Author: Belinda Clarke

Associated Press Journalists Awarded the 2022 James Foley Medill Medal for Courage

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date May 23, 2023
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Winners' head shots with photo of Medill medal.

Mstyslav Chernov, Evgeniy Maloletka and Vasilisa Stepanenko have been awarded the James Foley Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism for their exclusive coverage in Mariupol, Ukraine. Their five-part story, “Erasing Mariupol,” chronicles the attacks of Russia on innocent Ukrainian civilians during the early stages of the Russian-Ukraine war.

The award is given by the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University.

As the only international media remaining in the country, the journalists risked their lives to report harrowing details of children as young as 18-months-old buried in trenches. Chernov’s first-person writing describes the journalists’ narrow escape out of the country after learning Russian forces were hunting them down.

“Alone among Western journalists, the AP team remained in an increasingly terrorized Mariupol. They sent the outside world graphic photos, video and narrative, exposing the horror of the Russian siege,” said Medill Professor Emeritus and co-judge Donna Leff. “Their bravery under fire and their work to help the people of Mariupol, guiding them to shelters and protecting them, define courage in journalism.”

Upon learning of a growing Russian disinformation campaign to discredit the journalists’ work, the trio knew it was imperative to get to safety and share their reporting with the world. Stepanenko wore and smuggled a tampon embedded with a tiny data card through 15 Russian checkpoints. The card contained exclusive footage from a Ukrainian medic, Yuliia Paievska (known as Taira in Ukraine), who was captured by Russia days after entrusting the team with the footage.

Russia freed Taira from custody in June 2022 after the AP published the resulting story and video from Talia’s footage on May 20, 2022. She personally credited the AP for her release. Even after escaping from Mariupol, the team continued to cover the war in Ukraine and were the first to document a mass grave and torture chambers in the city of Izium.

“With shelling going on all around them and a Russian target on their back, the AP trio found a way to sneak dispatches and photographs out of the besieged city of Mariupol, providing a lifeline to the city’s desperate residents,” said co-judge judge Al From, a Medill Board of Advisers member and the Democratic Leadership Council founder. “I cannot think of more heroic journalism under more dangerous conditions.”

“The important reporting by this team of AP journalists at great risk to their own safety gave the world a much better understanding of what war looks like to civilians living through it,” co-judge and Medill Professor Emeritus Ellen Shearer said. “Their work embodies the moral courage that Jim Foley stood for.”

Foley was a Medill alumnus killed by ISIS extremists for his reporting in 2014.

Since the stories’ publication throughout March and October 2022, Chernov, Maloletka and Stepaneko’s coverage has saved thousands of lives and drawn attention to atrocities that would have otherwise gone largely unnoticed.

Honorable Mention

This year’s honorable mention was awarded to Lynzy Billing for her coverage of CIA-backed night raids killing hundreds of civilians in Afghanistan. Her story, “The Night Raids,” which was published by ProPublica, revealed the Zero Units, squadrons of the U.S. trained Afghan special forces soldiers killing civilians based on faulty intelligence.

Over the course of more than three years, Billing conducted more than 350 interviews with current and former Afghan and U.S. government, defense and security officials. Courageously, she was on the ground in rural pockets of Afghanistan few reporters have visited before.

“Billing’s investigative reporting on the CIA-aided night raids in Afghanistan is a remarkable piece of journalism,” From said. “By her dogged persistence and incredible courage, she uncovered a little-known and under-reported story that casts a dark shadow over covert American activities in a tragic war.”

About the James Foley Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism

The medal is given for work published during a calendar year to an individual or team of journalists working for a U.S.-based media outlet who best displayed moral, physical, ethical, financial or political courage in pursuit of a story or series of stories. In 2014, the name of the award was changed to honor Medill alumnus James Foley (MSJ08). Foley was captured while reporting in Syria in 2012 and killed by ISIS extremists in 2014. The award comes with a $5,000 prize.

