Arthur McGee’s Black Online Directory hotlinks and his energy in keeping them straight was THE FIRST open-source list of Black Online User Communities at the time and he knew every SYSOP operator.

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April 1992

An AfroNet BBS fido-link advertises in Boston Bay State Banner free dialup

Boston hop by sysop William Murrell launches the SpiritDatatreetm  

BBS “Blackware” public “online discussion forum on The Afronet.

Murrell’s AfroNet connected Boston Bulletin Board System (BBS) running the PC BOARD host software using host brand name SpiritDatatree, launches the first “BLACKWARE” online forum chat channel ( Twitter-like but pre-Twitter ) and distributes it across the Afronet Fidonet system of hosts connected to each other in cities on the East and West Coast.

source: Bay State Banner

February 1994

Summit: African Americans in the Telecommunications Age – Washington DC, Capitol Hill

Invitation to form brain-trust, to propel a talented tenth, to create a modern-day Niagra Movement, to ensure that all Black Americans are fully participating in the Telecommunications Age dubbed “The Age of Light” Sponsored by American Visions magazine,co-sponsored by Congressional Black Caucus Foundation

March 1994

The Newspaper  warns African Americans to get aboard the online communications Highway”If Blacks don’t take the blinks off, our eyes and get on board now, we will once again be on the outside looking in, begging for jobs that should have been ours to give,” writes William Reed

Source: Oakland Post

1994 March

White House Report: Black