13: American Legacy
Interview with Audrey Peterson, Editor, October 2007
Play audio (approximately 30 minutes)
This installment of Periodical Radio is about American Legacy, a quarterly magazine celebrating African-American history and culture. The magazine's web site states that
"American Legacy publishes African-American history and culture, factually and positively; material that is both informative and inspirational. With content of substance…no fluff, no hype, no shallowness, but a historical chronicling of accomplishments achieved; hardships endured, obstacles overcome; the overall effect: positive and uplifting, enriching our readers' sense of being."
American Legacy began publication in 1996. It is an attractive, colorful magazine enhanced with many photographs. The advertisements are predominantly full page ads that feature images of African Americans. American Legacy is inexpensive, with a $3 newsstand price and a $9.95 annual subscription price.
To learn more about American Legacy, my guest is Editor Audrey M. Peterson.
Steve: Audrey, welcome to Periodical Radio.
Audrey: Well, thank you for having me.
Steve: Rodney J. Reynolds founded American Legacy in 1996. Can you tell us a little about Mr. Reynold's motivations and ambitions for the magazine?
Audrey: Sure. He founded the magazine, he actually had started several magazines more on a local basis in Cleveland. He’s out of Cleveland originally. He realized that there was definitely a market of people of color, Black readers, specifically African Americans, out there that were not getting the full round of materials in other media. So he had a men’s magazine at one point, then it was sort of a family magazine, then it was kind of an Ohio/Cleveland history magazine. He had the idea of creating a more national African American magazine of history and culture. He worked with Forbes, Inc., presented a plan, and we’ve been told that it’s rare that they would actually go in with someone, but the plan was solid. A lot of the basis of the plan was to distribute it for free in churches, schools, and other nonprofit institutions, because our reader base is very church oriented, in terms of the Black church. So it was a ready set way of distribution, where you have the full attention, because a lot of the congregants will listen to their pastor. We have a full captive audience. But the motivation behind the actual magazine itself was to bring forward a lot of the stuff that just did not get into the history books. I know when I was growing up, I’m 45 years old, and I know when I was growing up, we had teachers who added to the curriculum, happily. But if you opened up any of your school books, there was not a lot of specific black history in the books. So that was our original motivation, and we’re still doing that.
Steve: There's a line in your writer's guidelines that states "we like to think that black history in America is more than just the period between 1861 and 1965."
Audrey: This is true.
Steve: Can you elaborate a little for us what that means?
Audrey: Sure. In fact, a lot of the history that we didn’t get, black history that we didn’t get in the history books, is the history when the first Africans, approximately, set foot on the North American continent. There’s this whole couple of centuries of black history before there was a Civil War. Even prior to the antebellum slavery period that we often hear about, we have the revolutionary war, members of the Revolutionary War, and you have craftsmen, and you have pioneers. After the Civil Rights movement, this is an important time period, certainly, and we would never say that it’s not, but I think that we tend to focus on these two points. Even within those two genres and topics, there are a lot of things that we don’t hear about, like black Confederates, blacks who actually owned slaves, but it was a whole different kind of situation for a black to own a slave during the antebellum period. People who were part of the civil rights movement who weren’t in the foreground, they were in the background, those kind of lesser-known stories.
Steve: I see. You explained that your readers, the core of your readership, are attendees of black churches? Who else are your readers? Is that exclusively the audience?
Audrey: No, that’s not exclusively the audience. We have paid subscribers, and they come from, I mean I can tell you our demographic is about 67% female, to 33% male, and the median age is early to mid 40’s, although we look at 35 plus. It’s people of all stripes—students, professionals, home keepers. Yes, a lot of them do attend church, but we have a pretty wide audience. People who are not of color, I get letters from them. So it’s a pretty wide audience.
Steve: Do you have a sense of what portion of the audience is not individuals of color?
Audrey: It’s a small portion, but it’s growing. It’s growing, I think I get more and more letters, and I’ve been the editor here for nine years. I’m getting more and more letters, and I’m pleased to get more letters, because that’s one of the things, our mandate is to try to teach people and reach people in the sense that African American and black history is inextricably intertwined with our mainstream history. One didn’t happen without the other, and vice versa. It’s such a part of the fabric of American history, that it almost sometimes feels funny kind of separating it out, but the reason it was separated out was because it was left out. If you go through the pages of our magazine, there are white people and people of other races in it all the time, because you can’t separate that out. There would be no stories, really. The same goes for my writing staff. The authors are people of many colors, many ages.
