A native of Dallas, Mollie Belt assumed the role of
publisher of The Dallas Examiner after
her father’s untimely death.
Her father,
Fred J. Finch, Jr., founded The Dallas
Examiner in 1986. Mr. Finch’s vision was
to publish a quality publication with news from an
African American perspective. He was a charter
member of Newsfinder, the Associated press wire for
weekly newspapers. The Dallas Examiner
was the first African American newspaper in
Dallas to use four-color processing. Many residents
were pleased to have a paper where trained,
professional African American journalists practiced
their craft, reporting on breaking news and relevant
issues. It was a newspaper with excellent editorial
content and few ads.
In March
1986 Mr. and Mrs. Finch were murdered in their
home. Mollie was determined not to see her father’s
vision die. She and her husband, Attorney James C.
Belt, Jr., put their resources in the newspaper to
keep it alive.
The
Dallas Examiner has won numerous national,
state and local awards including the prestigious
Katie Awards. In April 2002 The Texas Publisher’s
Association awarded The Dallas Examiner
Best Weekly Newspaper. In March 2004 the regional
chapter of NABJ awarded The Dallas Examiner
12 awards including Best Newspaper and Best
Practices.
As publisher
of the newspaper, Mollie has continually taken steps
to improve the publication and keep up with
technology. The Dallas Examiner can
be found on the Internet every week. She has
continued her father’s dream for Dallas to have a
quality newspaper that accurately reports issues
concerning African Americans in this community,
state and nation.
In 1998 with
a grant from AT&T, Mollie and James started
Future Speak, a training program for
young journalists. This program has provided am
opportunity for many young journalism students in
the Dallas area to practice their craft.
Future Speak, the newspaper, they
published won numerous awards. Students who
participated in the Future Speak Program
have gone on to earn degrees in journalism and
become journalists throughout the United States.
Mollie as
publisher of The Dallas Examiner
has been a media partner for many community
organizations and events i.e. Black Dallas
Remembered, the Martin Luther King Community Center,
Celebrating Life Foundation, African American Women
Fighting Breast Cancer, and University of Texas
Southwestern’s Youth Angle.
The
Dallas Examiner has always been committed to
informing our community of health issues. In 1999
The Dallas Examiner published
PROBE, a health supplement that explored
diseases adversely affecting African Americans. In
2003 The Dallas Examiner published
“Battling AIDS in Our Community," a 12
page broadsheet supplement. Mollie received the
prestigious Community Service Award from the
National Association of Black Journalists in August
2004 because of the sacrifice she made in order to
start the conversation and increase awareness in our
community of how HIV/AIDS is affecting our
community. Additionally, executive editor Sharon
Egiebor, was named Journalist of the Year by the
National Association of Women Journalists.
In August
2003 The Dallas Examiner sponsored a
town hall meeting on HIV/AIDS with Danny Glover at
Inspiring Body of Christ Church, where over 2500
persons attended and 200 were tested on-site. Also,
in August 2003, at their annual Salute the Black
Press event, The Dallas Examiner
brought Sheryl Lee Ralph and “Heroes in the
Struggle” exhibit to the African American Museum.
This was the first time that the “Heroes in the
Struggle Exhibit was exhibited in Texas.
On World
AIDS Day, December 1, 2004 The Dallas Examiner
co-sponsored with Youth Angle, a public
meeting/luncheon at Paul Quinn College, where 300
attended and 200 plus students were tested.
The Dallas Examiner’s second supplement on
HIV/AIDS, “Innocence Lost,” which
looks at the rising rates in 13- to 24-year-olds,
was published December 23, 2004
The Dallas Examiner
has consistently published
a voter roll call on the online edition found
at
www.dallasexaminer.com
to encourage voter participation in the African
American community in Dallas.
Mollie is a
member of St. Luke Community United Methodist Church
and a Life Member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, the
NAACP and the National Parent Teachers Association.
She is a member of the National Association of Bench
and Bar Spouses, the Texas Publishers Association
and the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
She currently serves as Vice President for the Texas
Publishers Association and secretary of the National
Newspaper Publishers Association. She is past vice
president print of The Dallas-Fort Worth Association
of Black Communicators and she has served on the
advisory boards for The Peabody Health Center (a
center in South Dallas serving persons living with
AIDS) and Dodd Education and Support, Inc.
She has been
married to Attorney James C. Belt, Jr. for
thirty-nine years. They have two children, James C.
Belt, III, advertising manager at The Dallas
Examiner, and Melanie Belt, M.D, an OB/GYN
practicing in Austin, Texas. |