Tonyaa Weathersbee, B.S. Journalism 1981, M.A.M.C. 2016, and University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Hall of Fame 2020, was part of a USA TODAY Network newsroom team that received the Domestic Print and Grand Prize from the 2021 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards for “The Confederate Reckoning.”  She also recently received a 2021 Ken Knight Award, presented by the UMUNNA Legal Group in Jacksonville, Florida, honoring trailblazers in African-American media who showcase the community in a positive light.

“The Confederate Reckoning,” a multimedia series powered by dozens of USA TODAY Network journalists in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas, was recognized for outstanding domestic and international reporting on issues of human rights and social justice. Together, the journalists traced the complicated history of the Confederacy from historic battlefields of the 1860s to contemporary classrooms and halls of government.

Weathersbee is currently the metro columnist for the Memphis, Tennessee daily newspaper The Commercial Appeal. She is also a multiple-award winning newspaper columnist and researcher in mass communications and Afro-Cuban and Afro-Latin American culture. As an opinion columnist for The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville from 1998 to 2016, her columns, examining the various struggles, triumphs and inequalities faced by inner-city Jacksonville residents, won 12 journalism awards.

Posted: September 23, 2021
Category: Alumni News, College News
Tagged as: Tonyaa Weathersbee