Journalism

An Exciting March 2025 Writers Conference

Sonja D. Williams African Americans, Biography, Books, Education, Journalism, Nonfiction, Podcast, Podcasting

Happy New Year!

If you’re a writer or book lover looking for an event that could stimulate your creativity and engage your curiosity, you might want to check out the upcoming  Telling the Stories of Black Lives through Biography Conference.

Set for March 21-22, 2025 in Montgomery Alabama, this first-of-its-kind national conference is sponsored by the Biographers International Organization (BIO) in partnership with Troy University.

Author and journalist A’Lelia Bundles (Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance, 2025) will serve as the conference’s keynote speaker.

Fellow biographer and historian David Greenberg  (John Lewis: A Life, 2024) is set to deliver the luncheon address.

Conference attendees can explore the joys and challenges of producing biographies of Black subjects through panel discussions, talks and tours of Montgomery’s civil rights memorials. The conference is a must for writers and/or readers of biography and history, along with teachers and students from throughout the Southeast region.

So don’t miss this exciting two-day, deep dive into biographical storytelling – with an African American twist!

Happy Summer and a Look at Black Radio!

Sonja D. Williams African Americans, Black Radio, Documentary, Education, History, Journalism, Nonfiction, Nonfiction Writing, public radio, Radio, Smithsonian Institution

Here’s hoping that you are staying as safe and as cool as possible during this sizzling summer!

If you’re looking for some summer reading possibilities, you might want to check out the link below. It will take you to an article that I wrote about a radio series I had the pleasure of working on that documented the history and significance of Black radio and African American culture.

So, pull up a chair, kick up you feet and enjoy!

Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was – Documenting Radio on the Radio

 

 

 

Happy New Year – And Here’s An Illuminating Article About Unsung Civil Rights Heroes

Sonja D. Williams Biography, Education, History, Journalism, Nonfiction, Nonfiction Writing, Politics
I wish you all the best in this new year!
Please check out a powerful article from the AARP Bulletin, about just three of the Americans who in their youth fought the good fight against segregation and discrimination during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s.
photos of unsung civil rights heroes fred gray charles person and willie pearl mackey king
Left to right: Fred Gray, Charles Person and Wille Pearl Mackey King.

 

 

Affirmative Action & Higher Ed – An Aural Case Study

Sonja D. Williams Chicago culture, Documentary, Education, History, Journalism, Nonfiction, NPR

About 25 years ago, in March 1998 to be exact, NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday aired a documentary I produced that explored how affirmative action policies in higher education admissions and hiring practices affected students, faculty and staff at a specific university from the 1960s through the 1990s.

The piece, Affirmative Action and Higher Education: An Aural History, actually was an aural case study in which I captured the opinions and experiences of various members of the University of Chicago community – including prominent faculty like historian John Hope Franklin and sociologist William Julius Wilson, the university’s vice president for research (and former Morehouse College president) Walter Massey, and former students Christopher Kang and novelist A.J. Verdelle.

The insights of those interviewees along with many others at this elite university, continue to resonate in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s current ruling against the affirmative action policies of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina – and its broader implications for higher ed.

To hear my piece, please click on the following link: Affirmative Action and Higher Education

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