Chasing Newsroom Diversity: From Jim Crow to Affirmative Action

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments A project of this scope, more than a decade in the making, benefits from the contributions and assistance of a number of people. Topping that list aremembersandstaffoftheAmericanSocietyofNewspaperEditors,almostall of them journalism professionals more accustomed to applying scrutiny than being its subject. Their remarkable generosity in sharing archives and insight about newsroom diversity affirmed a commitment to the principles underlying their craft. As I labored to render this dimension of the ASNE’s history, their voices never left my thoughts. It is my deepest hope that they find their treatment here to be fair and accurate, even if it is not always flattering. ASNE members who granted interviews for this project are Gilbert Bailon, Creed Black, Linda Grist Cunningham, Gregory Favre, Pamela Fine, Albert Fitzpatrick, Loren Ghiglione, Charlotte Hall, Jay Harris, William Hilliard, J. Ford Huffman, Wanda Lloyd, Tim McGuire, Greg Moore, Rolfe Neill,­ Eugene Patterson, John Quinn, Rick Rodriguez, Sharon Rosenhause, Edward Seaton, John Seigenthaler Sr., Richard (Dick) Smyser, and William Woo. Members of the ASNE staff who assisted me are Scott Bosley, LaBarbara Bowman , Craig Branson, Richard Karpel, Diana Mitsu Klos, Christine Schmitt, Connie Southard, and, especially, Lee Stinnett. In addition, this project benefited immeasurably from the perspectives of members of the newsroom diversity community who participated in ASNE discussions as nonmembers. They are Nancy Hicks Maynard, Pamela Strother, Walterene Swanston, and Keith Woods. I also would like to extend a special thanks to Lucy Smyser Tashman, who continued to mail me early ASNE Minorities Committee files after the death Mellinger_Chasing text.indd 9 10/24/12 4:28 PM of her father, Dick Smyser, who had trusted me to copy and return each batch he sent. The Smyser family has since donated those archives to the University of North Carolina’s Southern History Collection. Thanks also to the executive staff of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, who gave me advance access to the papers of Leroy Aarons. Those materials are now part of the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives in Los Angeles. Further, I wish to offer recognition to many strong mentors and fellow graduate students at the University of Kansas who offered guidance as the book took shape. I owe special thanks to Sherrie Tucker, William Tuttle, Norman Yetman, Cheryl Lester, Catherine Preston, William Staples, David Katzman, Barry Shank, David Anthony Tyeeme Clark, Anne Dotter, Maurice Bryan, Julia Good Fox, Ailecia Ruscin, Monique Laney, and Fabien Curie. In addition, I am indebted to members of the American Journalism Historians Association, who provided a sounding board for this project as it evolved. In particular, Maurine Beasley, Michael Fuhlhage, Kimberley Mangun , David Sloan, Michael Sweeney, Douglas Ward, and Patrick Washburn deserve thanks. Work on this book was supported in multiple ways by Baker University, which provided sabbatical leave and financial support for research and writing . I am indebted to Rand Ziegler and Jamie Comstock in this regard. In addition, several colleagues and former students encouraged and supported my work over a period of years: Joe Watson, Bruce Anderson, Rob and Kelly Flaherty, Patrick Lattin, Samuel Dester, and Andrew McGregor. The project also received invaluable staff assistance from Kathy Elliott, Sherri Wood, and Kaci Benjamin. No critical inquiry would be complete without a devil’s advocate, and Tom Eblen was mine. As a friend, he read every word and, as only he could, made sure I received alternative perspectives. Thanks also to Lynn Bonney for her sharp pencil and to Jeannie Mellinger and Alan Schueler, William Dobak, Andrew Nachison and Jenny Holah, Joanne and Gary Robinson, and John and Vera DeMott for small but important kindnesses along the way. At the University of Illinois Press, I would like to thank Richard Wentworth , Daniel Nasset, Vijay Shah, Tad Ringo, Teresa Hudoba, and the series editors for their faith in this book. Finally, this book would not have been possible without the unconditional support of my brother, Richard Mellinger, and the memory of our parents and stepfather, whose example of civic engagement is a daily inspiration. But my most heartfelt thanks go to Mike and Cassady, who lived and breathed this project with me and encouraged me every step of the way. x . acknowledgments Mellinger_Chasing text.indd 10 10/24/12 4:28 PM Chasing Newsroom Diversity Mellinger_Chasing text.indd 11 10/24/12 4:28 PM Mellinger_Chasing text.indd 12 10/24/12 4:28 PM ...