ROBIN WASHINGTON grew up in a Chicago family of Black and Jewish civil rights activists, participating in sit-ins and protests when he was three years old — events he recalls fondly as “family outings,” though history records them as dangerous and nation-changing.
He has gone on to chronicle that movement in his career as a journalist, covering every imaginable human endeavor from politics to criminal justice to transportation and the arts. Currently a producer-host for Wisconsin Public Radio, a contributing editor/intern mentor for American City Business Journals and editor-at-large of the Forward, he was previously editor-in-chief of the Duluth News Tribune, an editorial board of the Boston Globe, a Boston Herald columnist and an on-air personality for GBH, Black Entertainment Television, National Public Radio and numerous other broadcasts outlets. He has been a commentator/guest on MSNBC, Fox News, ABC News, CNN, and the BBC, as well as numerous regional TV and radio stations and podcasts. He was interim commentary editor at The Marshall Project and managing editor of the Bay State Banner and a contributor to other Black-owned media as well as the Jewish press for more than 30 years.
Washington's major work is the 1995 public television documentary, "You Don't Have to Ride Jim Crow!" The story of the first Freedom Ride, in 1947, the program brought Irene Morgan to national attention as "The Grandmother of the Civil Rights Movement" and led to the exoneration 75 years later of civil rights activists wrongly convicted of violating segregation laws in the South. Earlier, in 1990, Washington produced very likely the first television interview with then-Harvard Law student Barack Obama, as well as a world exclusive with Winnie Mandela shortly after the release of her then-husband, Nelson.
Washington's many journalism honors include the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award, A New England Emmy and multiple nominations, a dozen "Salute to Excellence" honors from the National Association of Black Journalists and many others. As editor, he led the Duluth News Tribune to the most national awards in its 130-year history, including from the Society of Professional Journalists, Investigative Editors and Reports, and Scripps-Howard. Along with "You Don't Have to Ride Jim Crow!" his acclaimed documentaries include "My Favorite Things at 50." "The Alabama 35" and "Vietnam: Radio First Termer."
In civic life, Washington is board president of the Duluth Art Institute and has also served as president of the Twin Ports African American Men's Group and the Boston Association of Black Journalists. He has also served on the boards of the National Association of Black Journalists, the Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation, the Jewish Community Relations Council of MInnesota and the Dakotas and many other groups. Books he has contributed to include “There Ain’t But a Few of Us: Black Music Writers Tell Their Story,” (Duke
University Press), Willard Jenkins, ed., 2022; “Boston's Banner Years: 1965-2015; A Saga of Black Success (Archway Publishing,), Melvin B. Miller, ed., 2015; The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Race, Class
and Crime in America” (Palgrave Macmillan), Charles Ogletree, ed., 2010; and “Multi-America” (Viking Press), Ishmael Reed, ed., 1997
Washington studied engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology and was a Fellow in Science Broadcasting Journalism at WGBH Educational Foundation. He was an adjunct professor of journalism at Emerson College and Northeastern University and has lectured at Harvard, MIT, Brown, Middlebury, the University of Minnesota and dozens of other colleges and universities, including Lake Superior College, where he was the 2023 commencement speaker. He has also spoken at churches, synagogues, professional and civic groups and is a research scholar for the Institute for Jewish and Community Research.
Robin is married to Julia Cheng, an anti-poverty advocate and photojournalist who also has national credits. He is the father of Erin Washington, who followed him into the business as a newspaper production manager. She is also a dancer and choreographer; skills, Robin says, she clearly did not inherit from him.
This site includes links to selections from Robin’s work, as well as to other relevant sites, including that for his mother, artist and civil rights activist Jean Birkenstein Washington, who passed away June 28, 2003.
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