A new home at the AJC brings Monica Pearson full circle

After 48 years in TV and radio in Atlanta, I am coming to work for the AJC with “The Monica Pearson Show” and a column — and a dream come true.

This new collaboration with the AJC allows me to use my skills from television and newspaper reporting to entertain, educate and engage with readers on a weekly basis. It’s also a full circle moment for me. I am working for a family-owned newspaper again.

My first paying job in a newsroom was in my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, where I worked at the Louisville Times newspaper, owned by the Bingham family. I started as a newsroom clerk, answering the phone, writing obituaries and contributing to “Let Me Do It,” a consumer problem-solving column.

It was the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that prompted my move to reporting. White reporters going into riot torn areas often weren’t welcome. Major newspapers and TV stations realized there was a need for more Black representation in their newsrooms.

To start addressing the problem, the Ford Foundation and Columbia University started the Summer Program for Minority Groups in 1968, later called the Michelle Clark Fellowship. The first year aimed to get more people of color on TV and, in 1969, newspaper was added. I was selected for the print program. After a summer in New York, I returned to the Louisville Times as a reporter in the Women’s Department, now called the Lifestyle or Living section in most papers.

After five years as a newspaper reporter, I auditioned for a job on TV and was told I wasn’t TV material. It wasn’t a surprise rejection. At the time, ABC’s Diane Sawyer could only get a job as a weather girl in our hometown of Louisville.

While gathering the skills I needed to move to TV — hair, make-up and appropriate clothing — I worked in public relations for Brown-Forman Distillers.

Credit: AJC file

Credit: AJC file

I also did informal modeling for a department store. We’d dress in the store, walk to a nearby restaurant and tell diners about the clothing. It was excellent training for doing live on-camera ad-lib reporting. That is where I met the wife of the news director of WHAS-TV, also a Bingham family-owned business. She introduced me to her husband and the rest is history.

I got the job as a TV reporter, then became the weekend anchor. I did well enough that the manager of the TV station, who said I would never make it, videotaped my shows and gave them to Magid, a TV consulting firm. They were looking for a female anchor for the 6 p.m. news at WSB-TV in Atlanta. The three finalists for the job were Jane Pauley, Oprah Winfrey and me. I often wonder where I’d be if I had not gotten the job.

August 25, 1975, was my first day on the job in Atlanta. I was the City Hall reporter before integrating the set with John Pruitt, sports anchor Jim Viondi and meteorologist Johnny Beckman. In January 1976, I became the first woman and minority to anchor the evening news in Atlanta.

This move was typical of WSB and the Cox family, always proactive. The late Lo Jelks was the first Black reporter on TV in Atlanta at WSB, during the governorship of then segregationist Lester Maddox. The late Gloria Lane was the city’s first female anchor and in 1973, Jocelyn Dorsey became the city’s first Black anchor, both on WSB-TV.

Over my 37 years with WSB-TV I covered everything from political conventions to the Atlanta Child Murders to Atlanta winning the 1996 Olympic Games to Jimmy Carter winning the Nobel Peace Prize. But what I loved doing the most was “Closeups with Monica Kaufman,” interviews with famous people, including actors, singers, directors, and politicians.

That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to work with the AJC. I will be doing character-driven interviews that really are conversations. You may know the name of my guest, but I want to you to know the person behind that famous name. My hope is that you will see what you have in common with the well-known but also learn about the sometimes difficult path to making their dreams a reality.

Who will I interview? They’ll be newsmakers, groundbreakers, innovators, and influencers, such as rapper/activist Killer Mike; New York Times best-selling author Mary Kay Andrews; CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta; ESPN sports anchor Elle Duncan. Some of the people who took a seat at my table were moved to tears and some to laughter. Some were surprised by the things I learned about them through research.

This is not a gotcha show. I’m not interested in controversy, although some of the people might be controversial, like Marjorie Taylor Greene. I want to know who she really is. What shaped her?

And this is where you come in. Who do you want to know more about and why? Send me your suggestions.

“The Monica Pearson Show” will stream on AJC.com, YouTube and other platforms.

Then there is my new monthly column, A Monica Moment, where I hope to provide inspiration, encouragement and sometimes, enlightenment gained over my 76 years of living, loving, sometimes failing and always growing.

“The Monica Pearson Show” is a Monica Moment for me AND you starting Jan. 16 on AJC.com.