Chauncey Bailey Tribute

by Katherine J. Schmitt - The Maynard Institute, http://www.maynardije.org/news/features/070806_chauncey_bailey/

In an August 6, 2007 story on the Maynard Institute website, Katherine J. Schmitt remembers Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey, a passionate, community-minded journalist gunned-down assassination-style by a teenager who confessed to police that he was angry about a story Bailey was covering. Schmitt's article includes links to tributes to Bailey from several other news organizations.

Schmitt writes:

Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey made a name for himself in the headlines as a passionate journalist, but those who knew him say his biggest passion was being a father. Bailey, 57, was gunned down assassination-style last Thursday morning while walking to his job as editor of the Oakland Post. Devaughndre Broussard, a 19-year-old who worked at Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland, has been arrested in connection with the slaying and is expected to be charged this week. According to reports, Bailey was working on a story about the organization. Bailey left many family members and friends, including his fiance, Deborah Oduwa, 41, and his teenage son whose name is withheld for safety reasons. Harry Harris, an Oakland Tribune staff writer who had worked with Bailey at the Tribune, said that as a single father himself, he "admired the way Chauncey was with his son" and how proud he was of him. Bailey grew up in Oakland. He earned a degree from Merritt College in 1968 and a bachelor's degree in journalism from San Jose State University in 1972. Two years later, he graduated from the Summer Program for Minority Journalists at Columbia University, a precursor of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. "Chauncey was, in many respects, the essence of Oakland," said Martin G. Reynolds, managing editor at the Oakland Tribune, noting Bailey's edgy style. "What will be missed with Chauncey gone is just sort of this constant presence. He really loved Oakland and really loved being a journalist." Bailey immersed himself in the Oakland community, mentoring youths interested in journalism careers through OCCUR, Oakland Citizens Committee for Urban Renewal. Sandy Close, executive director of New America Media, said Bailey was always looking for ways to engage young people in media. Bailey, a co-founder of New America Media, appeared on New America Media's weekly television show. "He was one of the great speakers we had," Close said. "Chauncey would steal the show." Bailey worked for numerous print and broadcast media outlets, including the Tribune and the Post in Oakland, San Jose's KNTV television station, San Francisco's Sun Reporter, the Hartford (Conn.) Courant, United Press International in Chicago and the California Voice...

Click here to read Schmitt's article in its entirety on the Maynard Institute website.

Click here for another tribute to Bailey on the Maynard Institute website by Frank Sotomayor, a former classmate of Bailey's and the associate director of the University of Southern California Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism.

Click here for an interview the Columbia Journalism Review's Kristal Brent Zook conducted with Bailey about one of his projects a few months before his murder.