Mal Johnson's bio

Mal Johnson sent this resume to her friend Lyn Voss in 2006, to be used by Federally Employed Women:

MAL JOHNSON
7237 Worsley Way
Alexandria VA 22315

C A R E E R H I S T O R Y

Mal Johnson was employed by Cox Enterprises, Broadcast Division for 27 years in the Cox Washington News Bureau. After leaving the company in 2000, she created her own media consulting firm, Medialinx International, where she offers a variety of specialized media services, public service productions and training. Johnson continues to pursue her considerably active participation worldwide in the media and in the women’s movement.

Mal Johnson was the first female reporter employed in the Cox Washington News Bureau and their first correspondent assigned to the White House.. She covered five U.S. presidents, reporting extensively from numerous countries of the world. She was among the White House Press Corp when President Nixon made his historical visits to Russia and China, and his equally historic resignation from the Presidency. During her years as a reporter, she also covered Capitol Hill, the State Department and various Federal agencies. Before joining the Washington Bureau she worked at WKBS-TV, Philadelphia.

In 1980, Johnson was promoted to Senior Washington Correspondent and assigned additional duties as National Director of Community Affairs. In this management position, she established linkages with communities nationwide and produced programs reflecting community issues. Before turning to a broadcasting career, Johnson taught school, first in Philadelphia where she was born, grew up, was educated, and later taught in Europe and on Guam in the Marianas Islands of the Pacific.

Broadcasting, Civil Rights and the Feminist Movements have been the important elements of Mal Johnson’s professional career and activist work. Her service on several boards reflects her interests. She is past Vice President and current Main Representative at the United Nations of the International Association of Women In Radio and Television, an organization headquartered in India,. Johnson serves on the board of the Communications Consortium Media Center; the former Vice President of the board of the U.S. Committee for UNIFEM, Secretary of the board of the Hospital for Sick Children. Currently she is the Secretary of the board of the Gold Star Military Widows of America, and Co-chair of the National Women’s Conference. She serves on the Steering Committee of the National Council of Women’s Organizations. Johnson is a Founder of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Broadcast Association for Community Affairs. She is a former National Chair of the American Women In Radio and Television Foundation and President of the Washington Chapter of AWRT..

Johnson participated in the U N World Conferences on Women in Mexico City, Houston, Copenhagen, Nairobi , Beijing and at the United Nations. She created Global Focus: Women In Art and Culture, a project of 880 art works that were exhibited, in Beijing, by women artists depicting issues concerning women. Johnson is a seasoned speaker and recipient of many media and civil rights activist awards. She was inducted in the Journalists Hall of Fame in 2000. A television Documentary of her life’s story is included in the Archives of the HistoryMakers of America. She is the author of numerous papers on media, co-author of “Moving History Forward: A Woman’s National Action Agenda and Co-editor of 50 Ways to Improve the Lives of Women.

Among her many awards, Johnson has been honored with the Foremothers of America Award, Trailblazer Award and the Woman of Strength Award.

Mal Johnson is the widow of an Air Force officer and shares her home with her Persian cat, Lady MacBeth..

audio online: Mal Johnson's interview of Wangari Maathai

To hear this, visit www.wings.org and click on Archives.

Then use your browser to search for Johnson, or just scroll down to #29-04. You need Windows Media Player. This was a really great interview Mal did for WINGS, which was re-issued when Wangari was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mal also gets a credit on #11-07, which was adapted down from a longer video that she helped me produce for the International Women's Roundtable. She speaks in the video, but not in the shorter radio piece.

Description of WINGS #29-04:

WANGARI MAATHAI RETROSPECTIVE Time: 29:00 From the WINGS archive, Wangari Maathai’s address to UNIFEM, September 7, 1990, recorded by Mal Johnson. Maathai explains with wit and candor the politics, the economics and the practical side of the Greenbelt Movement, including its origin in the Kenyan women’s movement. In an interview, Maathai tells Johnson about her struggle with the Kenyan ruling party over plans for a 62-story skyscraper in a public park. It was a pivotal moment for Maathai, who would go on to be beaten and jailed, then run for President, and then become Deputy Minister of Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife when a new government finally arrived. On October 8, 2004, Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Prize for Peace. Her selection reflects a new understanding in the Nobel Committee about the relationships between environment, democracy, women’s rights, and peace.

--Frieda Werden, producer, WINGS: Women's International News Gathering Service

Mal and the National Women's Conference Committee

Mal was very active with the National Women's Conference Committee, which works to implement the results of the US's only formally conducted National Women's Conference, held in Houston in 1977. Mal isn't mentioned in this writeup of "How the National Plan of Action for Women Came Into Being," by Susanna Downie, but I'm sure she was involved.

Mal was also co-chair of the committee that organized the 20-year anniversary celebration of that Houston conference. The celebration took place in Washington DC in 1997. Bella Abzug and Betty Friedan were both still alive and they spoke and they physically passed the actual torch from the original conference to the younger generation. Mal was very wonderful at organizing events that had just enough pomp and ceremony and also time to talk. Here's a writeup about the 1997 conference, still to be found online at http://www2.edc.org/WomensEquity/edequity97/0302.html - it quotes Mal and credits her:

