For almost 25 years, the Southwest Digest has been providing news and commentary to primarily Lubbock's African American community.

Patterson and Richardson acknowledge that they don't always do things the conventional way, but they don't apologize for what they do.

"I've written stuff that made the black community mad, and I've written stuff that made the white community mad," Richardson said. "I don't care who's mad, but I want to be right."

Probably one of the most controversial types of articles that they publish features the names and photos of people arrested for drug dealing. The information is all public information - arrest records, mug shots, etc. - but still many people complain about the publicity.

No matter how much harassment they receive, Patterson and Richardson believe in their duty to inform their readers of what they consider to be a scourge of society, and they continue to run the information. They've published the arrest information of all kinds of people- coaches of youth baseball teams, kids of preachers and more.

"If someone complains to me, I tell them, 'I put my own sister-in-laws picture in the paper, why wouldn't I put yours?'" Patterson said "I made my own family mad."

Patterson and Richardson laugh easily in their office on East 28th Street as they remember the ups and downs of the past 25 years, but they take their own war on drugs seriously. "Crack killed my brother," Paterson said, motioning to an old and fading photo on the wall of his brother. "I don't like crack. I don't like that stuff."

Richardson said the first time they ran the names and photos of accused drug dealers, many of the people they exposed left Lubbock. "Just printing their names doesn't do it," he said. "But, when we put their pictures in there, people start recognizing them."

With a wry laugh, they admit their only regret was for the towns the drug dealers moved to.

No matter how good their intentions are, Patterson and Richardson don't always meet with approval from everyone. "Eddie was taking out the trash one day, and a guy wanted to blow his brains out right there," Patterson said. "We've seen a lot of things happen, yes we have."

Like their more traditional counterparts, Patterson and Richardson don't print just bad news in their newspaper. The last issue in January featured a front-page, six-column photo of the Estacado High School Marching Band and an accompanying story that tells of the students' invitation to perform in next year's Nokia Sugar Bowl Halftime Spectacular in New Orleans. Not only does the article tell of the invitation, it also details the band's need to raise $55,000 so that everyone can go.

On that same front page of the Southwest Digest are stories about upcoming African American History Month activities and a new U.S. Postal Service stamp commemorating writer Langston Hughes.

"In a weekly, we get a chance to compile the events that matter to the community," Patterson said.

Continuing through the eight-page edition, readers see a column about the happenings at the New Hope Baptist Church; an article by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.; a story about Kwinrzie Roshawn Scott's second birthday party; the Church Directory page with columns by Evangelist Billy B.J. Morrisoin, III, Parson D.A. Smith and the members or the Outreach Prayer Breakfast; a commentary by Ruth Oron, continued from last week; a question-and-answer column by the Texas Attorney General; a story about preparing low-fat soul food; and more.

Every issue includes a column by Richardson and the This N That column with tidbits of information. The Classified Ads feature every thing from auto service and hair styling to business consulting and paging service. The "Community Meetings" lists several organizations upcoming events.

As co-publishers of the Southwest Digest, T.J. Patterson and Eddie Richardson have spent almost 25 years covering Lubbock's African American community.

Although Patterson and Richardson deny having any journalism training before the founded Southwest Digest, Richardson worked on his high school newspaper and yearbook, and Patterson was the editor of the newspaper at Bishop College. They said that they and their newspaper are taken seriously as a media outlet.

"We get everyone from thugs to Washington, D.C. walking through that door," Richardson said.

"From the White House to the outhouse, we say," Patterson said with a laugh.

"But, we're not trying to compete with the general media," Richardson said. "To some degree we're a supplement. We cover things they usually don't cover."

The two don't claim the newspaper is perfect. In any issue, there might be a headline that's too long, running into the story next to it or typos in the articles or any other minor mistakes. Sometimes, the front page includes a little box proclaiming that the editors have put those mistakes there on purpose to give the reader something to do.

And, at least one reader takes it upon himself to point out all of their goof-tips, sending a marked up copy of each edition to them.

"We've had about 3 or 4 people who write and tell us thanks for a story we've done," Richardson said. "But, we've got lots of complaints!"

Overall, Patterson and Richardson think their readers appreciate what they do each week. That's why they keep doing it.

"Some of our biggest fans are old ladies," Richardson said. "They like 10 see who's in there this week. People are in our paper that wouldn't be in another paper."

Patterson said his goal for the Southwest Digest is to be able to show history as it really was when it happened.

"When my day is done, I hope people say we cared, we tried," he said.

Richardson nodded in agreement and then added his goal for the newspaper. "By printing the facts, to bring about change," he said. "It hasn't been easy."

"Through it all, though, I wouldn't change a thing," Patterson said.