The selection committee included Democratic Leadership Council founder Al From, Medill Professor Emeritus Donna Leff and Medill Professor Emeritus Ellen Shearer.

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Hollywood legend Mara Brock Akil to address 2023 graduates at Medill convocation

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date May 23, 2023
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Medill will welcome screenwriter and television producer Mara Brock Akil (BSJ92) to speak with 2023 graduates and families as Medill’s convocation speaker.

“We are honored that Mara is returning to campus to share her insights, experiences and life lessons with the Medill community,” said Dean Charles Whitaker (BSJ80, MSJ81). “Mara’s career has equipped her with an important perspective that I hope will inspire the Class of 2023 as they venture out into the world to begin their careers.”

Brock Akil has written and produced over 400 episodes of television, leaving a tremendous impact on Hollywood. After graduating from Medill, she wrote for the television series South Central and Moesha before becoming supervising producer on The Jamie Foxx Show.

In 2000, she developed the seminal television series Girlfriends, a witty and honest exploration of the multi-faceted nature of Black womanhood, and from there, went on to develop the spin-off series The Game.

Since then, she has produced multiple culture-shifting series that celebrate the complexity and vulnerability of humanity. In 2017, she was inducted into the Medill Hall of Achievement and in 2019 she was honored with the prestigious Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award by NATPE.

The Hollywood Reporter has named her as one of the top 50 Showrunners five years in a row and as one of the Women in Entertainment Power 100. She was honored by Essence’s Black Women in Hollywood Awards and is the winner of multiple NAACP Image Awards.

In 2020, Brock Akil signed a deal with Netflix to exclusively produce television shows for the streaming platform under her new banner, story27 Productions.

Convocation will take place at 9:30 a.m, Sunday, June 11 in Evanston at the Ryan Fieldhouse with a reception to follow.

Student Speakers

Andrew Rowan (BSJ23)

Andrew Rowan (BSJ23), a journalism major with minors in data science and business institutions, is the 2023 Medill convocation undergraduate student speaker. Andrew was the News Director of the Northwestern News Network and also served as an executive producer, reporter and anchor. He held leadership roles at Northwestern Hillel and in the Medill Undergraduate Student Advisory Council.

Chelsea Zhao (MSJ23)

Chelsea Zhao (MSJ23), a journalism masters student in the health, environment and science specialization, is the 2023 Medill convocation graduate student speaker. Zhao was a Medill Student Ambassador and a member of both the Chicago Journalists Association and Asian American Journalists Association. She was a member of the first cohort of Chicago Reader’s Racial Justice Writer’s Cohort and a freelance contributor to many publications including South Side Weekly, Cicero Independiente and Chicago Health.

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Paul Lunde (BSJ58, MSJ58)

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date April 3, 2023
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Paul David Lunde died on January 24, 2023, after hemorrhagic stroke at the age of 86 at Israel Family Hospice in Ames, Iowa.

Paul was born in Bismarck, North Dakota on March 15, 1936, the older of two children of Frits Nikolai Smeby Lunde and Florence Marjorie (Severson) Lunde. When Paul was in first grade, the family returned to central Iowa, eventually settling in Ames, his lifelong hometown. After graduating from Ames High School, Paul went to Northwestern University, got married, then received his B.S. and M.S. in journalism in 1958. The young couple moved to Cambridge, MA, where he attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1961.

Captain Lunde was commissioned as a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps in the US Army after graduation. He served for three years on active duty near Washington, DC, and then went into private practice with a firm specializing in broadcast law. After the birth of his first child in 1965, Paul and his family moved back to Ames with plans to start a radio station. You’ll find that station today at 104.1 on your FM dial as KOEZ. It was Central Iowa’s first commercial FM station as KLFM, going on the air on June 2, 1967. You can also hear KJJY at 92.5 today, which was the family business’ second project. It went on the air in 1978 as KANY, the Ankeny radio station. Paul was an author, starting with GREAT RESTRAINT in 1985, MELTDOWN in 2007 & 2013 and ROOSEVELT’S WAR in 2012. He was also a teacher, earning his teaching certificate and a B.A. in History in 1989, and, later, an M.S. in Special Education from Iowa State University.