>NWC BRIEFING
>Volume I Number 1
>17 August 1997
>
>NWCC CELEBRATES 20th ANNIVERSARY OF HOUSTON
>
>The National Women's Conference Committee is planning a
>national conference to celebrate the historic 1977 Spirit of
>Houston Conference on Women. The Houston Conference attracted
>20,000 delegates and observers, the largest gathering of women
>ever held in the United States, hosted by three former First
>Ladies, Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford and Rosalynn Carter.
>The 20th Anniversary of that event will be held at The
>Georgetown University Conference Center in Washington D.C.
>November 20-23, 1997.
>
>Participants from throughout the United States will come
>together to assess the progress made toward implementing the
>National Plan of Action, the document of the Houston Conference.
>It will provide an opportunity to recognize the veterans of the
>women's movement and celebrate the successful efforts that serve
>to improve the lives of women and their families. The dialogue
>of the conference will produce a substantive report that will
>document the work of non-government organizations from Houston
>to Beijing and beyond.
>
>The President's Interagency Council on Women is in the process
>of producing a National Action Agenda that will guide the
>United States in follow-up and implementation of the Platform
>for Action, focusing on 12 general issues as described in the
>official document of the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women
>held in Beijing in September, 1995. The National Action Agenda
>is a compilation of recommendations expressed by thousands of
>women nationwide during a White House satellite conference
>hosted by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton one year after the
>Beijing conference. The report will be presented at the 20th
>Anniversary Conference for the first time in an open forum.
>
>Conference Committee Chair Mal Johnson says, "We view the
>20th Anniversary Celebration of the Houston Conference as an
>opportunity for the women of America to assess issues that
>require additional attention to further improve the status
>of women."
>
>Members of the National Women's Conference Committee,
>non-government organizations, students and federally-employed
>women are expected to participate in the Conference.
>
>For further information and registration, contact:
>
>Mal Johnson, Conference Co-Chair
>2020 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W., Suite 267
>Washington, DC 20006
>Phone/Fax: 703.922.4468
>Email: natwom@usa.net
>
>OR visit our Web site at http://www.natwom.org
>

-----------------

Mal was really pleased to have been invited to this conference in Little Rock in October 2006, to share the podium with Bella Abzug's daughter Liz, among others. It was to plan the 30th anniversary of the 1977 Houston Women's Conference. I know Mal was very concerned about whether health would permit her to attend this Arkansas meeting for the 30th anniversary, and I can't remember if she attended or not. Perhaps a reader will post a comment about this.

http://www.nwhp.org/news/conference.php

-----------------

Note to researchers: If you start searching for "National Women's Conference Committee" as a term, you will find truly amazing activities that they have been involved in at not only national but also state levels, working to implement the National Plan of Action. A real must for any research on the impact of Mal Johnson, among others.
--------------

I first got to know Mal when I attended a meeting in St. Louis of the National Women's Conference Committee board, in I think the spring of 1992. I was looking for support for a radio project that I wanted to do. Mal and Sarah Harder liked the idea, and they put me in touch with Martha Burk as well. I think Sarah Harder, a very close friend of Mal's, was then President of what at that time was the Council of Presidents of Women's Organizations, but later evolved into the National Council of Women's Organizations. Martha Burk later became president of this group. Mal helped me design the radio project, and she worked for it, too. It wasn't possible to get any direct endorsement or support from the Council of Presidents, because it was just a coalition and not an organization in itself, but with the help of Sandy Suffian in Kansas City, we raised about $4,000 for the project from NCWO member groups, and the groups provided participants for the programs (it was a two-part series, but all recorded in one day). The project was a multi-city broadcast, with one studio a public radio studio in New York (where Marlene Sanders was the host), and one studio on Capitol Hill in Washington that was owned by the Democratic Party. We used an ISDN line that NPR owned to link those two cities, and then used the Public Radio Satellite Service to have the signal brought back live to the studio where I was monitoring and recording it, in Kansas City. I did a quick edit and released it on the Public Radio Satellite Service, as "National Women's Agenda 1992: What Women Want and How They Plan to Win It." Mal was the producer in the Washington studio.

Mal Johnson loved satellite links, and was very proud to have been involved in setting up an IntelSat satellite connection between the US and the UN's third World Conference on Women in Nairobi in 1995. (Later, she and I together toured the Worldspace satellite radio facility and also the XM satellite radio facility in Washington. And in 2005 we took the delegates from the International Association of Women in Radio & TV [IAWRT] conference on a tour of XM.)

The National Women's Agenda, referred to in the program's title, was (probably still is) an agenda agreed to annually among the various US women's organizations working in coalition - identifying, from the numerous goals in the National Women's Plan of Action, a few goals to be highlighted and worked on in the year ahead. I think the only gift Mal ever gave me (aside from her friendship and wisdom and conversation and sometimes a place to stay) was a copy of the National Women's Plan of Action, published by the US government shortly after the 1977 National Women's Conference. This was a very precious and rare treasure. Jimmy Carter, who was President in '77, was appalled by the very progressive and far-reaching conclusions in the plan, and so only a few copies were published and then the book largely disappeared. If you find a copy, and maybe in Mal's effects there will be several, don't throw it away! There was a partial version republished later, I think by WEDO (Bella Abzug's last NGO), to mark an anniversary of the conference. The Carter administration (much less the Reagan one and subsequent) refused to pony up any money for implementation of the National Women's Plan of Action, even though the Congress - thanks to Bella Abzug - had put up several million dollars to have the formal structure implemented: delegates elected at state conferences who then met in Houston and voted on the planks of the National Women's Plan of Action. It was the only formal mechanism ever put in place to determine the will of American women. Anyway, the National Women's Conference Committee went ahead and worked on implementation of the Plan every way they could given that there wasn't any money. In the end, they decided that the most cost effective way to work was at the state level. In 1992, there were committees in about 20 US states.

I'm writing this off the top of my memory - a real history needs to be written. Again, researchers, you have your work cut out for you! Mal was on the NWCC board, and as I recall in 1992 she was representing Federally Employed Women. Even though she wasn't federally employed herself, she had worked closely with women in government as she covered the federal government for Cox.

(Funny, I keep thinking that Mal will read this and that I'll call her up and she'll tell me what parts I got wrong!)

One of Mal's greatest frustrations was the inability to launch a media caucus of the National Council of Women's Organizations. She was always on the verge of doing it, but so far it never flew; she said she couldn't get it prioritized by the Council - from what I gather, they paid lip service, but they didn't put energy into mobilizing it. Mal would never usurp the President of any organization she worked with - she had a strong sense of appropriate protocol, which is probably one reason she was such a popular board member. That, and the fact that she worked like the dickens. She and I wrote a grant proposal a couple of years ago in response to a one-time Request for Proposals from the Women Donors' Network. If our plan had been funded, it would have provided $250,000 a year to put media at the top of the National Women's Agenda for four years, funding media events at the national level and local levels for the member organizations to work with the democratic media movement. What made it possible to even write NCWO into such a proposal was the fact that NCWO finally had an executive director, who could structurally make a decision to be part of a proposal without having to get separate approval from every group in the large coalition. We got some serious consideration from WDN for that proposal, but in the end the money went to a group that trains people to write and place op-eds for newspapers. Nevertheless, the fact that a substantial amount of money had been offered for a project related to women and media did raise the heads of the feminist leaders a bit to note this issue. Eventually, I believe media will reach the top level of priorities for the US women's movement. Mal would be pleased. In 2005, she arranged for IAWRT delegates to have a sit-down luncheon with NCWO member organization representatives, to discuss the value of media for women's organizations.

