CBS Reporter Randall Pinkston Kicks Off SBU's Black History Month

“You can’t use that fountain,” the matron told the boy's mother as she tried to get him and his sister a drink during a visit to a Mississippi zoo. They could take a used bottle out back to fill up from a faucet, the matron said. Instead, the family waited for the matron to walk about a half mile away and drank from the fountain. When she happened to walk back and saw the two young children drinking from the fountain, the family, risking arrest, quickly left the zoo.

It is the first memory Randall Pinkston, a three-time Emmy Award winning CBS reporter, has of treatment based on the color of his skin. As the keynote speaker for Stony Brook University’s celebration of Black History Month, held in the Student Activities Center auditorium on Jan. 30, Pinkston recalled the moment as an example of the racist treatment that permeated throughout the southern United States in previous decades. But it also showed the great courage that many African-Americans displayed, including Pinkston's own mother, who risked going to jail for a drink of water.

“It was just a matter of principle for her,” he said.

In a half-hour long speech, Pinkston spoke about facing racial discrimination as a citizen and as a reporter and the hope he has generated from the progress made during his lifetime.

Pinkston recalled dreaming of becoming a pilot and wanting to attend the U.S. Air Force Academy. He soon realized this dream would not come true.
He needed to get a letter of recommendation from his congressman, Senator James Eastland. Eastland had served in the Senate for more than 30 years and had established a reputation as a segregationist.

“No way that I was going to be nominated by Congressman Eastland for anything,” Pinkston said. From this, Pinkston learned to not let circumstances limit his ambitions, believing that hard work could trump all mitigating factors.

“Race did not limit our dreams,” he said. “If one door closes another one opens, and you have to look for it.”

Frankie Edwards, the Brookhaven NAACP Education Chair, said Pinkston's speech “hit home,” especially as a black female senior citizen.

“I could really relate to what he was saying,” she said.

The door that opened for Pinkston was one that led him to journalism. His father's reverend told him to seek employment at a radio station that needed to hire black workers or risk losing its broadcast license. Since then, he has garnered many awards in journalism, but Pinkston still finds himself facing racial discrimination.

He recalled being pulled over for no other transgression than “DWB,” or "Driving While Black." He described having to sometimes make a special request for a press release at a news event after being ignored during its handout, a result of “RWB,” or "Reporting While Black."

“It is not right, but it happens,” he said.

Aluta Khanyile, 23, a member of the Stony Brook chapter of the MALIK Fraternity, said that Pinkston’s example of “DWB” is a perfect example of the “plight of a black man in the USA.”

“It gave you a visual reality of how black males, young and old, face the same issues,” Khanyile said.

A more dangerous example of discrimination Pinkston faced on the job happened in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. While he was never threatened, three of his black colleagues faced physical threats. Prior to the United States invasion of Afghanistan, Afghanis only knew black people as trainees of Al-Qaeda. In their eyes, if you were not Caucasian or Muslim, you were Al-Qaeda.

Despite the problems Pinkston has encountered, he offered hope based on changes he has seen. He pointed to the diversity of the Stony Brook campus as one such example. He called the presidential campaign, featuring a black male and a white woman, a “true turning point” in American history.

“Who would have thought this was possible, five to ten years ago?” he asked.