He served in many schools over the next 28 years, including junior and senior high schools in Des Moines, Ankeny and Ames. During this time, he was also a Realtor, working with clients across the Des Moines metro area. Paul relished the idea of being in public life, running for Iowa State Representative in 1978, 1982 and 1990; for the US House of Representatives in 1988 and 1992; and for the US Senate in 2014 and 2018. He also worked in the 1970s and 1980s to secure the downtown Ames Central Junior High School (originally, the Ames High School) building for use today as the Ames City Hall.

In 1957, Paul was married to Barbara Kegerreis; in 1982, to Janice Breen Mitchell; and, in 1990, to Suzanne Clark, a fellow member of the Ames High School Class of 1954, from whom he was widowed in 2017. He is survived by his brother, Mark (Linda) Lunde of Urbandale, IA, his children, Karen (Ingo) and Thomas (Erin) and his four grandchildren, all living in Minneapolis, MN. For more information about Paul, and to leave online condolences for his family, please visit the www.lunde.net/paul website.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/obituaries/dmr129712

Books

Restoring Prairie, Pond, and Woods: How a Small Trail Can Make a Big Difference

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date March 28, 2023
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Restoring prairie book cover — EPSON MFP image

Laurie Lawlor (BSJ74)

Restoring Prairie, Pond, and Woods: How a Small Trail Can Make a Big Difference is full color nonfiction for readers age 10 and up to be released in April by Holiday House, NY. This is the remarkable story about the cooperative effort in a small southeastern Wisconsin community to clean up an eight-acre abandoned lot. With only a bare-bones budget, a group of volunteers–everyone from local firemen and high school students, to local business owners and Boy Scouts–came together to pitch in to clear invasives, grade the trail, and plant native prairie, woodland, and wetland species. The trail leads through what’s become an outdoor classroom and valued community resource for all ages. In a starred review, Kirkus calls the book: “More than a simple account of a wilderness restoration project. This is activism at its most accessible: the beautiful struggles of a region and community to make a large difference in a small world. A magical and timely story of ecosystems restored to their former glory.” (January 2023)

Books

Look for Something Good

Robert Drews (BSJ71, MSJ72)

J.J. Werth has lived for his work, allowing career to replace the need for a family or outside interests. So when his company decides to lay him off in favor of someone younger and cheaper, 61-year-old J.J. is at a crossroad. After indulging in a healthy dose of self-pity, he decides to look for answers. Through bonding with Father Thomas, a former Marine and very unlikely priest, J.J. embarks on a journey to find his place in the world and winds up finding so much more.

Books

The Keirn Chronicles Volume One: The Fabulous Wrestling Life of Steve Keirn

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date March 28, 2023
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Ian Douglass (MSJ06)

Before Steve Keirn became one of the most influential trainers in professional wrestling history, he had a one-of-a-kind wrestling career that stretched around the pro wrestling world.

In “The Keirn Chronicles Volume One: The Fabulous Wrestling Life of Steve Keirn,” Douglass helps Steve Keirn tell the story of a young man who appeared to have lost his father to war at a delicate age, and whose subsequent quest to find a suitable father figure led him into a lifelong career in the professional wrestling industry. Keirn became one of the signature faces of Florida wrestling before evolving into one of wrestling’s most irrefutable trendsetters during his time as one half of the pioneering Mid-American tag team known as The Fabulous Ones!

Douglass and Keirn withhold no details with respect to everything from Keirn’s tumultuous childhood to each hair-raising incident that transpired during the first 20 years of his wrestling career. Over the course of more than 400 pages, Douglass helps Keirn elaborate on all of the latter’s interactions and relationships with dozens of legendary professional wrestling figures, including Eddie Graham, Mike Graham, Jack Brisco, Gerald Brisco, Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant and Dusty Rhodes.

This is the backstory behind one of the most unheralded influencers in professional wrestling history!

