Charlayne Hunter-Gault

Charlayne Hunter-Gault is an Emmy-winning journalist who has been in the field for more than five decades. After starting her career at The New Yorker, Hunter-Gault joined The New York Times, where she established the Harlem Bureau – the first of its kind – and eventually joined PBS Newshour as its first substitute anchor and national correspondent. She is the recipient of two Emmys and Peabody Award for excellence in journalism, among many other accolades. My People: Five Decades of Writing About Black Lives (Harper) is a collection of her groundbreaking reportage vividly chronicling Black life’s experience in America. Hunter-Gault was 18 years old when she made national news after mounting a successful legal challenge that culminated in her admission to the University of Georgia in January 1961; she was one of the first two Black students to integrate the institution. Spanning from the civil rights movement through the election and inauguration of America’s first Black president, My People showcases her lifelong commitment to reporting on Black people in their totality, “in ways that are recognizable to themselves.”

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