Michael Davis Lecture set for Feb. 21 at Southeast

Pearl Stewart, the first black woman to become editor of a major daily newspaper, will lecture at Southeast Missouri State University on Feb. 21.

Stewart, an adjunct professor at the University of Southern Mississippi, will present the Michael Davis Lecture.

The Common Hour lecture is scheduled for noon in Dempster Hall's Glenn Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

The Michael Davis Lecture recognizes the contributions of blacks in the media. It also honors the late Michael Davis, a mass communications student at Southeast who died as a result of a fraternity hazing incident Feb. 15, 1994.

Stewart was editor of the Oakland, Calif., Tribute in 1992 and 1993. She previously worked at the Tribune as a reporter and features editor.

She was a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle for 12 years. She worked in the newspaper's Oakland bureau covering local government, neighborhoods and education. She has been a freelance writer for various publications.

In 2002 while teaching journalism at Florida A&M University, she founded Black College Wire, an online news service and training program.

She also has taught at Dillard and Xavier universities in New Orleans, Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

She previously served as a resident fellow at Harvard University's Shorenstein Center for Press Politics and Public Policy. Her research paper, "Women of Color as Media Executives," was published in 1997 in the book "Politics and the Press."

She also conducted a two-week seminar in investigative reporting for journalists in Lusaka, Zambia.

The Michael Davis Lecture, sponsored by Southeast's communication department, is part of the school's Black History Month activities.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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