Trump Invitation to Conference for Black Journalists Sets Off Intense Debate

A scheduled appearance by former President Donald J. Trump at a conference for Black journalists in Chicago has generated fierce debate.

The National Association of Black Journalists, which is hosting the conference, announced on Monday that Mr. Trump would take part in a question-and-answer session with political reporters on Wednesday.

The conference’s description says the session will “concentrate on the most pressing issues facing the Black community.” Harris Faulkner, a Fox News anchor; Kadia Goba, a politics reporter at Semafor; and Rachel Scott, an ABC News correspondent, will moderate the session. The event is expected to be live-streamed on the organization’s YouTube and Facebook pages.

After the announcement of the event with Mr. Trump, a number of well-known Black journalists harshly criticized the group for arranging it, arguing that the organization was giving a platform to someone who had openly denigrated a number of reporters.

“The reports of attacks on Black women White House correspondents by the then-president of the United States are not myth or conjecture, but fact,” April Ryan, the White House correspondent for The Grio, a media company geared toward Black Americans, wrote on the social platform X. She said the session was “a slap in the face” to Black female journalists “who had to protect themselves from the wrath of this Republican presidential nominee who is promoting an authoritarian agenda that plans to destroy this nation and her democracy with his Project 2025.”

Jemele Hill, who hosts a podcast and is contributing writer for The Atlantic, said that while she did not have a problem with Mr. Trump’s appearance “under the right circumstances because he’s a presidential candidate,” she questioned the wisdom of the event.