Robin Washington

Robin Washington is an American journalist and filmmaker, born in Chicago in 1956.

Early life

Washington, who is Black and Jewish, was born to an African American father, Atlee Washington, and Jewish mother, Jean Birkenstein Washington.

Career

His major work is the 1995 PBS documentary, "You Don't Have to Ride Jim Crow!", which is a chronicle of the Journey of Reconciliation, the first Freedom Ride of whites and blacks traveling through the Upper South in 1947 to challenge segregation in the wake of the United States Supreme Court's Irene Morgan decision.

Washington previously produced the documentary: "Vermont: The Whitest State in the Union," about African Americans in that state.

From 1996 to 2004 he worked at the Boston Herald, where he wrote a consumer and transportation column and also covered the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, for which he made frequent appearances on national television news shows.

In 2004, he became editorial page editor of Minnesota's Duluth News Tribune.

He is also a radio commentator for National Public Radio, and has been a writer, editor, and publisher for several publications.

Miscellaneous

Washington is a cofounder, with Michelle Stein-Evers and Rabbi Capers C. Funnye Jr., of the Alliance of Black Jews, which formed in 1995. [cite web |url=http://www.ortamerica.org/site/DocServer/Summer_1995.pdf?docID=921 |title=Black Jews: Changing the Face of American Jewry |accessdate=2008-03-16 |author=Miriam Rinn |date=Summer 1995 |format=PDF |work=The Reporter | publisher=Women's American ORT |pages=pp. 11-13 ]

He is married to photojournalist Julia Cheng, and the father of Erin Washington, born in 1980.

References

*“Black and Jewish Like Jesus and Me”, Robin Washington, in "MultiAmerica," Ishmael Reed, editor, Viking Press, 1997
*"Black, Jewish and Interracial: It's Not the Color of Your Skin but the Race of Your Kin, and Other Myths of Identity," Katya Gibel Azoulay, Duke University Press, 1997
*"Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism," Yvonne Chireau, Nathaniel Deutsch, eds., Oxford University Press, 2000
*“The Soul of Judaism,” "Emerge" magazine, September 1995
*“Blasting the Boss in Boston”, Stephen J. Simurda, "Columbia Journalism Review", September 2000

External links

* [http://www.robinwashington.com/ Robin Washington's Web site]
* [http://greaterboston.tv/features/btp_20040528_washington.html WGBH-TV profile and discussion] , May 2004