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Ruth Fromstein (BSJ56)

Ruth Fromstein, a lifelong lover of arts and culture, learning, languages and Judaism, died at her Bethesda home on February 28, 2023. She was 87. Ruth was a beloved mother, grandmother, sister and friend – and, especially, wife to her husband of 66 years, James Fromstein.

Ruth and James met in 1952, when they were both undergraduate students at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. They got married the day after graduation and immediately moved to North Carolina, where James was stationed as an Army private first class.

They later moved to James’ hometown, Milwaukee, where Ruth began a career as a writer, advertising copywriter and public relations consultant. She also wrote a book, Milwaukee: The Best of All Worlds and later produced a history for the 150th anniversary of her synagogue, Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun.

Ruth was also dedicated to community involvement as well as to the arts, often finding ways to join the two. She served as a docent at the Milwaukee Art Museum, volunteered for the Milwaukee Public Museum and was a board member of the Volunteer Center for Greater Milwaukee. She was a frequent visitor to all manner of arts institutions, including dance performances, jazz and classical music concerts, and art museums.

She traveled widely. She loved languages, especially French, taking immersion classes and studying in France in mid-life. She was passionate about the importance of learning, which prompted her to pursue educational opportunities throughout her life.

Ruth was also deeply involved with Jewish life. Born in Lexington, Kentucky, she moved with her parents at an early age to Birmingham, Alabama, where her father, Milton Grafman, was the rabbi at Temple Emanu-El from 1941 until 1975. Both Ruth and her brother, Stephen Grafman, were greatly influenced by their parents. Milton Grafman was a descendant of a long line of rabbis and cantors. His wife of 64 years, Ida Weinstein Grafman, graduated from the University of Cincinnati when women students were very much in the minority.

Ruth grew up during a time when women generally did not read from the Torah or celebrate a Bat Mitzvah. True to her devotion to learning and Judaism, she learned a Torah portion and read it as part of her grandson’s Bar Mitzvah in 2009.

Survivors include her husband, James Fromstein (BSJ56) of Bethesda, Md.; daughter Mollie Fromstein (Jeffrey) Katz of Bethesda, Maryland; son Richard (Raleigh Shapiro) Fromstein of Golden Valley, Minnesota; granddaughters Mari Fromstein of Orono, Maine, Emily Katz of Washington, D.C., Elisha Fromstein of Boston, Massachusetts., and Julia Fromstein of Golden Valley, Minnesota; grandson Benjamin Katz of Bethesda, Md.; and brother Stephen (Marilyn) Grafman of Potomac, Maryland. Mollie attended Medill’s bachelor’s program (BSJ85), and Ruth and Jim’s son, Richard, like his father, was a Medill cherub.

Mollie said this about her mother:

“Northwestern and Medill left strong, positive imprints on the Fromstein family. My parents made lifelong friends in their Medill classes and in Greek life, limited for them in the 1950s to a handful of Jewish fraternities and sororities. They cheered on the Wildcat football team for years, often driving to Evanston from Milwaukee to attend games dressed in purple while a big NU flag waved from their car as they sped down Interstate 94. Though they did not attend their graduation, they relished marching in the procession at their 50-year alumni reunion and celebrating with their classmates.”

The family requests that contributions in Ruth’s name be made to one of the three similarly-named congregations that occupied such an important part of her life – Temple Emanu-El of Birmingham, Alabama; Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun of River Hills, Wisconsin, or Temple Emanuel of Kensington, Maryland.

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/silver-spring-md/ruth-fromstein-11178165

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Jay Howard Leve (BSJ78, MSJ79)

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date December 19, 2022
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Jay Howard Leve, 66, passed away on December 5, 2022 at his home in Sun City West, AZ.

Beloved Father of Sarah Leve of Philadelphia, PA, Dear Brother of Karen Leve Braverman of Louisville, CO, Loving Uncle to Michael and Jennifer Braverman of Denver, CO and Joshua and Emily Segal of Los Angeles, CA. Dear Son of the late Rubin and Beverly Leve of St. Louis, MO. Former Husband of Betsy Gitelle of Montclair, NJ, and cousin, friend and mentor to many.