Steve: That leads me to my next question. I’d like to ask about your writers. Your writer’s guidelines suggest that instead of submitting finished articles, the writers should send a one or two page proposal. Why do you ask for proposals instead of manuscripts?
Audrey: Well, we do take manuscripts, so if you have a completed manuscript that you’ve already completed without any communication with me, and hey, that would work great for American Legacy, we’re always happy to read the manuscripts. But the way we work is that we make assignments. I’ve had a couple of times, I’ve had to be very specific about where people have gone out, and I’ve said, “Oh, why don’t you send a proposal, and we’ll look at that and see if we can make an assignment.” But they don’t really hear all that. They go out, write the article, send it over to me, and then “When can I put my invoice in?” We haven’t even discussed anything! Anything, really. It’s just a formal way of actually accepting an assignment, it’s the first step toward that.
Steve: Can you explain for our listeners just what the assignment process is?
Audrey: Yes, sure. Usually what happens, if I don’t call a writer, and sometimes I do call writers, and say, “Look, I have this topic, I think you would be great for it. Would you like to write about it, would you accept this assignment?” We negotiate a fee, it’s a basic fee, and then we also figure out a deadline, it’s usually 3 months for us. We’re a quarterly, so we figure three months is a good amount of time. We write an assignment letter, to send along with the contracts. They sign the contracts and send them back within the period of time specified. They give me the manuscript, we read it, we make some adjustments sometimes. That’s written into the contract that there might be a little rewriting or what have you. Once we get an okay that those adjustments can be made, we accept that manuscript, and an invoice is put in for them to be paid for the manuscript. So payment is not on publication, it’s on acceptance that we pay.
Steve: I see. Let’s go back to the proposal for just a moment. When someone does send a proposal, in your mind, what’s the perfect proposal, one that gets you excited about carrying it through to being published in the magazine.
Audrey: The perfect proposal, first of all, is rarely longer than a page, but sometimes it’s two pages. It’s like a little mini story, you know, where you get a little taste of what’s to come. Obviously, written well. I mean, if there’s a typo, I’m not going to throw a perfectly good proposal away, but you can usually tell when someone hasn’t really proofread, and these are writers. So if you can’t write a proposal, how would I expect you to write an article for the magazine, you know? I’m not hard core, but I do, but I’m hard enough to know that it should be well written, pretty concise, kind of give a taste of the story itself, and there should be some passion in it. I should be able to tell that this is a topic that you’ve been interested in. This isn’t just something that you pulled out of the air so you could make some money, and that you have knowledge about it, that you have researched it, and I can tell it’s researched. It interesting, because having been in this as long as I have, I can tell when things are pulled from internet sources, quickly and patched together, and when somebody has done really good primary research.
Steve: Are you on the lookout for unique stories?
Audrey: Sure! And I think sometimes it’s just unique in itself, the topic. We had one woman write a piece about a black man who was a silversmith in Philadelphia in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and that’s a unique story. But sometimes there are unique twists on a story. For instance, a lot of people already know the story about Jesse Owens, who won gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. That’s a story that’s been told and retold, but we have a writer who’s working on a story about him and his relationship with Lutz Long, who was a German track star and long jumper who became friends with Owens during his time in Germany, and who he remained friends with. There’s this whole story that goes behind it. There’s a behind the scenes story about why Jesse Owens ran and another black runner ran a relay race that two white Jewish guys were supposed to be running. So there’s all these little behind the scenes little stories that can come out of well known stories, too.
Steve: Do you have any other favorite stories that have been published in the magazine?
Audrey: Oh, wow [laughing], that’s asking a lot!
Steve: Can you share just a few?
Audrey: I’ll tell you, it’s funny, and this was prior to when I started here. I started in the Fall of 1998 at American Legacy. Prior to that, there was a story published about a man named Melvin B. Tolson who started a debate club at a black college called Wiley College. This debate club became so good that they toured around, and they won debates with a lot of the Ivy League schools. I always thought it was a great story. I had read it prior to coming here, and in fact when I did my interview for this job, one of the questions was, “What are some of your favorite stories?” That was my top one, and it really pleased the editor who was interviewing me, because that was her favorite, too, so it might have helped in my favor. It’s now actually been picked up by Harpo Productions, and Harpo Productions and Denzel Washington are doing a movie called “The Great Debaters” based on Melvin Tolson. They actually contacted us. It’s funny, because a great story is just a great story, you know. It’s just recognizable as such. They contacted us because they wanted to get in touch with the author and get some of his primary sources and that sort of thing. It’s funny, because I have my favorites, but then there are just certain ones that stand out, regardless. That’s just one of many.