- Frieda Werden

Philadelphia Association of Black Journalist memorial

I've reprinted the text below, but you should go to the original website, which includes a slide show and other links http://pabj.blogspot.com/

PABJ is mourning, and remembering the proud spirit, ingenuity, and legacy of Mal Johnson, who passed away last month at the age of 85. Mal was one of the original founders of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, and like many of her group, later help to found the National Association of Black Journalists. Although Mal worked and lived in Washington D.C. during her later years, many of our members will have memories of her from our 2006 Banquet from our 2006 Banquet, where she received a PABJ Trailblazer Award.

PABJ President Monique Oliver shared her memories upon learning of her passing. "Mal was a wonderful person and a 2006 PABJ Trailblazer. She taught me a few things about broadcasting while I talked with her in preparation for the 2006 banquet. I am glad to have known her." Her feelings were shared by PABJ Parliamentarian Melanie Burney, "I'm so glad that we honored her when we did. I wish I had spent more time with her.". I'm sure many of PABJ's membership feels the same. As Monique and Melanie already have, please share your memories of Mal by leaving a personal message or memory about Mal in the comments section.

We'll share some of the best of these at November's meeting.

Mal spoke to the Clearinghouse on Women's Issues

Mal spoke to all sorts of gatherings, from a gala NABJ dinner where she was given an award by President Bill Clinton, to this brown bag lunch at the Clearinghouse on Women's Issues described at www.womensclearinghouse.org/public/papers/news06jan.pdf:


Clearinghouse on Women's Issues
P.O. Box 70603, Friendship Heights, MD 20813 Tel: 202 338-4820
Website: www.womensclearinghouse.org

JANUARY 2006
_________________________________________________________________________

Women in the Media: At Home and Abroad

Whether we rely on newspapers, magazines, television or radio, we are all dependent on the media to provide information and keep us in touch with the world from domestic politics, science, health or fashion to international issues. The roles of reporters, editors and management in the media are of great importance in shaping what is covered and how it is transmitted to us and to governments around the globe. We need to be aware of the position of women and how they are faring in their careers in various fields of the media. Our speakers reflect widely diverse backgrounds and varied careers in journalism:

Bonnie Erbe is well known as founder, producer, and moderator of To the Contrary on public television and radio, a very popular weekend program discussing women's issues as viewed by an always lively panel of liberal and conservative women. She also writes a weekly column in 400 papers, has a law degree, and has covered major economic and political issues in the press.

Mal Johnson was the first African American female journalist employed by Cox Broadcasting and covered five US. Presidents for them over 27 years. She was the founder of the National Association of Black Journalists and has been a leader in many feminist organizations. She attended all the U.N. Conferences on Women and recently organized a conference for 58 women journalists from around the world.

SPEAKERS:BONNIE ERBE, Host, To the Contrary

MAL JOHNSON, Int’l Association of Women in Radio and Television

TOPIC:Women in the Media: At Home and Abroad
DATE/TIME:Tuesday, January 24, 2006 / 12 noon – 1:30 p.m.
PLACE: American Council on Education One Dupont Circle, 8thFloor, Kellogg Room
Bring brown bag lunch...

Unity Journalists pick up NABJ obituary

http://www.unityjournalists.org/newsletter/unews110607.php

The Unity Journalists website repeats the article found early in this blog from the National Association of Black Journalists. Unity is a broader-based conference of minority journalists' organizations that meet together periodically, including the NABJ. Mal was very proud of this coalition-building of the NABJ.

The main website for Unity Journalists of Color is http://www.unityjournalists.org/

You can read there about their next conference coming up in Chicago in July 2008.

UNITY: Journalists of Color Inc., a strategic alliance representing more than 10,000 journalists of color, today selected Chicago as the tentative host city for its fourth joint conference in 2008...

The partner groups are the Asian American Journalists Association, the
National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association
of Hispanic Journalists, and the Native American Journalists Association.

Women's Lens notes Mal's passing

A repeat of the Feminist Majority obituary appears on the web blog:
WOMEN'S LENS
A modern American Sephardic Jewess examines her world

The posting is by Aimee Kligman, née Dassa

Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press tribute

Mal was very very fond of Dr. Martha Allen, daughter of Mal's great friend and fellow feminist journalist, Dr. Donna Allen. Martha continues Donna's work with the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press, of which Mal remained an associate until her death. Mal made a decision to give her papers to the Women Journalists collection at the University of Missouri, because they had a collection of Donna Allen's papers there. -FW


The original of the following can be found at:
http://www.wifp.org/associatesonlinenews.html#mj

Mal Johnson

We at WIFP are sad that Mal Johnson is no longer with us but I can't help remember how she used to speak of all the great women who went on to "feminist heaven." Well that certainly would be where Mal is right now.

Celebrate the Life of Mal Johnson: A Tribute and Memorial to Her Life and Accomplishments

Friday, November 30, 2007, 3 p.m.

National Press Club
First Amendment Lounge
13th Floor
529 14th Street NW
Washington, D.C.

Mal Johnson began her career as a television reporter at the former WKBS-TV in Philadelphia. The first female reporter hired by Cox Radio and Television News, she moved to Washington and traveled the world over the course of her 27 years with the company.

As Cox’s White House correspondent, Mal covered five presidents, Capitol Hill, the State Department and various federal agencies. Upon her retirement, Mal established a consulting firm, Medialinx International.

