Hampton, VA -Earl Caldwell, a visiting professor at Hampton University’s Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications, will be inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Hall of Fame at the organization’s 2009 Annual Convention held Aug. 5-9 in Tampa, Fla. Caldwell will be recognized on Aug. 7 at 11 a.m. at the Tampa Convention Center.
“In our honorees, NABJ gives kudos to the industry leaders who have broken new ground without forgetting from where they came,” said Barbara Ciara, NABJ President.
Caldwell is a nationally renowned journalist who has witnessed and chronicled some of the most important civil rights events of the past 40 years. He was the only reporter present when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Caldwell rose to fame while a reporter at The New York Times when he refused to disclose information to the FBI and the Nixon Administration involving his sources in the Black Panther party. The case, United States v. Caldwell, reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972 when the court ruled against him. The “Caldwell Case” led to the enactment of shield laws in many states that allow reporters to protect sources and information.
“It’s a high honor. I consider it recognition not just of my work, which I’m proud of, but also for my generation of black journalists who came to the top in the 1960s in a difficult, tumultuous time in America,” said Caldwell. At HU, Caldwell is writing “The Caldwell Journals,” a serialized account of the black journalist movement spawned by the 1960s civil rights movement.
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