Jay grew up in St. Louis before attending Northwestern University where he earned his undergraduate and Master of Science degrees from Medill. After working at the Miami Herald in Miami, Jay attended the Parsons School of Design in New York City and then moved there to head the Humanware Agency at Citibank, a creative think tank for user interface design and development. Jay continued on to become the founder and CEO of Hypotenuse and SurveyUSA, known as America’s Pollster.

At SurveyUSA, Jay revolutionized the public opinion polling and market research industries in the early 1990s by being the first firm to use interactive voice response technology. Asking questions in the recorded voice of a local news anchor ― a Jay Leve innovation ― and answered by respondents pressing keys on their touch-tone phones, SurveyUSA dramatically decreased the amount of time it took to conduct research and its cost, making it possible for the first time for individuals, companies, and organizations of any size to conduct scientific research. In the 30+ ensuing years, Leve grew SurveyUSA into one of the nation’s best-known polling firms, winning numerous awards for accuracy. SurveyUSA won acclaim for the quality of its methodology and construction of questions because Leve consistently applied the rigorous journalistic principles he learned at Medill, practiced at the Herald, and believed in passionately.

Published obituary

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McCormick Foundation announces $7.5M investment in sustainable, fact-based reporting

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date September 29, 2022
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The Robert R. McCormick Foundation today announced investments in Block Club Chicago, Capitol News Illinois, Injustice Watch, and Medill. These investments complement the Foundation’s investment in the Illinois Solutions Partnership, formed with the Better Government Association and announced in 2021.

Together, these commitments to strengthening and scaling impactful reporting in Chicago and Illinois are intended to increase government transparency, enhance accountability of decision-makers to their constituents, and ensure public investments are creating and supporting opportunities for all, especially Chicago’s South and West Side residents.

McCormick Foundation grants to Block Club Chicago and Injustice Watch will support more robust investigative reporting on persistent challenges disinvested communities face and the promising efforts many are leading, in Chicago and elsewhere, to create thriving communities. Springfield-made decisions, from education spending to public safety policy, play a pivotal role in Chicago’s communities, but the attrition in statehouse reporting means these political transactions often go unexamined and remain outside the public eye. The grant to Capitol News Illinois will help a promising three-year-old outlet scale to meet the need for greater scrutiny in Springfield.

To ensure these funds drive long-term change, the grants include support for both editorial and business operations at Block Club Chicago, Capitol News Illinois, and Injustice Watch to help these outlets implement sustainability plans that will see them augment and diversify their revenue streams to support continued editorial growth and impact.

Medill, which is already supporting several local news outlets, will be able to expand its support for local media with the new grant from McCormick and provide a range of business analytics, market research, and expert advice to help outlets sustainably scale and serve the Chicago region’s residents.

“Chicago is fortunate to have one of the most dynamic and innovative networks of nonprofit news organizations in the country,” said Timothy P. Knight, the McCormick Foundation’s President and CEO. “All of these organizations have a history of collaborating closely with others, and several of these organizations currently collaborate with each other on a range of editorial, promotional, and operational initiatives. The simultaneous investment in each of these organizations, together with our investment in the Illinois Solutions Partnership, is intended to promote and strengthen collaboration and recognize the strong, complementary skills each of these organizations brings to Chicago and Illinois media.”

Block Club Chicago will receive $1.6M over three years to build a six-person investigative team and deepen its coverage of Chicago’s South and West Sides. Launched in 2018, the nonprofit newsroom delivers daily nonpartisan coverage of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods. Its more than a dozen reporters embedded in neighborhoods across the city provide residents continual insights on economic, political, and social developments in their communities. The new investigative team will complement Block Club’s existing daily news team and be positioned to act on tips and pursue longer-lead, high impact stories to improve government transparency and accountability.