Steve: Many of your articles include photographs, many historical photographs. Is getting permission from the copyright holder ever difficult for the photos that you run?
Audrey: Yes!
Steve: Can you explain that for us?
Audrey: Yes, and there are pictures that didn’t run because we couldn’t get permission. For instance, we did a piece on Gordon Parks, the late, great Gordon Parks. I did an interview with him, and it was a photo essay and also an excerpt from his autobiography. One of his four or five autobiographies. He had a long life, so he had to keep writing them! There was a lot on Getty images, which owns Time-Life images. He worked for Life magazine for some time, so there was a lot that they owned, so we could license from them. Then there were a lot in the Library of Congress that were high resolution, publishable images that they owned because he worked in one of FDR’s Works Progress Administration programs, I think either the Farm Security Administration, or one of those programs where they gave work to artists and other people.
Steve: But then the government owned the copyright.
Audrey: Right, the government owned the copyright, and they were happy with it being in public domain, so those were fine. But then there was this one photograph that I really wanted to put in the magazine because some of his excerpts talked about going to Harlem at one point and becoming friendly with gang members so that he could photograph them. This was a group of gang members fighting in the street, and he got a picture of it. Well, it resides at Art Resource. You can go to Art Resource, but they have to get permission, you have to get separate permission from the copyright holder. At that point it was a woman who was Mr. Park’s assistant. It turned out, I didn’t know the backstory, she was very, very, very tied up, because he was ill. There were a lot of other things that she had to attend to, so she couldn’t get back to us in time with a confirmed e-mail or a letter saying “Yes, you can use this picture.” Because of that, Art Resource could not give us the high resolution file, so we couldn’t print it. That was a shame, because that was a really wonderful illustrative picture, but when you can’t get it, you can’t get it. We have more trouble, not so much with the stock companies and things like that, but with photographs that are held in private collections, and things like that, because you really have to hunt people down, I mean sometimes I really just even pull out the phone book.
Steve: So it’s not necessarily an issue of them saying no, it’s an issue of being able to contact them at all . . .
Audrey: Right.
Steve: . . .and get an answer at all.
Audrey: Right. We did an article on Elizabeth Catlett, the painter and engraver, and she is covered by a group called VAGA International, and it turns out they cover a lot of artists. It’s helpful. They sent me a database of all the artists they cover, so if I have to check, I’ll check there first. That’s helpful because you just call them up. It’s not cheap, but it’s available, you’re able to get these things. Often you can also figure out what gallery an artist is represented by, and they’re happy to get back to you fairly quickly, because anything to promote the artist they’re working with is a good thing for them. But it’s the private collections, things like that. I mean we just did an article on this group of men called the Triple Nickles, who went to paratrooper school during World War II, but they were never actually allowed to be paratroopers, so they were smoke jumpers instead. The one descent – the book was written by an ex-Triple Nickle. He had a lot of his private pictures in there, but he’s passed away. We didn’t know who contact, or how to get in contact with whoever might have those pictures, or might not. So that’s were it becomes difficult.
Steve: Audrey, I think I’ll change focus a little now. That’s all been very interesting, but I want to go on to some of the other content of your publication. Can you tell our listeners about the Women of Strength and Courage Awards?
Audrey: Sure. Every year we pick five or six women who we feel have demonstrated strength and courage, mostly, in various fields, and who have made a vast contribution to black history and American history and history in general.
Steve: I see. And there’s now a Men of Honor of Distinction and Honor ceremony annually as well, correct?
Audrey: Yes, yes. This will be our second year that we’re having it, I think it’s on November 29th if I’m not mistaken. My publisher, Rodney Reynolds, decided that he really felt that, because I always tease him and say, “Oh, you know, there’s always men in the magazine,” I have to spend a little extra time having more women. That’s just the nature of the beast, because much of history is written by men, and the way culture and history have played out, women have had a great role, but it’s not always acknowledged. Which is why we started the Women of Strength and Courage just to acknowledge these history makers while they’re alive. The Men of Honor and Distinction, it has a different…Rodney Reynolds had a different reason for putting that together. He really felt that there needs to be reachable mentors for young black men, and the black youth. They need to be able to have access to them. What’s a component of both the Women of Strength and Courage and Men of Honor and Distinction is that we do a panel discussion, a workshop type thing with young people in the morning. So they come in and for an hour and a half or so the women in Women of Strength and Courage and men in Men of Honor and Distinction talk about what they do, and there is a discussion, a back and forth where they field questions. They get to come up and talk to these people one on one. We’ve had a girl get into a college because spoke with--I can’t remember whether it was Nikki Giovanni, one of the people who were educators on top of being artists--and because of that direct one on one contact and the individual was moved by the young girl and her story. We had another young man last year who stood up and said, “I just don’t have any role model.” So ex-mayor David Dinkins, was like, “I’m you’re role model, come up here and talk with me and let’s exchange information.” So there’s this kind of lovely personal contact that happens, which is my favorite. That’s my favorite part of the whole day, is the morning workshops. Then we have the luncheon for the women and for the Men of Honor of Distinction an evening kind of affair.
