Hunter-Gault, Charlayne

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Hunter-Gault, Charlayne

February 27, 1942


As the creator and chief of the Harlem bureau of the New York Times in the late 1960s, journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault sought to move media coverage of African Americans away from stereotypes to in-depth, realistic, and accurate stories. Born in Due West, South Carolina, Hunter-Gault became the first black woman admitted to the University of Georgia, graduating in 1963 with a degree in journalism. Her career has included work with The New Yorker magazine, NBC News in Washington, D.C., and PBS's MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour. Hunter-Gault has also taught at the Columbia University School of Journalism. Her distinguished career has brought her a number of important honors: She has won two Emmy Awards, for national news and documentary film; was named the Journalist of the Year in 1986 by the National Association of Black Journalists; and was the 1986 recipient of the George Foster Peabody award. In 1992 she published her autobiography, In My Place. In 1999, Hunter-Gault became the Johannesburg Bureau Chief for CNN South Africa, where she continues to create award-winning reports about African people, society, culture, and politics.

See also Journalism

Bibliography

Fraser, C. Gerald. "Charlayne Hunter-Gault: From Frontline to Firing Line." Essence 17 (March 1987): 4042, 110.

Hunter-Gault, Charlayne. In My Place. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1992.

Lanker, Brian. I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed the World. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1989.

Trillin, Calvin. An Education in Georgia: Charlayne Hunter, Hamilton Holmes, and the Intergration of the University of Georgia. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991.

judith weisenfeld (1996)
Updated by publisher 2005

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