Simeon Booker, JPC Washington Bureau Chief, Honored By Black Media Group

Deemed by many as "the Jackie Robinson of Journalism," Johnson Publishing Company Washington, D.C., Bureau Chief Simeon Booker recently was honored at the prestigious National Press Club in Washington, D.C., by the National Black Media Coalition (NBMC) for his 44 dynamic years of groundbreaking service to the field of journalism.

Mr. Booker, who was the first Black reporter at the Washington Post newspaper, was one of five recipients of the Master Communicators Awards. U. S. Representative Charles Rangel presented Booker his award.

"Telling Black America's stow and diligently keeping us informed about events in the nation's capital and the world, when you read it in Simeon Booker's column, then you know it is accurate and true," said Rangel. "... Thank you Simeon for over the years being a pioneer for all of us, but especially for those of us in politics. You've been our Bible, we appreciate it, and from the bottom of our hearts we thank you."

As the audience gave him a standing ovation, Booker humbly accepted his award and also thanked his wife for her support over the past 20 years. "In all of my 80 some years I've never been exposed to such kind praise," Booker told the gathering.

Pluria W. Marshall, senior chairman of the NBMC, also congratulated Booker and the other award recipients. "Their accomplishments are legendary, outstanding and some even heroic," he said.

William Kennard, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and keynote speaker for the illustrious ceremony, recognized a few of Booker's historical achievements:

"A dedicated and courageous journalist, Simeon Booker was selected in 1982 for the 4th Estate Award ... and conducted one of the last televised interviews with Martin Luther King." Kennard continued, "In a city replete with monuments, Simeon Booker, is a Washington institution unto himself."

The other Master Communicators honorees included; M. James Watkins, III, general manager of WHUR-FM/WHUT-TV, who was hired in 1968 as the first Black engineer at the Washington News Bureau at ABC News in Washington, D.C.; W. Don Cornwell, president, Granite Broadcasting which operates ten TV stations in diverse markets reaching almost 7.0% of the nation's TV households; Ernest Jackson, Jr., vice president & general manager of KMJQ-FM, which was a major influence in the defeat of Proposition A in the November 1997 election. Proposition A, if it had passed, would have eliminated the city of Houston's Affirmative Action program; and Frank E. Melton, chairman & CEO, TV-3, Inc., who has been recognized for his nontraditional ways of combating drug dealers and their supporters in troubled Jackson, MS, neighborhoods, and giving youth alternative activities to keep them off the streets and out of trouble.

The NBMC, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, has the mission of building bridges of inclusion of Blacks and other people of color in communications.