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Winner, NABJ Outstanding Book Award 2024 (National Association of Black Journalists)
For 30 years on TV, she told other people’s stories. Now she’s telling her own.
"She is a new kind of celebrity—a television superstar reporter—bred by television and its peculiar kind of intimacy which brings her into the living rooms or bedrooms or kitchens of almost a million viewers every night.”—New York Times
In 1967, by accident, Melba Tolliver was the first Black American to anchor network news, going on to report and anchor for WABC-TV Eyewitness News, WNBC, and News 12 Long Island.
Famously, Melba Tolliver's defiant insistence on wearing her hair in a natural afro when covering the White House wedding of Tricia Nixon earned retaliation from the WABC bosses. In 1973, when the New York Times dubbed Melba a "superstar reporter," a publisher asked for her memoir.
It was worth the wait. Packed with telling detail, Accidental Anchorwoman fills in the backstory of a life that has deeply influenced modern journalism. Reporting with wit and humor from her ninth decade, Melba has provocative things to say about civil rights, the women's movement, identity, and journalistic objectivity. Young people can draw inspiration from Melba when battling mainstream society over personal image, gender, and race. Podcasters and journalists can learn from Melba to defy gatekeepers, while celebrating local heroes.
And we can all take a lesson from Melba in calling out bullshit.
The Valley Om, Sun, Aug 11 - Instagram Reel (Click to Watch)
Praise for "Accidental Anchorwoman"
“Hope you get to experience this memoir as I did: with joy and amazement. The emotional rollercoaster of Melba’s decades of living her life out loud, from nurse at Bellevue to broadcast news legend: the treat is the re-telling, in detail, of all those moments. My opinion: PERHAPS an accidental anchorwoman, BUT an authentic journey from start to finish.”—Carol Martin, WCBS-TV anchor; Detroit Free Press reporter; host of Alive and Wellness, on America’s Talking cable network
"Melba Tolliver, nurse, journalist, domestic violence survivor, and network news anchor, takes us on a colorful journey through her life. Her audiobook captures the sounds and flavors of her trailblazing career; her strength and courage are the centerpiece...fascinating, funny and inspiring!"--Deborah Santana, Author, Space Between the Stars: My Journey to An Open Heart, Founder/CEO of Do A Little Foundation, supporter of justice & peace
“Melba Tolliver’s memoir will amuse you, make you angry, and possibly shock you. But Accidental Anchorwoman will not bore you. It is a page turner, filled with her reflections on pivotal moments in New York City and American race relations. She recounts how she transformed challenges into opportunities for change. Beyond her career, Ms. Tolliver reveals, in excruciating detail, deeply personal experiences that shaped her personality and guided her life decisions. Her book is a fascinating ‘story behind the story’ of becoming the first Black woman to deliver a television network newscast, which led to an award-winning influential career as a journalist, teacher, speaker and now, book author.”—Randall Pinkston, former correspondent/anchor, Al Jazeera America; White House correspondent, CBS-TV News; general assignment reporter, CBS Washington Bureau
“Melba has used her storytelling gift to remind some of us and entice others to see how ‘Chance, Choice, Change & Connection’ can impact your life. I have examples dating back to landing my first job at Arista Records that catapulted my entertainment industry career, and up to thirteen years ago when I took a chance with a move to Savannah, Georgia, and landed my current job in a completely different industry. Her story is intertwined with humor, wisdom of the ancestors, Southern, Midwestern and Northern experiences that treat you to a view of American history you may have overlooked. Thank You Melba!”—Lisa Jackson, Education and Community Outreach Liaison, Savannah (GA) African Art Museum; former executive VP and general manager, 40 Acres and a Mule Musicworks; segment producer, Wake Up with Whoopi morning radio show, Premium Radio
“Melba Tolliver tells a quintessentially American story about a life marked by hard work, opportunity, risk taking, and chance. Weaving in the experiences and effects of the Great Migration, civil rights activism and legislation, and a changing media landscape, Tolliver shares how she found and then used her voice to critique and question, to advocate and educate, to appeal to and share stories of everyday people. In recounting her life before, during, and after a career as a pioneering figure in the world of television journalism, Accidental Anchorwoman offers readers an inside perspective on what it meant to break barriers and be the change during decades of tremendous social, political, and cultural transformation.”— Dr. Karen Dunak, Arthur G. and Eloise Barnes Cole Chair of American History at Muskingum University; author, Our Jackie: Public Claims on a Private Life, NYU Press, 2024
