Journalists Billye Aaron, Rebecca Burns, Jim Galloway, Paul Hemphill and Marshall Latimore will be inducted into the Atlanta Press Club Hall of Fame this year!
Five outstanding journalists will be inducted into the Atlanta Press Club Hall of Fame during a ceremony scheduled for November 11, 2021. 2021 marks the eleventh anniversary of the annual Hall of Fame program.
This year’s event is sold-out, but you may view the digital program here:
Click here to make a donation to the Atlanta Press Club in honor of our 2021 inductees. Your gift is tax-deductible and supports our 501(c)(3) programs for internships, conversation series and more!
About the honorees:
Billye Aaron blazed a trail as co-host of WSB-TV’s Today in Georgia, becoming the first African-American woman in the southeast to host a daily talk show in 1968, and she followed up with her weekly talk show, Billye, for WTMJ-TV in 1973. She began her career as an English teacher in Atlanta Public Schools, Spelman College, Morehouse College, South Carolina State College, and Morris Brown College. She has worked for many years leading fundraising efforts for the United Negro College Fund as well as the NAACP. Aaron and her late husband, Hank Aaron, created the Hank Aaron Chase the Dream Foundation to assist low-income children with educational scholarships.
Rebecca Burns covered Atlanta for more than 20 years as a journalist, editor, and author of three books on Atlanta history. She served as editor-in-chief of Atlanta magazine from 2002-2009 and worked as director of digital strategy for Emmis Publishing. One of her books, Burial for a King, shares the story of the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his funeral in Atlanta. Burns is the Executive Director of The Red & Black Publishing Company, an independent, nonprofit student media organization that covers Athens and the University of Georgia. She is a part-time instructor at UGA and previously taught at Emory University. She is a past board member of the Atlanta Press Club.
Jim Galloway had been an editor and writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from 1979 until his retirement this year. Most recently, he had served as the newspaper’s political columnist and was the creator of its current-events blog, Political Insider. Galloway’s fields of specialty have included religion, focusing on conservative evangelicals in the South, and international affairs. Among his awards is the prestigious Knight-Wallace Fellowship Program at the University of Michigan, where Galloway studied Chinese language, economics and philosophy. He has written extensively about American politics at the local, municipal, state, regional and national levels.
Paul Hemphill, who died in 2009, had a career that spanned journalism, novels, and essays. A sportswriter from the start, Hemphill wrote about many of the things he loved including country music, minor league baseball, and NASCAR. In the 1960’s, Hemphill wrote a daily column for The Atlanta Journal. His 2005 biography of Hank Williams, Lovesick Blues, and his 1993 memoir, Leaving Birmingham: Notes of a Native Son, were listed on Georgia Center for the Book’s annual “25 Books All Georgians Should Read.” An Auburn University Alum, Hemphill’s last book was A Tiger Walk Through History, a volume on the history of Auburn football.
Marshall Latimore was the executive editor of the Atlanta Voice from 2017 until his death in March 2021. Leader, mentor, and friend, Latimore left his mark on the newspaper helping transform it into a multimedia company. A Birmingham, Alabama native, he came to Atlanta via Nashville where he was executive editor of StayOnTheGo Magazine. Latimore was dedicated to encouraging the next generation of Black journalists through his involvement in the National Association of Black Journalists as well as General Motor’s mentorship program, “Discover the Unexpected,” a summer internship program connecting students from Historically Black Colleges & Universities with historically Black newspapers.
The Atlanta Press Club 2021 Hall of Fame is made possible in part by Title Sponsors The Coca-Cola Company and The Southern Company, and Platinum Sponsor, The Home Depot.
If you would like to sponsor this event, become a host committee member or purchase sponsor tickets, please contact phovater@atlpressclub.org