HU TO HOST ACCOMPLISHED JOURNALISTS IN DISCUSSION OF MEDIA AND THE BLACK FAMILY 

Hampton, VA - - Hampton University welcomes four distinguished journalists to discuss "Media and the Black Family: Since the Kerner Commission Report" on Friday, March 18 at 10 a.m. in the Hampton University Student Center ballroom located at 135 Marshall Avenue in Hampton, Va. The session will focus on the media's growth and change in depicting Black families since the 1968 release of the Kerner Commission Report, the federal government's first report on race issues in America. The plenary session will feature:

• Earl Caldwell

  This former New York Times journalist witnessed and chronicled some of the most important civil rights events of the past 40 years, including the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. where he was the only reporter present. He rose to fame when he refused to disclose information to the FBI and Nixon Administration involving his sources in the Black Panther Party. His 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case United States v. Caldwell led to the enactment of shield laws in many states that allow reporters to protect sources and information.

• Leonard Pitts

  Pitts is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose column has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists, the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors and the Simon Wiesenthal Center. In 2001, he was named Columnist of the Year by Editor and Publisher magazine. He is also the author of Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood.

• Doug Smith

  Smith is an award-winning sports journalist with over 25 years of experience as an editor and writer with Newsday, The New York Post and USA Today. He is the author of Whirlwind: The Godfather of Black Tennis, a biography of the late Dr. Robert Walter Johnson, and the co-author of Zina, My Life in Women's Tennis, the life story of former tennis pro Zina Garrison.

• Jack E. White

  This retired Time magazine columnist served as bureau chief and as editor of the nation section. He also served as senior producer for domestic news for ABC News World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. He is the first African-American journalist to hold such high-ranking positions at Time or ABC News, and is also the first black journalist to be a columnist for a national newsweekly.

All of the journalists are serving as professors at HU this semester. This session will be followed by "Save the Future: The Next Step" featuring Tony Brown to discuss next-step strategies to save the future of America's Black families. Brown is an accomplished television journalist, best-selling author, radio host, Silver Circle Award winner and dean of HU's Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications. He is the commentator of the PBS series "Tony Brown's Journal," the longest running of all PBS series. His weekly television series was selected in the New York Daily News as one of the top 10 shows of all time that presents a positive Black image. The sessions will be held as part of the 27th Annual Conference on the Black Family, held March 16-18 at Hampton University. Carrying the theme "Save the Future: With the Anabolic Family," this year the leading and most comprehensive national forum on issues of race and family will explore strengthening the family's anabolic or repair, rebuild, restore qualities. For more information regarding the Conference on the Black Family, please visit www.hamptonu.edu/shsjc.