Black women journalists in Washington share what it was like to cover the Sept. 11 2001 terrorist attacks.
To mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Black Women Unmuted brought together editor-in-chief Sonya Ross and two of her White House beat colleagues, Kia Baskerville and Kia Johnson, to talk about that tragic, unforgettable moment in U.S. history.
Ross, then a reporter for The Associated Press, and Baskerville, then a producer for CBS News, were traveling with President George W. Bush in Florida. It was Baskerville’s first Air Force One assignment. By the end of the day, Ross made history as a member of the nation’s first presidential evacuation “nuclear bunker” press pool. Johnson, a producer for Reuters Video News and mother to two toddlers, was sitting in the floor at home, braiding her 3-year-old daughter’s hair when the news flashed across her TV screen. So she calmed her babies, picked herself up, and went to work.
Watch these ladies get to the real about their 9/11 experiences in a candid conversation about the impact the terrorist attack had on their lives as journalists, as women and as Black Americans.
