“My work honors the folks on whose shoulders I stand,” says Whitfield.
CNN Weekend Version Anchor Fredricka Whitfield has lots to be happy with. Because the 2023 Girls’s Media Heart‘s Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Whitfield’s three-plus a long time as a radio and tv journalist have included stints in Charleston, New Haven, Dallas, Miami and Atlanta, the place she has coated each home and worldwide points.
“Versatility is necessary,” she informed Ms. reporter Eleanor J. Bader. “It’s essential to be open to each type of story. That’s the important thing to longevity on this business.”
This openness has led Whitfield to zoom in on various matters, from the short-lived creation of women’ faculties in Afghanistan to Arizona “dad and mom’ rights” activists who’re monitoring elementary faculty curricula for content material they take into account “inappropriate.” However whereas Whitfield is clearly happy with the vary of tales she’s reported, she says that her best satisfaction rests along with her endurance.
My mother gave me my first journal once I was about seven and he or she informed me to put in writing all the pieces: my emotions, my observations, and my descriptions of all the pieces I noticed.
Fredricka Whitfield
“My dad,” Olympian, Tuskegee airman, and U.S. Sports activities Ambassador Malvin Whitfield, “taught me to prepare and at all times be ready,” Whitfield mentioned. “I’ve labored arduous to honor this concept, to show that I can’t be distracted or knocked off my toes. I’ve realized to offer 200 p.c to my work to make sure that I’m undefeated by racism, sexism, or ageism.”
Whitfield and Bader spoke in late October, a number of hours earlier than the WMC award ceremony.
Eleanor J. Bader: Since your profession remains to be going sturdy, have been you stunned to be chosen for a lifetime achievement award?
Fredricka Whitfield: Sure! Once I realized of the award, I mentioned, ‘Wow, I haven’t lived a lifetime but.’ However I’m so honored. I see the award as encouragement to hold on, to maneuver ahead. I embrace it as telling me to remain within the recreation and be the perfect reporter I might be.
Bader: Do you might have a message for younger ladies who need careers in journalism?
Whitfield: I really feel lucky to have had many beneficiant mentors so I at all times make an effort with the younger interns on my staff. I’m an open guide. They will ask me something. Journalism will solely get higher if we, as people, carry the following era ahead.
Bader: How has feminism impacted you personally and professionally?
Whitfield: I’ve been a feminist since start as a result of my mom, Nola Whitfield, exemplified feminism. She grew up in small-town Texas, certainly one of six siblings, and needed to take care of the entire hardships and indignities that got here from Jim Crow. Nonetheless, she was decided to attend school and take cost of her life. After she accomplished her diploma, she determined to go west the place she thought there could be larger alternatives.
She obtained to California and stayed with household however discovering work was not as simple as she’d anticipated. Then, in the future she was approached by a famend Black photographer, Howard Morehead. He took some photos of her and he or she turned the primary Black face of Pond’s Chilly Cream. She additionally did adverts for 7-Up.
This isn’t what she’d got down to do however she went with it.
In the meantime, my dad, Malvin, turned an Olympian medal winner in 1948; he was additionally in California presently. He noticed adverts that includes this stunning lady and approached Morehead, who was somebody he knew, and requested him about her. Morehead launched them.
Rising up, neither of my dad and mom informed my brother, sister, or me a lot in regards to the obstacles they’d confronted. I see this as immense generosity, not wanting us to assume we’d face the identical issues. This stored us from anticipating obstacles.
Later, when my dad turned the U.S. Sports activities Ambassador, the job took the household to Kenya after which to Somalia. I used to be born in Nairobi and lived there till I used to be 5. The entire time we have been in Africa, my mother labored educating english to ladies and youngsters. Her message to me was at all times about self-sufficiency and he or she confused the significance of understanding the way to do a whole lot of various things.
After we moved again to the US in 1972, we settled within the Washington, DC space. New problems with Ms. journal have been left on the desk. I didn’t actually know what the journal was about, however I knew it was necessary as a result of it was seen.
Bader: How did you develop an curiosity in journalism?
Whitfield: First, I once more need to say that I had superb mentors together with Dr. Lee Thornton. She was my instructor at Howard College and was the primary Black reporter to cowl the White Home. She taught me that for those who make an error you replicate on it so you don’t make it once more. And then you definitely preserve going. Different vital mentors embrace Darryl Ford Williams and Gail Pennybacher.
I feel that as a result of my household lived abroad once I was very younger, I obtained used to being in uncomfortable locations and realized to adapt. After we moved again to the States, my dad and mom underscored the significance of journalism. We learn The Washington Put up each day. The message—and it was repeated usually—was that we wanted to assimilate wherever we went and interact with folks on the bottom. By the point I used to be in highschool, I’d absorbed this. I additionally knew that I loved writing.
I consider that my file, the reporting I’ve achieved, speaks for itself and is one of the simplest ways to defeat those that attempt to put roadblocks in my method. I received’t quit. I received’t give in.
Fredricka Whitfield
My mother gave me my first journal once I was about seven and he or she informed me to put in writing all the pieces: my emotions, my observations, and my descriptions of all the pieces I noticed.
Once I obtained to highschool I used to be lucky to have an ideal steering counselor. I spoke to her about my curiosity in journalism and he or she prompt that I apply for an internship, telling me that I didn’t want to attend till school to do that. I made a bunch of calls and WPFW AM, a public radio station, let me volunteer. I used to be a junior on the time and realized to learn the information wires, splice tapes, do interviews, and edit them. I beloved it and mentioned, ‘That is it.’ It obtained even higher when a DJ requested me to learn a PSA on air, then play a file, whereas he stepped out. I used to be grateful that he had such confidence in me. It was an exquisite second.
Throughout school, I did different internships on the Nashville Tennessean, TV Information, and on the radio stations at American and Howard universities. At AU I created the weekly Spirits Round City PSA that informed listeners in regards to the many nice cultural occasions that have been scheduled within the DC space every weekend.
Bader: How did you progress from radio journalism to TV reporting?
Whitfield: Once I graduated from Howard, I wasn’t positive which path I needed to go in so I utilized for each journalism job that I noticed marketed. I obtained employed to be an on-air reporter at WCIV in Charleston, South Carolina.
It was my favourite job ever as a result of I needed to study all the pieces directly: the way to stay independently, juggle payments, and be utterly absorbed by a job. Right here, too, I used to be fortunate to have nice mentors and function fashions. I used to be there for 2 years.
Bader: Have you ever confronted racism and sexism on the job? How have you ever handled it?
Whitfield: There may be additionally ageism, however my strategy to overcoming and getting by racism, sexism, and age discrimination is to totally give myself to each story and be the perfect, most conscientious reporter I might be. I exhibit that I need to be within the job and have earned my place.
I consider that my file, the reporting I’ve achieved, speaks for itself and is one of the simplest ways to defeat those that attempt to put roadblocks in my method. I received’t quit. I received’t give in. I preserve centered on my mission and objectives and refuse to offer detractors the satisfaction of defeating me.
I additionally really feel that I carry an infinite accountability. My work honors the folks on whose shoulders I stand. I do know that I’ve not had it as tough as my dad and mom or predecessors. They needed to endure a lot to create the trail I stroll. I refuse to be deterred. I’m aware that even on my hardest days I’ve it higher than the individuals who got here earlier than me.
