The Red and Black

Issue date: 3/26/08 Section: Variety

TUCKER

WILKERSON

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Cynthia Tucker and Isabel Wilkerson will visit the University Wednesday to discuss their careers as female journalists.

"Generally we are going to be speaking about our careers and what brought us into journalism and what have been perhaps some of the challenging situations of being a journalist," said Wilkerson in a phone interview Thursday.

The event is sponsored by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication Diversity Committee in celebration of Women's History Month.

"I get a sense that women have risen into positions of authority and influence in the field far more than 20 years ago," said Wilkerson. "There was a time 70 years ago that there were very few women in the newsroom at all. It seems like ancient history now."

According to Wilkerson, she and Tucker have been friends for many years, crossing paths in their professions through different meetings and organizations.

Tucker is an Auburn graduate who is currently the editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's editorial pages. She is a syndicated columnist who appears in more than 70 newspapers nationwide.

Wilkerson, the first black woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for journalism, now teaches at Emory University.

"I know that in my journalism classes there is, in some cases, a majority of young women in the class, so that's an indication that there's a lot of opportunity for women."

"There is reason for optimism in spite of a lot of the challenges the industry's facing right now," Wilkerson said. "I just hope that they will take away that this is in some ways a higher calling that requires a lot of hard work and dedication, but can also be extremely fulfilling."

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