NewsLady is the memoir of a trailblazing African American woman journalist whose life is about "firsts" Carole Simpson was the first woman to broadcast radio news in Chicago, the first African American woman to anchor a local newscast in the same city, the first African American woman national network television correspondent, the first African American woman to anchor a national network newscast and the first woman or minority to moderate a presidential debate. Hers is a story of survival in a male-dominated profession that placed the highest premium on white males. In this book she recounts how she endured and conquered sex discrimination and racial prejudice to reach the top ranks of her profession. Along the way she covered some of the most important news events over the four decades of her illustrious broadcasting career. Her inspirational story is for all trying to succeed in a corporate environment. NewsLady By CAROLE SIMPSON AuthorHouse Copyright © 2012 Carole Simpson All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4520-6235-8 Contents Prologue...............................................................xiChapter 1. Time to Go..................................................1Chapter 2. Becoming Me.................................................5Chapter 3. A Child's Eye View of Racism................................13Chapter 4. The "Colored" Lois Lane.....................................21Chapter 5. From the Urban North to the Rural South.....................31Chapter 6. Take Me Back to Chicago.....................................41Chapter 7. I Am Woman..................................................49Chapter 8. Dr. Martin Luther King Gives Me a Boost.....................61Chapter 9. Black, Female and Pregnant..................................69Chapter 10. Ms. Simpson Goes to Washington.............................81Chapter 11. The NBC Push to ABC........................................93Chapter 12. ABC Newswomen vsABC Newsmen................................103Chapter 13. Max Robinson...............................................121Chapter 14. All My Skinfolk Ain't My Kinfolk...........................125Chapter 15. NewsLady to AnchorLady.....................................135Chapter 16. Reporting on "The Other America"...........................145Chapter 17. Cry, The Reviled Country...................................169Chapter 18. In To Africa...............................................185Chapter 19. The Double Whammy..........................................195Chapter 20. The 1992 Presidential Debate...............................205Chapter 21. Death Threats..............................................217Chapter 22. Letters. I Got Letters.....................................223Chapter 23. Having It All..............................................235Chapter 24. What's Wrong With Me?......................................247Chapter 25. My Fall From Grace.........................................253Chapter 26. Paying The Price...........................................263Chapter 27. The Anthrax Debacle........................................271Chapter 28. The Newslady is Banished...................................285Chapter 29. Older, Wiser and Happier...................................291Chapter 30. Take-Aways.................................................297Epilogue...............................................................299 Chapter One TIME TO GO How did it come to this? It's 2:20 in the morning on March 19, 2003, a beautiful balmy night. I stood alone on a seventh floor balcony of Washington's historic Hay Adams Hotel. Gazing across Lafayette Park I can see the darkened White House, the Washington Monument looming majestically behind it. My eyes welled with tears. At this very moment tens of thousands of U.S. troops were engaged in the ballyhooed "shock and awe" bombing attacks and troop invasion of Iraq, sent there by President George W. Bush to annihilate Saddam Hussein and "liberate" the Iraqi people. I was weeping about the start of another war, and I was weeping for myself. Although a Senior Correspondent and longtime Weekend News Anchor, ABC News assigned me to watch the White House from nine at night until nine the next morning. My assignment was to call the news desk and tell everybody if terrorists blew up the White House. It was a job, no doubt, one of our youngest and most inexperienced desk assistants could have managed, and I had to beg for this assignment. At the time I had been a broadcast journalist for thirty-seven years; the last fifteen spent anchoring ABC's World News Tonight Saturday and Sunday, while still covering stories for other news programs. I was the first African American woman to anchor an evening newscast for one of the major television networks. And I had a big following. I received virtually every award presented to journalists and African Americans for professional excellence. I had spent the past twenty years being an