Ifill, Gwendolyn L.
1955-2016 · Contribution: 1984-2016
Broadcast journalist; anchor
Became, in 1999, the first African American woman to host a nationally televised U.S. public affairs program, moderating PBS's “Washington Week,” and in 2013 formed the first all-female co-anchor team in network news history alongside Judy Woodruff on the PBS NewsHour
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Quick facts
- Born
- 1955, Jamaica, Queens, New York
- Active since
- 1984
- Category
- Press & Photography
- Best known for
- First Black woman to host a national U.S. public-affairs program; PBS NewsHour co-anchor
Impact on the world
Ifill brought rigorous, unflappable political journalism to the center of American public broadcasting and, in mentoring successors like Yamiche Alcindor, seeded the next generation of Black political reporters.
Sources
- The HistoryMakers
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Related visionaries
Alcindor, Yamiche Léone
1986-present
Served as PBS NewsHour’s White House correspondent from 2018 to 2022, becoming a leading chronicler of the Trump and early Biden presidencies before succeeding her mentor Gwen Ifill, also profiled in this collection, as moderator of PBS’s Washington Week
Hunter-Gault, Charlayne
1942-present
Became, alongside Hamilton Holmes, the first African American student to integrate the University of Georgia in 1961, then built a five-decade journalism career as the New York Times' Harlem bureau chief, a PBS NewsHour national correspondent, and Africa bureau chief for NPR and CNN
Norris, Michele L.
1961-present
Became the first African American woman to host NPR’s flagship program All Things Considered in 2002, then created The Race Card Project in 2010, a Peabody Award-winning national storytelling initiative that has collected more than 500,000 six-word narratives about race and identity
Simpson, Carole Estelle
1940-present
Became the first African American woman to anchor a major U.S. network newscast when NBC News hired her as a correspondent in 1975, and, after 15 years anchoring ABC’s World News Tonight weekend edition, became in 1992 the first woman and first person of color to serve as sole moderator of a U.S. presidential debate