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Dorothy Butler Gilliam
Dorothy B. Gilliam
was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the eighth child of ten, (only five
survived). Her father was an A.M.E. minister and when she was four years
old, her father was moved to another church, from Memphis to Louisville,
Kentucky.
After her father became ill, the family moved outside Louisville, out
in the rural part of Kentucky, Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky, where she
graduated from Lincoln Institute. She received a scholarship to Ursuline
College in Louisville, and attended for two years.
In 1955 she came to Lincoln University and was greatly influenced by Dr.
Armistead S. Pride, the head of the School of Journalism and Dr. Lorenzo
Greene, a nationally recognized historian. After graduating from Lincoln in
1957, she worked for Jet and Ebony magazines two years with
Johnson Publishing in Chicago. In 1960 she went to Columbia Graduate School
of Journalism and graduated with a master’s degree in 1961.
Gilliam joined
The Post in 1961 as a general assignment reporter after serving as
an editor of Jet magazine.
The first black woman hired as a full-time reporter, Dorothy worked
at the Post from October 1961 to 1965. She left the newspaper
when she became pregnant with her second child, but in 1972 she was invited
to return to the Post as an assistant editor of the revamped
"Style" section. Restless in "Style" in 1979, she asked for, and received, a
transfer to "Metro" section where she started writing a column covering
education, politics and race as well as her personal experiences. |
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Dorothy Butler Gilliam |
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Since 1997, she has directed the Young Journalists Development Program,
which encourages high school and college students to pursue careers in
journalism.
Gilliam has received numerous honors, including the Columbia Graduate
School of Journalism Alumni of the Year Award, the University of Missouri
Honor Medal in Journalism and the Journalist of the Year award from the
Capital Press Club.
Gilliam's background reflects her interests in
teaching, socially conscious thought and public service. She has been chair
of the board of directors of the
Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education in California;
is former president of the 3,000-member
National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ)
and a member of the group's Hall of Fame; a
fellow at the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of
Government at Harvard University; and was a 1991 Fellow at the Freedom Forum
Media Studies Center at Columbia University, studying racial diversity in
the American media. She is a former Woodrow Wilson Fellow and board
member of the Fund for Investigative Journalism, and has served as chair of
the Institute for Journalism Education.
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| She is the author of a 1976
biography, Paul Robeson, All American. In Spring 2000, Gilliam
served as the Virginia’s
Dabney Distinguished Professor of Journalism in the Virginia
Commonwealth University School of Mass Communication.
Gilliam is featured in an
oral history project on "Women in Journalism" by the Washington Press
Club Foundation.
She has taught journalism at Howard University and the
American University in Washington, D.C., and at Rhodes University in Cape
Town, South Africa, as part of a Knight International Press Fellowship.
Ms. Gilliam has received the Ann O'Hare McCormick Award
from the New York Newspaper Woman's Club; Journalist of the Year,
Achievement in Journalism, and Washington Media awards from the Capital
Press Club; the Unity Award in Journalism from Lincoln University (Jefferson
City, Missouri); and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism Alumni of
the Year award.
Kay Mills' book A Place in the News provides a good review
of women in journalism, and it includes a four-page profile of Dorothy's
career.
Dorothy lives in Northwest Washington, D.C. surrounded by her books and
original art, including many pieces done by her former husband and noted
artist, Sam Gilliam. Dorothy is the mother of three daughters. Dorothy
Gilliam has been a generous supporter of Lincoln University and the
Washington, DC Alumni Chapter. For the Washington, DC chapter’s first
Annual Giving Fund, Dorothy donated a valuable lithograph from her art
collection to the Washington, DC chapter. This beautiful piece of artwork
by Sam Gilliam was auctioned by the chapter and a substantial sum was
received, the largest single donation to endow the Lucille Jordan Gayle
Scholarship at Lincoln. When she was a weekly columnist for the
Washington Post newspaper, Dorothy used her columns to spread the news
about Lincoln University of Missouri and the positive influences it has made
on her life. |
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