Coming Full Circle: From Jim Crow to Journalism

by Wanda Smalls Lloyd, Tina McElroy Ansa (Foreword by)

Overview

Coming Full Circle: From Jim Crow to Journalism is the memoir of an African American woman who grew up privileged and educated in the segregated culture of the American South before and during the twentieth-century civil rights movement. Despite laws that restricted her housing, education, voting rights, and virtually every other aspect of life, Wanda Smalls Lloyd grew up to become one of the nation's highest-ranking newspaper journalists, and among the first African American women to be the top editor of a major newspaper.

Coming Full Circle is a self-reflective exploration of the author's life journey—from growing up in coastal Savannah, Georgia, to editing roles at seven daily newspapers, and finally back to Savannah to make a difference in her childhood community. Her path was shaped not only by the segregated social, community, and educational systems, but also by religious and home training, a strong cultural foundation, and early leadership opportunities.

That Southern upbringing produced an adult woman who realized her professional dream of working for daily newspapers and rose to become an editor at the Washington Post and a senior editor at USA Today before returning South as the executive editor of the Montgomery Advertiser. Along the way, she was an advocate and an example for how diversity helped newsrooms become reflections of accuracy for their audience. Lloyd's memoir opens a window on the intersection of race, gender, and culture in professional journalism. How she excelled in a profession where high-ranking African American women were rare is a reminder for older readers and an inspiring story for a younger generation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781588384072
Publisher:	University of Georgia Press
Publication date:	02/04/2020
Pages:	296
Sales rank:	1,116,904
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

WANDA SMALLS LLOYD parlayed her passion for storytelling when she transitioned from journalism to writing non-fiction. A newspaper editor for more than four decades, she now writes from her home in Savannah, Georgia, where she grew up in the 1950s and 1960s and left for college and career. In 2013, her award-winning work as an editor at seven daily newspapers brought her full circle back to Savannah as a professor. Lloyd, co-editor of The Edge of Change: Women in the 21st Century Press, retired from daily journalism after serving more than eight years as executive editor of the Montgomery Advertiser, the daily newspaper in Alabama’s capital city. She has also been an editor at The Washington Post, USA Today, the Miami Herald, the Atlanta Journal, the Greenville (SC) News and the Providence Evening Bulletin. She was the founding executive director of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Most recently she was associate professor and chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at Savannah State University. At home when she is not writing, Lloyd enjoys volunteering with service organizations, gardening and doting on her family – her husband, Willie, their daughter, Shelby who lives in Florida, and Bella, the family’s mini pinscher. Spelman College, Lloyd’s alma mater, awarded her an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in 2016. She was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists’ Hall of Fame in 2019.

WANDA SMALLS LLOYD parlayed her passion for storytelling when she transitioned from journalism to writing non-fiction. A newspaper editor for more than four decades, she now writes from her home in Savannah, Georgia, where she grew up in the 1950s and 1960s and left for college and career. In 2013, her award-winning work as an editor at seven daily newspapers brought her full circle back to Savannah as a professor. Lloyd, co-editor of The Edge of Change: Women in the 21st Century Press, retired from daily journalism after serving more than eight years as executive editor of the Montgomery Advertiser, the daily newspaper in Alabama’s capital city. She has also been an editor at The Washington Post, USA Today, the Miami Herald, the Atlanta Journal, the Greenville (SC) News and the Providence Evening Bulletin. She was the founding executive director of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Most recently she was associate professor and chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at Savannah State University. At home when she is not writing, Lloyd enjoys volunteering with service organizations, gardening and doting on her family – her husband, Willie, their daughter, Shelby who lives in Florida, and Bella, the family’s mini pinscher. Spelman College, Lloyd’s alma mater, awarded her an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in 2016. She was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists’ Hall of Fame in 2019.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Preface xiii

Prologue: A Seat at the Table 3

1 The Beginning 9

2 An Only Child 18

3 The Family I Created 26

4 My Village 31

5 Growing Up … Under Jim Crow 38

6 Jim Crow as a Matter of Life or Death 49

7 With 'All Deliberate Speed' 57

8 Continuing the Legacy 76

9 Privileged Black Girl 81

10 The Spelman Years 90

11 Pathway to Providence 108

12 A Summer in the City 128

Photographs 133

13 A Newsroom 'Family' in Miami 145

14 A Bad Fit in Atlanta 154

15 Witness to Greatness in D.C. 165

16 Work-Life Balance 175

17 Catapult to Leadership 186

18 ASNE and a Presidential Question 202

19 From Big to Small 215

20 On Becoming a Diversity Guru 224

21 The Final Newsroom 235

22 Full Circle 254

Epilogue: Life Lessons and a Seat for Women 261

Index 269

Editorial Reviews

In an era when journalists are often maligned for truth-telling, Coming Full Circle reveals how one woman's inspirational journey was impacted by race, class, and gender, and yet provided the impetus for a stellar career.

