My Times in Black and White: Race and Power at the New York Times

Here is a book that I was unable put down for any significant length of time — spellbinding, informative, fascinating and eye opening. The author is Gerald Boyd, the format is a memoir. In his career he reached the second highest editorial position at the Times against all odds, being black, coming from "stifling poverty" in St. Louis to this very senior post after having decided that journalism would be his only escape. How did he manage all of this? Well, no parents around, the mother dead, the father a drunkard, and it is a grandmother who raised him and his brother. Gerald Boyd worked all his life, first in a grocery store, then later he received a full scholarship to the University of Missouri, various positions at various newspapers, always stepping up the ladder and finally ending up for twenty years or so at the Times. It is an incredible success story of a dedicated and driven black man who was, I don't know how many times, the first black man reaching a certain position. This is a fact that he is always very much aware of. Boyd preached and accomplished diversity wherever he was, mentored, received awards, helped countless other people of color, formed incredible friendships. He liked the Times "I was addicted to the paper and all it represented, cloaking myself in its power and prestige," he says. He faced discrimination and racial slights  many many times. And it is to suspect that his white superiors patronized and betrayed him, but he definitely changed the diversity within the newspaper substantially and he certainly believed in it. I would not consider him a happy man throughout his life and only when he marries his third wife, Robin Stone, and has a son he is finally able to derive some personal pleasure.

The even more captivating facet of the book though is to learn about the "inner workings" of the newspaper, how thoroughly stories are investigated and written; trust and distrust among editors/reporters; personal grudges that exist but are not acknowledged openly, and the incredible competitiveness with each other to be recognized and to be valued. This is also at a time before the economy went downhill and money is spent more easily, the time when the Internet was looking for it's own place and subscription rates to the printed media went down — at the time before and after 9/11. The frantic storm that hit when the World Trade Center came down and how stories are born and carried out by a huge corps of reporters and editors.

Unfortunately Boyd's reputation gets forever involved with that of Jayson Blair, a black man, who fabricated many events, and this finally leads to Boyd's departure from the Times. Boyd is accused of favoring Jayson Blair, a fact that he strongly denies.

Well, he goes back to private life, cancer is discovered in 2006 and he dies.