Mal dedicated her time to women's rights, and freedom of expression in the United States and around the world. She served on many boards, including all of the host organizations. She was a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Host Organizations:
National Council of Women’s Organizations
Communications Consortium Media Center
U.S. Committee for UNIFEM
International Association of Women in Radio and Television

Please R.S.V.P. to Donna Morris at (202) 715-0387 or dmorris@ccmc.org.

__________

The following is a release from the National Council of Women's Organizations where Mal was very in recent years. They have set up a "Sistership Program" in her honor.

NCWO Mourns the Loss of Pioneering Journalist and Feminist Leader Mal Johnson

October 30, 2007, Washington, DC – The National Council of Women’s Organizations is deeply saddened by the passing of Mal Johnson on Sunday, October 28. Ms. Johnson served on NCWO’s Executive Committee and chaired its Global Issues Task Force, where she was an exceptionally effective liaison for women’s rights to embassies from around the world. Ms. Johnson also edited NCWO’s recent publication, 50 Ways to Improve Women’s Lives: The Essential Women’s Guide to Achieving Equality, Health and Success.

Mal Johnson began her career as a television reporter at the former WKBS in Philadelphia. The first female reporter hired by Cox Radio and Television News, she moved to Washington and traveled the world over the course of her 27 years there. As Cox’s White House correspondent, Ms. Johnson covered five presidents as well as Capitol Hill, the State Department, and various Federal agencies. In 1980, she was promoted to Senior Washington Correspondent and assigned additional duties as National Director of Community Affairs.

In addition to her leadership role at the National Council, Ms. Johnson served on many boards, including the International Association of Women in Radio & Television and the Communications Consortium Media Center. She was a founding member of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists, and the National Broadcast Association for Community Affairs. She is the former National Chair of the American Women in Radio and Television Foundation. Inducted into the Journalists Hall of Fame in 2000, a television documentary of her life is in the archives of the History Makers of America. Upon her retirement, Ms. Johnson established a consulting firm, Medialinx International, and pursued a career as a volunteer leader for women’s rights, especially for women of color and international women.

NCWO Chair Susan Scanlan noted that, “The National Council of Women’s Organizations—and the world—has lost an important piece of our history. Even as an octogenarian and challenged by illness, Mal never retired from the fight for feminism and fairness. She was a dignified and forceful leader who inspired so many young women, especially women of color. For that reason, we are pleased to announce the creation of the Mal Johnson Sistership Program to provide a paid fellowship, or “sistership,” for young women of color at NCWO. How proud and delighted Mal would be to hand a deserving young woman the opportunity to participate in public policymaking at its source!”

Thanks go to Ms. Johnson’s many friends, especially Tesa Leon, for suggesting this leadership development initiative in her honor. More information on NCWO’s Mal Johnson Sistership Program will be provided at an upcoming press conference and memorial ceremony to be announced soon.
####

The National Council of Women's Organizations (NCWO) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit coalition of more than 230 women's organizations across the nation collectively representing over eleven million women. Since 1983, NCWO has convened the leadership of major women's organizations dedicated to focusing on national and international issues and public policy agendas affecting women and girls.

Mike McQueen remembers Mal's toughness from NABJ

This is from the Diversity Blog: http://www.spj.org/blog/blogs/diversity/archive/2007/11/03/9353.aspx

Dedicated to Mal Johnson, NABJ founder

I was a 25-year-old reporter for The Associated Press when I first heard about the National Association of Black Journalists. I was based in Tallahassee, Florida, as the state's chief political writer and correspondent for the AP, so I got invited to a number of journalism-related social events. One of them was a dinner with Bob McGruder, the late executive editor of The Detroit Free Press. He had just finished a speaking engagement at Florida A&M University's journalism school.

"Are you going to the convention," Bob asked me as I took a seat across from him in an Italian restaurant.

"Convention?"

"The NABJ convention. Don't tell me you're not a member."

"Never heard of it," I said.

"Well, now you have," Bob replied.

So my wife, who was in graduate school studying mass communication at the time, and I drove to New Orleans, site of the 1984 convention. I had never been to New Orleans -- yes, I was too "square" to go to Madri Gras when I was in college -- and was looking forward to the city's magic. It was one of the country's "Chocolate Cities," with a majority-black population, a black mayor, a powerful black political class, two black colleges and a large black middle class.

I pulled up to the front of the hotel. A short man, also black, looked at me with disdain as I got out of the car and handed him the keys.

"What the hell you want me to do with these," he said, handing the keys back to me.

He had on a shirt that indicated he worked for the hotel. And he was standing by a sign that said "Valet parking."

"Aren't you the valet?"

"You don't have money for a tip. Park across the street in the lot."

Whoa! That was pretty rude. Glenda, my wife, calmed me down and said let's just park the car and don't cuss that man out, Mike. I parked, walked into the hotel and found the NABJ registration desk. I was excited about going to my first convention. I was still pretty green as a journalist, even though I had been promoted often and early, and the only famous black journalist I knew up to that point had been Reg Stuart, then the Southern correspondent for The New York Times.

Another of those famous journalists was in front of me at the registration desk. I knew that Mal Johnson was a pioneering reporter in Washington, D.C. I didn't know at that moment that she was among the founders; heck, I barely knew the current officers (I didn't know at that moment that Mal was treasurer) let alone the founders.

I had mailed the registration fees for me and Glenda to the required address about two weeks earlier.

"McQueen," I announced. "Michael and Glenda McQueen."

Mal didn't bother to search the file. "Why are you telling me your name?" she asked.

"I thought you needed that to look up my registration material," I said.

"No need to. You're not registered. I know everyone who is and you're not. Now, when you're tired of playing games with me and want to pay your rightful money for you and your lady friend.."

"That's my wife!" I interrupted.

"..your little friend there, let me know. Otherwise, move aside while I handle the paying customers."

Then she turned her attention to someone else. I was fuming. I knew that I had sent the materials in. I walked toward a pay phone, although I had no idea who I could call, and then I came back to the registration desk.

"Look. I'm registered," I said, slowly. "Look through your list for my name."

"No," Mal said.

"No?"

