Dorothy Butler Gilliam - "Trailblazer"

A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion.

About the book: "Trailblazer" is a powerful behind-the-scenes memoir from the first African-American woman hired as a reporter for "The Washington Post." Gilliam recounts her full, fascinating life - spanning from the 1930s to the present.

About the author: Dorothy Butler Gilliam has been a journalist for more than six decades. In 1961, she became the first Black woman hired as a reporter for "The Washington Post." She would later become an editor and a columnist for the paper before retiring in 2003. Gilliam was born in Memphis, Tennessee. Her journalism career began in the segregated South where she distinguished herself by reporting on the integration of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas for the Tri-State Defender. She went on to work as an associate editor at "JET Magazine" and then joined "The Washington Post." Throughout her career, Gilliam has worked tirelessly to nurture other journalists of color and to diversify newsrooms across the United States. In 1997, Gilliam established the Young Journalists Development Project, which helped groom a younger generation of journalists by offering, among other things, professional training. She also founded Prime Movers Media, a mentorship program that connected award-winning journalists with under-served high school students that aspired to work in newsrooms. Gilliam’s work as a civil rights journalist has been featured in three documentaries: "Freedom’s Call," "Southern Journalists Who Covered the Civil Rights Movement," and "Hope & Fury: MLK, The Movement and The Media." During her career, Ms. Gilliam appeared regularly on television, including PBS, and hosted her own show on BET. She has served as president of the National Association of Black Journalists from 1993 to 1995, and she was also president of Unity: Journalists of Color. She was inducted into the NABJ Hall of Fame in 1992. The Washington Press Club awarded Gilliam its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.

About the interlocutor: Lolly Bowean is a general assignment reporter at "The Chicago Tribune" who has a particular focus on urban affairs, youth culture, housing, minority communities, and relations. She writes primarily about Chicago’s unique African-American community and the development of the Obama Presidential Center. During her tenure, she has written about the death of Nelson Mandela, how violence is lived in troubled neighborhoods, and the 2008 election and inauguration of President Barack Obama. She also covered Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the last gathering of the original Tuskegee Airmen. Before joining The Chicago Tribune, Bowean covered suburban crime, government, and environmental issues for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.