The Onyx Express is an independent, student-run multimedia enterprise dedicated to the Black community. The publication serves the Black Community at UC Berkeley and beyond through its bi-annual magazine and online publications. The Onyx Express was established in 1994, the year Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first Black President. Since then, the publication has provided a venue for Black e
xpression and a voice to the issues and concerns of Black people and oppressed people. Onyx Express staff learn newswriting, journalism, marketing, and business skills while increasing awareness of issues facing Afrikan and Black people on campus, in the community, and on throughout the globe. Onyx Express also assists the Black Student Union at Berkeley with its regular Black Caucus publication. The Onyx Express receives funding from the ASUC, the Ethnic Studies Fifth Account, and some private donations and advertisements. The publication hopes to soon establish its independence by generating revenue to support the publication. Although started as a newspaper, the publication evolved into a magazine format in 2004, finally adopting a glossy format in 2009. Today, Onyx Express is a multimedia publication that educates and entertains its community through its website, blogs, Social Media, and videos. Onyx Express alumni have gone on to work for various TV, print, radio and online media outlets, ranging from the Black Press to larger corporate media organizations. The organization is currently building its alumni association and advisory board. Onyx Express is not the first Black student publication at UC Berkeley, but the culmination of those that have come and gone before it, including: The Black Family, Black Thoughts Journal, African/Afrikan Perspectives, Word, The Source, the Afrikan Student Literary Magazine, and In the Black.
