Houston Chronicle Gets First Black News Columnist in 122 Years

The Houston Chronicle is evolving by naming seasoned journalist Joy Sewing as its first Black news columnist in the paper’s 122-year history.

Having covered the city’s vibrant culture and diversity for the Chronicle, the Houston native will utilize her experiences and reporting acumen to provide insightful commentary on salient issues like social justice, politics, education, healthcare, and inequality. Her columns will spur readers toward righting wrongs and lifting each other up.

Sewing has written extensively about navigating the child welfare system as a foster and adoptive parent. She led the Chronicle’s coverage of Houston’s response to the George Floyd murder, with the Society for Features Journalism honoring her culture columns in 2021 as “touching works about humanity.”

Beyond writing, Sewing has penned a children’s book on her adopted rescue boxers called “Ava and the Prince: The Adventures of Two Rescue Pups.” She founded the nonprofit Year of Joy, providing educational and cultural trips for underprivileged youth, including an annual ice skating party.

Her diverse experiences include becoming Houston’s first African American figure skating coach as a college student, completing a Spanish language fellowship in Mexico, studying racism in Cuba through an Institute for Advanced Journalism Studies fellowship, and participating in the Poynter Institute’s Diverse Voices program.

She serves as vice president of the Houston Association of Black Journalists and teaches journalism as an adjunct professor at her University of Houston alma mater.

With Sewing’s expansive skill set and life experiences, the Chronicle positions itself at the forefront of amplifying diverse voices while providing reader-focused coverage of Houston’s evolution.

As Houston welcomes a new mayor in 2024, braces for a state takeover of public schools, and emerges into post-pandemic life, change will undoubtedly become the norm for residents with the Chronicle’s appointment of its first Black news columnist.

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