George E. Curry, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of EmergeNewsOnline.com to Speak at Commencement at Jarvis Christian College
Hawkins, TX – Jarvis Christian College is pleased to announce that George E. Curry, editor-in-chief and publisher of EmergeNewsOnline.com will serve as keynote speaker on Saturday, May 7, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. for 2016 Commence Ceremony in E. W. Rand Health, Physical Education and Recreation Center, on the campus of Jarvis Christian College. The event is open to the public.
George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge: Black America’s Newsmagazine, is editor-in-chief and publisher of EmergeNewsOnline.com, an African American-oriented news website and monthly digital magazine that provides culturally-sensitive news, information and perspectives.
Curry served as editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine from 1993-2000. Under his leadership, the magazine won more than 40 national journalism awards. He is proudest of his 4-year campaign to successfully win the release of Kemba Smith, a 22-year-old woman who was given a mandatory sentence of 24 1/2 years in prison for her minor role in a drug ring.
While serving as editor of Emerge, Curry was elected president of the American Society of Magazine Editors, the first African-American to hold the association’s top office. Before taking over as editor of Emerge, Curry served as New York bureau chief and as a Washington correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. Prior to joining the Tribune in 1983, Curry worked for 11 years as a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and for two years as a reporter for Sports Illustrated.
In 2000, the University of Missouri presented Curry with its Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, the same honor it had earlier bestowed on such luminaries as Walter Cronkite, John H. Johnson, Joseph Pulitzer and Sir Winston Churchill.
After Emerge, Curry served for nine years as editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service (NNPA), a federation of approximately 200 African American newspapers, and its companion website, BlackPressUSA.com. The National Association of Black Journalists named Curry its 2003 “Journalist of the Year” for his work in improving the Black Press.
In January 2016, Curry was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC), the nation’s leading advocate for minority advancement in communications. A videotaped interview with Curry was conducted by The HistoryMakers and is stored as part of the African American oral history project at the Library of Congress.
He is the author of Jake Gaither: America’s Most Famous Black Coach (Dodd, Mead & Co., 1977), editor of The Affirmative Action Debate (Perseus Books, 1996) and The Best of Emerge Magazine, (Ballantine Books, 2003). He has written a syndicated weekly newspaper column for more than 15 years.
Curry was part of the week-long Nightline special, “America in Black and White.” He has also appeared on the CBS Evening News, ABC’s World News Tonight, The Today Show, 20/20, Good Morning America, CNN, C-SPAN, BET, TV One, Fox Network News, MSNBC, ESPN and the BBC.
While working as a Washington correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, he wrote and served as chief correspondent for the widely-praised television documentary, “Assault on Affirmative Action,” which was aired as part of the “Frontline” series on PBS. He was featured in a segment of “One Plus One,” a national PBS documentary on mentoring.
Curry is past chairman of the Board of Trustees at Knoxville College, his alma mater. As a student at Knoxville College, he was quarterback and co-captain of the football team, editor of the school newspaper and attended Harvard and Yale on summer scholarships.
After delivering the 1999 commencement address at Kentucky State University, he was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters degree. In May 2000, Lane College in Jackson, Tenn. also presented Curry with an honorary doctorate after his commencement speech.
He is chairman of the Board of Directors of Young D.C., an independent, metropolitan area newspaper written by and about Washington, D.C.-area teens.
Curry’s work in journalism has taken him to more than 20 countries, including Egypt, England, France, Italy, Germany, China, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malaysia, Morocco, Algeria, Thailand, Cuba, Haiti, Brazil, Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire (the Ivory Coast), Mexico, Canada, Austria and the Netherlands.
In 2012, he was part of the official U.S. delegation and a presenter at the U.S.-Brazil seminar on educational equity in Brasilia, Brazil.
