| Emory Report | November 3, 1997 |
Volume 50, No. 11 |
Pioneering journalists take center stage at Emory symposiumEmory's Nov. 7-8 symposium on the South's African-American print and broadcast journalists has special significance for the undergraduates enrolled in the new journalism program. In one of their required courses, "Past, Present and Future of News," the students have been paired with pioneering African-American journalists who desegregated mainstream media newsrooms or were important in African-American media outlets, many of which are still family-owned and operated. Students were required to interview at least 10 people in order to write a 3,000-word biographical essay on their assigned journalist. Junior Elizabeth Stanton interviewed Ozell Sutton, who wrote for the Arkansas Democrat from 1949-57 and may be one of the first journalists to write for the South's all-white mainstream press. Stanton said she had taken history courses on the civil rights movement and thought she was pretty knowledgeable going into the interview, but the experience of talking to Sutton for three hours was "unlike anything that I ever imagined it would be." In the course of doing her own research and interviews, Stanton came to realize the importance of "checking and double-checking and checking again the information we are given," for she found that many of her interviewees retained selective knowledge of major events, and that black and white reporters had very different recollections of the newly desegregated newsrooms. " All of the white men I interviewed regarding what happened when Ozell entered the newsroom said there was no change when he arrived," said Stanton. "But Ozell has a totally different view. He said the reason white reporters don't remember a change is because their contact with him was limited or nonexistent." Sutton's desk was located alone on one side of the copy desk while all of the other reporters were situated on the other side of the desk. The first-ever conference on this topic, "Struggling to Report and Reporting the Struggle: The African-American Journalist in the South," will give Emory journalism students an opportunity to meet about 30 speakers and panelists with perspectives similar to Sutton's, including Lancie Thomas, 80, publisher emeritus of The Mobile Beacon and The Alabama Citizen; Joe Walker, a blind play-by-play sports reporter for Atlanta radio stations since 1953; and Bea Hines, the first female African-American reporter at The Miami Herald. The conference, co-sponsored by Emory's journalism program and the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association, also will address the future of African-American journalists in the South. The event is free and open to the public. Conference organizer and Cox Professor of Journalism Loren Ghiglione is excited that students are doing original research on reporters and sub-editors-"the important and overlooked figures in journalism since much of journalism history focuses on editors and owners," he noted. At a time when journalism schools are being closed or merged with departments such as advertising and public relations, Ghiglione is pleased that "Emory has created an innovative model that enables students to receive a solid liberal arts education and journalism training that will help them interpret specialized fields, including science and business." The students also are working as interns at print and broadcast outlets in Atlanta and across the country. The journalism program has ambitious plans for spring: A dozen students will report from Cape Town, South Africa, for four weeks beginning in May. In addition, the program will co-sponsor a second conference with the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association, April 3-4, to honor the "giants" of the last half-century of Southern journalism. Panels will focus on topics such as the South's opinion writers, the owners of the region's prominent newspapers and coverage of the civil rights movement. Speakers who have agreed to participate so far include Hodding Carter III, holder of the Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of Maryland; and John Seigenthaler, chairman of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University. -Nancy Seideman |