After Trump’s appearance, the nation’s largest gathering of Black journalists gets back to business

CHICAGO (AP) — A day after Donald Trump’s contentious interview at the National Association of Black Journalists conference, the organization was back to business as usual.

Thousands of journalists spoke with recruiters or networked at the career fair. Meeting rooms overflowed with attendees listening to panel discussions on career growth and industry changes, including conversations around artificial intelligence and new considerations in criminal justice coverage.

Many passed by the people at the Dow Jones desk to congratulate them on Wall Street Journal colleague Evan Gershkovich’s release from prison in Russia in a massive prisoner swap deal.

But members of the nation’s largest group for Black journalists were still grappling with the tension created by Trump’s Wednesday interview, in which he made false claims about Vice President Kamala Harris’ race and repeatedly insulted ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott after she asked him a tough question about his past attacks on Black people.

Fred Sweets, a contributing editor at The St. Louis American and a former Associated Press photographer, said Thursday that the Republican ex-president’s interview raised an age-old question for the group’s membership: “Are we Black first, or are we journalists?”

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«RELATED COVERAGE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true»