By Allison Jewell
TV anchor Monica Kaufman Pearson, the vivacious and successful University of Louisville alum, made a visit to the institution Oct. 6.
Organized by the University’s Alumni Relations Department, Pearson took time to answer questions from a media history class. Later, she sat down for lunch with members of The Louisville Cardinal and U of L’s National Association of Black Journalists chapter to all them more about her.
A Pawned Education
Pearson grew up in the Smoketown neighborhood slightly east of downtown. Although she grew up in a time of segregation and redlining, that did not dampen her spirit.
Her mother was the first person in her family to graduate from high school and always stressed the importance of education. Pearson recalls the advice of her mother as life-defining.
“She said, ‘People may not like you because you are a girl. They may not like you because you’re colored, but if you have something they need with a good brain, they’ll put up with you just for that,'” Pearson said. “So, education was everything to her.”
Catholic education was also important to Pearson’s mother–she would pawn her wedding ring every year to fund her daughter’s education at Presentation Academy, a local girls’ Catholic school. At the end of the year, she would make back enough money to buy the ring back for the summer, and then pawn it again in the fall for tuition for the next school year.
Because of her mother’s encouragement, Pearson enrolled at the University of Louisville after graduating from Presentation Academy. At that time, the university did not even have a Department of Communication.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English, Pearson began working in public relations for Brown Forman and reporting for the Louisville Times. It was there that she was told she had a knack for broadcast media. She then applied for a job as a clerk at WHAS-TV Louisville and eventually became the city’s first Black female anchor.
From Hard News to Hard Laughs
Being a media personality was not her dream job. In fact, she thought she would pursue teaching with her English degree.
“Because I didn’t see people like me doing it, I didn’t think I could do it,” she said.
When she started at WHAS, many people opposed her presence on TV.
“You had the audience not happy about it — both black and white. Black people wanted you to be more ‘power to the people’ and white people just didn’t want you there. And then you had to worry about the people on the set with you. I’m so glad at that time we didn’t have Twitter, Instagram and all the social media because of the negative comments that I got over the phone.”
Pearson even experienced harassment from co-workers, detailing one of many incidents that happened within the workplace.
“I even had one male anchor when I first met him look at me and say, ‘Hi, want to see my dick?’”
The sexist and racist treatment Pearson received only fueled her desire for success. She would write down every comment and microaggression in a notebook, bringing that list to the table every time her contract was up for renewal.
Following WHAS, she moved to Atlanta and beat out Oprah Winfrey as an anchor at WSB-TV, also becoming their first Black female news anchor.
Despite retiring from broadcasting in 2012, Pearson continues to work. She hosts an interview show called Monica Pearson One on One and has interviewed countless celebrities, including the likes of Dolly Parton and John Legend; she even got the opportunity to interview ex-president Jimmy Carter when he won his Nobel Prize.
However, the biggest shift for Pearson is the ability to be more “loosey-goosey,” as she calls it, during her interviews.
“The nice thing about the personality interviews is that I can raise all kinds of questions and do all kinds of crazy stuff that I couldn’t do before because it’s not news, it’s personality,” she said. “And I have a lot of fun with that.”
Pearson’s piercing personality was only sharpened by the sapphire blue pantsuit set she wore with the diamonds of her mother’s engagement ring delicately hanging from her neck. She recalls a phrase her mother used, “If you is who you ain’t, you ain’t who you is,” which she claims helped shape her into the confident and successful person she is today.
Cardinal reporter Allison Jewell as she interviews Pearson. Photo courtesy of April Waddell, U of L A&S Advancement team.
A True Cardinal
Pearson’s accomplishments are some the University of Louisville holds dear. Not only is she a prominent woman of color who helped to change racial intersections in media, but she holds the core values of a Cardinal inside her — service to students and community, professionalism and diversity.
Her career has manifested in many awards and acclaims. She’s won 33 Southern Regional Emmy awards, received Hall of Fame status at organizations like the National Association of Black Journalists and the Georgia Association of Broadcasters, and was honored by the U.S. House of Representatives after her retirement.
Pearson’s main goal is to “go to the grave empty,” meaning she plans to help and teach aspiring media professionals to make their way into the business, especially those who find representation in her work. For example, she supports U of L’s National Association of Black Journalists chapter, an effort to expand media opportunities for black students and provide advocacy.
“What I do is share it with students. I share as much as I can about the business, and what’s required in the business now. Because it’s changed a lot. I want to be in a position of ‘if I were your age,’ to determine how a newsroom operates so that you have the diversity, and you have everything a newsroom needs to provide the coverage of events that people really want.”
Pearson’s interview show Monica Pearson One on One is available on YouTube, along with many of her other interviews. She continues to trailblaze a path for women and people of color in the media industry today and remains one of U of L’s most successful alumni.
Photo Courtesy / April Waddell, U of L A&S Advancement
