The battle chant for African Americans is that we have made it not because of the laws of America but in spite of the laws of America.

Robert and Nancy Hicks Maynard were successful journalists, he for the Washington Post and she for the New York Times, when they decided to leave their prestigious jobs to do something that nobody else wanted to do.

In 1978, Robert and Nancy moved to California, where he became the editor of the struggling Oakland Tribune.  This, after establishing himself as an award-winning journalist whose views were sought on major news programs including “This Week with David Brinkley” and “The MacNeil Lehrer Report.”

He was also a member of prestigious boards, including the board for the Associated Press and the Pulitzer Prize.

When he took over the newspaper, skeptics scoffed that his sojourn there would be short, as would be the life of the newspaper. Estimates of “survival time” for the paper went from 3 months to 5 months to 3 years …until finally, the world caught on that Maynard’s dream was not about to die.

In 1983, Maynard and his wife purchased the newspaper, making it the first African-American owned daily paper in the United States. Under Robert and Nancy’s leadership, the paper became an example of what they felt newspapers should be: a picture of the diversity of American society.

While Robert concentrated on the editorial aspects of the newspaper, Nancy made it her business to hire the most diverse staff possible.

The result was a newspaper which spewed excellence, going on to win major journalism prizes including a coveted Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for its coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake.

Robert Maynard, who had a photographic memory, dropped out of school when he was 16. He said that his success would be his credentials, though he urged young people not to follow his lead. The son of a Barbadian father, he went on to earn eight honorary doctorates. His first job as a journalist was at a daily newspaper in York, Pennsylvania. In 1962, he received a Nieman Fellowship to study at Harvard University.

His wife, Nancy, was the daughter of an African American father and a white mother, who was a journalist. Nancy developed a passion for writing early in her life, and sought to correct what she thought was a poorly written and inaccurate story about a situation in her high school when she was a student. Her journalism career was launched.

The couple had a passion and commitment to making sure America’s newsrooms grew to reflect the diversity of America, and formed the Institute for Journalism Education. After he died in 1993 from prostate cancer, the institute was renamed the Robert C Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. It is located in Berkeley, California.

Nancy Hicks Maynard continued the work of the Institute until she died in September 2008.

The institute still continues to train journalists of all nationalities and ethnicities, a tribute to the dreams and passions of both Robert C and Nancy Hicks Maynard.