Karen Lynn Parker (born September 22, 1944) is an American journalist. [1] She is the first Black woman to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as an undergraduate student. [2]
Parker was born in Salisbury, North Carolina and grew up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. [3] Her parents were Clarice Lucille (née Holt) and Fred Douglas Parker. [4] [5] Her father had a master's degree from Columbia University and taught chemistry at West Forsyth High School and Atkins High School. [6] [1] Her mother had a master's degree from the University of Michigan and taught French and English at Atkins High School, Paisley High School, and William Penn High School. [4]
Parker graduated from Atkins High School in Winston-Salem in 1961, which had an all-Black student population. [7] [8] She attended the North Carolina Women's College in Greensboro (now University of North Carolina at Greensboro). [9] [5] She decided to attend the college because she and her parents believed integration was important; she was one of five Black students at the Women's College. [8]
During her freshman year, she filled in for Winston-Salem Journal newspaper's Black reporter, Luix Overbea, for two weeks, writing about the Black community for the Sunday newspaper. [10] In the summer of 1963, Parker was an intern with the Winston-Salem Journal and Sentinel Communique newspaper. [11] [12] Overbea encouraged Parker to apply to the School of Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). [10] [8]
In the fall of 1963, she transferred to the School of Journalism at UNC. [13] [5] She was the first Black woman undergraduate to attend UNC. [14] [15] As a student there, she participated in Civil Rights sit-ins and marches and was involved with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). [9] [3] She was arrested twice and spent a night in the Orange County Jail for her role in a sit in protest. [3] [10]
While at UNC, she was the vice-president of the UNC Press Club, participated in the exchange program with the University of Toronto, and made the Dean's List. [16] [9] [10] Her senior year, she was the editor of the UNC Journalist, the School of Journalism's experimental newspaper; this position was one of the school's top honors. [12] [11] Editors were selected based on experience in journalism, scholarship, and character. [5] [12] She also received a merit scholarship from the School of Journalism for her senior year. [17] [18] She was also admitted to the women's honor society, the Order of the Valkyries. [10]
She graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1965, becoming the first Black woman to earn an undergraduate degree from UNC. [19] [9]
After graduating from UNC, she was a copy editor for The Grand Rapids Press in Grand Rapids, Michigan. [3] She worked for the Los Angeles Times for some fifteen years where she was a copy editor and the Sunday news editor until March 31, 1993. [10] [20] [8] She left Los Angeles as part of a buy out when the newspaper downsized its staff and then worked in Salt Lake City, Utah. [20] Later, she became a copy editor with the Winston-Salem Journal. [19] [21] She retired in 2010. [9]
In 2004, Parker received the Beech Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. [19] She received The Union Baptist Church Legacy Award in 2005 for her literary contributions that have helped preserve Black history. [21] In 2012, she was inducted into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame. [9]
In 2016, UNC created the Karen L. Park Grant awarded to as many as 25 students a year starting in 2017. [22] In 2021, Parker was added to the Honorific Naming Registry at UNC, placing her in the running as a potential namesake of buildings previously named for a Confederate. [15]
The Karen L. Parker archival collection is housed in Wilson Library at UNC. [23] In 2006, she donated a diary that she kept during her undergraduate years to the Southern Historical Collection at UNC's Wilson Library. [22] Her diary is significant for its coverage of her experiences during the Civil Rights movement. [22] [9] [24] Ellyn Bache used Parker's diary when conducting research for her 1997 novel The Activist's Daughter, about student activists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1963, and based a character on Parker. [24]
Parker married and took a ten-year break from journalism to raise her son, Jonah Kuttner. [8] Her second husband is Christopher Roe, a court recorder originally from Salt Lake City. [20] [8] She married her third husband, Barry Lambert, in 1996; he was her former fiance from college and is a supervisor with the U.S. Postal Service. [8] Parker and Lambert lived in Greensboro, North Carolina. [8]
She served on the board of directors of the UNC General Alumni Association and the board of the UNC Friends of the Library. [22] [9]
The Piedmont Triad is a metropolitan region in the north-central part of the U.S. state of North Carolina anchored by three cities: Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point. This close group of cities lies in the Piedmont geographical region of the United States and forms the basis of the Greensboro–Winston-Salem–High Point, NC Combined Statistical Area. As of 2012, the Piedmont Triad has an estimated population of 1,611,243 making it the 33rd largest combined statistical area in the United States.
