Breaking Barriers:

Program prepares minorities for careers in the newsroom

by Jessica Howard

Margaret Bailey spent 20 years working as a pipe fitter in a Georgia paper mill. Soon she'll be working with paper again -- in a drastically different capacity -- as a newspaper staff writer. This summer, Bailey and eight other journalists-in-training are participating in the inaugural class of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University. The professional fellowship is part of a concerted effort to place more journalists of color within the nation's newsrooms.

A recent survey by the American Society of Newspaper Editors found that only 12 percent of working journalists are people of color, a number that alarmingly underrepresents the country's minority population of around 30 percent.

"The majority of persons in the newsroom are Caucasians," said Bailey, who will soon begin working full-time at the Savannah Morning News. "Minorities can bring a different slant to the story."

Wanda Lloyd, executive director of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University, said the foundation's efforts are helping America's newsrooms better reflect the diversity of the country. The Diversity Institute provides free training to people of color who are pursuing a mid-career change. The current class of fellows spans four decades and eight states, and has educational backgrounds ranging from receiving a high school diploma to completing a master's degree.

Photo by Neil Brake

Kevin Jones (above) from Tucson, Ariz., and Monica Bryant (see page 1) from Ocala, Fla., are two of nine fellows studying for a career in journalism as part of the inaugural class of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute.

Lloyd, whose career has included positions at the Washington Post and USA Today, said that to achieve parity with the population, it's necessary to go beyond recruiting young minority journalists and give opportunities to other demographics.

"You can't squeeze 30 percent out of generations X and Y," she said. "There's just not enough young people."

Each fellow was nominated by the editor of their local newspaper to participate in the professional fellowship from June 2 to Aug. 23, and is guaranteed a full-time job in their respective communities upon their return. During the 12-week program, fellows are housed in Wesley Place apartments and are given a monthly stipend of $1,000.

Along with reading several newspapers each morning to prepare for a current events discussion and completing several writing assignments, fellows attend sessions from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. each day. Lloyd and two full-time faculty members train the fellows in reporting, editing, photography and graphic design.

Upon completion of the class, the group will have sat in on live or teleconferenced sessions with more than three dozen guest speakers, covering topics ranging from photojournalism to gathering census data. Throughout the fellowship, sponsoring editors from the individuals' hometowns travel to Nashville to provide guidance and address the class.

During a recent field trip to The Tennessean, the fellows toured the newsroom and sat in on an assignment meeting. Before the fellowship comes to a close, each member of the group will complete several articles that will be printed in the "Davidson A.M." section of The Tennessean. The group has also toured the Metro Nashville Police Station, attended a city council meeting and will take a day trip to Memphis later this month.

"The class is going very, very well," said Lloyd. "Our fellows are brave souls who are pioneering in a new program that, we hope, will make a huge, positive impact in telling stories in diverse communities."

Within the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center -- where the program is housed -- there is a teaching wing designed especially for the Diversity Institute. Students divide their time between the classroom, a conference room, the student lounge and, most importantly, the newsroom. The newsroom is equipped with 20 personal computers, individual phone lines with teleconferencing capabilities and a computer especially equipped for graphic arts training.

Bailey said she'd be ready to start chasing leads full time at her local paper once she graduates from the rigorous program.

"When we were first interviewed for this program, we were promised it would be intense, and it has been," she said. "I'm confident that I will be able to construct stories faster, with less grammatical errors."

Compared to laboring in the paper mills, Bailey thinks a full-time job as a reporter will be "a different kind of hard."

"[The paper mills] were dirty and hot, but I can see where some of that can happen here too," she said.

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