"No one's ever assumed a white reporter can't cover a white candidate."
— Gwen Ifill
While at Simmons College, Gwen Ifill interned for the Boston Herald-American. One day at work, she discovered a note on her desk that read, "Nigger go home." After showing the note to editors at the newspaper, who "were horrified," they offered her a job when she graduated from college in 1977. Ifill's close friend Michele Norris stated that Ifill said, "'That was really unfortunate, but I have work to do.' And that's how she got the job. She didn't get the job out of sympathy. She got the job because she didn't let that slow her down."
Gwen Ifill went on to become the first African American woman to host a nationally televised U.S. public affairs program with Washington Week in Review. She was the moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and co-anchor and co-managing editor, with Judy Woodruff, of the PBS NewsHour, both of which air on PBS. Ifill was a political analyst and moderated the 2004 and 2008 vice-presidential debates. She authored the best-selling book The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. She was a groundbreaking African American journalist who opened doors for other Black colleagues to follow her.
Gwendolyn L. Ifill was born in Jamaica, Queens in New York City. She was the fifth of six children of African Methodist Episcopal (AME) minister (Oliver) Urcille Ifill Sr. Her father's ministry required the family to live in several cities in New England and on the Eastern Seaboard during her youth, where he pastored AME churches. As a child, she lived in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts church parsonages and in federally subsidized housing in Buffalo and New York City. Ifill graduated from Springfield Central High School (then Classical High School) in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1973 and then graduated in 1977 with a Bachelor of Arts in communications from Simmons College, a women's college in Boston.
While at Simmons College, she interned at the Boston-Herald American and suffered the incident described. This only motivated Ifill to pursue her career more vigorously and professionally. Her career took off in 1981 when she began working for the Baltimore Evening Sun and later at the Washington Post until 1984. She left the Post after being told she was not ready to cover Capitol Hill but was hired by The New York Times, where she covered the White House from 1991 to 1994. Her first job in television was with NBC, where she was the network's Capitol Hill reporter in 1994. It was her first job as a television news reporter.
In October 1999, she became the moderator of the PBS program Washington Week in Review, the first black woman to host a national political talk show on television. Additionally, she became a senior correspondent for PBS NewsHour. Ifill appeared on various news shows, including Meet the Press, Face the Nation, Charlie Rose, Inside Washington, and The Tavis Smiley Show.
Ifill’s news reporting and broadcasting were highly respected for her balance, fairness, candor, and presentation. Ifill was asked to serve on the boards of the Harvard Institute of Politics, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Museum of Television and Radio, and the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism. So impressive was she that in 2017, the Committee to Protect Journalists renamed the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award, which started in 1991, to the Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award. It was shortly after she died in 2016.
On October 5, 2004, Gwen Ifill became the first Black woman to moderate a Vice-Presidential debate. The debate featured the Republican Vice President Dick Cheney and the Democratic candidate and U.S. Senator from North Carolina, John Edwards. Then in 2008, she again moderated the Vice-Presidential debate between Democratic VP candidate, Joe Biden, and Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin.
Before the 2008 debate, conservative talk radio, blogs, and cable news programs criticized her because of her forthcoming book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. It was scheduled for release on Inauguration Day in 2009, so right-wing pundits opined that she could not be a neutral moderator for the debate. However, the Republican Presidential nominee, John McCain, dismissed such criticism. He said on Fox News, "I think she will do a totally objective job because she is a highly respected professional." Asked about the forthcoming book, McCain responded, "Does this help...if she has written a book that's favorable to Senator Obama? Probably not. But I have confidence that Gwen Ifill will do a professional job."
Ifill responded to the critics by saying, “I've got a pretty long track record covering politics and news, so I'm not particularly worried that one-day blog chatter is going to destroy my reputation. The proof is in the pudding. They can watch the debate tomorrow night and make their own decisions about whether or not I've done my job.”
Almost universally, Ifill was praised for a balanced and fair job as the moderator. The Boston Globe reported that she received "high marks for equal treatment of the candidates".
In September 2011, Ifill was a presenter at the 32nd News & Documentary Emmy Awards. On August 6, 2013, NewsHour named Ifill and Judy Woodruff as co-anchors and co-managing editors. They shared anchor duties Monday through Thursday; Woodruff was the sole anchor on Friday. In November 2015, Ifill was the master of ceremonies at the 2015 LBJ Liberty & Justice For All Award ceremony. In February 2016, she and Woodruff, moderating the debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, became the first team of women to moderate a Democratic presidential debate.
Ifill died of breast and endometrial cancer on November 14, 2016, at age 61. On November 14, PBS NewsHour devoted their full show in tribute to her. Over the following week, this developed into a series of tributes on various NewsHour broadcasts called "Remembering Gwen."
Leaders from both sides of the political spectrum praised her as a solid and great journalist. President Obama extended his condolences to Ifill's family, saying that he "always appreciated [her] reporting even when [he] was at the receiving end of one of her tough interviews." Speaker of the House Paul Ryan expressed his condolences, describing Ifill as "an incredibly talented and respected journalist."
Before Ifill died, she received many major awards for her journalistic skills. In June 2009, Gwen Ifill was inducted into the Washington, DC Journalism Hall of Fame by the Washington DC chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2012, Ifill was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame. In 2014, she was awarded the Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in Journalism. Her work on the PBS town hall special America After Ferguson earned her a nomination for Outstanding Host in a Talk, Reality, News/ Information or Variety (Series or Special) at the 46th NAACP Image Awards. In November 2015, she accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women's Media Center at the annual Women's Media Awards ceremony and she received the Fourth Estate Award from the National Press Club in 2015. Columbia University awarded Ifill the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2016, but she died two days before the scheduled ceremony.
Gwen Ifill is a major journalist who overcame obstacles in the male-white-dominated news business to become a role model for other African American women who have since become respected journalists. She is worth remembering during African American History Month, in 2024.
Here is a short interview with Gwen Ifill about her career in television news: