NNPA NEWSWIRE — Kenneth brought the newspaper into the age of digital technology and ushered in an era of a new relevance to the publication with the inclusion of national wire service stories, and the incorporation of color photography within the pages of The Carolina Times.

Special to the NNPA Newswire, by the North Carolina Black Publishers Association (NCBPA)

DURHAM, NC — Kenneth William Edmonds, Editor-Publisher of The Carolina Times, died on Saturday, May 2, 2020, at the age of 66.

Dr. Benjamin Chavis, President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association offered the following comment, “At the age of 14 in 1962, I started to drive my parents’ car in Oxford, N. C. and in that same year, Mr. Louis Austin, the distinguished publisher of The Carolina Times Newspaper in Durham, N. C. gave me my first job as a weekly writer and researcher on the civil rights issues impacting Black Americans across the state of N. C.

Kenneth Edmonds, the grandson of Louis Austin, carried on the family tradition of being a bold steadfast advocate of the empowerment of Black American families and communities as the third-generation publisher of The Carolina Times.

Our responsibility today is to respectfully mourn the passing of Kenneth Edmonds, but also we must use this moment to rededicate our support for the continuation of The Carolina Times in Durham and to strengthen the Black Press across America.”