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Dorothy Gaiter, BJ '73

By Yanan Zou
Master's Student
Missouri School of Journalism

A Journalist First, Last, and Always

Drinking and researching wines, analyzing tastes, and providing evaluations and recommendations for readers. That's the life of Dorothy J. Gaiter, BJ '73, who now writes a wine column for The Wall Street Journal and authors books on the subject with her husband John Brecher.

In her 36-year career, Gaiter has spent more than 25 years reporting about race and urban affairs and her work on such issues has been nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize.

"Just because there's been a change of subject doesn't make you less of a journalist," she said. "I am a journalist who writes about wine."

The Dream Emerges

Born in Red Bank, N.J., in a black American family, Gaiter's childhood memory was not all about America. At the age of six, in 1957, she moved to Indonesia with her father, an exchange professor at the Florida A&M University, who was helping the Indonesians outfit factories for woodworking. As a first-grade student at an international school, she studied among children representing more than 50 nationalities. Her best friends were Japanese, American, Indian, Dutch and British. After school, she always visited her friends' home and ate what the host family ate. It was the first time that Gaiter understood "multicultural" and the meaning of "equality."

"I felt I was first a child of the universe, second an American and third a black American," she said. "The skin color is just skin color. That's all it is. It doesn't mean anything."

This foreign living experience opened her mind. In her eyes, the world should always be as harmonious as what she saw in the international school. However, two years later when she returned to the States, what she saw was really disappointing. Due to the heating up of the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s, conflict was everywhere in America. Having an inherent aversion to segregated society, Gaiter wanted to change that. Soon, she found her own way.

"I saw brave journalists telling stories about the unfair way America had forced blacks to live. They are my heroes," Gaiter said. "I wanted to be a journalist to report on America's multicultural experience, specifically about black-American culture and race. I wanted to increase understanding and tolerance."

From then on, the dream of becoming a brave journalist took root in Gaiter's heart.

Practice, Practice and Practice

While her childhood experience left a great impact on Gaiter and informed her decision to be a journalist, it was the Missouri School of Journalism that really made her dream come true.

As a founding editor of Blackout, a black student newspaper at the Missouri School of Journalism, Dorothy J. Gaiter, BJ '73 (front row, center), wrote compelling stories about black life. Photo courtesy of the Savitar.

"After having decided what I wanted to do, there was only one place that I knew where I could actually get practical experience," Gaiter said. "It was the world-famous, the very first school of journalism established in the world - the Missouri School of Journalism."

Gaiter enrolled in her dream school and collected numerous real-world media experiences when she studied as an undergraduate student. She co-founded the black students' newspaper, Blackout, with several other J-School students, including Gerald Boyd, Sheila Rule and Tom Morgan, to write about black life on campus. Sometimes, she even reported on racial issues outside the town.

In May 1970, when she heard that two students at the all-black Jackson State College in Mississippi were killed and 12 others were injured by police who opened fire on protesting students, Gaiter wrote an editorial decrying the lack of interest among white students and the nation. "I was angry." She and Rule in jest also proposed a program called Rent a Black, for white professors who wanted to teach aspects of black culture and might need help.

As a black student, as well as a founding editor, Gaiter tried her best to involve more African-American students and African students in the Blackout publication. "We worked long and hard hours," she said. "It was fun to actually be able to write stories, edit them and to have them being published. We felt that we were giving the white college community news that it was not aware of."

The experience at Blackout prepared Gaiter for becoming a good journalist who would later write about race in her future career, but it was at the Columbia Missourian that Gaiter honed the fundamentals of being a responsible journalist. As a work-study student proofreader in the paper's advertising department, Gaiter reviewed every ad before publication.

"I made corrections and signed my name on the pages," Gaiter said. "It never occurred to me not to sign my name to these pages because I was responsible for every thing that passed through my hands. It reinforced to me that you are accountable for what you do."

As graduation neared, Gaiter interviewed with an on-campus recruiter from the Miami Herald. Due to her excellent work, Gaiter got the offer right away.

"Because we went to the Missouri School of Journalism, we could always get jobs," Gaiter said. "In J-School, your work was actually published in a real newspaper. The thing that made the School special was that you got real-life work experience."

Finding the Perfect Partner

June 4, 1973, was a big day for Gaiter - the day she started her first job as a reporter at the Miami Herald. She also met John Brecher, who would become her husband. Her first day at the Miami Herald was also his first as bureau chief of South Dade County. "It was love at first sight," Gaiter said.

At the Miami Herald, Gaiter and Brecher shared a byline on a story about the annual New Year's riot on Miami Beach, a resort destination for tourists looking for sun and beaches. After they were married in 1979, Gaiter went to work for the now-defunct Miami News as the night city editor. During the 1980s, the couple moved between Miami and New York several times. The first time was in 1980 when Newsweek hired Brecher. Gaiter accompanied him to New York and soon got a job at The New York Times.

In 1984, Gaiter and Brecher were recruited back to the Miami Herald. Race riots and corruption had erupted around the city, and the newspaper was looking for talented people to come to help. The couple returned to Miami without any hesitation. The move allowed Gaiter to become the first black woman editorial writer and regular op-ed columnist. She wrote about race as well as issues concerning Dade County and Miami Beach.

In 1990, when they were expecting their second child, perfect job opportunities came for both of them at The Wall Street Journal. Gaiter began to write about minority-owned business and race. In 1996, she moved to writing about race fulltime and became the Journal's national news editor for urban affairs. During that time, The Journal twice nominated her work for the Pulitzer Prize, and she also won awards from the Newswomen's Club of New York and the National Association of Black Journalists.

Always a Responsible Journalist

Throughout all these years as a journalist writing about race and urban affairs, Gaiter has accomplished a great deal. However, in 1998, with The Wall Street Journal launching the new weekend edition, a new opportunity came - she and Brecher, longtime wine lovers, were invited to write a weekly wine column.

This opportunity wasn't an easy decision for Gaiter. Although keen on wines, it was difficult for Gaiter to decide whether or not to become a fulltime wine writer.

"Although our nation has come very far, and we now have an African-American in the White House, we still have a distance to go," Gaiter said. "There still needs to be coverage on race issues. It was hard for me to stop and to walk away from it."

After struggling with the decision for a while, Gaiter said yes to The Wall Street Journal. Surprisingly, the wine column provided an unexpected way to continue the race discussion.

"People who follow the column will be aware that my husband is white and our children are biracial. That sort of speaks to race as well," Gaiter said. "We share our lives with our readers. It's not intentional. We just tell them who we are."

Now, as full-time columnists, Gaiter and Brecher are busy engaging their readers in their wine column "Tastings" at The Wall Street Journal and have published four books about wine, including the best-seller, "The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine: New and Improved."

"At J-School, I learned that journalism is a calling," Gaiter said. "I also learned that once you put your name on a piece of copy, you stand behind it, and you have to do your very best to make sure that the information is accurate, fair and honestly done."

Having applied all what she learned into practice, Gaiter's journalism dream, undoubtedly, has already come true.

News Releases

• May 8, 2009: Missouri School of Journalism to Recognize 505 Graduates at Spring Commencement Ceremonies

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