"Yes, no. I know your name. It was on your check. The check bounced. As if you didn't know that. So we don't have any money from you. Now, I was trying not to call you out in front of all these people."

Mal said I would have to pay on the spot. I thought she was rude as hell and, combined with the reception I had received from the valet, I began to think that maybe I didn't belong in NABJ.

I found out that Mal Johnson was rough on everyone. She held NABJ together during his formative years by dealing sternly with threats to its revenue base. My returned check represented a threat to NABJ's revenue base. So as far as Mal was concerned, I was the enemy.

Mal was treasurer for eight years. Sadly, my first year with NABJ was Mal's last as treasurer. Members, perhaps a little fed-up with Mal's heavy-handed style, elected Tom Morgan of The New York Times for that position. Tom, an eloquent speaker with movie-star looks, promised member customer service and transparency. Mal promised to ward off all threats to NABJ's revenue base and reminded members -- many of whom were like me, young with no ties to the Old Guard -- that if it were not for her, there would not be an NABJ. The scoundrels that you people elected to office -- she said, no doubt shaking her head from side-to-side -- would have long since led this organization into bankruptcy.

Again, I had no attachment to the Old Guard. Tom was closer to our age and he represented the future. Mal slowly tapered off her activities with NABJ and by the time I joined the NABJ board of directors three years later as director for the Southeast, I had stopped seeing Mal. Maybe she was at the conventions, but I was too busy fronting as a big-shot to notice.

As many of you know, Mal died last week in Fairfax County, Virginia. She was suffering from diabetes. She was 85.

There are a lot of NABJ members who have far more star appeal than Mal. She was a worker, a field hand, if you will permit me to use that term in the context of a fellow African-American. She made the operation work. She knew that she would be unpopular, that some might even hate her. But she knew she had a larger obligation to ensure the future of the enterprise and to make sure young black journalists -- so many of whom, like me in 1984, needed to wrap ourselves in the warmth and love of fellow black journalists so that we could endure the travails of working in nearly all-white newsrooms -- had a place each year to call home, to say that hundreds, and now thousands, of fellow black journalists were "family."

Yes, I had a rude introduction to NABJ. But that lasted only an hour or so. Since then, I and thousands of other black journalists, have received so many blessings from NABJ. I personally received two job offers at conventions, following through on one. Many of us will never be able to repay our debt to the organization. I can go into any large city in this country, pick up the phone and call a fellow NABJ member. They won't make excuses about being too busy for a meal or a drink or just a quick visit to their office. We're family. NABJ family.

This is what Mal helped protect. And it is the legacy of Mal Johnson -- putting NABJ before self -- that continues to fuel the organization.

Rest in peace, Sister Mal.

Published Saturday, November 03, 2007 6:31 PM by MikeMcQueen

Feminist Majority on Mal Johnson

This was published on a very neat website called the Feminist Daily News Wire. Feminist Majority is the same outfit that now publishes Ms. Magazine. http://feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=10640

Feminist Daily News Wire
November 1, 2007
Pioneer Feminist Journalist Dies; Paid Sistership in Her Honor

Mal Johnson, who was the first woman reporter hired by Cox Radio and Television New, died over the past weekend. As Cox’s White House correspondent, Johnson covered five presidents, as well as Capitol Hill, the State Department, and various federal agencies. The National Council of Women’s Organizations (NCWO) announced that creation of the Mal Johnson Sisterhood Program, to provide a paid fellowship, or sister-ship, for young women of color at NCWO.

"I served with Mal Johnson on many a project, panel, and board. I never knew her age – only knew I could count on her to fight for women, people of color, and justice. She knew media and Washington inside out, and helped countless people," said Ellie Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Johnson was a champion of women’s rights and civil rights. She served in the executive committee of the National Council of Women’s Organizations, the International Association of Women in Radio and Television and the Communications Consortium Media Center. She was a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists and former national chair of the American Women in Radio and Television Foundation.

Media Resources: Feminist Majority Foundation

Mal Johnson honored as a Foremother

Here's a link to a pdf page - so I can't copy it into this blog. http://www.center4research.org/pdf/nwsltr10-fall06.pdf
It describes the honorees at the 2006 Foremothers luncheon. I remember Mal was very proud of this honor and mentioned it often in the last year. She's shown in a black and white group photo, and the details are a bit different than some of the other writeups. It mentions that she was friends with Barbara Walters, and that besides the White House she covered the State Department and other other federal agencies. She worked for Cox for 27 years starting in 1969 and was promoted to Senior Washington Correspondent in 1980. [She told me that she did both television and radio broadcasting, and also that she was very happy with the retirement benefits she got from Cox. I think she told me they let her take her desk and computer with her when she left. The pension she had, and the veterans' health benefits from her Air Force officer husband allowed her a tremendous independence to be the constant activist that she was in her retirement years. - FW]

About her earlier career, this article mentions that Mal taught in the Philadelphia school system, and also in England, Germany and Guam while traveling with her husband who served in the US Air Force. It says she returned to Philadelphia after her husband's death to work in the civil rights movement, and mentions something she used to reminisce about - that in her first TV job, at WKBS-TV in Philadelphia, she was the "Cash for Trash Girl," and then the first woman to host "Dialing for Dollars." She was inducted in the Journalists Hall of Fame, it says, in 2000.

The others who were honored are: Marguerite Cooper, Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, The Honorable Pat Schroeder, and Diana Zuckerman.

Mal always used to tell me that having a dinner to honour well known people was an excellent way for an organization to raise money!

Mal Johnson's Committee Work: Women and Social Security

This website contains a 1998 report Women and Social Security: Statement and Checklist produced by the National Council of Women's Organizations. Reprinted with permission from the Institute for Women's Policy Research. Mal Johnson is among those credited on the Women and Social Security Taskforce of NCWO. The checklist for evaluating the worthiness of any proposed changes to the Social Security system from women's perspective is still as good as ever - worth looking at again.

http://www.njfac.org/us22.htm

A few lines about Mal from a colleague

This was on a web page all by itself, found through Google. It seems to be a reply to the NABJ obituary.

