Richmond's Voice Newspaper Continues Under New Leadership by Jeremy M. Lazarus

July 6, 2014

Richmond's Voice Newspaper Continues Under New Leadership 
Publisher Jack Green's death came three weeks after death of Richmond Free Press Publisher Ray Boone

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

jack green 2
Jack J. Green

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Jack Junius Green wanted to educate people about the issues that affected their lives. For nearly 30 years, he energetically spread information about current events through thepages of the weekly Voice newspaper that he started in Richmond and later expanded to the Norfolk area with a Hampton Roads edition.

He targeted his newspaper to the African-American community that was his primary concern. His goal, he once said, was to create a paper that introduced “minorities to the majority and the majority to the minorities.”

“He believed in arming people with knowledge,” said his daughter, Jackie A. Green-August, his successor as president and publisher of the tabloid publication. Green made his home in Nottoway County and commuted 60 miles daily to Richmond to run the paper with his late wife and co-owner, Ruby Adams-Green, who died in 2007. At the same time, he served on the Nottoway County Board of Supervisors and was re-elected five times after first winning the District 3 seat in 1987.

“He was involved in many of the improvements in the county,” said Ronnie Roark, veteran county administrator who worked with Green for 26 years. Green’s various roles as a publisher and politician ended with his death Thursday, June 26, 2014. His family said he succumbed to a chronic lung-related illness at his residence. He was 71.

His death came just three weeks after Raymond H. Boone, publisher/editor of the Richmond Free Press, died of cancer. Green had worked for Boone as advertising manager for the now defunct Richmond Afro-American before starting his competing newspaper. Boone's wife of 47-years, who serves as president of advertising for the Free Press and was a co-founder, has now been appointed as publisher.

Family and friends celebrated Green’s life Thursday, July 3, in services at Nottoway High School near his long time residence in the rural county. Born in Nottoway County, Green began his newspaper in 1985 after spending more than 20 years in the military and various advertising positions. He added a Hampton Roads edition in 1992.

After graduating from high school, Green served five years in the U.S. Air Force, including tours in Germany and Vietnam. After leaving the military, he began working in finance and marketing positions, first for a Wall Street bank and then for thedaily newspapers in Norfolk. He also served as president of the District IV Community Action Program in Hampton, a program to uplift the poor. He went on to become marketing director for Richmond’s Greater Richmond Transit Co.,where he created the slogan “Tell Us WhereTo Go.”

He later joined the Afro-American, then hestarted his own advertising agency in 1983 and launched his own publication two years later. Back in Nottoway County, he became active in political and civic affairs. He served as president of the NAACP branch and was active in the community civic league.In 1983, he ran unsuccessfully for the board of supervisors, but four years later he won to become, his daughter said, the first Black member of the county’s governing body. He was a longtime member of First Nottoway Baptist Church, where he served as a deacon,Sunday school superintendent and teacher and as a member of the finance committee.

Besides his daughter, survivors include two brothers, Dr. James L. Green and Arthur JacksonJr.; three sisters, Laura Jackson, Wanda Singletaryand Gloria Yates; and two grandchildren.

Green’s death will not halt his newspaper, said his daughter before the funeral. Assuming the mantle of president and publisher, she said she would carry on “my father’s mission.” She said the day-to-day operations would be under the supervision of Marlene Jones, Green’s longtime assistant and now assistant publisher. Green-August said she will be involved, but at more of a distance. She lives with her husband and two children near Dallas and is a full-time principal for the Kendall Independent School District near Fort Worth, Texas. She said the changes her father approved before his death will continue. For example, the newspaper’s current building in Jackson Ward is up for sale, and she said plans are being made to relocate once a buyer is found.

Also, Green-August said the newspaper would end separate editions and publish unde rthe original name, The Voice. She said she also plans to carry out her father’s wishes to make the newspaper more of an online operation. “We’ll still publish a print newspaper,” she said, but over time she said she expects the press run to be reduced with the expansion of the digital format.