Ladies Leading: The Black Women Who Control Television News

“For decades, Black women have taken on pioneering management roles in television newsrooms across the country. The women were, and still are, bold, brave and unwilling to yield to the status quo. Dr. Ava Thompson Greenwell opens the door to the ugliness of racial animus that greeted them as they climbed the ranks. In raw, soul-baring interviews Dr. Greenwell documents the toll racism and gender bias have taken on their professional and personal lives and she documents these women’s strategies to overcome while demanding that their voices and lived experiences be more fairly represented in news coverage.” Lyne Pitts, former NBC News Vice President, former CBS News Executive Producer “Dr. Greenwell’s labor of love, Ladies Leading: The Black Women Who Control Television News reveals how the tentacles of White Supremacy operate in newsroom culture. She highlights the continued struggle and triumphs of Black women leaders of journalism in newsrooms across the country. She tells us how Black women news managers are most vulnerable and courageous in their fight to include marginalized perspectives of news and information. This book is important, timely, and critical for anyone who wants to better understand Black women’s contributions to the journalism profession from Ida B. Wells and other leading journalists of her time, to the present.” Dr. Libby Lewis, Professor of Media Studies, Communications, Sociology, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Pan African Studies at California State University, Los Angeles and author of The Myth of Post-Racialism in Television News (© 2016)