Although Black History Month is wrapping up this week, for ACU alumna Regina L. Burns (’83) it has become a year-round passion.
Her fascination with key figures in Black history was sparked in the 1990s, while she served as news director for a country music station in Memphis, Tennessee. She was asked to produce a radio documentary about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which later won an award in the News/Public Affairs category from the National Association of Black Journalists.
Since then, her interest in both journalism and history have interwoven and continued to grow.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in mass communication from ACU in 1983, Burns went on to earn two master’s degrees – one from the University of Memphis in journalism administration (1995) and one from the University of North Texas in history (2024).
Her master’s thesis for her history degree was about the nation’s first African American barber college chain, which was founded in Tyler, Texas. She is currently working on a book about the chain and its founder, Texas millionaire Henry Miller Morgan.
Learn more about Burns’ life and career in this Q&A:
What has been your career path since you graduated from ACU?
My career has principally focused on multimedia journalism, entrepreneurship and higher education. My news media background spans radio, television, newspapers and magazines, as well as The Associated Press in two states. Moreover, I have international exhibition marketing and agency publicity experience. I served as the community relations director for a Memphis advertising agency, Sossaman and Associates’ client the Imperial Tombs of China exhibition. It provided travel to Hong Kong, Beijing and Xi’an, China, prior to the exhibitions’ 1995 opening in my native Memphis. My higher education career spans a range of positions such as adjunct professor and writing consultant.
What are you currently working on?
I am continuing to research the topic of my University of North Texas master’s thesis: “Texas African American Millionaire Henry Miller Morgan’s Social Justice Crusade: Tyler Barber College Chain, 1933-1974.” I plan to write a book about Tyler Barber College Chain, the nation’s first African American barber college chain founded by Texas millionaire Henry Miller Morgan.
You’ve combined your journalism experience with delving into historical research – how have the fields complemented each other?
Very well. They both require accuracy, attention to detail, critical analysis, interviewing and effective storytelling. Being an award-winning multimedia journalist helped me during my history graduate coursework because I was already familiar with research, writing and shaping narratives. What history taught me was how to leverage primary sources, how to conduct oral history interviews, as well as how to construct an evidence-based original argument using primary sources. Additionally, as an emerging historian and journalist, I have a deeper appreciation for what my late parents, Rowena and Prince Whiting Jr., experienced in terms of Jim Crow segregation, discrimination and racial violence in Memphis.
What first sparked your interest in African American history?
This started in Memphis during the early 1990s when I was the news director at a country music radio station, WGKX-KIX 106 FM. Our station was held accountable for some racist on-air comments about Dr. Martin L. King Jr. The then-general manager, John Bibbs, asked me to research and produce a radio documentary about Dr. King. At the time, I was a one-woman news department with temporary high school/college interns. I asked for a budget and I hired an amazing researcher-writer named Dawnelle Hurd. Together, we crafted a 32-minute program called “Dr. Martin L. King Jr.: The Man, The Movement, The Momentum.” Our engineer was Leon Griffin and he mixed the interviews I did into a powerfully rich documentary. Bibbs had that program broadcast on several Memphis radio stations simultaneously and the local National Public Radio affiliate, WKNO-FM, also rebroadcast it. The King documentary relied on primary source material from the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike and other information at The University of Memphis’ Hooks Institute Collection. This program won a second-place award in the News/Public Affairs category from the National Association of Black Journalists in 1990 in Los Angeles. I went on to produce two other award-winning KIX 106 radio documentaries: “Faces of Memphis” and “A Way Out.”
Tell me about your research on the first Black barber college chain, which began in Texas. Any other special topics of interest you’ve explored?
During my graduate study at the University of Texas at Arlington and at the University of North Texas, I found additional Tyler Barber College Chain graduates and gathered their information through oral histories. I included some of this material in my master’s thesis. The barber college closed in the 1970s and I am having trouble locating business records. I also want to interview more of Morgan’s family members and learn more about the chain’s impact across the nation.
I am deeply interested in the role of academic mentors and graduate students of color. I certainly benefited from these types of connections. Looking back, I realized my mentoring started in junior high school in Memphis. My then-guidance counselor, Viola O. Cole, helped me get accepted into a prep school program, now known as REACH Memphis. I was selected to attend a six-week summer experience at Phillips Academy Andover, in Andover, Massachusetts, just before starting the 10th grade in high school. I am the product of a working-class and impoverished background, and attending a prep school demonstrates mentoring’s power and possibilities.
