Story and images
by Ivory M. Jones
In the days immediately following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, people around the world sat glued to their televisions as they watched the aftermath unfold. One of the reporters on the frontlines providing viewers with nearly around-the-clock information was CNN’s Soledad O’Brien.
To the Long Island, N.Y., native, seeing the destruction and failure of the government up close and personal was more than just another assignment. It was an experience she will never forget. O’Brien recalls witnessing the unimaginable. “I’ll never forget [that] they had tied a lot of the bodies down and covered them with blue tarp so that they could find them later. There were so many that we had to maneuver a lot of our shots just so that viewers wouldn’t see the tarp in the background,” she says.
Despite witnessing such unforgettable horrors, O’Brien soon realized that her hard work had not been in vain when the crew was heading back home after a grueling 10 days spent in an RV without running water. “We walked through the Baton Rouge airport and got a standing ovation. I couldn’t believe it. To have people cheer as we walked through with our bags and our dirty clothes,” she trails off, seemingly at a loss for words. “To understand that your work had that kind of impact? It was amazing. It felt so rewarding. [Everything] from sleeping on the floor to missing my family all went out the window because it felt like, ‘wow, we as a team and we as a network made an impact on a story that was very important to the nation and to the world.’ ”
Since then, O’Brien’s commitment to covering the issues and news in a way that touches everyday people has brought her tons of accolades and awards. Her reporting during Katrina and 2004’s tragic tsunami earned her and her CNN team several awards, including a George Foster Peabody and an Alfred I. DuPont Award, respectively. The 20-year veteran has also received an NAACP President’s Award, a Clara Barton Humanitarian Award from the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay and a Women of Power Award from the National Urban League.
But perhaps the Harvard grad’s most cherished award will be the one she receives in Atlanta on April 11, when she is honored with an award created in her honor. The married mother of four will be the first to receive the Soledad O’Brien Freedom’s Voice Award during a celebratory gala. The award, which was created by Community Voices at the Morehouse School of Medicine, honors mid-career professionals who work towards social change within their fields.
Even though it isn’t her first time being honored, O’Brien, who has remained calm in the face of some of the world’s most harrowing events, admits that she is more than a bit unnerved about the approaching event. “It’s completely overwhelming. It’s coming up and I’m kind of nervous because I have to write an acceptance speech and [I] have no idea what to say,” she reveals. “It’s such a big honor; it’s incredible. Usually, I don’t ever lack for words, so to be struck speechless is something new for me. To be honored for your hard work is really a wonderful thing.”
Even with such an honor bestowed on her, O’Brien credits her family with keeping her grounded. “It [the award] will be a bust of my head. My husband in his efforts to keep me humble said that we can’t have a bust of my head on the coffee table. I said, ‘No, I’ll put it on a chain and just wear it around,’ ” jokes the 41-year-old.
When she is not crisscrossing the globe to deliver the latest news, O’Brien stays busy with her husband, Bradford Raymond, and their four children; 7-year-old Sofia, 5-year-old Cecilia and 3-year-old twins Charlie and Jackson. Although she admits it gets difficult to balance the demands of marriage and motherhood with her career, she wants young African American and Latino women everywhere to realize that anything is still possible. “Sometimes it’s really miserable and you get about four hours of sleep. Some days are really ugly days, but it is really worthwhile [because] on the career-front, you get to make a difference and it’s worthwhile on the family front because I love my family,” she says. “It’s really hard, but it’s doable.”
So have any of O’Brien’s children inherited their mother’s social awareness? According to the proud mama, it is no accident that they have. “My husband and I actually spoke about how to raise our kids … if you play it right, your children can really understand that they live in a world where they’re responsible for other people and that other people’s stories and lives really matter,” she explains.
Always eager to help shed light on situations around the world, O’Brien’s next special report will explore various aspects of the plight of African Americans when CNN premieres “Black in America: Eyewitness to Murder” on April 3. The first installment of the three-part series finds O’Brien examining the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The two-hour special report features interviews with witnesses and investigators on the case.
The second installment of the series, “Black in America: The Black Man,” debuts June 18 and takes a look at the aftermath of King’s assassination and how it affected a group of black men who were students at Little Rock Central High School. Through her research and interviews, O’Brien quickly realized that the incident and King’s legacy had very different affects on the group.
“For some students, that gave them great opportunity. They really achieved and were able to move on and be very successful. For others, it was incredibly traumatic. They still talk about it like it was yesterday,” she says. Some of those experiences included being harassed in the halls of their schools. However by telling both stories, O’Brien feels that it can give America a better understanding of the black man. “We’re able to follow the story of our nation by following the lives of these young men in 1968, as they grow, and have families and have lived,” she explains.
The series’ final installment, “Black in America: The Black Woman & Family,” airs June 19 and delves into the world of black women and the community. O’Brien believes that it was important to devote an entire episode to the plight of African American women and our community. “We felt that black women are so integral to the community that we couldn’t tell their story in a vacuum, but all of the stories link. As black men go, black women are affected also. We take a look at family, the number of children that are born to single mothers … all these things are interlinked,” she says.
Perhaps most challenging about the project for O’Brien, who is of Afro-Cuban and Irish descent, was to remain true to the story and tell it in the most compelling, yet honest way possible. “It’s such a difficult story to tell accurately and get it right, which are two completely different things,” she explains. “You can be completely accurate and still not get it right. That’s been our challenge because the history of black people in this country is complicated and very diverse for different people. You can’t grab one person and say this is your average African American because that person does not exist.”
It was O’Brien’s dedication to exploring all aspects of the story that made her a shoe-in for the special. Mark Nelson, vice president and senior executive producer of CNN Productions, says that the decision to work with her was a no-brainer on his end. “Soledad was the only journalist we considered. She has enormous passion for the project end, and as a person always searching for answers, [she] has learned so much about the state of black America … ” he states.
Although her colleagues sing her accolades, O’Brien confesses that it’s all in a day’s work to her. “I feel like I’ve accomplished a great deal, but I don’t think I’ve accomplished a lot. I just report. I just land. I interview people. I put those stories together and that’s all I do,” she emphasizes. “There’s no magic. It’s just very straight-forward, simple reporting, and in a day when you have a lot of other noise on television, it’s really refreshing to go and tell the stories of regular people who are sometimes achieving and succeeding. I have a great job. I love it!”