Steve: So I get the overall impression that the magazine and these efforts, the real purpose isn’t to make money. You have another purpose. I’m mean, with the three dollar cover price I’m not surprised.
Audrey: We also don’t take liquor or cigarette ads. My boss made rule from the start. If we did, I would have a very expensive car [laughs]. But we made it, it was part of his plan that it just wouldn’t happen. It isn’t about making money. I mean, yeah, of course we all have to eat and pay rent and that sort of thing, but we all, everyone on the staff has an incredible passion for spreading the news and getting the word out and working with the community. We do a lot of events, health fairs and geneology workshops and that kind of thing to be out there with the community. I’ve sat at tables and passed out magazines and that sort of thing, and it’s great to meet readers in the public.
Steve: Now that sort of thing is not the first thing I would associate with Forbes, Inc. Can you tell us about that relationship and how it works, and how it benefits your efforts.
Audrey: Well, sure. First of all, before Rodney was able to make his deal with the Forbes, Forbes had for some time, I can’t remember when they did, but they purchased American Heritage, which I’m sure you’ve been familiar with.
Steve: Yes.
Audrey: They were already in the business of doing a history magazine, so this wasn’t anything that was too foreign to them. In fact, it wasn’t foreign at all. At that time Tim Forbes was president of American Heritage magazine, he hadn’t come over to Forbes to become I believe the COO now, but don’t quote me on that. They had already had the mechanism in place for producing a history magazine, so when Rodney made his pitch and they realized that we had a ready-made audience, they thought hey this might work. What happened is, is that it’s Forbes, but it was Forbes under the auspices of American Heritage, Inc. Just starting off they kind of mined the staff of American Heritage and kind of approached them and said, could we have one of the senior editors work with Rodney to put together a test magazine. They really wanted to test it out first, and get a response before they really full steam ahead. It went so well that she then took over the editor’s position until I got there, and until they realized that it was making a profit and that we could have a more full staff. That’s when I came on board as the associate editor, etc., etc.
Steve: My understanding is that American Heritage is being cut loose by Forbes.
Audrey: Yes, it is.
Steve: Is that still correct?
Audrey: Yes, that’s still correct as far as I know.
Steve: How is that going to affect you, or will it, do you know?
Audrey: Rodney had already been in negotiations with Forbes well before it was announced that American Heritage was ceasing publication, with buying out their portion of American Legacy. We are in the final stages of that, actually. We will be moving to different premises, because right now we’re in a Forbes building, not in the flagship, but up the street where forbes.com is. But we will be moving, and we’ll be moving forward. The benefit to having worked with the Forbes has been that they do have the resources, everything in place to really get the magazine started. There are just so many aspects of publishing a magazine that if you’ve been doing it for years, it’s a breeze [laughs]. You really do need venture capital and people who are willing commit to helping you publish the magazine, often when it’s something that’s new, and not something that’s been in place like an Ebony or an Essence for years and you’re just taking it over. There’s been a tremendous advantage working with them. It was just, you know the American Heritage staff and everybody were always really great people. Richard Snow, who was the editor in chief of American Heritage, is somebody I admire greatly, and I’ve learned an incredible amount. It’s been like a post-doctoral program in magazine editing working with him. So the next step is cutting loose and moving forward.
Steve: Well, I wish your magazine great luck, it’s a very attractive magazine. Believe it or not our time is nearly up.
Audrey: Oh wow, that was great, I really enjoyed speaking with you.
Steve: I very much enjoyed talking with you as well, Audrey, thank you very much.
Audrey: Thank you.
Steve: If you are interested in subscribing to American Legacy, visit their web site at http://www.americanlegacymag.com/. Thank you for listening to this installment of Periodical Radio. I'm your host, Steve Black.