Impact of the Black Press on Social Movements

Callie Crossley is a woman for all media including commentator, public speaker, writer, broadcast journalist, and filmmaker.

Crossley is a Boston based radio and tv host, commentator, and public speaker. Her Monday morning commentaries on GBH’s Morning Edition tackle wide-ranging subject matter—from the TSA’s Quiet Skies surveillance program, safe injection sites, Ayanna Pressley’s Congressional victory, everyday racism, the movie Crazy Rich Asians, the pre and post response to the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, and the lack of understanding about sexual assault.

Crossley hosts Basic Black, which focuses on current events concerning communities of color, and she is known to Bostonians for her weekly television commentary on the media criticism program, Beat the Press, an award-winning program examining local and national media coverage airing on WGBH-TV.

Prior to her current work, Ms. Crossley spent thirteen years as a network television Producer for ABC NEWS’ 20/20 reporting health medical stories such as male menopause, breast cancer and young women, and the potential link between viral infection and recycled air in airplanes. In addition, she was a producer on the critically acclaimed PBS documentary series Eyes on the Prize: Americas Civil Rights Years 1954-1965. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored her hour on the series with an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature. Crossley produced the documentary while working for Blackside, Inc., a Boston based independent film production company for which she most recently served as Senior Series Producer on the 2003 PBS documentary series This Far By Faith: African-American Spiritual Journeys.

Callie Crossley is a graduate of Wellesley College, and was at Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow, a year long sabbatical for professional journalists.

Derrick Z. Jackson was a 2001 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in commentary. A Globe columnist since 1988, he is a two-time winner and three-time finalist for commentary awards from the National Education Writers Association and a 5-time winner and 12-time finalist for political and sports commentary from the National Association of Black Journalists. He was the 2003 recipient of Columbia University’s “Let’s Do It Better,” commentary awards and a 2004 winner for commentary from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. Jackson is also a three-time winner of the Sword of Hope commentary award from the New England Division of the American Cancer Society and a five-time winner of Unity journalism awards from Lincoln University in Missouri. Prior to the Globe, Jackson also won several awards at Newsday, including the 1985 Columbia University Meyer Berger Award for coverage of New York City and the 1979 award for feature writing from the Professional Basketball Writers Association. Jackson, born in 1955, is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is a 1976 graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. Jackson was a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University in 1984. He holds honorary degrees from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Salem State College, the human rights award from Curry College.

Minister Donald Muhammad is the Local Representative of the Nation of Islam in St. Louis, Missouri. As the Minister of Muhammad Mosque #28, he is responsible for a wide variety of activities both in the Mosque and across the City of St. Louis and surrounding area. Minister Donald has dedicated his life to helping the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan in the important work of the resurrection and upliftment of the Black Man and Woman in America. He is particularly gifted with delivering the Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad in a manner that is easy to understand and exciting to experience in person. He is the featured speaker at Muhammad Mosques main lecture, every Sunday at 10:00 a.m. Minister Donald has been blessed to be married for more than 30 years, and is the proud father of two daughters who have recently graduated from college.

Roland S. Martin worked as a reporter for black-owned and white-owned newspapers; his voice was heard on radio news programs; he held editorial positions at a major magazine and a high-traffic black-oriented Web site; his syndicated column ran in newspapers nationwide; he was a frequent guest on radio and television talk shows of all political stripes; he ran a multimedia company of his own; and he wrote books. In 2004, Martin took on perhaps his greatest challenge: the revitalization of the Chicago Defender. Born around 1969 in Houston, Texas, Martin was inspired to follow a career in journalism by his father, an avid newspaper reader and fan of television news. In 1987 Martin graduated from Houston’s Jack Yates High School in a magnet program devoted to communications. He went on to study journalism at Texas A&M University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1991. Martin landed a job at the Austin American-Statesman and started his journalism career at a basic level, covering county government and neighborhood news. In 1992 he covered the Republican National Convention for the paper and was sent to Louisiana to file reports from the area devastated by Hurricane Andrew.