In Black America; Life at Ebony Magazine w/Lynn Norment

... From the Longhorn Radio Network, the University of Texas at Austin, this is In Black America. And today, more so than ever, I realize how fortunate I was to land that internship at the Commercial Field Loose Paper during my last semester at Memphis State.

But now, more so than even then, I realize how valuable such an experience is in launching a career in this very competitive, very demanding, but very rewarding and exciting profession. I often have students writing and calling and almost begging to find out something about an internship at Ebony or anywhere else. And I know too many people who have earned journalism degrees, but out of frustration because they can't find a job, they have gone on to other fields. So I feel very fortunate to have had that opportunity and without the guidance of my instructors at Memphis State, it may not have happened for me. Miss Lynn Norman, Senior Staff Editor with Ebony Magazine. Recently, Memphis State University's Journalism Alumni Chapter held its six annual Outstanding Journalist's Alumnus Awards.

This year's recipient was Lynn Norman with Ebony Magazine. Miss Norman is the first woman, the first African-American, and the first representative from the magazine industry to receive the award. Miss Norman has been with Ebony since 1977 and is a management team member that oversees the daily operations of the magazine. Miss Norman has written stories on topics ranging from male female relationships to religion to lifestyles of the black, rich, and famous. I'm John L. Hanson, Jr. and welcome to another edition of In Black America. This week, Miss Lynn Norman, Senior Staff Editor with Ebony Magazine in Black America. And I learned real quickly that there were people in the world besides my father who would raise them for us if you, if you didn't, do the right thing. I'm talking about Angus McGarr and some of you may remember him.

He was a city editor at the Commercial Appeal when I started working there. And he was a great person to give me an initiation into the world of journalism. It was really like a scene right out of a situation comedy, or even a serious drama, that some days were very serious. Angus McGarr and could bark orders as well as any drill sergeant, and he could cut up a story as skillfully as any butcher. But he was just what I needed to polish the skills I had learned at Memphis State. Now just for your information, my father had six daughters and he wanted at least a couple of us to be doctors. However, nobody really wanted to pursue a career in medicine. If you're someone who has been selected to be among the young leaders of the future, a head of state government, a top recording star, or the 100 Black Women Corporate Executives, you've probably read their life story written by Lynn Norman in Liberty Magazine, the largest Black publication in the world.

Miss Norman joined Ebony back in 1977 after working for the Commercial Appeal in Memphis before and after graduating from Memphis State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism. At the Commercial Appeal, Miss Norman won several awards for investigative features. One feature focused on housing discrimination in Memphis. Miss Norman is widely respected throughout the industry and has attained an enormous readership with her insightful features on some of the world's most famous personalities and heads of state. Miss Norman was born and raised in Bolivar, Tennessee, a small town north of Memphis. She is a member of the management team that oversees the daily operations of Ebony, which has a circulation of 3 million and a readership of 10 million. Recently, Miss Norman was a 1991 recipient of Memphis State University's Journalism Alumni Chapter, Outstanding Journalist's Alumnus Award, the filing is Miss Norman's address at the awards dinner. So, during my first semester at Memphis State, I went to an open house at Methodist Hospital. It was geared towards students who were interested in careers in medicine, but as soon as I walked

into the laboratory and saw all of those specimens lying about and all the blood and all those other things I didn't know what they were and I hate to even think about, I knew that that was not my calling. But in my heart, even before then, I knew that I wanted to be a writer. In elementary school, I remember writing little poems and essays to express my feelings. I was a shy child. I didn't talk that much. So I expressed myself by writing. And in school, I always looked forward to English classes when everybody else hated them and dreaded them and I even liked writing those English compositions and even helped out some of my friends quite a bit too. And I enjoyed reading the newspaper and I was never bored as long as I had a pencil and some paper or a good book to read. Now my first day on the job at the Commercial Appeal was quite a memorable day and here

many years later, it is as clear to me as if it had happened yesterday. Now it started out rather boring. I reported to work at 10 o'clock and about midday. I was sent out to cover a very dull speech at what was then Southwestern University or Southwestern College. I wrote two paragraphs on that very dull speaker and I turned it in and my editor said fine because they didn't expect a big story out of it. They just wanted to give me the new person on the block know something to do. So I sat around most of the rest of the day and I had concluded day two would surely be better than today. But just before I was about to leave about six o'clock somewhere between five and six o'clock, Pandemonium broke out in the newsroom. A man had gone berserk on the south side of Memphis and was shooting people down in the street.