Barbara Bealor Hines

Wanda Lloyd's writing is direct, like the professional journalist she is. Slights, indignities, and prejudices are described with the same candor that recognizes her journalistic triumphs recording civil rights history and everyday breaking news. She's a mom and a mentor who writes and lives with generosity and grace.

Savannah Morning News - Rexanna Keller Lester

History bears the tracks of excellent black journalists and media leaders who achieved, but those forebears didn't write memoirs to inform, guide, and inspire others. I'm so glad Wanda Lloyd wrote her powerful story.

Karen B. Dunlap

Wanda Lloyd's memoir is a down-memory-lane retrospective that walks us through the harrowing times of separate but not equal 'racial brokenness.' Coming Full Circle displays Lloyd's talents as a gifted journalist.

Mary Schmidt Campbell

An inherently fascinating, candidly informative, and ultimately inspiring life story, Coming Full Circle: From Jim Crow to Journalism is an exceptionally well-written and unreservedly recommended addition to library and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Midwest Book Review

Here is a story of family, discovery, and personal achievement from a time when this nation's racial divide threatened to deny the benefits of each to professional black women. Coming Full Circle: From Jim Crow to Journalism is a good read, full of life lessons from one of this nation's most successful black female journalists and details of the route she took to the pinnacle of her profession.

USA Today - DeWayne Wickham

This memoir will inspire young people with big dreams for their own paths in life.

Cheryl D. Dozier

Coming Full Circle is renowned editor and author Wanda Lloyd's story of the relatives and friends who helped shape her during her formative years, as well as the story of those of us who benefited from her hiring, mentorship, and leadership practices. In garnering the courage to follow her dreams and pursue a career that seemed out of reach due to racial and gender barriers, she helped many others see themselves in those roles, and gave us hope that our dreams could come full circle, too. Brava to Lloyd for penning a memoir that vividly recounts how the sophisticated Southern upbringing of one African American young lady helped shape the course of excellence and diversity in journalism across this nation for several decades.

Stacy Hawkins Adams

Coming Full Circle is a blueprint for young women of any color wanting to find out how to succeed in the business of newspapers and how to succeed in life. Wanda Lloyd achieved both with intelligence, hard work, and gravitas.

ABC News - Carole Simpson

Coming Full Circle is an important work about journalism, about courage and overcoming challenges, and about building diversity and bringing others along.

Phil Currie

This memoir proves that a successful leader can come from humble beginnings, even beginnings that legally restricted the circumstances of someone who wanted merely to work in a newsroom.

Journal-isms.com - Richard Prince

Wanda Lloyd is a consummate storyteller who has always lived a life of purpose devoted to diversity and community. Her memoir is a rich, inspiring tale about race and gender in twenty-first-century America.

USA Today - Karen Jurgensen

Here is a story of family, discovery, and personal achievement from a time when this nation's racial divide threatened to deny the benefits of each to professional black women. Coming Full Circle: From Jim Crow to Journalism is a good read, full of life lessons from one of this nation's most successful black female journalists and details of the route she took to the pinnacle of her profession.

former USA Today columnist

This memoir will inspire young people with big dreams for their own paths in life. — Cheryl D. Dozier, president, Savannah State University (retired)

Wanda Lloyd is a consummate storyteller who has always lived a life of purpose devoted to diversity and community. Her memoir is a rich, inspiring tale about race and gender in twenty-first-century America. — Karen Jurgensen, editor, USA Today (retired)

History bears the tracks of excellent black journalists and media leaders who achieved, but those forebears didn't write memoirs to inform, guide, and inspire others. I'm so glad Wanda Lloyd wrote her powerful story. — Karen B. Dunlap, president emerita, The Poynter Institute

Here is a story of family, discovery, and personal achievement from a time when this nation's racial divide threatened to deny the benefits of each to professional black women. Coming Full Circle: From Jim Crow to Journalism is a good read, full of life lessons from one of this nation's most successful black female journalists and details of the route she took to the pinnacle of her profession. — DeWayne Wickham, dean and professor of journalism, Morgan State University, and former USA Today columnist

An inherently fascinating, candidly informative, and ultimately inspiring life story, Coming Full Circle: From Jim Crow to Journalism is an exceptionally well-written and unreservedly recommended addition to library and supplemental curriculum studies lists. — Midwest Book Review

Wanda Lloyd's memoir is a down-memory-lane retrospective that walks us through the harrowing times of separate but not equal 'racial brokenness.' Coming Full Circle displays Lloyd's talents as a gifted journalist. — Mary Schmidt Campbell, president, Spelman College

Coming Full Circle is an important work about journalism, about courage and overcoming challenges, and about building diversity and bringing others along. — Phil Currie, retired senior vice president of news, Gannett

Wanda Lloyd's writing is direct, like the professional journalist she is. Slights, indignities, and prejudices are described with the same candor that recognizes her journalistic triumphs recording civil rights history and everyday breaking news. She's a mom and a mentor who writes and lives with generosity and grace. — Rexanna Keller Lester, retired Executive Editor, Savannah Morning News

