We are a collective of journalists, writers, artists,  communicators and entrepreneurs who have banded together to use the information revolution as one means towards the overall empowerment of Black people in the United States and around the world.

            We are in the process of building an online Black community utilizing as our main tool the World Wide Web of the Internet. We aim to be the single most important destination on the information superhighway, the one 'must stop' in cyberspace for Black people; a place where they can come each day to feed their minds and souls with uplifting information and inspiration, a place to meet and chat with each other and to engage in commerce. Indeed, it is our goal to make our site both the leading electronic marketplace and the online village where brothers and sisters meet and commune.

        Our main purpose is to chronicle the daily social, political, cultural and economic realities of Black communities and countries. Our correspondents and columnists will both report and interpret the news that these realities generate. We will focus both on news and features about blacks and general news of value and interest to blacks.

          We are adamantly opposed to all forms of discrimination and exploitation based on race, class, ethnicity, sex or religion. Through our work, we hope to contribute to a healing dialogue between people of various races and nationalities.

        We are not aligned to any political party or movement but we advocate that inter-national and inter-racial relations should be mediated through the universal principles of civility, justice, fairness and respect. Only a strict adherence to these principles can guarantee universal peace.

       We launched this venture in July 1996 in the United States at a moment when the nation was being made aware of the terrible epidemic of Black church burnings. Led by the National Council of Churches, a campaign to make the nation aware of the tragedy and the racial animus that fueled most of the fires gave impetus to the launch of this site.

        We are in support of all efforts to bridge the chasm between the information 'haves' and 'have-nots'. We believe universal Internet access is necessary to close the gap and foster a more inclusive world order. Universal access will enable all people, Black and non-Black alike, to more easily contribute to stable and functioning participatory democracies around the world.

        Truthful information will be the key that unlocks the cell door of ignorance, the weapon that will free our minds from the shackles of mental slavery. In this spirit, we will encourage our writers and columnists to explore new ideas and perspectives related to questions of human liberation from all forms of alienation and oppression.

        Why have we chosen the Internet as the main medium to practice our journalistic concepts? First of all, the Internet provides the potential to reach a global audience with cost effective publishing. It frees us from the constraints of professional tradition, allows us to build new paradigms, unleashes our creativity and affords us an opportunity to experiment with non-elitist models that seek to empower the consumers of our information as much as they empower those who seek out the truth and report it. Simply stated, the Internet is the most democratic and egalitarian mass medium in the world today.

        We plan to utilize and employ all the cutting edge multimedia tools and applications to deliver our journalistic products and services. Furthermore, we will link to other sites within the global network that provide education and entertainment of value.

        This new mass medium has a unique feature that others lack---interactivity i.e. the ability of readers and writers to correspond among and between each other regularly through electronic mail and the capability of readers to dialog with leaders, public figures and celebrities who often make news and to 'chat' with each other at online round tables. The element of interactiviity makes possible public forums that transcend national boundaries and cross time zones; public places where the Web experience of readers moves from information interaction to human interaction.

        We urge Black businesses, governments, churches, non-profit organizations and Black folk in general to invest more time and money in technologies that liberate us from the role of passive consumers. Computers and the Internet are powerful tools that enable us to engage each other and strengthen our collective sense of community and fraternity. Moreover, mastering these new technologies will equip us to compete effectively in the knowledge-based global economy while relying on our own sense of community and connectedness to give meaning and purpose to our work.