Omari Salisbury

Omari Salisbury (born June 4, 1975) is an American journalist, videographer, and businessman from Seattle, Washington. He founded Converge Media, a local independent production company focused on local news and entertainment, in 2017. Salisbury was reporting live for Converge to cover Seattle's protest response to the murder of George Floyd when he captured the "pink umbrella video," that was described as an early flashpoint of the 2020 protests in Seattle.

Early life and education Salisbury was raised in Seattle's Central District and graduated from Garfield High School (Seattle). In high school, he wrote for the school paper, the Messenger; later when he attended Elizabeth City State University he was a broadcaster on the college radio station WRVS 89.9. This experience had an impact on his sense of duty to his community and his desire to see the Central District thrive as a home for Seattle's Black residents. Thus, civilly engaged at 16 years old, Salisbury spoke to The Seattle Times in 1992 about his concerns over the impact of the program on the high school students and the city at large. This event caused Salisbury's mother to increase her time spent in activism, leading her to found Mothers for Police Accountability. His son, Omari "Omi" Salisbury, has traveled with his father for work, interned for Converge Media, and as of 2021 had been attending Loyola University of Chicago to study journalism. Omari Salisbury is the brother of Chukundi Salisbury, a 2020 candidate for Washington State House 37th District (see 2020 Washington House of Representatives election).

Salisbury's mother is Harriet G. Walden, an activist and reverend who founded the non-profit Mothers for Police Accountability in 1990 after two of her sons (one of whom was Omari Salisbury, and both minors at the time) were arrested and beaten by officers of the Seattle Police Department. She has also served on the Seattle Community Police Commission since its inception in 2013.

Career

Salisbury spent an early phase of his career reporting from Africa and the Middle East. He helped launch both TV and radio stations across Tanzania, Rwanda, and Kenya. He worked for Clouds TV International, the first and only urban African entertainment TV Station in the United Arab Emirates, as the marketing director, COO of Status Communications & Status Bookings, and CEO of Status Communications. While in this position, Salisbury orchestrated a partnership with FremantleMedia International to bring Got Talent to Kenya. During the period in which the police had abandoned the area around the East Precinct, Converge Media continued reporting from within the bounds of the zone. Using donations from a growing viewer base, Converge upgraded their production equipment, purchased safety gear, and worked out of a donated condo that was adjacent to the East Precinct.

When asked about where he stands on the issues being protested, Salisbury stated:

Salisbury also covered the Seattle City Council's revised 2020 budget, which was finally passed in early August 2020, to see what (if anything) they did to meet the demands of the city's protesters. On August 11, 2020, Salisbury spoke with KIRO Radio on the circumstances of the resignation of Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best. He expressed frustrations that the council had not spoken with Best, a Black woman, about their plans to potentially reduce her pay in the 2020 budget to meet protester demands of defunding the police budget as well as balance a deficit left in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reference section