WGBH radio and TV host Callie Crossley was one of five journalists honored with the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s Yankee Quill Award. Crossley hosts the long-running WGBH news commentary program Basic Black and the WGBH radio program Under the Radar, and serves as a panelist on Beat the Press.
A former producer for ABC News 20/20, Crossley is also a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, guest lecturing at colleges and universities about media literacy, media and politics and the intersection of race, gender and media.
Crossley is a multiple awarding winner journalist and documentary filmmaker, including a National Emmy, the Gold Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia Award, plus Associated Press, Edward R. Murrow, and Clarion Awards, and top honors for commentary from the Public Radio News Directors. She is the first African-American to win an Oscar nomination in the Documentary Feature category for her work as a Producer on “Bridge to Freedom,” her hour in the documentary series, “Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years 1954-1965.” She also earned a National Emmy and the Alfred I Dupont-Columbia Award for this work.
In January of 2019, Cinema Eye awarded the Legacy Award to Crossley and other members of the Blackside Inc. creative team for nonfiction filmmaking. Crossley won a 2017 Award from National Association of Black Journalists for Hosting in the Television Public Affairs: Interview Discussion for the program “Basic Black: Celebrating a Prince, a Queen and a General”
Crossley is a graduate of Wellesley College, and holds two honorary degrees, a Doctor of Arts degree from Pine Manor College and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Cambridge College.
The Yankee Quill is presented annually by the Academy of New England Journalists through the auspices of the New England Society of News Editors. It is considered the highest individual honor awarded by fellow journalists in the region. Selection for the award is not based on any single achievement but rather on the broad influence for good over the course of a career.
The Yankee Quill awards were scheduled to be presented as part of the annual conferences of the New England Society of News Editors and the New England Newspaper and Press Association on the evening of Thursday, Oct. 10, in Worcester.