The adjectives describing Mal Johnson in your piece about her death made me smile. (tart-tongued, curmudgeon) I had the pleasure of working with Mal for 2 days as chaperones/mentors on a youth Journalism program in 1993, about 3 years after she retired from Cox. She told me some good stories of her scrapes with Richard Nixon. In 2 days of chats, she never even mentioned her work with NABJ--I had no idea. She truly was humble. I distinctly remember how she described her exit from Cox as White House correspondent. She said they told her they were moving in a different direction, and she leaned over to me and said, "the truth is, I think they didn't want any old ladies on the air any more!"

http://www.maynardije.org/news/discuss/prince_columns/00001173/printable/

Feminist Law Professors remember Mal

There's an obituary on the website http://feministlawprofs.law.sc.edu/?cat=33

They post it in a section called "Archive for the 'Firsts' Category." I don't reprint it here because I think it is copied from the NABJ site, but it's interesting to see how widely she was known and appreciated.

"Mal Johnson, Boss and Friend"

Now, this is a wonderful memoir about Mal on a blog written by her former assistant. I'll just excerpt a part of it - go read the rest of it - the link is here: http://dailysally.blogspot.com/2007/11/mal-johnson-boss-and-friend.html

I worked as Mal's assistant at WKBS TV in Philly while still an Annenberg student. It was such a small station, we did everything. Reporting, directing, research, commercials, voice-overs, writing, editing.

Mal was my teacher, my mentor, my role model. I was a young white girl but I never thought of Mal as a "black woman." She made no distinctions, fit no stereotype, drew no lines. She simply set high standards and expected us both to meet them. Together.

Mal Johnson was the kind of consummate professional who's a force of nature. A leader and a trailblazer. But here's the thing: I knew her when that part of her life was just beginning.

Washington Post Obituary for Mal

I was saddened to see this fairly grudging little obituary from Friday November 9, 2007, in the Washington Post - and the same one linked to the TV Newsday site. Nothing at all about all the Presidents she covered as a White House Correspondent, which I'd have thought would interest them. And are they still requiring the term "Mrs." in women's obituaries? I'm sure she would have preferred Ms.! - FW

Mal JohnsonCox Employee, Society Founder

Mal Johnson, 84, who spent 20 years working for Cox Broadcasting in Washington and was a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists, died Oct. 27 at Inova Fairfax Hospital. She had diabetes.

Mrs. Johnson retired from Cox in 1990, having covered the White House, Capitol Hill and other parts of the federal government. She anchored and produced a public affairs show for Cox in the late 1970s and afterward became the broadcasting company's national director of community affairs.

After retiring from Cox, she created a media consulting firm, Medialinx International.

Malvyn Hooser was born in West Virginia and raised in Philadelphia. She married an Air Force officer, Frank B. Johnson, and taught school while accompanying him on assignments to Europe and the Pacific.

After his death about 1960, she returned to Philadelphia and worked for a civil rights group. She also did public affairs work and news anchoring for a television station in Philadelphia before joining Cox.

She once said she was hired at Cox after impressing the company's chief executive with a speech to a group of female broadcasters. She had criticized their refusal of a federal loan to train minority women for broadcast jobs.

Mrs. Johnson helped form the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists and was among the 44 founding members of the NABJ, organized in 1975. She served as treasurer of the national organization for eight years.

Wayne Dawkins wrote in his 1997 history of the group that Mrs. Johnson was "a curmudgeon who guarded NABJ's meager funds like a hen, often to the point of insulting members who became upset if their registration payment was misplaced or membership was not recorded."

Mrs. Johnson, an Alexandria resident, was a former national chairwoman of the American Women in Radio and Television Foundation and was a board member of the National Council of Women's Organizations, the Communications Consortium Media Center and the United Nations Development Fund for Women. She was inducted in the NABJ Journalists Hall of Fame in 1990.

Survivors include a sister.


-- Adam Bernstein

Mal and the US Committee for UNIFEM

Thank you so much for sending all the information about that wonderful Mal Johnson. Something not mentioned in the obituaries is how she worked as a team with Pat Huter and Virginia Allan to start the United States Committee for UNIFEM. She was, without doubt, the first American to make known the work of UNIFEM, the UN fund for women in low-income countries that was established after the first World Conference on Women, at Mexico City in 1975. It was called the Voluntary Fund for the UN Decade for Women at the time. She was always there planning, and writing up events. She put UNIFEM on the map, and helped to educate Congresspersons about its work, so that the US would be more generous with its official contribution. Then, when we ran into political obstacles, she was there to educate some more.

I join in the elebration of her life, even though I cannot attend the Memorial Service.

Warm regards, and peace to all

Peg Snyder
Founding Director, UNIFEM

Obituary on International Association of Women in Radio and TV site

Here is a link to an article remembering Mal and a photograph on the IAWRT website. Mal was a great favourite in this organisation, and did a great deal of work as a board member and UN Representative to put it on its current track. http://www.iawrt.org/Archives/2007/2007_MalJohnson_obit.htm

If anyone would like to make a donation to IAWRT as a remembrance of Mal, you can reach the organisation through its website. IAWRT gives scholarships, travel fellowships for meetings, and production grants, and the nascent US chapter will be seeking support for its nonprofit incorporation in the US - a project Mal was working on until just before she died. She strongly believed that IAWRT needed to broaden its funding base, and that having a chapter that could seek donations in the US was the next order of business. IAWRT US members, please take note and live up to her challengs.

Yours, (past President) Frieda Werden

November 30 Memorial Service at National Press Club

A memorial service for Mal Johnson will be held at the National Press Club in Washington DC, on November 30, 2007, 3 to 5 pm. It's being coordinated by Kim Otis, executive director of the National Council of Women's Organizations, www.womensorganizations.org . Please contact NCWO if you are from an organization that Mal supported and would like to co-sponsor the event or recommend a speaker. The event will be videotaped.

