By Hamil R. Harris
JA Guest Writer
(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Roy Lewis has photographed iconic images across Black America for decades and his love for the lens was captured by Jet Magazine in 1964 when it published his photograph of pianist Thelonious Monk.
Born in 1937, on a plantation below Natchez, Mississippi, Lewis’s resourcefulness is part of his gift. He first fell in love with vocational photography in high school. He later practiced that love on a professional level at the Johnson Publishing Company on South Michigan Avenue in Chicago. He earned the money for a 35 millimeter camera after he was drafted into the Army.
This summer, Lewis, 87, was back on South Michigan Avenue in Chicago, but not at the John H. Johnson headquarters. He was there to receive “special honors,” at the convention of the National Association of Black Journalists.
“I worked for Mr. Johnson from 1956 to 1968 and then to be honored on this Avenue…” Lewis said. “It’s not about the pictures, it’s about the feeling of being honored by your peers and being back in Chicago where I did some of my top work.”
Lewis was bestowed with the Legacy Award during NABJ’s Annual Convention in August. The Legacy Award recognizes a Black print, broadcast, digital, or photojournalist of “extraordinary accomplishment who has broken barriers and blazed trails.”
Legacy Award honorees are those who have “contributed to the understanding or advancement of people and issues in the African Diaspora,” according to NABJ.
The NABJ wrote, “Lewis is a renowned photographer and activist whose photography career started in 1964 when JET Magazine published his photograph of musician Thelonious Monk. His work has been celebrated nationwide, including in his ‘Everywhere with Roy Lewis Exhibition,’ beginning in 2008 at the Essence Music Festival.”
Lewis, who left Chicago in 1973 and moved to Washington DC, was nominated for the award by Sam Ford, a founding member of the NABJ who worked for more than 51 years as an award-winning broadcaster for three decades on air at WJLA ABC Channel 7 in Washington, DC.
“Roy has been part of the Washington press corp for as far as I can remember,” Ford said. “Roy started taking pictures when he was 17 years old. He will be 87 this year…That is more than 70 years connected with the news media except when he was in the Army.”
Lewis also worked in his hometown paper in Natchez and went back to work for Ebony and Jet after the Army. He has a large collection of pictures from his days at Ebony and Jet from the 1960s and he is still a photographer for the Washington Informer, the Trice Edney News Wire, and NNPA. “I thought he needed recognition. When a person is going for 87 years you don’t want to wait too long,” Ford said.
According to Lewis’ biography in History Makers, in 1960 he was drafted in the United States Army. While in the military, he developed a talent for photography after purchasing his first camera for just $25. In 1968, Lewis left Johnson Publishing and joined the staff at Northeastern University, filming student activities. In 1970, Lewis videotaped an exclusive interview with the late Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Lewis’ work was featured in the film A Nation of Common Sense. In 1974, Lewis traveled to Zaire to film the Muhammad – Ali-George Foreman fight. This historic video would later be featured in the Hollywood film When We Were Kings, which was a remake of the legendary championship fight. In 1975, Lewis worked on River Road on the Mississippi, a pictorial book that focused on African American people and life along the Mississippi River.
Dr. Ben Chavis, President/CEO of NNPA, said in an interview, “The National Newspaper Publishers Association salutes Roy Lewis as a phenomenal photojournalist and for his long-standing contribution to freedom, justice, and equality. Roy Lewis is an icon of the Black Press.”
Likewise, Hazel Trice Edney, editor-in-chief of the Trice Edney News Wire, said, “Roy Lewis’s name is synonymous with excellence in Black Press photography.” Under her leadership as president of the Capital Press Club (CPC) in 2014, Lewis was also an award recipient during the CPC’s 70th anniversary celebration. She said, “Roy is deserving, not just because of great and historic photography, but because of his commitment to the cause.”
