Good Morning Obots!
Today, the African American Pioneers series features Carole Simpson.
Born in Chicago, early on Simpson had aspirations to become a “black Lois Lane.” She studied two years at the University of Illinois before she transferred to the University of Michigan, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1962.
In 1970 Simpson was hired as the first female African-American reporter on Chicago’s WMAQ-TV. As a general assignment reporter, she covered a wide range of stories and topics. Along with her husband and their daughter, Simpson moved to Washington, D.C., in 1974 to begin her career as a reporter for NBC News.
Newslady is Carole Simpson’s memoir. Her life is about “firsts. Carole Simpson was the first woman to broadcast radio news in Chicago, the first African American woman to anchor a local newscast in the same city, the first African American woman national network television correspondent, the first African American woman to anchor a national network newscast and the first woman or minority to moderate a presidential debate. In this book she recounts how she endured and conquered sex discrimination and racial prejudice to reach the top ranks of her profession.
No major publishing house wanted to touch the book, according to Simpson, so she went through a self-publishing firm called AuthorHouse. Simpson currently teaches broadcast journalism, public affairs reporting and political communication at Emerson College in Boston.