“When reporters are embedded in the communities they cover, they’re able to report with context, respect, and deep knowledge instead of parachuting in. Block Club’s reporters have proved time and again that our ground-level approach builds trust with readers, leads to news that is more responsive to the community’s needs and offers a more accurate portrayal of our neighborhoods,” said Stephanie Lulay, Executive Editor and Co-founder of Block Club Chicago. “Thanks to the incredible support of the McCormick Foundation, we’re excited to give Chicago neighborhoods the dedicated investigative coverage they deserve.”

Injustice Watch will receive $1.5M over three years to grow its editorial capacity and expand its audience and revenue building efforts. The outlet is a nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism organization that focuses on issues of equity and justice in the courts, especially in the Circuit Court of Cook County. The outlet’s public service journalism is bringing needed awareness and transparency to court proceedings and judicial elections, while engaging community members in the process. The outlet’s three-year strategic growth plan will add investigative reporters and editors, alongside an audience and fundraising team to increase in-person and digital engagement and grow the outlet’s readership and supporter base.

“The McCormick Foundation’s grant to Injustice Watch will enable the organization to amplify its impact,” said Juliet Sorensen, executive director of Injustice Watch. “Our research-driven, human-centered approach to systemic issues will reach more community members and inform and engage them in the process. We are honored by this investment in our future.”

Capitol News Illinois will receive $2M over three years to expand its editorial capacity and add more investigative and Chicago-based reporting. Importantly, the outlet will also hire its first full-time fundraising position and start to build a team to diversify its revenue. It will also add broadcast journalists to their reporting team in 2023 in a partnership with the Illinois Broadcasters Association. Capitol News Illinois (CNI) is a nonprofit news service that covers state government daily for newspapers statewide. Launched in 2019, its stories have been published more than 70,000 times in 460 daily and nondaily newspapers statewide. Since its launch, the news service has added a daily newsletter and a podcast and last year launched a partnership with Illinois Public Radio stations.

“Our news service has had a big impact in its first 3-plus years in the state’s print media because of the initial investments made by the McCormick Foundation and the Illinois Press Foundation,” said Jeff Rogers, director of the IPF, which operates Capitol News Illinois. Rogers is also editor of Capitol News Illinois.

“We are excited about the significant next steps our news service will be able to take with this investment from McCormick. We look forward to greatly expanding our funding base and business operations, extending our audience into TV and radio, and growing our reporting team in the next three years. We’re also looking forward to being a part of a collaborative investigative journalism powerhouse McCormick is fostering with these grants.”

Medill will receive $2.4M over three years to launch the Medill Local News Accelerator, a program to spur innovation and improve long-term sustainability of independent Chicago news organizations. The Accelerator will grow audience engagement; spur revenue growth through digital subscriptions, memberships, sponsorships, and other diversified income streams; and create strategies for long-term self-sustainability of Chicago news organizations. Additionally, Northwestern will launch a new, immersive media leadership training program. Faculty experts from Medill and the Kellogg School of Management, along with media thought leaders outside the university, will provide in-depth training for Chicago media leaders to help give them the tools they need to better manage their news outlets for long-term sustainability.

“We are honored that the McCormick Foundation has chosen to invest in our efforts to help bolster outlets in the Chicago media ecosystem,” said Medill Dean Charles Whitaker. “We look forward to partnering with a wide swath of local news organizations to help them chart paths that will lead to their long-term viability and the continued production of robust journalism for our communities.”

About the Robert R. McCormick Foundation

The Robert R. McCormick Foundation envisions a Chicagoland with educated and informed individuals who are engaged in improving their communities. The Foundation invests in organizations working to build thriving communities where all individuals have the resources and opportunities to succeed without regard to income, race, ethnicity, gender, or ZIP code. Established in 1955 upon the death of Col. Robert R. McCormick, longtime editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, the McCormick Foundation has issued grants of approximately $1.9 billion. The Foundation’s Board also oversees Cantigny, Col. McCormick’s 500-acre estate in Wheaton, Illinois, which encompasses a park, formal gardens, a museum dedicated to the 1st Infantry Division of the U.S. Army, and a 27-hole public golf facility. Learn more at mccormickfoundation.org, cantigny.org, fdmuseum.org, and cantignygolf.com.