"Melba shares her story with singular wit and style, and the profound life lessons she learned. I’m not sure Melba ‘tells all,’ but it doesn’t get more personal than this!"—Marquita Pool-Eckert, former CBS-TV News Producer
“Melba Tolliver is a pioneer in American journalism, as a reporter, as an anchorwoman, and as a brilliant individual who has a keen mind. From her defiant afro to her sharp on-air skills, she has been a role model for untold numbers of eager young journalists. In her new, insightful, and sometimes raw autobiography she delivers a detailed and powerful review of her storied career in the television news business. Accidental Anchorwoman is chock full of fascinating, behind-the-scenes accounts of personal and historical events and issues. This is a ‘must read’ for anyone who wants a first-hand recollection of what goes on in the rough-and-tumble world of local television news—particularly in New York City.”— Hwesu Samuel Murray, Attorney, author of African American Economic Development: A Plan for Black America; former WABC-TV producer of Like It Is
“Melba is the best at anything she does and here we see an example in this memoir. Fun, funny, inspiring. A must-read.”—Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing on Empty and Writing Down the Bones
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Vanessa Tyler profiles Melba Tolliver
Affectionate and detailed biographical portrait of Melba Tolliver, created in 2016 by Emmy award-winning journalist Vanessa Tyler for the series "What's Eating Harlem." Several mentions made of "Accidental Anchorwoman," then being written.
Gwen Ifill's Early Inspiration: Melba Tolliver
Video excerpt from acclaimed journalist Gwen Ifill's 2009 Interview with Julian Bond, for "Explorations in Black Leadership" series.
Video Transcript:
BOND: Now, I’ve read and we’ve talked a little bit here, and I’ve read in things about you, about why — how long you wanted to be a journalist, but was there — I’ve had other women tell me it was Brenda Starr. Did you ever have a Brenda Starr moment?
IFILL: Melba Tolliver.
BOND: Yes, I’ve heard about Melba. Tell us who Melba Tolliver is.
IFILL: Melba Tolliver was the only African American woman I’d ever seen on television and she had a big Afro and when we turned on our black and white set, there she was. I believe she worked for CBS at the time. And I’ve never met her. All I know is that she left a very big impression upon me because I didn’t want to be in television, but here was a Black woman asking the questions. I liked that. I could see that. And to this day, when people approach me and tell me that they’re glad to see me on television because they have daughters who see me and they see that same thing, that makes my day. That’s what I want to know, the sense of possibility.
ABOUT MELBA TOLLIVER
For nearly three decades, MELBA TOLLIVER reported and anchored news at WABC-TV, WNBC-TV, News 12 Long Island and the Food Channel, in addition to writing for USA Today, Good Housekeeping, Black Sports, and other magazines and newspapers. She was host and reporter for the ABC Network series, Americans All; and for several WABC Eyewitness News series, among them, Profiles, People, Places and Things, and Consciousness Rising. She was writer/producer of “Gordon Parks: Man for All Seasons,” for the WABC public affairs program Like It Is. At WNBC, Tolliver created and hosted the public affairs program Meet the People. Tolliver served as Howard R. Marsh visiting professor of journalism at the University of Michigan and Writer-in-residence at Pratt Institute. She has been recognized with an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Molloy College, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Association of Black Journalists, the John B. Russwurm Award from the New York City Urban League, the Matrix Award from New York Women in Communications, and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship to the University of Michigan, where she co-directed Kerner Plus 10, a conference on minorities and the media.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
Independent bookstores have a history of publishing important books: in 1920s Paris, Sylvia Beach of Shakespeare and Company published James Joyce’s Ulysses; In 1950s San Francisco, Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights Bookstore published Allen Ginsberg’s Howl.
In 2020s Easton, Pennsylvania, Rebecca Migdal and I are proud to publish Melba Tolliver’s Accidental Anchorwoman.
Andrew Laties
Co-owner, Book and Puppet Company
Author, Rebel Bookseller: Why Indie Businesses Represent Everything You Want to Fight For—From Free Speech to Buying Local to Building Communities
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Melba Tolliver
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