ; since Warren Harding , many have also been members and spoken from the club's podium. Others who have appeared at
230-460: The F Street parlor of the Willard Hotel to frame a constitution for the National Press Club. The Club founders laid down a credo which promised "to promote social enjoyment among the members, to cultivate literary taste, to encourage friendly intercourse among newspapermen and those with whom they were thrown in contact in the pursuit of their vocation , to aid members in distress and to foster
253-763: The US during the previous year that make contributions to American multicultural literature. Adhering to its founding grant's requirement that he have a partner, Reed chose poet Victor Hernández Cruz , now a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets . Next to become directors were Shawn Wong , novelist and former chair of the English Department at the University of Washington in Seattle , and Presidential medal recipient Rudolfo Anaya . The foundation, named after Ivan van Sertima 's book They Came before Columbus (1976), began as
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#1732854606110276-894: The Washington Press Club and the National Press Club merged under the banner of the National Press Club. The Washington Press Club Foundation (WPCF) continues as a nonprofit organization to promote equality, education and excellence among journalists in print and broadcast media. It has a Women in Journalism Oral History Project . Oral History videos (Mary Garber, Betsy Wade, Dorothy Gilliam, Eileen Shanahan, Ruth Cowan Nash) are archived by C-SPAN . The Washington Press Club Foundation also arranges journalism internships for women and minorities in partnership with Washington DC –based news bureaus. Since 1945, an annual (late January - early February) Washington Press Club Foundation Salute to Congress , now called
299-542: The Women's National Press Club voted to allow men into their club and renamed it the Washington Press Club . The next month, the National Press Club voted 227 to 56 to admit women. In 1972, journalist Gloria Steinem , a feminist leader and founder of Ms. magazine, was the first woman to speak at the National Press Club, although first lady Eleanor Roosevelt attended lunch at the then all-male club in 1938. In 1985,
322-523: The building open. The National Press Building was renovated from 1984 to 1985, in conjunction with the development of the adjacent The Shops at National Place . Beginning in 2004, a 10-year, $ 15 million second renovation occurred. In 2011, the building was sold to Quadrangle Development Corp. and AEW Core Property Trust (U.S.) for $ 167.5 million. The owners placed the building, assessed at $ 237.5 million, up for sale in August 2014. The National Press Club also rents space to other organizations. During
345-498: The club include monarchs, prime ministers, premiers, members of Congress , Cabinet officials, ambassadors, scholars, entertainers, business leaders, and athletes. The club's emblem is the owl , in deference to wisdom, awareness and nights spent working. On March 12, 1908, 32 newspapermen met at the Washington Chamber of Commerce to discuss starting a club for journalists. At the meeting they agreed to meet again on March 29 in
368-609: The club made a deal with movie studio 20th Century Fox to build a theater as part of the building. In 1932, Bascom N. Timmons , who established an independent news bureau in Washington, D.C., became president of the press club. He worked to save the press club building in New York City from foreclosure by persuading President Franklin Roosevelt to sign an amendment to the federal bankruptcy law that blocked pending foreclosure and kept
391-581: The club was only open to white men. But in 1955, the club opened to non-white men. In 1970, it was opened to women. Prior to these changes in membership, non-white men and women had their own designated press clubs. In 1919, female journalists founded the Women's National Press Club , when the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. In December 1970, members of
414-446: The club's big banquet hall when it is rented out to other organizations, but only two have ever ventured into the members' private dining room or Press Club bar. One, William Hastie , now a federal judge, was refused service; the other, C.I.O. Aide George Weaver , was served luncheon, but his newsman host got an anonymous letter warning him never to bring a Negro again. In 1925, National Press Club president Henry L. Sweinhart appointed
437-585: The club. Speaking at the National Press Club to mark his retirement, CBS commentator Eric Sevareid called the club the " sanctum sanctorum of American journalists" and said "It's the Westminster Hall , it's Delphi , it's Mecca , the Wailing Wall for everybody in this country having anything to do with the news business; the only hallowed place I know of that's absolutely bursting with irreverence." The Broadcast Operations Center opened in 2006. Located on
460-595: The foundation has met this goal. In 1980, a recording of a reading presented by the Foundation at the Oakland Museum , featuring 14 poets led by Ishmael Reed (with Amiri Baraka , Jayne Cortez , Joy Harjo , David Henderson , Victor Hernández Cruz , David Meltzer , and others), was released on the Smithsonian Folkways label. In 1980, Ishmael Reed suggested that there be an American Book Awards to challenge
483-854: The lack of diversity in the Pulitzer Prizes and the National Book Awards . The first awards ceremony was held at The West Side Community Center. In the following year, Public Theater director Joseph Papp hosted the American Book Awards in New York. The master of ceremonies was Quincy Troupe . Among the presenters were Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison and writer Donald Barthelme . The American Book Awards have been held in Los Angeles , Chicago , New Orleans , Seattle , San Francisco , Oakland , Miami , and Washington, D.C. , where they were held at
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#1732854606110506-512: The next generation of journalists, recognizes excellence in journalism, and promotes a free press. The institute also trains working journalists through its Bloomberg Center for Electronic Journalism , and provides research for communications professionals through its Eric Friedheim Journalism Library . The organization administers the annual Freedom of the Press Award, which honors two recipients, one foreign and one domestic, who have demonstrated
529-511: The unrelated National Book Awards was renamed American Book Awards. In 1987 it was renamed back to National Book Awards. Other than having the same name during this seven-year period, the two awards have no relation. Before Columbus Foundation The Before Columbus Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 1976 by Ishmael Reed , "dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of contemporary American multicultural literature". The Foundation makes annual awards for books published in
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