Alvin Adams Symposium held at OHIO honored talented journalist and alumnus

The Alvin Adams Symposium was held Sept. 13, 2019, in the Schoonover Center for Communication Ohio University's Athens Campus. Adams was one of the first black graduates of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and covered the Civil Rights Movement for Jet magazine and the Chicago Defender.

Held in conjunction with the Ohio University Black Alumni Reunion (BAR), the symposium was co-hosted by the journalism school and the Scripps College of Communication and brought together members of Adams’ family, current students, alumni and faculty from across the university.

“It was a very good day, because our students learned about a heroic, talented journalist and graduate of our program,” said Bob Stewart, director of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. “I heard several alumni who attended say they wish they had known about Alvin Adams a long time ago.”

Moderated by Matt Barnes, BSJ ’08, co-anchor of NBC4 Today in Columbus, the first session featured members of Adams’ family and his former colleagues to tell stories about the journalist’s life. Adams’s daughter, Dr. Amelia Adams and son, Alvin Clay Adams III, spoke about their father to an audience that included many current OHIO students.

“My dad would want you to be seen as the intelligent professionals that you are becoming,” Dr. Adams said, specifically addressing the journalism majors in the crowd.

The second session, called “Taking the Alvin Adams Story to the Screen,” was presented by School of Media Arts & Studies alumnus Kyle Bowser. He discussed how Adams’ story might be told in a film production.

Sessions concluded with an alumni panel. Senior visual communication major Micah Fluellen served as moderator for the panel, which featured Janelle Coleman, BSJ ’95, executive vice president of external affairs at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium; Ashley Ferguson, BSJ ’06, author and owner of Copy and Content Boutique; Jennifer Moore, BSJ ’07, executive producer at KHOU-11 in Houston, Texas; Earl Hopkins, BSJ ’19, education and family issues reporter for USA TODAY’s Courier and Press in Indiana; and Wrienne Mitchell, BSC ’05, senior network engineer with Covia Corporation.   

"I learned a lot about being both a professional and a human being in a newsroom," said freshman journalism major Taylor Burnette. "It's nice to hear that successful people can fail too. Some of the advice that stuck with me was what Janelle Coleman said: ‘give people grace.'"

The last event was the BAR reception on the roof of the Athens City parking garage, featuring food, music and displays by student organizations. It was sunny and humid on the top level of the garage, but guests braved the heat to fill plates with food and retreated to a lower level to eat and reminisce about their time as students.

The event served as an opportunity for visiting black alumni to not only return to campus and to share their memories of time as students but to learn about Adams’ legacy.

"I really remember the camaraderie of the campus," said Tracey Bennett, who lived on campus as a student in the late 1980s and early 1990. "Because everybody knew everybody—especially the black students—we were all like a nice collective unit."