Minority newspapers highlighted in TTU exhibit

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - A legacy of the late T.J. Patterson will be on display thanks to a new exhibit organized by Texas Tech University next week.

Patterson started “The Lubbock Digest” 45 years ago. It was a periodical that circulated the stories of Lubbock’s black community since 1977, though Patterson said it was for all of God’s people to read. Unfortunately, The Lubbock Digest printed it’s last issue in May of this year.

Patterson said the Digest told the story of Lubbock’s black community during a time of unfair representation and inequity. A few years after it started, it grew its readership and expanded into “The Southwest Digest.”

On the last issue the Digest published last May, Patterson said, “Money’s not the answer. It’s being able to utilize the knowledge that you have and to share that information with others.”

He hoped that the Digest planted some seeds for others to do what the Digest did for the community.

Luckily, the Lubbock community will be able to observe its impact. The Southwest collections’s exhibit titled, “Black and Brown in Print,” will debut with a reception next Wednesday, September 28. The archive will also include clippings, an oral history, and paper archives dating back dating back to the 1940s. It will remain on display until March of next year.

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