Book overview
Newsman is an autobiography of Otis Sanford's experiences growing up in a large African American family in Mississippi during the turbulent civil rights era and the factors that influenced his 50-year career in journalism.
The subtitle, "The Road from Route 2 Box 9," represents more than simply the mailing address of the 40-acre farm where Sanford grew up in Panola County, Mississippi. It marks where Sanford's parents settled in the early 1940s aiming to build a family based on love, a strong work ethic, Christian values, education and discipline.
Newsman is what Sanford became. Route 2 Box 9 symbolizes who he is and the events in his childhood that fueled his ambitions. Despite hardships and overt racism, the life lessonshe learned from his parents and siblings drove him to pursue a career that most African Americans considered unattainable.
Along the way, he had teachers and mentors, black and white, who saw his determination, believed in his abilities and pushed him to achieve his goals.
Newsman describes the historic and often heartbreaking events during the Civil Rights Movement that greatly impacted his family. It captures the disappointments he overcame as he chased his dreams. And it details his improbable rise from a Mississippi farm boy to national prominence as an award-winning writer, respected newsroom leader, journalism educator and political analyst and commentator.
The result is a half-century career at four metropolitan newspapers, two mid-size television stations and as the distinguished chair of excellence in journalism at the University of Memphis.