Hi Mal

We missed you in Nairobi,
Your spirit was with us in Nairobi as we wrote to you fondly of our times with you - we recalled your stories of Nairobi and your desire to meet Wangari. I can hear you sing your song seeking justice for women being a leader and reporting the high and mighty. Believe me, the IAWRT roots will not break as you have nurtured them with your strength and vision. Sing Mal as your resting place is in the hearts of the IAWRTIANS!
Jai Chandiram
IAWRT India
(Past President, International Association of Women in Radio & Television)

How Mal became a feminist (by Johanna from Finland)

Mal Johnson was one of the most courageous people I have ever met. She was – and continues to be – incredible inspiration to me.

She told me a story from the time she became a widow. After her husband died, she found herself stranded as she could not drive. “That’s when I became a feminist,” she said. She decided to teach herself. She would take the car out at 3 a.m. when the streets were empty to practice driving all by herself. When she went to take her driving test, the inspector asked where her driver was – you were not allowed to drive yourself. Mal said, “Oh, he is just there behind the corner.”

She would never be stopped by anything. Until now.


Mal was awarded with a 2006 Foremother Award, please see

http://www.center4research.org/foremothers2006.html

She kindly invited me. Her acceptance speech was incredible - I am still thinking if it would be proper to post it (as I can remember it) but she probably would not mind. It was about how she started her Washington career, covering the Hill....




My special thanks to Ingrid for introducing us.



Johanna

A friend from Finland

Mal Johnson - In Memoriam (by Gundel Krauss Dahl, past President of IAWRT)

The International Association of Women in Radio and Television has lost a pillar of strength with the passing of Mal Johnson and it will be hard, if not impossible, ever to replace her.

Mal became a member in 1979. With her strong personality, her commitment and experience, she put her mark on the organisation from the outset. She urged us strongly to link up with other international organisations and she soon became IAWRT’s official representative with the UN. Throughout the years, the authority and respect she enjoyed opened doors for IAWRT. In the early days, she established contact with the American Association for Women in Radio and TV. In 1994 she brought Helvi Sipilä, one of the founders of UNIFEM, to speak to the conference in the Philippines, and more recently, in 2003, Mal’s name gave immediate access to Noeleen Heyzer’s office in the UN and brought the then head of UNIFEM as guest of honour to the conference in Ghana.

“I am a do-gooder,” said Mal, “and as such I want people to be organised into effective disciplines.” She truly believed in the value of organisations and the need to build international networks of sisterhood.

And she certainly did deliver. She helped revise the statutes of IAWRT and she set up a Policies and Procedures document. She formulated the rules and framework for the establishment of national and regional chapters, which strengthened the structure of the organisation and made it more decentralised and democratic. To the last, she never spared herself. Who else, at her age, would have stepped in at short notice and taken over total responsibility including the practical arrangements of a big international conference, when the original venue fell through - as she did in Williamsburg in 2005?

On a personal note, Mal was such a great friend! And so much fun. Generous, warm and appreciative when approached, but never self-effacing or overly humble. She knew her worth and expected to be respected for it. I remember when were having a board meeting in London and were booked into a central hotel that Mal arrived a day later and was told there was no room for her. She looked at the hotel clerk, informed him that a room had been booked and that she would have no nonsense about it. Her inborn authority, energy and will spoke volumes through her body language. The clerk didn’t stand a chance and a room was conjured up for her in no time. Why do I particularly remember this rather banal incident? In many ways it was so characteristic of Mal and her inherent strength and sense of plain right and wrong.

In her life and work she used all that strength, knowledge and talent to fight for the things she so passionately believed in. To use her own words again:
“I am in the ‘change the world’ business. I want everyone to enjoy the life of their choice, and freedom to be that which they choose. So therefore it is natural that I should join causes that promise freedom and equality. If you ask me what I have done, my answer is ‘not enough’. Each generation makes the path a little easier for those who follow.”

Mal has paved a way for us to follow. She has left us a legacy which we should be proud to honour.

In fond memory,
Gundel Krauss Dahl
Oslo, Norway

Mal's last words

The following is from from the Message Board on the National Association of Black Journalists' site. I'm copying it in full, because it is embedded in a page that has quite a few different obituaries, and you don't want to miss her last words, at the end:

Mal Johnson Dies, Key Figure in NABJ's Early Years
Mal Johnson, a key figure in the birth of the National Association of Black Journalists and the first female reporter at Cox Radio and Television News, died on Saturday at a hospital in Fairfax County, Va., after suffering from diabetes, her sister, Norma Simpson, said. Simpson said she was 85.


Mal Johnson
"There is a large question of whether there would even be an NABJ were it not for Mal," her good friend and co-founder of the 32-year-old association, Paul Brock, told Journal-isms on Tuesday.

People— including the organization's presidents— had all kinds of ways they wanted to spend NABJ's money, Brock recalled, but "Mal wouldn't give it up," he said, speaking of NABJ's meager treasury, then so small its contents could be carried around by hand. "Everybody hated her."

Johnson was treasurer of the association for eight years, "a curmudgeon who guarded NABJ's meager funds like a hen, often to the point of insulting members who became upset if their registration payment was misplaced or membership was not recorded," Wayne Dawkins wrote in his 1997 book, "Black Journalists" The NABJ Story."

"Sarah-Ann Shaw called Mal 'tart-tongued,' but for good reasons," Dawkins wrote.

"'As treasurer she felt personally responsible,' explained Shaw. 'She wouldn't let anyone handle the money. She felt her integrity was at stake.'

"Mal Johnson made no apologies. She said that 'everyone in the organization was on an ego trip.

"'None of them wanted to participate as leaders and do the work.

"'I had most of the burden of the organization.

"'I didn't care about being appreciated. I did care about their dedication. Some of them only wanted to chase the girls.'"

A short biography for the National Council of Women's Organizations, where Johnson was chair of the Global Women's Task Force, reads:

"Ms. Johnson is a founding member of Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, and was a television reporter at the former WKBS in Philadelphia. Ms. Johnson became the first female reporter employed at Cox Radio and Television News, where she worked for 27 years. As their first female White House correspondent, Ms. Johnson covered five presidents, as well as Capitol Hill, the State Department, and various Federal agencies. In 1980, Ms. Johnson was promoted to Senior Washington Correspondent and assigned additional duties as National Director of Community Affairs. Ms. Johnson consults and serves on many boards, including the International Association of Women in Radio & Television, and is a world traveler. She is a Founder of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Broadcast Association for Community Affairs. She was inducted in the Journalists Hall of Fame in 2000. A TV documentary of her life is in the Archives of the History Makers of America."