The newsroom jolted alive. Angus was barking orders, left and right, reporters were grabbing notebooks, photographers grabbed their cameras and everybody rushed out of the door. When the dust settled, I was one of the few people still sitting there and I was truly amazed, it was like watching something on television. And Angus was about to leave for the day because he had started early and the night editor came on. It was Charlie Cavanero and Charlie I believe is still out at Memphis State in the athletic department or athletic director actually. Well Cavanero came on to the desk at that night and called me over immediately and asked if it was normal, do you have a car and I said of course I have a car, a brand new car as a matter of fact. He said do you know how to get to the south side of Memphis and I said of course I do and I lie out a little bit. I stayed on campus at Memphis State and didn't really know exactly where this area was. So he told me to go out there and find as much information as I possibly could.

So I got a map and read it real well, got some directions, went to the neighborhood and by the time I got there, most of the bodies had been removed, the gunmen had been shot unfortunately too. It was indeed a tragic situation. And this was my first day on the job and I must say I was very, very young for a shot of college. Actually I was still in college and I just parked my car, got on the streets and started walking around trying to get as much information as I could and right about this time it was getting dark too. But I wasn't going to let that scare me, you know I said I had to prove myself on the first day of my job. So I started talking to anybody who would talk to me, trying to find out something about the victims and about the gunmen and some of our witnesses to what had happened that day.

And I was coming up with some pretty good information including some photographs. But on that day I also met Congressman Harold Ford, although he was not Congressman now. For information he just came in, ladies and gentlemen, I'm fit late and I'm glad that he could join us. But that was the first day that I met Harold Ford. He was trying to find out information about the victims and I was trying to do the same thing. He joined forces and he shared some names and information with me, I shared some names and information with him and we became friends and have been good friends ever since. But he helped me a lot that day because I was able to go back to the office with a lot of information that nobody else had been able to get. Voter Grouse names addresses quotes from their families, out witness accounts and that kind of thing. Just what the editors were looking for. So I went back to the office about 10 o'clock, wrote up my information, turned it in and said, you know, we're great.

What a long day but you know I felt very good. Kavanaugh did not realize I had been on the jobs since 10 o'clock that morning and he wanted to give me more work to do until somebody reminded him that I'd already worked 12 hours and they really should let me go home. One memorable story from those early days at the commercial appeal. I recall doing a piece with Shirley Downing Covington, Shirley was not able to make it here tonight but Shirley and I became good friends at the commercial appeal. And when there was not a lot going on, we would sit around and brainstorm and try to come up with story ideas and things to keep us busy and out of the office and away from the bad assignments. So we brainstormed and came up with an idea to do an investigation on discrimination, racial discrimination and the renting of apartments in the Memphis city area. The story idea got approved and Shirley and I proceeded to work out how we were going

to do this. Of course, Shirley is white, I am black, we're about the same age and when we filled out the applications, we had the same information basically, the same kind of employment except we didn't put down that we were reporters of course, the same kind of income, background, et cetera, et cetera. And we went to dozens and dozens of apartment complexes applying for apartments. In many cases, Shirley was shown a beautiful apartment with a wonderful view and I was either told there was no vacancy or was shown a real dump. After months of this kind of investigation, we compared our findings and discovered that 50 to 60% of the apartments that we had gone to discriminated and I don't have the exact figures before me that article is tucked away somewhere. But we had more than enough for a good story and the editors were pleased and we proceeded to write this story up.

Of course, after you do that kind of investigation, then you go back to the people who were targeted. In this case, it turned out that there were two major real estate developers who owned the apartments who were repeatedly discriminating against me, the black applicant. So one of the developers called one of the editors at the commercial appeal and tried his best to get the story killed and that's when we found out that he was good friends to the editor and of course that did not work though and that did not concern me so much. But then my family, my sisters got concerned thinking that I would come to some harm by these powerful and wealthy people we were doing this story on. Now I feel good about this story today and the outcome because we pointed out to people here that things aren't as it may appear to be that discrimination is alive and well and that was back in the 70s and we did the same thing today.

We probably will find some of that still exists but I also felt good about that effort because it was our idea, my idea and Shirley's idea and we took it all the way and then made me realize how much I enjoyed investigative reporting, I enjoyed that kind of research. Another story that comes to mind from those days at the commercial appeal is that report on businesses that stayed open all night. I was part of a team, about seven people and I believe I was the only woman I can't remember exactly. But we went out about 11 o'clock at night, everybody bought themselves in their own cars and we each had a section of the city to which we were assigned and we would go to these businesses and interview them about crime, whether they had been robbed and what precautions they took of course. Immediately they assumed that I was about to rob them or that I had some friends who were going to come behind me to rob them and they would call the police and the police

