[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 20]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 27167]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    IN HONOR OF ACEL MOORE, DISTINGUISHED PHILADELPHIA JOURNALIST, 
                    EDUCATOR, MENTOR AND ROLE MODEL

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. CHAKA FATTAH

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, November 6, 2009

  Mr. FATTAH. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Acel Moore, a 
distinguished Philadelphia journalist and educator, mentor and role 
model, who is adding another significant honor to his already 
impressive career. Along the way, Acel Moore has been a pioneer in the 
promotion and showcasing of minority journalism and a star in the ranks 
of Philadelphia journalists.
  Acel Moore has been called ``the conscience of the community,'' a 
title and responsibility that he continues to earn every day.
  His latest honor, the 2009 Star Alumnus EDDY from the Philadelphia 
Education Fund as a Star of Public Education, will be presented 
November 19, 2009 at the Philadelphia Education Fund awards ceremony on 
the campus of Drexel University in my district.
  Acel's journalism career began at the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1962 
as a copy book, gained added prominence with the 1977 Pulitzer Prize 
and continues today as the Inquirer's Associate Editor Emeritus and 
columnist. Yet alongside his work in the newsroom, Acel has been the 
creator of programs, motivator and instructor for generations of public 
school youth in Philadelphia.
  Most significantly, he has blended these dual passions. Acel Moore 
has not only opened the door for talented youth of color to launch 
journalism and communications careers in workplaces desperately in need 
of diversity. He has, time after time, built the doorway itself.
  Acel--known throughout Philadelphia and in wider journalism circles 
simply by his distinctive first name--continues to lecture at several 
colleges and universities around the country. At the Inquirer, he 
writes and directs recruitment, training and staff development while 
still being consulted to help shape and balance the paper's editorial 
policies.
  In 1979, he established the Art Peters Fellowship Program, a copy 
editor internship that has launched the careers of 50 journalists. In 
1984, he created the Journalism Career Development Workshop that has 
trained dozens of Philadelphia high school students. The program is now 
named in his honor--the Acel Moore Minority Workshop. He also has 
developed writing and journalism programs for the School District of 
Philadelphia.
  In 1970 he won the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Scale of Justice 
Award for his series on the juvenile court system. Then came the Public 
Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalism in 1971 and 
an award from the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors 
Association in 1974. That same year Moore joined Reggie Bryant to host 
an influential television show called Black Perspectives on the News on 
WHYY public television.
  In 1975, Acel Moore and 43 other newsmen and women met in Washington 
to launch the National Association of Black Journalists. NABJ soon 
spawned a Philadelphia chapter, and many more local chapters.
  A quarter century later, Acel Moore reflected, ``If I had said in 
1975 . . . that I thought NABJ would have the impact and import it has 
today, I'd be lying. There was a feeling among some people that signing 
their name on the list [to form NABJ] was a risk, that there would be a 
retaliation for doing that.''
  NABJ soon spawned a Philadelphia chapter, and many more local 
chapters. It was an advocacy group, an employment agency, a civil 
rights crusader. Now NABJ has 3,300 members. It has provided the 
example for minority journalism organizations of Hispanics, Native 
Americans, Asian Americans, lesbians and gays, significantly increasing 
the diversity of our newsrooms, networks and the communications 
executive ranks. This is no small feat, and it is a tremendous service 
to the profession that Acel Moore loves: A newsroom or newscast must 
reflect the audience and the community it serves or its credibility 
suffers.
  Acel Moore had already achieved prominence and impact by the time he 
and Inquirer colleague Wendell Rawls began their investigation of abuse 
of inmates at Farview State Hospital. Their series led to awarding of 
the 1977 Pulitzer Prize, journalism's most important award, for local 
investigative reporting--and to significant changes at the hospital 
itself. Typically, Acel Moore was digging hard, uncovering the truth 
and providing a voice for the voiceless.
  I was honored to attend Acel Moore's ``retirement'' party in December 
2005 with 250 colleagues, admirers, movers and shakers at the Moore 
College of Art. I put retirement in quotes because Acel wasn't truly 
retiring then, or in full retirement even today. He has taken up the 
hobby of painting. But he has never really stepped away from his day 
job--serving the Philadelphia community, its underprivileged and 
voiceless, coaxing and grooming the next generation of communicators to 
continue his life's work.
  On the eve of this next great and greatly deserved honor, I urge my 
colleagues to join me in congratulating and thanking a great 
Philadelphian, Acel Moore.

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