Carol Booker, a lawyer, journalist, editor and wife of Simeon Booker, the legendary Washington bureau chief for Jet magazine for 53 years, recently released a newly-edited version of Alice Dunnigan’s 1974 autobiography, "Alone Atop the Hill: The Autobiography of Alice Dunnigan, Pioneer of the National Black Press." In interviews, Booker has said her inspiration for editing and re-releasing Dunnigan’s autobiography came in 2013, when the National Association of Black Journalists posthumously inducted Dunnigan into its hall of fame.
Lawrence Brown, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management- Environmental Health Sciences at Morgan State University’s School of Community Health and Policy. Dr. Brown works with several organizations around Baltimore City to advance men’s health and increase access to health services. He is project director for the Morgan Minority Male Project (M3HP) and writes for this issue about the relationship between African Americans and the health community during health epidemics.
Michel du Cille was a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer at The Washington Post who died of an apparent heart attack while on his third tour documenting the Ebola crisis in Liberia. After his first tour covering the epidemic caused by the highly contagious Ebola virus, Syracuse University rescinded an offer to du Cille to speak to students there, even though he had cleared the 21-day incubation period and was determined to be not infected with the virus. He wrote about it for The Post, which gave the MGJR permission to reprint the article and du Cille’s photos.
Hamil Harris is a staff writer at The Washington Post who was so well respected by the late Marion Barry that even when he refused to speak to the media for stretches at a time he always agreed to be interviewed by Harris. In this issue of the MGJR, Harris addresses the fine line reports often walk between respecting a source and crossing the border into friendship.
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E.R. Shipp is an associate professor and journalist in residence at Morgan State University. Shipp was the first African American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for commentary. She is a former ombudsman at The Washington Post and taught at Columbia University and became the Lawrence Stessin Distinguished Professor of Journalism at Hofstra University before joining Morgan.
Adrienne Washington is a journalism instructor and longtime reporter and columnist, who covered Marion Barry at the old Washington Star and at the Washington Times. In an interview with the online column Journal-isms, Washington said, "’Marion Barry made the careers of a lot of D.C. journalists, myself included. You could go down the list,’ she said by telephone, naming local journalists in print and broadcast. ’It wasn't going to be long before you got a good front-page story out of Marion. He kept us busy.’"
John C. White was Marion Barry’s press secretary for a good portion of the D.C. mayor’s tumultuous third term, including when Barry was arrested in an FBI sting for smoking crack cocaine. White, a veteran journalist, also worked for the Philadelphia Daily News and Chicago Tribune and served a stint as the communications director for the NAACP. He said working for Barry “was like being with a movie star. He always drew a crowd.”