Renee Poussaint

Poussaint was born on August 12, 1944, in Manhattan and grew up in Spanish Harlem.[1] Following her parents divorce, she was raised primarily by her mother and family who emphasized the importance of education.[1] Her uncle, Alvin Francis Poussaint, is a psychiatrist who consulted on The Cosby Show.[1] Poussaint graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1964 with a B.A. in English literature and completed an M.A. in African studies at UCLA in 1970.[2] During her undergraduate studies she also took courses at Yale Law School and Sorbonne University in Paris, France.[3]

She began doctoral studies in comparative literature at the Indiana University before changing course after students expressed that they got most of their information from television.[1][4] She enrolled in a journalism program at Columbia University in 1973 and was hired as a news writer in by WBBM the same year.[3][1]

In 1967, after completing her undergraduate studies, Poussaint danced with the Jean Leon Destine Haitian Dance Company.[3] She edited the Los Angeles Based African Arts Magazine from 1969 to 1973 and worked as a translator at the University of California in 1970.[3]

Poussaint's broadcast career started in 1970 in Chicago.[5] She began working at a Washington corresponding for CBS News in the mid-1979s and was hired in 1978 by WJLA-TV as an evening and late-night news co-anchor.[1][6] In the early 1980s she worked at CBS 2, anchoring the lunch hour program Channel 2: The People.[4] Poussaint would go on to anchored the ABC Evening News, often sitting in for Peter Jennings, and appeared in news segments on Good Morning America.[2]

In 2001 Poussaint founded the National Visionary Leadership Project in 2001 with Camille Cosby.[4] Funded by Camille and husband Bill Cosby, the oral history project interviewed Black elders 70 years of age and older.[3] Included among the interviewees were Maya Angelou, Roscoe Lee Browne, Shirley Chisholm, and Katherine Dunham.[3] Some of the interviews compiled by the organization were featured in the book A Wealth of Wisdom: Legendary African American Elders Speak, which was co-edited by Poussaint and Camille Cosby.[1]

Poussaint was also the founder of her own non-profit documentary company, Wisdom Works, which produced Tutu and Franklin: A Journey Towards Peace which examined racial reconciliation with South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and American historian John Hope Franklin.[1]

Later in life Poussaint taught at the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism.[7]

Poussaint won three Emmy Awards over the course of her career.[7] She was recognized for reporting about Haitian migrant workers at a labor camp on Maryland's Eastern Shore, an account of the return of the American hostages from Iran, and a profile about Washington Commanders owner Jack Kent Cooke.[1]

Poussaint died of lung cancer on March 4, 2022, at her home in D.C.[1][7] A service in her honor was held at the Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ.[8]

• Cosby, Camille O.; Poussaint, Renee, eds. (2007). A wealth of wisdom : legendary African-American elders speak (1st Washington Square Press trade pbk. ed.). New York: Washington Square. ISBN 9780743482295.