At the spring 2012 meeting of the board of directors of UNITY:
Journalists of Color Inc., the board members — after a spirited and
difficult discussion — voted to change the name of the alliance to
UNITY Journalists.

Eleven board members voted for the name change, four voted against it and one abstained.

Those advocating for the name change said the name “UNITY Journalists”
was more inclusive, would make it easier to market the convention to
members of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and
reflected the fact that the alliance is no longer made up of only
racial and ethnic minority journalist groups. Also, NLGJA members
serving on the UNITY board said their members would not or would
seriously consider not attending the convention if “journalists of
color” remained as part of the name.

Those who wanted to keep the name “Journalists of Color” urged the
board to postpone the decision until after members of the alliance
organizations had been given the opportunity, either before or at the
UNITY convention in August, to express their opinion on a name change.
They also were concerned about whether changing the name might hamper
efforts to reunify with a founding UNITY alliance member, the National
Association of Black Journalists, whose board voted last year to leave
the alliance.

The UNITY board of directors was meeting at Mandalay Bay Hotel to
preview the venue for the upcoming quadrennial UNITY convention Aug.
1-4 in Las Vegas.