In conversation with Dorothy Roberts

Referred to by Jelani Cobb as “a Dean of American journalism,” Charlayne Hunter-Gault has chronicled some of the past half-century’s most important moments in Black life, culture, and politics. Often the only Black woman in the newsroom, she wrote for The New Yorker and The New York Times, where in 1968 she established the paper’s Harlem bureau. Also a broadcast journalist, Hunter-Gault served as a reporter and anchor for PBS’s McNeil-Lehrer Newshour, NPR’s chief Africa correspondent, and the South Africa bureau chief for CNN. Her many honors include two Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, and honors from the National Urban coalition and the National Association of Black Journalists. Ranging from the Civil Rights Movement to Barack Obama’s presidential election, My People is a definitive compilation of reportage and commentary that explores the Black American experience. 

Dorothy Roberts is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. She is also founding director of the Penn Program on Race, Science & Society in the Center for Africana Studies and the author of several books that focus on health, social justice, and bioethics. Her most recent book is Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families—and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World.