By ERIC LINDEN

The Oak Park Sentinel might or might not fulfill publisher Walter A.
Perkins III's vision that it will be "the Chicago Defender of Oak Park,"
but the new African American newspaper in the village definitely will
offer something different than other local publications, Perkins
promised in an interview.

The Sentinel, a free paper that will be published twice each month, did
in its Jan. 1 debut and will in successive issues provide readers with a
mix of local news and events on the national, state, county and regional
levels. That mix is what African Americans in Oak Park want and need in
a local publication, said Perkins, a 50-year-old village resident who,
among other things, since last May has been the elected president of the
NAACP Oak Park branch.

The debut issue provided a mix of stories that illustrate the Sentinel's
style--with a front page that contained reports of varying length on the
November 1999 public forum on diversity in the village, on officials'
discussion of the State of Illinois' Safe Neighborhoods Act, on a
speaking appearance in Chicago by Nation of Islam Minister Louis
Farrakhan, on the withdrawal of a plan to develop a motel on Garfield
Street between Harlem and Oak Park avenues in Oak Park and on the
upcoming orientation session for ACT-SO, the academic, cultural,
technological and scientific olympics for African American students at
Oak Park and River Forest High School.

"There is a growing African American population in Oak Park that wants
to keep up with national developments and national trends. ... We're
filling a hole that exists," said Perkins. He said local
publications--from the Wednesday Journal and Oak Leaves weekly
newspapers to the online publication oak-park-journal.com--not only
concentrate solely on local events but can do more to address the
concerns and needs of Oak Park's African American residents.

Furthermore, Perkins believes, so many Oak Park residents are not
"savvy" consumers of news and can be best informed on larger issues by
local newspapers, which "have been the best medium to inform the
public," said Perkins. He said future subjects to be addressed by the
Sentinel include the campaign for the 2000 Democratic presidential
nomination between Vice President Al Gore and former Sen. Bill Bradley
and the continuing national discussion about the future of affirmative
action, contract set-asides for minority- and women-owned firms and other
programs of keen interest to African Americans.

"We need to bring more news to the people," said Perkins.

The Sentinel is published by the Urban Media company, which Perkins
operates out of the same south Oak Park offices that house the Sentinel.
In his background in government, politics and media, he has served on
the 1995 White House Conference on Small Business; has worked on the
staffs of current U.S. Rep. Danny Davis and former Chicago Mayor Harold
Washington; and has been on the staff of the Defender, which last week
was put up for auction to raise money for the family of the late
publisher John Sengstacke can pay inheritance taxes.

"That paper is in limbo," Perkins said about the Defender. He said the
publication always has done well to address the African American
community in Chicago but often has been hurt by not having enough staff
or resources.

Perkins said he plans to use contacts in his works experience and in Oak
Park to get the word out about the Sentinel. He has targeted or will
contact members of churches, the NAACP branch and other community groups
such as APPLE, the public school parents group African American Parents
for Purposeful Leadership in Education.

The Sentinel's publisher also expressed confidence that enough
advertising will be attracted to cover the publishing costs for the
so-far free newspaper. Perkins said the Sentinel is free now to gain a
foothold with residents. Similarly in Oak Park, the Wednesday Journal
newspaper began--in 1980--as a free newspaper, but little more than a
decade later began charging. Individual issues now cost 75 cents per
copy. Perkins said the Sentinel will be free of charge "at least in
2000."

The Sentinel's next issue is to be dated Jan. 15 and should be
distributed around Jan. 13 in public places like village hall and the
post office and in stores like 7-Elevens. As of now, six people work to
produce the Sentinel, and Perkins said opportunities exist for others to
work on the publication--whether as writing contributors, photographers
or graphic artists. Those interested in contributing or in being trained
in the newspaper field can contact Perkins  at 901 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak
Park, 60304 or by e-mail at wpmedia@aol.com.

Future plans call for a poetry section, but the Sentinel's main mission,
Perkins said, will be to report to residents about goings-on and to make
sure Oak Park stays true to its stated diversity goals. Often, Perkins
said, Oak Parkers and officials verbally support the policies but do not
follow through with actions on those policies.

"What (the Sentinel is) not about is any kind of racial intolerance at
any level," Perkins said.