Robin Washington

Robin Washington

Robin Washington grew up in Chicago in a family of black and Jewish activists during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Participating in sit-ins and protests when he was three years old, he recalls those events fondly as “family outings.”

A nationally award-winning journalist, Washington has appeared on National Public Radio, MSNBC, Fox News, ABC News, CNN and the BBC. He was most recently the top editor of Minnesota’s Duluth News Tribune and was previously a columnist for the Boston Herald.

A 1987 Fellow in Science Broadcast Journalism at WGBH–TV Boston, his broadcast work includes “You Don’t Have to Ride Jim Crow!”—a national public television documentary that rewrote history books to tell the story of the first Freedom Ride in 1947—and the radio documentary “My Favorite Things at 50,” an audio portrait of John Coltrane’s recording of the jazz standard.

Washington’s commentaries have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Baltimore Sun, San Jose Mercury News and the Minneapolis Star Tribune, among many other newspapers.

Articles

What really happened on Juneteenth — and why it’s time for supremacists and their sympathizers to surrender

What really happened on Juneteenth — and why it’s time for supremacists and their sympathizers to surrender

06/18/2021
Galveston’s Blacks already knew they were free, so did their slaveholders, who nonetheless kept them in bondage — not by deceit or ignorance, but by the brute force and dehumanizing torture they’d used for 200 years.
John Lewis Remembered: A Handshake to Bridge a Nation

John Lewis Remembered: A Handshake to Bridge a Nation

07/19/2020
No greater strength have I ever felt than the compassion and resolve of his tightly clasped hand.
Appoint Black Jews to Major Organization Boards — Now

Appoint Black Jews to Major Organization Boards — Now

06/17/2020
Black Jewish representation stands at 0.2 percent, a fraction of even the lowest estimate of the population of Black Jews.
Who Black Hebrew Israelites Are—And Who They Are Not

Who Black Hebrew Israelites Are—And Who They Are Not

12/18/2019
While many, if not most, Israelite or Hebrew adherents have not had a halachic conversion, it’s not so easy to dismiss them as “not real Jews.”
Esther’s Secret Identity

Esther’s Secret Identity

07/02/2018
I’ve never been sure what to make of the Purim story.
Remembering Julius Lester — And a Stop Along His Spiritual Journey

Remembering Julius Lester — And a Stop Along His Spiritual Journey

01/25/2018
A meaningful and surprising first encounter creates lasting bond.
Searching a Family Tree for Raisins: A Passover Story

Searching a Family Tree for Raisins: A Passover Story

04/05/2017
Remembering the flavors and folks of seders past.
How Kosher is “Kosher Soul?”

How Kosher is “Kosher Soul?”

02/23/2015
What could be funnier than a black man marrying a white woman?
Does ‘Selma’ Deserve an Oscar? Ask Butch and Sundance

Does ‘Selma’ Deserve an Oscar? Ask Butch and Sundance

02/09/2015
With the Wild West fading and the railway men closing in, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid head for the untamed terrain of Bolivia to continue a string of bank and payroll robberies, (spoiler alert) only to meet their end when an entire army descends on them.
Lessons from Catholic Mass for Rosh Hashanah

Lessons from Catholic Mass for Rosh Hashanah

09/04/2014
Growing up in a very Reform household, I was never completely comfortable at the prospect of being called to the bima for an honor.