Special Events

 Local Journalist Reception |Donna Allen Roundtable Luncheon|Gala Dinner

Awards Luncheon ♦ Thursday, Nov. 5
Included with registration 

Attendees enjoy a plated, table service lunch as AJHA honors the winners of the Sidney Kobre Award for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism History and the National Award for Excellence in Teaching.

AJHA's highest honor, the Kobre Award recognizes individuals with an exemplary record of sustained achievement in journalism history through teaching, research, professional activities, or other contributions to the field of journalism history.

This year's honoree is Michael Conway, a professor emeritus at Indiana University, creator and director of the Indiana Broadcast History Archive, and a former president of AJHA.

Read more about his accomplishments here. 

The National Award for Excellence in Teaching honors a college or university teacher who excels at teaching in the areas of journalism and mass communication history, makes a positive impact on student learning, and offers an outstanding example for other educators.

 An honorarium of $500 accompanies the prize.

This year's winner will be announced later this summer. 

Local Journalist Award Reception ♦ Thursday, Nov. 5
Included with registration

AJHA annually bestows its Outstanding Local Journalist Award for Substantial Contribution to the Public Interest to a journalist local to the convention city whose work has had a positive impact on the community. The recipient serves as a featured speaker at the Thursday evening reception. Reception attendees enjoy hot and cold hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar at this event.

This year, AJHA  will honor Cecil Williams, 88, a pioneering South Carolina photojournalist, who began his career publishing pictures of the Civil Rights Movement in Jet magazine when he was a teenager, will receive the American Journalism Historians Association’s annual Outstanding Local Journalist Award for Substantial Contribution to the Public Interest during this year’s the convention.

“He captured the Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina in photos — up close, personal, and accurately — for the nation to see," said Kenneth Campbell, part of the local host committee and an associate professor at the University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications. "Many likely without his name being attached with wire service dispatches published across the nation.”

Williams, who lived in Orangeburg, S. C., began freelancing for the pocket-sized Jet magazine at the age of 14. Jet, which was founded in 1951, would become one of the most popular Black magazines during the Civil Rights Movement. His picture of Coretta Scott King speaking during the hospital workers’ strike in Charleston in 1969 appeared on the cover of Jet.

Williams’ pictures documented the Briggs v. Elliott case, which began in nearby Clarendon, S.C., and was folded into the Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case that declared the racial policy of “separate but equal” unconstitutional in public schools. Williams, himself, was a victim of racially segregated schools when he was denied admission to Clemson University in South Carolina where he wanted to study architecture.

His pictures also helped tell the story of the Orangeburg Massacre, in which South Carolina Highway Patrolmen fatally shot three students on the campus of all-black South Carolina State University in February 1968 during a protest. Read more about Williams in the AJHA press release. 

Donna Allen Roundtable Luncheon ♦ Friday, Nov. 6 
Additional charge

The annual Donna Allen Luncheon celebrates contributions of women to the field of journalism. American Journalism Historians Association invites a woman journalist local to the convention city as its honored guest and featured speaker for the luncheon. 

This year, AJHA is pleased to feature Beryl Dakers, a trailblazing journalist whose career has spanned public and commercial broadcasting as well as producing historical documentaries. 

Dakers has broken ground for women and minorities over the years, taking on responsibilities and challenges in journalistic leadership positions. 

“Few individuals have done more to preserve, interpret, and share the history and culture of South Carolina than Beryl Dakers,” said Dr. Bobby Donaldson, associate professor of history and executive director of the Center for Civil Rights History and Research at the University of South Carolina. “Throughout a remarkable career spanning more than five decades, she has combined the highest standards of journalism with a deep commitment to research and historical storytelling.

Dakers was the editor of her high school newspaper at C. A. Johnson High School in Columbia, S.C.,  then studied journalism at Syracuse University. Returning to her home city, she became the first African American on-air news reporter for WIS radio in the early 1970s. She went on to become one of the first African American on-air personalities at WIS TV, the leading station in the capital city market.

 Later, she moved to South Carolina ETV where she has used her journalistic skills as a host, reporter, producer, and documentary filmmaker. She has been nominated for two Emmy Awards. 

Documentaries she has produced or co-produced include: “Strom Thurmond -- At the Seat of Power” (1982); “Makin’ a Way Out of No Way: Modjeska Monteith Simkins (1990),” which tells the story of the "matriarch of civil rights activists" in South Carolina; “The World of Cecil: Photographer and Photojournalist Cecil J. Williams” (2023), who documented the Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina; and “Sisterhood: SC Suffragists” (2020-2021), a three-part series celebrating the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment and the role of South Carolina women.  

Dakers has also created some of SCETV’s most popular programs, including "NatureScene" and "What in the World Is It?"

Read more about Dakers in the AJHA press release. 

Gala Dinner ♦ Saturday, Nov. 7♦ 
Additional Charge

The closing event for the annual AJHA convention enables attendees to gather as a group in a social setting.

Carolina barbecue is on the menu at Fireforge Crafted Beer just blocks from the conference hotel (311 E. Washington St., off Main Street downtown) in the closing event for the annual AJHA convention.

Pulled park and slow smoked beef with Fireforge’s original spice rub are made in house, and there will be plenty of other options for vegetarians and vegans. We’ll also have the traditional fixings of baked beans, slaw and mac ’n cheese.

A bluegrass band from a local performing arts high school will perform in our own private indoor space overlooking the outdoor beer garden. Beer, wine, cocktails and mocktails will also be available at the cash bar.  

University of South Carolina grads Brian and Nicole Cendrowski opened the small-batch brewery and tasting room in 2018 and are leaders in Greenville’s emerging craft brew scene.

“Fire is a symbol for passion, and our beer is crafted – forged – with my own hands,” Brian told itsgreenville.com.