would come and the police would call back to the office and then they would find out that yes the commercial appeal is doing this investigation, yes she is part of the team doing the investigating but I did not like having to encounter the police, plus about this time was midnight one o'clock and I was getting kind of scared driving around the city by myself in the middle of the night anyway. So again that's when I called on one of my sisters, Vicki she's not here tonight, got her out of the bed on the dorm at Memphis State and she rode around with me the rest of the night until 6 o'clock. But that was an interesting story and if I had to do that again I probably would reject it but at that time and I was new on the paper I couldn't say no I had to do that again I couldn't say no I don't want to do this, I just had to do it and I'm glad that I did and it was a great experience. Now at Ebony asked with any job, no I've had my ups and downs, I've had my highs and lows but I'm not the type of person who is easily discouraged. I feel that if I work hard and remain patient and diligent then a negative situation can

be turned around. And when I meet people I often ask questions like, now what is your most exciting assignment or who is the most difficult person you have interviewed? So I thought I would answer a couple of those questions for you tonight. Now one of the most memorable assignments that I've had was an interview with Prince in 1977 I believe it was and maybe some of you know who Prince deals, others of you may not but he is a very eccentric rock star kind of vulgar to some extent and he does not like to give interviews. And during that time he was very very popular at least back in 1986 he had out his purple rain album and his purple rain movie and so he was like really really hot artists and I had done two or three stories on him not interviewing him but being creative as a journalist

to try to do the best story I could without because he wasn't like giving anybody interviews not just sliding me or sliding Ebony but he wasn't talking to anybody but he obviously had read the stories that I had done and he decided that he wanted me to interview him and this was in 1977 and that was great but that was my catch you know he wanted me to come to France. I said no problem I'll come to France that's what you want to be interview no I'll sacrifice him come over a little bit so he was working on a movie over the under the cherry moon he was filming movie didn't do that well and that's okay and I did get my interview with as soon as I got there his public relations person picked me up at the hotel took me out to the set I watched him film a little while thinking that I'd be able to get a good nice rest and be fresh in the next day maybe I would have my interview Prince decided right then he was ready he wanted to do an interview right there so jet lagging all I got

myself together of course I had my notebook with me and my tape recorder and I did the interview and it was just 45 minutes he had told me you know sorry it could be longer right then but you know he would talk to me the next day or the next day when the next day came he had told these people to tell me well I've said everything I have to say and that's it but I hung around for the next six days hoping that Prince would relent and talk with me again and in the meantime I went down to central pay and cons and Monte Carlo and just saw the hung around but every day asking okay am I gonna talk to Prince today and I said well no not today maybe tomorrow I said okay but I never did get a chance to talk with him but one of his friends who was working with him on the movie at the time befriended me and decided to sneak me up to Prince's house so I would have a look inside of how he lived with understanding you know that I wouldn't write any of this in my story because he would

get in a lot of trouble so I was very excited about that and since I hadn't gotten another interview I just forgot I was a journalist and I became a Prince fan immediately I was very excited to be there so he showed me Prince's bathroom and bedroom and of course the kitchen and the rest of the house and it was a very very beautiful place way up in the hills overlooking the Mediterranean but the most outstanding thing about that house that I recall is Prince's closet he opened up the closet door and there were dozens and dozens of pairs of little high heel boots they all had heels on about this high and they were all different colors reds blue, yellow, paisleys, all kinds of prints and I grabbed what he middling wanted to try it on because like it would fit me perfectly but his friend grabbed it back and said no no no you can't put his shoe on now but I guess I just got a little bit carried away there then the telephone rang and it was Prince and he was headed back up the hill to his house so we had to get out of there in a hurry so that assignment

will always stand out in my mind no not because it was a great interview and it was not a great interview at all but I certainly enjoyed the South of France and I do hope to go back and another very memorable assignment and it was somewhat more serious was a cover story I did on Virginia governor L. Douglas Wilder last year and it was the first time that he had allowed writers and photographers into the governor's mansion I had met the governor in 1986 when he was inaugurated as lieutenant governor we became friends and kept in touch and when he won the governor's race I was delighted and proud and pleased to you know attend the inauguration and at that time I wasn't working so it was really great and I felt that I was a witness to history being made and then I returned to Richmond several times as a matter of fact last year to do a story on him and the day that was

appointed that we would actually do the story over a couple of days actually he told us to come in and be at the mansion at a certain time and we did not know that he had planned a big dinner party that night actually was the first dinner party he had as governor of Virginia and so we were able to photograph him hosting his first dinner party and take photographs in his private quarters and all about and around the city and I think that will always stand out in my mind as one of my most exciting assignments because here we have this great light man who is the governor of the state of Virginia which was the seat of the Confederacy and this man who the grandson of slaves and I feel very proud and pleased to have been able to meet him personally and to do that story and maybe when he gets in the White House he'll let us be the first one there too if that happens I'm looking forward to that here we go again so I'll go to London to interview her she was performing