About Block Club

Block Club Chicago is a nonprofit, reader-funded newsroom delivering nonpartisan and essential coverage of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods. Our newsroom was founded in 2018 by former DNAinfo Chicago editors and reporters after the award-winning site abruptly shuttered. In four years, Block Club has transformed from scrappy startup to one of the most read news organizations in Chicago by being responsive to the city’s neighborhoods, publishing more than a dozen stories daily from every corner of the city and informing Chicagoans through our free newsletter, “It’s All Good” podcast, “On The Block” TV show and COVID-19 hotline. In the last year alone, Block Club has been named Editor & Publisher’s Best News Site, LION’s Publisher of the Year, INN’s Community Champion of the Year and we are proudly home to Chicago’s Journalist of the Year.

About Capitol News Illinois

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit news service operated by the Illinois Press Foundation that has provided free, unbiased daily coverage of state government to newspapers throughout Illinois since 2019. In 2023, it will extend that coverage into broadcast outlets statewide. It is funded by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, Illinois Press Foundation and Illinois Broadcasters Association, as well as individual donors.

About Injustice Watch

Injustice Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan journalism organization that focuses on issues of equity and justice in the courts. Our goal is to listen to and center people impacted by institutional injustices and provide them with the perspectives, information, and resources needed to hold powerful people and oppressive systems accountable. We do this through our public-service journalism (such as our Cook County judicial election guides); innovative investigative reporting (such as The Circuit, our ongoing collaborative investigation examining decades of Cook County court data); and intentional audience engagement and community-building. Learn more about our work at www.injusticewatch.org.

About Medill

For more than 100 years, Medill has trained the world’s best storytellers. Whether they are journalists who record the first draft of history or marketers blending data with creativity, Medill students and alumni craft the narratives of the events, people and brands that populate and animate our world. Medill’s hands-on learning programs are matched with innovative research and thought leadership. Learn more at medill.northwestern.edu.

Books

Bahamian Rhapsody: The Unofficial History of Pro Wrestling’s Unofficial Territory, 1960 – 2020

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date September 13, 2022
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Ian Douglass (MSJ06)

Spanning 60 years and covering professional wrestling events that took place on both land and sea, this book by Ian Douglass includes original input and interviews from nearly 50 wrestlers, writers, and other noteworthy individuals who played meaningful roles in the progression of the professional wrestling history of the Bahamas.

Not only was Douglass able to include insights from a broad range of wrestlers, including Dory Funk Jr., Jimmy Garvin, Mike Rotunda, Don Muraco, Tyree Pride, Kevin Sullivan, Steve Keirn, Brian Knobbs, Omar Amir and Adam Page, but Bahamian Rhapsody was also completed with the full cooperation of the leading Bahamian newspapers – The Nassau Guardian and The Nassau Tribune.

In addition to broadly covering the professional wrestling events that were held in the Bahamas by territories associated with the National Wrestling Alliance, the book also includes coverage of the development of the independent Bahamian wrestling companies of the 1970s, and events hosted by smaller independent organizations based in the United States and Canada. Furthermore, it explores the challenges of training and developing native-born Bahamian professional wrestlers, from local 1970s wrestling stars like “The Sensational Bahamian Grappler” Arnsel Johnson to multi-time Ohio Valley Wrestling Heavyweight Champion Omar Amir.

Douglass previously co-authored the autobiographies of wrestlers Dan Severn, Buggsy McGraw, Dylan “Hornswoggle” Postl and Brian Blair. He has also written for Men’s Health Magazine, MEL Magazine and Splice Today, and has been a contributor to both the International Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and the Bahamas Historical Society.

Student Speakers

Andrew Rowan (BSJ23)

Chelsea Zhao (MSJ23)

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