Charlayne Hunter-Gault

As one of television’s premier journalists, Charlayne Hunter-Gault has made a success of challenging convention with her fresh insights on issues both close to home and of global impact.

As CNN’s former Johannesburg Bureau Chief and Correspondent, Hunter-Gault introduced viewers to the people of the diverse continent of Africa, a country she once called “one of the greatest challenges that we in the media face.” She spent 20 years at PBS, as National Correspondent for The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, where she also anchored the award-winning newsmagazine on human rights, Rights and Wrongs.

Hunter-Gault is the author of New News Out of Africa: What Africa Means to Me and In My Place, a memoir of her role in the civil rights movement as the first black woman admitted to the University of Georgia.

Hunter-Gault began her career as the first African American reporter for The New Yorker. A writer known for her “people-centered” journalism, she went on to serve as the Harlem Bureau Chief for The New York Times and has written articles for Essence, Ms., Life, and O, The Oprah Magazine.

The recipient of numerous honors, including two Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards, she writes with the highest standards of objectivity and truth on topics ranging from the life of a 12-year old heroin addict to the invasion of Grenada, and the impact of apartheid in South Africa.