at a big Nelson Mandela Tribune they were having soon after his release from prison and I didn't mind you know going to London she wanted me to interview her backstage and that was okay too but then she only gave me 15 minutes in between stage appearances and that's when I say you know now this is just too much you have me come all the way to London for 15 minutes and then you really don't say anything so the editors we decided that we wouldn't even run this story because she was not very cooperative and you know we often encounter people like that you know they're very talented but they just a little eccentric you know and some people just very shy and just don't really know how to deal with the media they have reached pain very quickly and they just simply don't know how to deal with it but I do indeed wish her the best now I have done many other stories they aren't all about famous people they deal with things that affect me you and everybody

else on a daily basis as most of you know well I have never been married though I've had a couple of offers that were consideration but I've done so many stories male female relationships that I feel like I'm somewhat of an expert now I can tell you how wonderful it is being single although that's from personal experience but I can also tell you about the joys of a good marriage I can tell you whether you meet a rich man how you can find Mr. Wright or Mr. Wright and hook him or her if you need to plan a fabulous wedding on a budget even I can tell you that too and I can tell you how celebrities look on their wedding days if your marriage is shaky I can tell you how to fix it up and make your love last and if divorce is inevitable as it is for an increasing number of couples now I can tell you how to survive that and get back into the dating game then after you've been out there for

a little while you may decide that your first mate was really the right person for you and if so I can tell you that you should reconsider getting married for a second time to the same mate I've done stories on that too and it's interesting I've found people who'd actually married the same person twice or three times and I've found that to be fascinating okay and then there are those men who married for the first time after 40 I did a story on that and if I ever get married it'll certainly be after I'm 40 another 10 years or so from now and then there are those people who had their first children after 40 sometimes stories on all of these things and it was always fascinating to do the research to interview people and see how they live and how they perceive life but I've done more serious stories like things on AIDS and its devastation on the black community and then the September issue of Ebony I have a story on rape which is a much more serious problem than most of us even realize I learned a lot from that story and we all should take note of that and

I just finished a story on 30 liters of the future in which we highlight young people age 30 and younger who are in leadership positions or who have the potential for leadership and we've been doing this particular feature since 1983 and I've had a number of people from Memphis and it always like look for these people from Memphis to make a point and I think a couple of people I've had in it are here tonight I'm very glad to meet them in person for the first time but stories like this really make me feel good when I can find and uncover some talent that's out there that the world may not know about yet I know everybody here in Memphis we know about the people here but we in Chicago don't know are those people in New York or in California just makes me feel good when I can find someone now for the story this year I found a 30 year old black man in Indiana who happens to be clerk of the Indiana Supreme and Appellate course and he is only one of six blacks in

the country who are in statewide elected positions I'd not heard about him I mean he's new to the position but I was just delighted to find that we had this caliber of person so close in Indiana and he was only 30 years old and over the years we found people like state legislatures especially Cleo Fields of Louisiana who when he was elected at 24 was the youngest state legislator in the country and then we have found entrepreneurs social workers and ministers and others who are out there in their various communities trying to make a difference also for the last couple of years we have done features on the top black women in corporate America and this is another story that really makes me feel good to find that there are all these beautiful black women out here who are doing things who are accomplishing things who are sitting in a seat of power at the most prestigious companies in this country so I get grateful film it from doing those kinds of stories and

I could just go on and on about the various kinds of things that I have done and the people that I have met with Judith Macau and has suggested that I keep my remarks short and I'm wrapping up now but I would like to make a couple of points about this business that I'm in. The world of journalism is indeed a wonderful profession especially if you like people and if you enjoy working with people in any job or profession that you have if you like what you do then it would be a lot more enjoyable and you will do a much much better job. As you have probably summarized I love my job I love what I do and I really would not want to do anything else I have never even considered another profession except briefly when I went to that hospital but that was very very brief this business can be very exciting it can be very fulfilling it has provided me with numerous opportunities to travel out

of the country and those were wonderful experiences. Miss Lynn Norman senior staff editor with Ebony magazine and the 1991 recipient of the Outstanding Journalist's alumnus award given by Memphis State University's journalism alumni chapter. If you have a question and comment regarding this program write us remember views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station or the University of Texas at Austin until we have the opportunity again for in black America's technical producer Cliff Hargrove I'm John E. O. Hanson Jr. please join us again next week. Reset copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in black America cassettes Longhorn Radio Network Communication Building B UT Austin Austin Texas 78712 That's in black America cassettes Longhorn Radio Network Communication Building B

UT Austin Texas 78712 From the Center for Telecommunication Services the University of Texas at Austin this is the Longhorn Radio Network. I'm John E. O. Hanson Jr. join me this week on in black America. And since then through Ebony I have been able to go to Africa another part of your several occasions. But I don't want to give you the impression that the media or my job in particular is all fun and games that is all glitz and glamour. This is Lynn Norman Senior Staff Editor with Ebony Magazine this week on in black America.