SPOKANE, Wash. — It was celebration in Spokane Friday.
The Black Lens newspaper is back.
"I am so excited for this publication," Spokane City Council President Betsy Wilkerson said. "The Black Lens is another testament that in Spokane, we all belong."
Wilkerson stood alongside Washington Senator Maria Cantwell during an event marking the relaunch of the paper Friday. Family of Sandy Williams, the paper's late founder, signed copies of the paper's first reissue during the press conference inside The Steam Plant downtown.
Sandy's mother, Wilhelmenia Williams, held onto a copy as she recalled watching her daughter work on each issue from her home. She'd be one of the first readers, front to back, after each monthly deadline was met.
"It means the work Sandy started is continuing," Wilhelmenia said. "That's the most important thing - we didn't want the paper to die."
Publication was put on pause in 2022 after Williams and her partner, Patricia Hicks, were killed in a plane crash.
Under new leadership and printed by the Spokesman Review, Sandy's vision for independent Black journalism now lives on.
"We have set this up as a new independent nonprofit," editor Natasha Hill said.
Hill said while The Black Lens is a focus on the Black perspective, events, and experience, it has been and remains for everyone.
Senator Cantwell spoke to the importance of local journalism.
"If we don't have the diversity of voices, if we don't have people competing with information from a variety of sources, it affects all of us," she said.
Williams' daugher Renika says she's been most touched by the community's rallying cry to see the paper return.
"Just to hearing the community wanting it back, they wanted to see it, to read the stories of the Black community," she said. "Then to have this gorgeous, beautiful paper in our hands with the stories of the Black community is incredible."
Renika says she's helping work on the publication, which also gave her a greater insight into the tireless work her mother poured into The Black Lens while creating it from her home. She remembers watching her mom write, edit, and package each issue, but says she never realizes the effort that went in until she was part of the relaunch.
The Black Lens could grow even larger than Williams ever realized.
Contributor training, Renika says, will mean more Black voices are amplified.
"What once was something she was doing with people she knew or people she met in the community is now going to even expand beyond that, it's going further than Spokane," she said. "I think eventually it's going to include a lot of Washington state."
Spokesman editor Rob Curley says the paper will now be published in print every month, with more regular articles posted online.
"We're here to say local journalism is growing," Senator Cantwell said. "That Sandy's voice is still alive."
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