CHICAGO, IL – The National Association of Black Journalist conference in Chicago this month was not only the source of headlines nationwide for a confrontational interview between former President Donald Trump and journalists, but it was also where Fairfield County native Gwendolyn Glenn won one of the organization’s prestigious awards.
Glenn, the daughter of the late Neresa Sims Glenn and Benjamin Lawrence Glenn, Sr. of Winnsboro, won NABJ’s Salute to Excellence Award in the Radio News Series category. The award was for a series of reports Glenn produced on the new International African American Museum, IAAM, in Charleston, SC. The three-part series aired on WFAE, a National Public Radio affiliate station in Charlotte, NC.
Prior to Glenn working for five years as the anchor of WFAE’s afternoon All Things Considered news program, she worked for many years for NPR in Washington, DC. Her award-winning reports were also published or aired on CNN, the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, QCity Metro and the Baltimore Banner.
Glenn says the NABJ award means a lot to her because of the hard work she and her editor, Sarah Mobley Smith, a former NPR editor and now editor at WLRN in Florida, put into the series. They spent several days at the museum last June, just before it opened, viewing IAAM’s exhibitions and interviewing its officials. They also explored some of Charleston’s Sea Islands and met many Gullah Geechee community members, whose culture is highlighted in the exhibitions.
“We were welcomed in the homes of people on Johns Island and James Island, where the Gullah language is still spoken and met Praise Singers in their homes, who regaled us with songs passed down to them from past generations,” Glenn said. “We sat in the home of Carolyn Jabulile White, who has traveled the world telling the stories of the Gullah people, and we learned so much about the culture, the food, and how gentrification has affected the Gullah Geechee community over the years. It was a wonderful and eye-opening experience. ”
Glenn encourages people of all races to visit the museum, which is located at Gadsden’s Wharf, where tens of thousands of kidnapped Africans debarked in the early 1800s to be sold into slavery after enduring horrific journeys through the Middle Passage to America. IAAM’s nine galleries focus on the history of African Americans and their descendants from an international, national and local point of view.
“I was at times, fascinated and horrified by the exhibitions and at the same time I felt proud and smiled while seeing the history and strength of the African-American experience on display at IAAM. I hope that my series did the museum, the Gullah Geechee community and the African American experience IAAM highlights through poignant exhibitions, justice in my reports,” Glenn said. “I am blessed for that experience and I am appreciative that my station saw the value in telling this story and giving me the time needed to produce a quality series.”
You can hear Glenn’s series of reports and see a slideshow of the museum and the areas she visited at: https://www.wfae.org/international-african-american-museum