:Deborah Mathis
{{Short description|American journalist}}
Deborah Myers Mathis (born 24 August 1953) is an American journalist and author. Her journalism career began as a reporter for the Arkansas Democrat, a major newspaper in Arkansas. She also worked in television news in Little Rock and Washington. She was White House correspondent for the Gannett News Service. She returned to Arkansas and newspaper journalism at the Arkansas Gazette as an editorial columnist and associate editor.
Early life and education
Mathis was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on August 24, 1953, to Rev. Lloyd H. Myers and Rachel A. Helms Myers. She attended Gibbs Elementary, Rightsell Elementary, Westside Junior High, and Little Rock Central High School, where she was the first black and first female editor of the school's newspaper.{{cite web|url=https://arblackhalloffame.org/honorees/2003/mathis/|title=Deborah Mathis|publisher=Arkansas Black Hall of Fame}}
Career
In 1973, Mathis became a reporter for Channel 11 Dateline News.{{cite magazine|magazine=Jet|page=32|title=People|date=10 May 1973|publisher=Johnson Publishing Company|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HrEDAAAAMBAJ&q=Deborah+Myers+Mathis&pg=PA32}} Her career includes work as a reporter for the Arkansas Democrat and the Arkansas Gazette (now merged into the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette), and TV stations KARK-Channel 4 and KATV-Channel 7. She was also a columnist for the Arkansas Gazette, and the first Black member of the Arkansas Gazette editorial board.{{cite news |last1=Turner |first1=Renée D. |title=Interracial Couples in the South |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8tMDAAAAMBAJ&dq=Deborah+Mathis&pg=PA44 |access-date=11 April 2021 |work=Ebony |date=June 1990 |page=44}} From 1993 to 2000 she was the White House correspondent for Gannett.{{cite web|work=The Chicago Tribune|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1991/10/20/172-year-old-arkansas-gazette-civil-rights-champion-closes/|title=172-year-old Arkansas Gazette, Civil Rights Champion, Closes|first=Joan I.|last=Duffy|date=20 October 1991|access-date=14 June 2016}} In 2000, she was selected as a Fall Fellow at the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government to examine the role of race in press coverage in a case study.{{cite news |title=Shorenstein announces fellows |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2000/09/shorenstein-announces-fellows/ |access-date=13 April 2021 |work=The Harvard Gazette |date=September 21, 2000}}
Throughout the 1990s, Mathis was a fixture on TV news and current event talk shows, including America's Black Forum and Oprah, and was a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services. She has also appeared as a commentator on NPR.{{cite news |title=Missing Black Women vs. 'Runaway Brides' |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4630193 |access-date=13 April 2021 |work=NPR News |date=May 4, 2005}}{{cite news |title=Black Actors Gain Visibility, Fight Stereotypes |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5321918 |access-date=9 April 2021 |work=NPR News |date=April 4, 2006}}{{cite news |title=Coming to Terms with a Texas Town's 'Strange Fruit' |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5577811 |access-date=9 April 2021 |work=NPR News |date=July 24, 2006}}
Mathis was an assistant professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. from 2003 to 2006.
Works
- {{cite book|first=Deborah|last=Mathis|title=Yet a Stranger: Why Black Americans Still Don't Feel at Home|publisher=Warner Books|year=2002|isbn=0-446-52636-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iBOjis-_HRcC}}{{cite news |title=YET A STRANGER: Why Black Americans Still Don't Feel at Home |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-446-52636-4 |access-date=9 April 2021 |work=Publishers Weekly |date=April 22, 2002}}
- {{cite book|first=Deborah|last=Mathis|title=What God Can Do: How Faith Changes Lives for the Better|year=2005|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9781416510048|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rv1aCn6EfAMC}}
- {{cite book|first=Deborah|last=Mathis|title=Sole Sisters: The Joys and Pains of Single Black Women|year=2007|publisher=Agate|isbn=9781572846289|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XawOfHttik4C}}{{cite news |title=Sole Sisters: The Joys and Pains of Single Black Women |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-932841-27-5 |access-date=9 April 2021 |work=Publishers Weekly |date=April 16, 2007}}{{cite news |title=Sole Sisters: The Joys and Pains of Single Black Women |url=https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/sole-sisters/ |access-date=13 April 2021 |work=Foreword Magazine |date=August 18, 2009}}
- {{cite book|first1=Deborah|last1=Mathis|first2=Gregory Todd|last2=Smith|title=Unlucky Number: The Murder of Lottery Winner Abraham Shakespeare|year=2015|publisher=Penguin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p1j2AwAAQBAJ|isbn=9780698159259}}{{cite news |last1=LaPointe |first1=Michael |title=Unlucky Numbers |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/07/09/unlucky-numbers/ |access-date=13 April 2021 |work=The Paris Review |date=July 9, 2020}}
Honors and awards
Personal life
Now a freelance writer, Mathis lives in McLean, Virginia. She has three adult children and three granddaughters.
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External links
- {{C-SPAN|35542}}
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Category:American women journalists
Category:African-American women writers
Category:African-American writers
Category:Writers from Little Rock, Arkansas
Category:People from Chevy Chase, Maryland
Category:21st-century African-American people
Category:21st-century African-American women
Category:20th-century African-American people