Editor’s Note: Mediaite has been rightly called out for a big, glaring error: On our list of 28 media leaders we’ve lost this decade there was not a single person of color. Not a one. Read Mediaite editor-at-large Rachel Sklar‘s entire mea culpa here and below, we’ve added 5 of the deceased black media leaders that should have been mentioned initially.

2005

Who: Shirley Chisholm
Major Accomplishment: Mrs. Chisholm was an outspoken, steely educator-turned-politician who shattered racial and gender barriers as she became a national symbol of liberal politics in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Legacy: In 1972, when she entered the presidential primaries, she did not expect to capture the Democratic nomination, which ultimately went to George S. McGovern. “Some see my candidacy as an alternate and others as symbolic or a move to make other candidates start addressing themselves to real issues,” she said at the time. She did not win a single primary, but in 2002, she said her campaign had been a necessary “catalyst for change.”

Who: John H. Johnson
Major Accomplishment: Mr. Johnson had major holdings in book and magazine publishing, cosmetics, television and radio and in 1982 was the first African-American on Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 wealthiest Americans.
Legacy: [Ebony’s] advertising was distinctive among black publications at the time because it promoted general merchandise, as well as products like hair straighteners aimed at blacks. Ebony strove to glamorize consumption, at first with cover girls, and some suggested the effect was to play down serious issues at a time blacks were still excluded from many areas of American life. But many readers were glad for the uplift.

Who: Richard Pryor
Major Accomplishment: Mr. Pryor’s crossover appeal derived largely from his innovative approach to comedy – what Rolling Stone magazine called “a new type of realistic theater.” It was essentially comedy without jokes – re-enactments of common human exchanges that not only mirrored the pretensions of the characters portrayed but also subtly revealed the minor triumphs that allowed them to endure and even prevail over the bleak realities of everyday living.
Legacy: “Pryor started it all,” the director and comedian Keenen Ivory Wayans said. “He made the blueprint for the progressive thinking of black comedians, unlocking that irreverent style.” For the actor Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor was simply “better than anyone who ever picked up a microphone.” The playwright Neil Simon called him “the most brilliant comic in America.”

2006

Who: Ed Bradley
Major Accomplishment: To generations of television viewers, Mr. Bradley was a sober presence — albeit one with salt-and-pepper stubble and a stud in one ear — whose reporting for CBS across four decades ranged from the Vietnam War and Cambodian refugee crisis to the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church and the Columbine High School shooting. He won 19 Emmy awards, according to CBS, including one for lifetime achievement in 2003.
Legacy: For Charlayne Hunter-Gault, who left The New York Times for the “MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour” on PBS in 1978, Mr. Bradley was more than just someone who helped clear an early path to national television for herself and other black journalists. “I think people might want to characterize him as a trailblazer for black journalists,” she said. “I think he’d be proud of that. But I think Ed was a trailblazer for good journalism. Period.”

2009

Who: Michael Jackson
Major Accomplishment: As with Elvis Presley or the Beatles, it is impossible to calculate the full effect Mr. Jackson had on the world of music. At the height of his career, he was indisputably the biggest star in the world; he has sold more than 750 million albums.
Legacy: Berry Gordy, the Motown founder who helped develop the Jackson 5, told CNN that Mr. Jackson, as a boy, “always wanted to be the best, and he was willing to work as hard as it took to be that. And we could all see that he was a winner at that age. Tommy Mottola, a former head of Sony Music, called Mr. Jackson “the cornerstone to the entire music business.”

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.