Doris Betts was a short story writer, novelist, essayist and Alumni Distinguished Professor Emerita at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was the author of three short story collections and six novels.
The UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media is a nationally accredited professional undergraduate and graduate level journalism school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The school, founded in 1950, is ranked competitively among the best journalism schools in the United States. The school offers undergraduate degrees in media & journalism as well as advertising & public relations. It offers master's degrees in journalism, strategic communication, and visual communication and doctoral degrees in media & communication.
The 1995 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the 1995 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Tar Heels played their home games at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and competed in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The team was led by head coach Mack Brown.
The Southern Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year is an award given to the Southern Conference's (SoCon) most outstanding player. The award was first given following the 1951–52 season. Fred Hetzel of Davidson is the only player to have won the award three times (1963–1965). Sixteen other players have won the award twice, most recently done by Isaiah Miller of UNC Greensboro.
The 1898 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina in the 1898 college football season. They played nine games with a final record of 9–0. The team captain for the 1898 season was Frank O. Rogers. The team claims a Southern championship.
Reed Sarratt (1917-1986) was an American journalist and editor from North Carolina. He wrote about school desegregation in the Southern United States. He served as the executive director of the Southern Education Reporting Service from 1960 to 1965, and the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association from 1973 to 1986.
The 1963 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the 1963 NCAA University Division football season. The Tar Heels were led by fifth-year head coach Jim Hickey and played their home games at Kenan Memorial Stadium. They competed as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, finishing as co-champions with a league record of 6–1.
Valeria Lynch Lee is an African American philanthropist and an advocate for public media in North Carolina. Lee was a co-founder of one of the first black public radio stations in the nation and has served as program director, manager, and board member for numerous organizations aimed at improving educational and socio-economic conditions for North Carolinians. She was inducted into the North Carolina Women's Hall of Fame in 2009.
The 1916 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina in the 1916 college football season. The team captain of the 1916 season was George Tandy.
The 1989 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the 1989 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Tar Heels played their home games at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and competed in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The team was led by head coach Mack Brown.
The 1920 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina in the 1920 college football season.
The 1983 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the 1983 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Tar Heels were led by sixth-year head coach Dick Crum and played their home games at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. They competed as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, finishing in second.
The 1981 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the 1981 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Tar Heels were led by fourth-year head coach Dick Crum and played their home games at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. They competed as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, finishing in second.
The 1978 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the 1978 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Tar Heels were led by first-year head coach Dick Crum and played their home games at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. They competed as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, finishing in fourth.
Edward Tyrone Anthony is a former American football running back. He played high school football at West Forsyth High School in Clemmons, North Carolina and college football for the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Linda Sue Carter Brinson is an American writer, journalist, and editor. She was the first woman assistant national editor at The Baltimore Sun and the first woman editorial page editor at the Winston-Salem Journal.
Joseph Andrew Felmet was an American journalist, pacifist, and civil rights activist. He worked as a reporter for The Hartford Times and the Winston-Salem Journal. He participated in the Journey of Reconciliation in 1947, considered the precursor to the Freedom Riders.
Katherine Gordon Harrison is an American former college tennis coach who was the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels women's tennis team from 1976 to 1998. She attended the University of Texas at Austin at a time when the school did not field a women's team. She studied classics as a postgraduate at Texas and North Carolina before becoming a professional tennis instructor. She was the all-time winningest Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) women's tennis coach at the time of her retirement.
Lelia Judson Tuttle was an American educator and missionary in China. She was chair of the English literature department at McTyeire Institute in Shanghai from 1910 to 1926, and dean of women at Soochow University from 1926 until 1941.
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