Northwestern Medill Black History Month: “The Race Beat: Covering Race and Social Justice Today”

Medill Black History Month panel discussion led by Dean Charles Whitaker.

Panelists include:
John Eligon (BSJ04)
John Eligon is a national correspondent for The New York Times covering race, based in Kansas City, Mo. His work documents the nuances of America’s struggle with race issues, from the protest movement over police violence to the changing face of the nation’s cities and suburbs. He graduated from Medill in 2004.

Will Jones (BSJ06)
Will Jones joined the ABC 7 Chicago Eyewitness News team as a general assignment reporter in January 2016. He was promoted to the race and culture beat last month. In this role he works with a team of reporters and executive producers at all of the ABC-owned television stations to develop stories for multiple platforms with a focus on race, culture and social justice. Jones serves as a board member for the National Association of Black Journalists-Chicago Chapter where he heads the scholarship program. This year the organization is awarding more than $10,000 in scholarships to deserving college students interested in pursuing a career in journalism.

Natalie Moore (MSJ99)
Natalie Moore is an author and reporter for WBEZ Radio in Chicago covering segregation and inequality. Her enterprise reporting has tackled race, housing, economic development, food injustice and violence. Moore’s work has been broadcast on the BBC, Marketplace and NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition. She is the author of The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation, winner of the 2016 Chicago Review of Books award for nonfiction and a Buzzfeed best nonfiction book of 2016, and co-author of The Almighty Black P Stone Nation: The Rise, Fall and Resurgence of an American Gang.

Robert Samuels (BSJ06)
Robert Samuels is a national political enterprise reporter for The Washington Post and travels the country to chronicle how policies, political figures and prominent issues in Washington affect the lives of everyday Americans. Samuels was a finalist for the 2019 Toner Prize for National Political Reporting, the nation’s premier political reporting award, for a series of profiles about presidential candidates and the Black experience and spent 2020 examining the role of race in health, politics and community. Samuels, who grew up in the Bronx, remains the only Northwestern student to have served as editor-in-chief both at The Daily Northwestern and at BlackBoard Magazine.