Coming Full Circle is renowned editor and author Wanda Lloyd's story of the relatives and friends who helped shape her during her formative years, as well as the story of those of us who benefited from her hiring, mentorship, and leadership practices. In garnering the courage to follow her dreams and pursue a career that seemed out of reach due to racial and gender barriers, she helped many others see themselves in those roles, and gave us hope that our dreams could come full circle, too. Brava to Lloyd for penning a memoir that vividly recounts how the sophisticated Southern upbringing of one African American young lady helped shape the course of excellence and diversity in journalism across this nation for several decades. — Stacy Hawkins Adams, author and journalist

Coming Full Circle is a blueprint for young women of any color wanting to find out how to succeed in the business of newspapers and how to succeed in life. Wanda Lloyd achieved both with intelligence, hard work, and gravitas. — Carole Simpson, former ABC News anchor and national correspondent

A pioneering newspaper editor illuminates the importance of racial diversity in newsrooms and the difficulties of achieving that diversity, especially for black women. In a memoir that runs from her birth in 1949 to 2019, Wanda Lloyd offers hundreds of anecdotes and scenarios about how she managed to ascend to the top spots at major newspapers in an industry dominated by white males. Though Lloyd is not always self-effacing about her accomplishments, it's not bragging if you have done it—and she has done a lot. Inspiring reading for aspiring journalists and students of civil rights. — Kirkus Reviews

In an era when journalists are often maligned for truth-telling, Coming Full Circle reveals how one woman's inspirational journey was impacted by race, class, and gender, and yet provided the impetus for a stellar career. — Barbara Bealor Hines, Professor Emerita-Journalism, Howard University

This memoir proves that a successful leader can come from humble beginnings, even beginnings that legally restricted the circumstances of someone who wanted merely to work in a newsroom. — Richard Prince, columnist, Journal-isms.com

From the Publisher

Here is a story of family, discovery, and personal achievement from a time when this nation's racial divide threatened to deny the benefits of each to professional black women. Coming Full Circle: From Jim Crow to Journalism is a good read, full of life lessons from one of this nation's most successful black female journalists and details of the route she took to the pinnacle of her profession. — DeWayne Wickham, dean and professor of journalism, Morgan State University, and former USA Today columnist

Source

06/26/2020

Journalist Lloyd (emerita, chair of journalism & mass communications, Savannah State Univ.; coeditor, The Edge of Change: Women in the 21st Century Press) grew up in Jim Crow—era Savannah, GA, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In this insightful memoir of that time, the author tells powerful stories of a rich family life and a segregated educational system. Caring Black teachers, concerned with the welfare of their students, had to work with textbooks that omitted items of major historical importance, such as the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Lloyd eventually matriculated at Spelman College in Atlanta and earned a journalism degree. She recognized early on that diversity in terms of race and gender were not uppermost in the minds of those running the newspapers in the 1970s, when she was beginning her career. As Lloyd progressed through her career, she was able to effect meaningful change toward diversifying newsrooms. VERDICT Lloyd offers an inspiring account for women entering the field of journalism and a deeper understanding of life under Jim Crow segregation, as well as a fuller picture of diversity in 21st-century newsrooms.—Amy Lewontin, Northeastern Univ. Lib., Boston

Library Journal

2019-10-23
A pioneering newspaper editor illuminates the importance of racial diversity in newsrooms and the difficulties of achieving that diversity, especially for black women.

In a memoir that runs from her birth in 1949 to 2019, Lloyd (co-editor: The Edge of Change: Women in the Twenty-First-Century Press, 2009) offers hundreds of anecdotes and scenarios about how she managed to ascend to the top spots at major newspapers in an industry dominated by white males. The author had one advantage that many black women of her generation lacked due to pervasive racial segregation and gender inequities: She was born into a well-educated, economically comfortable family. Her upbringing—mostly in Savannah, Georgia—qualifies as unconventional (no spoilers here), but she never lacked for support from her close-knit relatives. After excelling in a severely segregated public school system, Lloyd entered Spelman College in Atlanta, an elite liberal arts institution for black women. There, she expanded her horizons by mingling with classmates who, unlike her, had attended schools with nonblack students and teachers. As the author notes, she had never crossed paths with whites in her daily life. After graduating from Spelman, Lloyd knew she wanted to become a journalist, but such a career seemed highly unlikely for a black woman. Though newspapers often publicly advocated for integration throughout society, their editors and publishers rarely practiced what they preached. Impressively, Lloyd managed to break through. With a combination of her unquestionable talent and fortuitous timing, she broke a series of glass ceilings until she became executive editor of the Montgomery Advertiser. Along the way, she had also achieved influential editing positions at the Washington Post, Miami Herald, and USA Today, the flagship of the Gannett chain, a company that was ahead of its competitors in its practice of promoting women. Though Lloyd is not always self-effacing about her accomplishments, it's not bragging if you have done it—and she has done a lot.

Inspiring reading for aspiring journalists and students of civil rights.

Kirkus Reviews