Black By God Makes History: WV’s Only Black Newspaper Joins National Preservation Program to Protect Black Appalachian Stories Forever

By Traci Phillips

Black By God: The West Virginian has officially been selected for Portico’s News Preservation Pilot — a national initiative to protect local journalism so it can never be erased, deleted, or lost to time. This means something huge: Our stories are now being preserved forever.

“We’re literally building a time capsule,” said BBG founder and publisher Crystal Good. “Decades from now, our great-great-grandchildren will be able to open this archive and see what we were doing, what we survived, and what we built here in Black Appalachia.”

For too long, Black stories from rural America have disappeared from the official record — left out of libraries, archives, and history books. This partnership changes that.

When local news dies, whole communities disappear from memory. As digital preservation expert Ed McCain put it: “If content doesn’t make it to the scholarly record, that historical record is gone.” Black By God is refusing to let that happen to West Virginia’s Black communities.

Portico — part of ITHAKA, the organization behind JSTOR — will now permanently preserve BBG’s reporting, photography, and multimedia work in a secure “dark archive” built to outlive servers, websites, and even newsrooms themselves. If BBG’s digital content ever becomes unavailable, Portico can provide access, ensuring perpetual access to our work.

And if Portico ever shuts down? There are contingency plans to transfer everything to institutions like the Library of Congress.

For a small, independent newsroom built by and for Black Appalachians, this is monumental.

Your Voice Becomes History

Here’s what this means for you, our contributors and community:

When you contribute to Black By God — whether it’s a reported piece (which we pay a small fee for approved pitches) or your opinion — you’re not just participating in today’s conversation. You’re creating a permanent record.

Your voice becomes part of history.

Please, share your opinions. Write your stories. Submit your perspectives.

What we’re building together matters far beyond this moment. We’re ensuring that future generations will know we were here, we mattered, and we told our own stories—in our own words.

“This is how we fight erasure,” Good said. “This is how we claim our place in the historical record.”

Want to contribute to BBG and become part of the permanent archive? Contact us at info@blackbygod.org.