DR. DWIGHT MCKENNA, a physician, surgeon and former Orleans Parishschool board member, and BEVERLY STANTON MCKENNA founded the New Orleans Tribune in 1985, along with Kermit Thomas and James Borders —- two young men who shared the McKennas’ vision for an editorially substantive, graphically pleasing publication geared to New Orleans middle – class African-American population. Borders and Thomas, who served as the publication’s founding editor and publisher respectively, left the company to pursue other ventures after The Tribune’s first year of operation.Â