# Deborah Mathis

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{{Short description|American journalist}}
'''Deborah Myers Mathis''' (born 24 August 1953)<ref name="Welky 2015"/> is an American journalist and author. Her journalism career began as a [reporter](/source/reporter) for the ''[Arkansas Democrat](/source/Arkansas_Democrat)'', a major newspaper in [Arkansas](/source/Arkansas). She also worked in [television news](/source/television_news) in Little Rock and [Washington](/source/Washington%2C_D.C.). She was [White House correspondent](/source/White_House_correspondent) for the [Gannett News Service](/source/Gannett). She returned to Arkansas and newspaper journalism at the ''Arkansas Gazette'' as an editorial columnist and associate editor.

==Early life and education==
Mathis was born in [Little Rock](/source/Little_Rock), [Arkansas](/source/Arkansas) on August 24, 1953, to Rev. Lloyd H. Myers and Rachel A. Helms Myers.<ref name="Welky 2015" /> She attended Gibbs Elementary, Rightsell Elementary, Westside Junior High, and Little Rock Central High School, where she was the first [black](/source/black_people) and first female editor of the school's newspaper.<ref name="Welky 2015" /><ref name=honorees>{{cite web|url=https://arblackhalloffame.org/honorees/2003/mathis/|title=Deborah Mathis|publisher=Arkansas Black Hall of Fame}}</ref> 

==Career==
In 1973, Mathis became a reporter for Channel 11 Dateline News.<ref name=Jet>{{cite magazine|magazine=Jet|page=32|title=People|date=10 May 1973|publisher=Johnson Publishing Company|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HrEDAAAAMBAJ&q=Deborah+Myers+Mathis&pg=PA32}}</ref> Her career includes work as a reporter for the ''Arkansas Democrat'' and the ''Arkansas Gazette'' (now merged into the ''[Arkansas Democrat-Gazette](/source/Arkansas_Democrat-Gazette)''), and TV stations KARK-Channel 4 and KATV-Channel 7.<ref name=honorees/> She was also a columnist for the ''Arkansas Gazette'', and the first Black member of the ''Arkansas Gazette'' editorial board.<ref name="Turner 1990">{{cite news |last1=Turner |first1=Renée D. |title=Interracial Couples in the South |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8tMDAAAAMBAJ&dq=Deborah+Mathis&pg=PA44 |access-date=11 April 2021 |work=[Ebony](/source/Ebony_(magazine)) |date=June 1990 |page=44}}</ref> From 1993 to 2000 she was the White House correspondent for Gannett.<ref name=honorees/><ref>{{cite web|work=The Chicago Tribune|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1991/10/20/172-year-old-arkansas-gazette-civil-rights-champion-closes/|title=172-year-old Arkansas Gazette, Civil Rights Champion, Closes|first=Joan I.|last=Duffy|date=20 October 1991|access-date=14 June 2016}}</ref> In 2000, she was selected as a Fall Fellow at the [Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy](/source/Shorenstein_Center_on_Media%2C_Politics_and_Public_Policy) at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government to examine the role of race in press coverage in a case study.<ref>{{cite news |title=Shorenstein announces fellows |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2000/09/shorenstein-announces-fellows/ |access-date=13 April 2021 |work=The Harvard Gazette |date=September 21, 2000}}</ref>

Throughout the 1990s, Mathis was a fixture on TV news and current event talk shows, including [America's Black Forum](/source/America's_Black_Forum) and Oprah, and was a nationally syndicated columnist for [Tribune Media Services](/source/Tribune_Media_Services). She has also appeared as a commentator on ''[NPR](/source/NPR)''.<ref>{{cite news |title=Missing Black Women vs. 'Runaway Brides' |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4630193 |access-date=13 April 2021 |work=NPR News |date=May 4, 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Black Actors Gain Visibility, Fight Stereotypes |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5321918 |access-date=9 April 2021 |work=NPR News |date=April 4, 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Coming to Terms with a Texas Town's 'Strange Fruit' |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5577811 |access-date=9 April 2021 |work=NPR News |date=July 24, 2006}}</ref>

Mathis was an assistant professor at [Northwestern University](/source/Northwestern_University)'s [Medill School of Journalism](/source/Medill_School_of_Journalism).<ref name=honorees/> from 2003 to 2006.

==Works==
* {{cite book|first=Deborah|last=Mathis|title=Yet a Stranger: Why Black Americans Still Don't Feel at Home|publisher=Warner Books|year=2002|isbn=0-446-52636-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iBOjis-_HRcC}}<ref>{{cite news |title=YET A STRANGER: Why Black Americans Still Don't Feel at Home |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-446-52636-4 |access-date=9 April 2021 |work=Publishers Weekly |date=April 22, 2002}}</ref> 
* {{cite book|first=Deborah|last=Mathis|title=What God Can Do: How Faith Changes Lives for the Better|year=2005|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9781416510048|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rv1aCn6EfAMC}}
* {{cite book|first=Deborah|last=Mathis|title=Sole Sisters: The Joys and Pains of Single Black Women|year=2007|publisher=Agate|isbn=9781572846289|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XawOfHttik4C}}<ref>{{cite news |title=Sole Sisters: The Joys and Pains of Single Black Women |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-932841-27-5 |access-date=9 April 2021 |work=Publishers Weekly |date=April 16, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Sole Sisters: The Joys and Pains of Single Black Women |url=https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/sole-sisters/ |access-date=13 April 2021 |work=Foreword Magazine |date=August 18, 2009}}</ref>
* {{cite book|first1=Deborah|last1=Mathis|first2=Gregory Todd|last2=Smith|title=Unlucky Number: The Murder of Lottery Winner Abraham Shakespeare|year=2015|publisher=Penguin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p1j2AwAAQBAJ|isbn=9780698159259}}<ref>{{cite news |last1=LaPointe |first1=Michael |title=Unlucky Numbers |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/07/09/unlucky-numbers/ |access-date=13 April 2021 |work=[The Paris Review](/source/The_Paris_Review) |date=July 9, 2020}}</ref>

==Honors and awards==
* 2003, inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame<ref name="Welky 2015">{{cite news |last1=Welky |first1=Ali |title=Deborah Myers Mathis (1953–) |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/deborah-myers-mathis-8208/ |access-date=9 April 2021 |work=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |date=March 11, 2015}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Now a freelance writer, Mathis lives in McLean, Virginia. She has three adult children and three granddaughters.
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{C-SPAN|35542}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathis, Deborah}}
Category:1953 births
Category:Living people
Category:American women journalists
Category:African-American women writers
Category:African-American writers
Category:Writers from Little Rock, Arkansas
Category:People from Chevy Chase, Maryland
Category:21st-century African-American people
Category:21st-century African-American women
Category:20th-century African-American people
Category:20th-century African-American women
Category:Arkansas Democrat-Gazette people

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Deborah Mathis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Mathis) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Mathis?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.