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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Charlayne
Hunter-Gault's trailblazing
journalistic career has spanned

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more than 50 years.

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But, before that, she
made news herself when she
became one of two Black
students to desegregate

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the University of
Georgia in 1961.

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She went on to become an Emmy
Award-winning reporter working
at several prestigious news

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organizations, including
right here at PBS with "The
MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour."

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Charlayne recently spoke
with Judy Woodruff about her
reporting career, which is also

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the focus of her new book and
the collection of her work.

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It's called "My People:
Five Decades of Writing
About Black Lives."

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Charlayne
Hunter-Gault, welcome, and
congratulations on the book.

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CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT:
Thank you so much, Judy.

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It's so nice to be back home.

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(LAUGHTER)

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Exactly.

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And what a life you have had.

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What a career you have
had a writing for all
these organizations,
The New York Times, "The

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New Yorker," and then,
of course, coming to
work with Robert MacNeil
and Jim Lehrer and

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what was then "The
MacNeil/Lehrer Report."

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That was back in the 1970s.

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This is really family
for you, isn't it?

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CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT:
Yes, it really is.

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It's something else.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: For sure.

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This is a book that is a
collection of your writing, your
reporting over the decades going

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back to the 1960s, after you
became a part of American
history, when you integrated the

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University of Georgia.

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And you were greeted with
the worst kind of welcome
by the students there.

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Remind us in brief, Charlayne,
about that experience for you
and how it shaped the work

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that you would do later on.

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CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Well,
actually, I was -- along
with Hamilton Holmes, we were

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committed to use the university
for both of our purposes
that we started out with.

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Hamilton wanted to be a doctor,
and I wanted to be a journalist.

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And I really think that that
commitment to our ambition was
what enabled us to just ignore

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all the ugly things
that were going around.

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It was so bad, for example,
that Hamilton never stayed on
the campus after he went to

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class.

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And his son told me that he
never made a single friend,
which is such a tragedy.

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But we kept our
eyes on the prize.

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And the prize was me being a
journalist and Hamilton being
a doctor, which he did indeed

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become.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: And you were not
deterred by some of the really
awful things that happened

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in those early days,
when you were at the
University of Georgia.

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Charlayne, so many of the
things that you write about
here that date back to the '60s

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and the '70s and later are
things that we are still
seeing in this country today.

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And they have to do with the
experience of Black people in
this country with voting access,

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with education, with
job opportunities, with
police reform, interacting
with the police.

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Do you have the sense that
some of these things have
really not changed at all?

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How do you look at the fact that
we are still dealing with some
of the issues you were writing

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about decades ago?

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CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Well,
to be sure, what you have just
stated is absolutely correct.

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And it's very painful.

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But it has happened
before, and we got past it.

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There are a lot of
very successful African
Americans, or, as we
say, today, Black people

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with a capital B.

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But what continues to happen
is the disproportionate
impact of everything
that's happening in this

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world on people of color, when
you look at the COVID crisis,
when you look at just all

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kinds of things.

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I was looking at something
today where people were having
a hard time buying groceries and

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paying rent, and then
the number of homeless
people has increased.

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And so we get to a point where
some people are successful,
like all of us, my husband,

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who was a great banker, and
so many others like him, and
my dear friend Vernon Jordan,

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who helped me get into the
University of Georgia, who
is now one of our ancestors.

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And you say, OK, we
made progress, but we
still have a way to go.

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And, sometimes, it
looks like a long way.

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However, one more thing.

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I think that the effort
that seems to be being
made on the part of media
people, media people

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in charge of media people,
they're trying to bring
in more people of color.

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And I'm hoping that those people
who are coming in, along with
those who are already there

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and very conscious about
these discrepancies, will
make a big difference.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: And I wanted
to ask you about that, because
the news media has changed over

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the decades.

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And I wanted to ask you, what
more do we need to do to make
sure we are covering the Black

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American experience,
as we should be?

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CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT:
Well, I think we just have
to talk about it more.

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And we have to keep
it in the forefront.

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People in positions like
yourself and all of the
other great journalists
on the "NewsHour"

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need to continue to keep these
discrepancies before the public.

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I remember one of Jim
Lehrer's great quotes.

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If you inform people with
good information, they
will do the right thing.

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And so as I look at many of the
programs on television today,
they are doing just that.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Charlayne,
finally, I want to ask you
about a theme that arises

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at several points in your
writing in the book, and that
is the need to teach young Black

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children about their history,
about the real heritage, the
things that they have faced,

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that their ancestors have faced.

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Here we are, what is it, 60-some
years later from one of the
pieces you wrote, and we have

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this argument over what's
called Critical Race Theory,
with politicians saying that

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this is being taught in the
schools, and it shouldn't be.

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Do you think we have made
progress in that regard when
you look at the political debate

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right now over this?

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CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Well,
I think we need to have more
information about how people

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are coming to these conclusions.

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But we also have to continue
to press the importance of
Black history, our history,

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because that was our armor.

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And that is how so many
of us have managed to
succeed in our professions.

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But it's critical for everybody
who has an opportunity to
speak to people in the public

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to say how important it is for
everybody to know this history,
so that we can come together

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and help make or help continue
to make a more perfect union.

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It may not be totally
perfect, but I think it'll
be better than it is today.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Well,
we certainly understand
better of the story and
the stories of Black

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Americans in this country
thanks to your book.

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It's "My People: Five Decades
of Writing About Black Lives."

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Charlayne Hunter-Gault,
it's always good to
have you on the program.

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Thank you.

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CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Thank
you, Judy, for having me.

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And I'd love to be back in
that studio one of these days.

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(LAUGHTER)

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JUDY WOODRUFF: We can't
wait for that to happen.

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(LAUGHTER)