Overview

"Winner, NABJ Outstanding Book Award 2024 (National Association of Black Journalists) ""She is a new kind of celebrity-a television superstar reporter-bred by television and its peculiar kind of intimacy which brings her into the living rooms or bedrooms or kitchens of almost a million viewers every night.""-New York Times For 30 years on TV, she told other people's stories. Now she's telling her own. In 1967, by accident, Melba Tolliver was the first Black American to anchor network news, going on to report and anchor for WABC-TV Eyewitness News, WNBC, and News 12 Long Island. Famously, Melba Tolliver's insistence on wearing her hair in a natural afro when covering the White House wedding of Tricia Nixon earned retaliation from the WABC bosses. In 1973, when the New York Times dubbed Melba a ""superstar reporter,"" a publisher asked for her memoir. It was worth the wait. Packed with telling detail, Accidental Anchorwoman fills in the backstory of a life that has deeply influenced modern journalism. Reporting with wit and humor from her ninth decade, Melba has provocative things to say about civil rights, the women's movement, identity, and journalistic objectivity. Young people can draw inspiration from Melba when battling mainstream society over personal image, gender, and race. Podcasters and journalists can learn from Melba to defy gatekeepers, while celebrating local heroes. And we can all take a lesson from Melba in calling out bullshit."

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Reviews

"""The emotional rollercoaster of Melba's decades of living her life out loud, from nurse at Bellevue to broadcast news legend: the treat is the re-telling. PERHAPS an accidental anchorwoman, BUT an authentic journey from start to finish.""-Carol Martin, WCBS-TV anchor; Detroit Free Press reporter ""Melba Tolliver's memoir will amuse you, make you angry, and possibly shock you. It is a page-turner, filled with her reflections on pivotal moments in New York City and American race relations. Beyond her career, Ms. Tolliver reveals, in excruciating detail, deeply personal experiences that shaped her personality and guided her life decisions."" -Randall Pinkston, former correspondent/anchor, Al Jazeera America; White House correspondent, CBS-TV News ""Weaving in experiences of the Great Migration, civil rights activism, and a changing media landscape, Tolliver shares how she found and then used her voice to critique and question, to advocate and educate, to appeal to and share stories of everyday people. An inside perspective on what it meant to break barriers and be the change."" -Dr. Karen Dunak, Arthur G. and Eloise Barnes Cole Chair of American History at Muskingum University; author, Our Jackie: Public Claims on a Private Life, NYU Press, 2024 ""Melba shares her story with singular wit and style, and the profound life lessons she learned. I'm not sure Melba 'tells all' but it doesn't get more personal than this!""-Marquita Pool-Eckert, former CBS News producer ""Melba Tolliver is a pioneer in American journalism. From her defiant afro to her sharp on-air skills, she has been a role model for untold numbers of eager young journalists. Her insightful and sometimes-raw autobiography is chock full of what goes on in the rough-and-tumble world of local television news-particularly in New York City.""-Hwesu Samuel Murray, Attorney, author of African American Economic Development: A Plan for Black America; former WABC-TV producer of Like It Is ""Melba is the best at anything she does and here we see an example in this memoir. Fun, funny, inspiring. A must-read.""-Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing on Empty and Writing Down the Bones"

"""Melba Tolliver is a pioneer in American journalism, as a reporter, as an anchorwoman, and as a brilliant individual who has a keen mind. From her defiant afro to her sharp on-air skills, she has been a role model for untold numbers of eager young journalists. In her new, insightful, and sometimes raw autobiography she delivers a detailed and powerful review of her storied career in the television news business. Accidental Anchorwoman is chock full of fascinating, behind-the-scenes accounts of personal and historical events and issues. This is a ""must read"" for anyone who wants a first-hand recollection of what goes on in the rough-and-tumble world of local television news-particularly in New York City."" -Hwesu Samuel Murray, Attorney, author of African American Economic Development: A Plan for Black America, former producer of Like It Is (WABC-TV) ""Melba is the best at anything she does and here we see an example in this memoir. Fun, funny, inspiring. A must-read."" -Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing on Empty and Writing Down the Bones ""Melba Tolliver tells a quintessentially American story about a life marked by hard work, opportunity, risk taking, and chance. Weaving in the experiences and effects of the Great Migration, Civil Rights activism and legislation, and a changing media landscape, Tolliver shares how she found and then used her voice to critique and question, to advocate and educate, to appeal to and share stories of everyday people. In recounting her life before, during, and after a career as a pioneering figure in the world of television journalism, Accidental Anchorwoman offers readers an inside perspective on what it meant to break barriers and be the change during decades of tremendous social, political, and cultural transformation."" -Dr. Karen Dunak, Arthur G. and Eloise Barnes Cole Chair of American History at Muskingum University and author of Our Jackie: Public Claims on a Private Life (NYU Press, 2024)."

Author Information

"For nearly three decades, MELBA TOLLIVER reported and anchored news at WABC-TV, WNBC-TV, News 12 Long Island and the Food Channel, in addition to writing for USA Today, Good Housekeeping, Black Sports, and other magazines and newspapers. She was host and reporter for the ABC Network series, Americans All; and for several WABC Eyewitness News series, among them, Profiles, People, Places and Things, and Consciousness Rising. She was writer/producer of ""Gordon Parks: Man for All Seasons,"" for the WABC public affairs program Like It Is. At WNBC, Tolliver created and hosted the public affairs program Meet the People. Tolliver served as Howard R. Marsh visiting professor of journalism at the University of Michigan. She has been recognized with an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Molloy College, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Association of Black Journalists, the John B. Russwurm Award from the New York City Urban League, the Matrix Award from New York Women in Communications, and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship to the University of Michigan, where she co-directed Kerner Plus 10, a conference on minorities and the media."

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