Melba Tolliver, Accidental Anchorwoman

Sandra_Lee_Schubert

Melba Tolliver knows a thing or two about African-American firsts. She was the first black person ever to anchor a network news program. The year was Marchl of 1967, and the news staff at ABC network was on strike. Network executives drafted Melba as the replacement on the Marlene Sanders show News With The Womans Touch. That was just the beginning of a long list of firsts for Melba Tolliver. It was also the beginning a illustrious career in broadcast journalism. Four years after her career launch as the accidental anchorwoman, Melba was assigned to cover the White House Rose Garden Wedding of Tricia Nixon. However, when she showed up in Washington, D.C. with her hair in an Afro instead of her usual straightened style, the brass as WABC temporarily took her off the air. It was time when African Americans were redefining who they were, and Melbas hairdo was another turning point. Never one to knowingly leave a stone unturned or an opportunity on the table, thats Melba's voice you hear on Gimme Me Shelter, the Rolling Stones documentary drawing a hilarious response from Mick Jagger when she posed the question, Are you satisfied yet? Melba is writing a memoir from her home on the Delaware River, appropriately titled Accidental Anchorwoman: Choice, Chance, and Change. An honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Molloy College, Long Island, NY; a political reporting award from Lincoln University; a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Association of Black Journalists, the John B. Russwurm Award from the New York City Urban League, the Matrix Award from New York Women in Communications, and a National Endowment of the Humanities Fellowship to the University of Michigan are among her many honors. Visit her site here>>http://www.melbatolliver.com/