NABJ Special Honors Awards
NABJ Special Honors Awards
NABJ’s most coveted awards honor the groundbreaking accomplishments of Black journalists and those who support the Black community in the media. Honorees will be celebrated during the national convention.
Nominations are open for 2025. Click show more.
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NABJ Hall of Fame Induction
NABJ Hall of Fame Induction
Every year, NABJ pays homage to legendary Black journalists who have made outstanding contributions to the industry. The NABJ Board of Directors approves nominations. New inductees will be installed at the NABJ Hall of Fame Ceremony later this year.
Nominations are open for 2025. Click show more.
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NABJ Salute to Excellence
NABJ Salute to Excellence
The NABJ Salute to Excellence Awards honors journalists, students and media professionals who cover or communicate about the people or issues of the African/African American Diaspora. Entries will be judged on content, creativity, innovation, use of the medium and relevance to the Black community in more than 100 categories. Solo practitioners, agencies of all sizes, large and small businesses, corporations, media outlets, nonprofits, associations and government agencies are all encouraged to apply. You do not have to be an NABJ member to submit a nomination.
Award winners will be announced during each annual convention. Nominations are open for 2025. Click show more.
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The Ethel Payne Fellowship
The Ethel Payne Fellowship
The NABJ Ethel Payne Fellowship is a $5,000 award bestowed to a worthy journalist. The award provides an opportunity for an NABJ member to gain foreign correspondence experience in Africa and the necessary assistance to complete a project or singular report on Africa. The fellowship is named for the first female African American commentator employed by a U.S. network when CBS hired her in 1972. Known as the “First Lady of the Black Press,” Payne, a Chicago native, was a lecturer and columnist whose eloquent advocacy while reporting on the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s gained her national fame. Payne, who died in 1991, was the first African American female journalist to focus on international news reporting. The fellowship was established to provide rich coverage of the African continent beyond the common storylines of HIV/AIDS, famine and war. Proposed projects are encouraged to tell the untold and dynamic stories of Africa and African people.
The winning fellow must publish their story/project by the deadline noted on the application and in their award letter.
2025 applications are now open!
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Thumbs Down Award
Thumbs Down Award
Each year, at the annual convention, NABJ also announces a Thumbs Down Award recipient or co-recipients. The Thumbs Down Award is presented to an individual or organization for especially insensitive, racist or stereotypical reporting, commentary, photography or cartooning about the Black community or for engaging in practices at odds with the goals of NABJ.