The former Mal Hooser told Dawkins she entered journalism after teaching and living with her husband, Frank B. Johnson, a career Air Force officer, overseas. After he died, "I was running the civil rights movement for the North City Congress (Broad Street and Columbia Avenue in North Philadelphia), an umbrella organization for 450 nonprofit organizations.

"In 1965 I got a call from Channel 48 . . .

"'I didn't know the station. They wanted someone to run the public/community affairs department.

"'The person who interviewed me (John Gilmore) didn't realize I was a black person until I got there. You could see he was startled. But I wasn't going to let him off the hook. The person who called me was his boss.

"'After about an hour he said he'd get back to me. I wasn't home 30 minutes before my phone was ringing and Gilmore was begging me to take the job. he said his job was at stake. We later became friends.

". . . Johnson worked at [WKBS-TV] until March 1969.

"At that time I was giving a speech to women broadcasters in Houston. I was giving them a hard time because they turned down a $150,000 grant from HEW (U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare) to train minority women for broadcasting jobs.

"'Their reason was, if we train them, they'll take our jobs.

"'The president and CEO of Cox Broadcasting, J. Leonard Reinsch, was the next speaker. I didn't know.

"'In order to shut me up, the group named me to the board of American Women in Television and Broadcasting.

"'At the next meeting, Reinsch was the only male there. He hired me.

"'He became my guiding mentor. I went to Cox as a Capitol Hill correspondent.

"'A few months later, I became White House correspondent. I worked for 21 years (1969-90) in radio and television, broadcasting to 22 stations."

"'Reinsch was the man who brought us the (FDR) fireside chats. He taught Eleanor Roosevelt how to speak (on the air) and taught Truman to speak.' Reinsch died in 1991."

Simpson said her sister wanted a private funeral with only family members, and she is honoring her wishes. The service is planned for Philadelphia next week.

Brock quoted Johnson's last words, spoken to Simpson, of Philadelphia, who survives along with Simpson's four sons:

"If anyone cries or starts to feel sorry for me, I'll come back and kick their ass."

"Salut Mal" (Tribute from Madeleine Memb)

Salut Mal,
Devrais-je regretter ton départ au moment ou tu quittes ce monde. Sincèrement non ! Tellement tu représentais une figure et un esprit dont la mission principale semblait être : ¨favoriser l’épanouissement de ses semblables.

Ton œuvre en témoigne !
A ton contact de nombreuses personnes ont appris à croire en elles, et surtout à croire en les autres.
Ton engagement à éclairer et offrir à tous ceux qui le plus souvent ont douté de leurs capacités marquera à tout jamais les esprits de ceux et celles qui t’ont côtoyée, mais aussi les générations futures qui en apprendront sur ton dynamisme, ton altruisme et surtout sur ton degré de militantisme en faveur de la cause de la femme.
Je me poserai d’ailleurs la question de savoir si tu avais une autre vie en dehors de l’organisation du combat pour l’amélioration du statut de la femme ! Même la maladie n’a pas réussi à freiner ton élan ou émousser ton enthousiasme à ce sujet. J’en veux pour preuve ton dernier mail

De: "mal johnson"
À: membmadeleine@yahoo.fr
Objet: greeetings!
Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2007 10:04:35 -0400
I hope all is well with you. I am having some problems with surgery on my foot, caused by diabetes. I hope I will be able to attend the UN events in September where each year I have arranged an event for any attending IAWRT members. I do not have plans to attend the Kenya meeting at this time; but when it gets closer I may consider it.

Mal, tu resteras un modèle. Tu as tellement inspiré aussi bien les femmes que les journalistes du monde entier, de toutes les races qu’au moment où tu nous quittes, la première des choses que j’aimerais te dire est MERCI !

Que la terre de nos ancêtres te soit légère.
Toute mon affection t’accompagne
Madeleine Memb,
Cameroon

Sites honouring Mal Johnson

Here is a link to the tribute to Mal on the (US) National Council of Women's Organizations website. Mal served on their board until she died, and the NCWO is organizing a fellowship to which members can donate in Mal's name.
The photo on this site shows Mal in her natural grey hair, not her famous black helmet of a wig. I don't think she would have liked this picture while she was alive, but I like that it serves to remind us that she was an elder of ours.




Here is a link to the National Association of Black Journalists tribute to Mal Johnson. Mal was a founder of that organization and was honoured by them many times while she was still alive. The photo of Mal on this site has her sitting on that white couch in her livingroom. This site also has a link to a slideshow about the NABJ founders, including Mal. And there's an item about Mal and the NABJ on the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists website. Also, you can find online the part of the book about the founding of the NABJ that covers Mal's role. It's at: http://books.google.com/books?id=I21yBNr9eQoC&pg=PA15&lpg=PA15&dq=mal+johnson&source=web&ots=Yy8Vh4hVon&sig=Iq1Axfge9n4TC69nPNfseDgzSZc#PPA14,M1. This is quite an exciting story, and very typical of Mal's readiness to use her position, her contacts, her instincts and understanding, and her own personal time and energy to move for the advancement of those she championed, not only the black journalists, but women journalists, feminist women, military widows, friends, relatives, and people from many walks of life. She was incredibly generous.


In 2005, Mal Johnson was interviewed on video by a group called The History Makers. Here is a link to a brief biography and good recent photo on that site. Mal was wearing a lavalier mic for the video interview.

Purpose of Mal Johnson Memorial blog

A blog is a website where the newest addition is always on the top. The purpose of this blog is for those of us who so loved and admired Mal Johnson to add and share our memories and pictures. It can also be used to pass on information such as dates of memorial services, how to donate to a memorial scholarship fund, etc. Everything posted on this site will be visible to the general public through the world wide web.