Charles W. “Chuck’’ Cherry II of Daytona Beach, a fierce advocate of the Black Press and a longtime warrior for social justice, died on Saturday, July 15, at age 66. Chuck Cherry retired as publisher of the Daytona Times and the Florida Courier in 2020 after running the Black newspapers’ editorial operations for decades.
By Oakland Post
Charles W. “Chuck’’ Cherry II of Daytona Beach, a fierce advocate of the Black Press and a longtime warrior for social justice, died on Saturday, July 15, at age 66.
Cherry retired as publisher of the Daytona Times and the Florida Courier in 2020 after running the Black newspapers’ editorial operations for decades.
The retired attorney also was an author, speaker, radio broadcaster and strategic business planning consultant. He was a sought-after speaker on Black history and civil rights in Daytona Beach and beyond.
In 2019, he founded 623 Management, Inc., a company that focused on developing and disseminating messaging to Black America with a specific focus on understanding and reaching Florida’s Black population through a comprehensive marketing strategy.
Cherry was born on Aug. 6, 1956, in Daytona Beach to Julia T. Cherry and Charles W. Cherry, Sr., founder of the Daytona Times and Florida Courier newspapers. For more than 10 years, Cherry served as general counsel to the Housing Authority of the City of Fort Lauderdale, and was a past president of the Florida NAACP as well as a former Daytona Beach city commissioner.
Admitted into the Florida Bar in December 1983, he became a Fort Lauderdale city and South Florida state prosecutor, practicing law for 21 years before returning to journalism and newspaper publishing as his primary occupation upon the death of his father, Charles Cherry, Sr.
In addition to his responsibilities as publisher of the two newspapers, he served as general manager of the family-owned radio station, WPUL-AM, and for years was host of the station’s “Free Your Mind’’ radio show.
Jenise Griffin, who replaced Cherry as publisher in 2020, said, “Chuck Cherry was my longtime mentor and friend, and I am devastated by his passing. He was a giant in the journalism industry and his voice will be missed. As his award-winning column was titled, he told it ‘straight, no chaser.’ I admired him as a journalist, a brother with a great legal mind, and an awesome father.”
She added, “Although he was no longer a working member of the Daytona Times and Florida Courier, the staffers often still reached out to him for advice and insight on their editorial projects.”
Plans for a public memorial service are in the works. In lieu of flowers, the Cherry family is requesting that donations be made to the Charles W. Cherry Sr. Endowed Scholarship Fund via giving.morehouse.edu.