Any notable people you’ve met during your career?
ACU alumna Martha (Colglazier ’78) Avance was the first reporter I ever met when I was a freshman. One day she was on campus with a videographer working on a story. My legs could not move fast enough to reach her. I had to find out what I had to do to get a TV news job. Martha worked at KRBC-TV at the time, and her advice led to my being hired in a reporter/photographer role (now called multimedia journalist or MMJ). I sold a story to CNN while I was working at KRBC. Later after I graduated from ACU, I landed on-air news jobs at Memphis gospel radio station WLOK-AM and country music radio station WGKX-KIX 106. I conducted news interviews back in the day with country music superstars The Judds and Charley Pride, Roots author Alex Haley, Danny Thomas of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, powerhouse vocalists Nancy Wilson and Lou Rawls, and iconic actors Cybill Shepherd and Dennis Quaid. I met then-ABC News anchor Peter Jennings in November 2003 while I was working on a news gig at Dallas’ WFAA-TV and that was a magical moment.
What publications have you written for?
I was a freelance journalist through my agency, Harvest Reapers Communications, in Memphis and published in magazines and newspapers. I have bylines in the Tri-State Defender, Memphis Health and Fitness Sports magazine, Black Enterprise, The Commercial Appeal and Memphis Woman magazine. I worked for The Associated Press in Mississippi and Texas, and some of my AP work was published in The Los Angeles Times and The Clarion-Ledger, among others. I also reported for The Dallas Morning News’ Metro Plus section.
What inspired you to go back to school and earn a second master’s degree?
I wrote a profile of Terrell, Texas, for Texas Highways magazine in December 2020 at the behest of my then-editor Matt Joyce. This assignment led me to interview one of Terrell’s legendary entrepreneurs, Edmund Morrow, who is Oscar and Grammy winner Jamie Foxx’s former barber. Morrow graduated from Tyler Barber College Chain in 1962. When I told Dr. Charlie Marler (’55) (the late chair of ACU’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communication) about my article, he “ordered” me to go back to graduate school. “There aren’t enough African American historians. I want you to go back to graduate school and get a degree in history. You can make a difference in your community,” he said during a phone conversation that December. He told me he had taken an African American History course during his doctoral studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia and there was only one Black professor, Dr. Arvarh Strickland. I attended University of Texas at Arlington, thanks to two scholarships from Dallas historian and history professor Dr. W. Marvin Dulaney, who is also an administrator at the African American Museum of Dallas. I received support from other ACU connections, including longtime friend Susan Perry (’77). Dr. Merlin Mann (M.A. ’86) introduced me to Dr. Tracy (McGlothlin ’80) Shilcutt, professor emerita of history and global studies, and she provided a wealth of insight. I certainly received wonderful support from my former classmate, Dr. Doug Mendenhall (’82), associate professor of journalism at ACU.
You were a guest presenter for Dr. Doug Mendenhall’s Race and Media Colloquium at ACU? What was that experience like? What were some of the highlights you talked about?
Yes, that happened in Fall 2024. Teaching history and journalism to the Colloquium’s students was a fantastic experience. Dr. Mendenhall provided an open invitation and encouraged me to do what I do best – connect journalism and history. I prerecorded video interviews (done via Zoom) with two Abilene cosmetology-school and barber experts. One of them was Joyce Ayers, who owns and operates NeeCee’s Barber and Cosmetology College, and the other was barber/entrepreneur and Cooper High School college advisor Gerald Wilkerson (’92) of Wilkerson’s Barbershop. I played these videos during the weekend course to provide context about the history of the barbering industry, Jim Crow segregation and discrimination. I also did a live in-person interview with Floyd Miller, owner and publisher of The West Texas Tribune, and his family. These interviews provided students with firsthand connections to history and helped them with their video and essay assignments.
Tell me about your time as a student at ACU. Were there any particularly influential professors or memorable experiences?
My parents did not have the financial means nor the wherewithal to take me to Abilene, so I rode a Greyhound bus from my native Memphis to Abilene, and the trip paid off. Attending ACU provided the media training necessary to have a dynamic broadcast journalism career. Coming from an impoverished background, I brought scholarships from the Memphis chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and the NAACP, and ACU’s Betty Whiteside provided resources for me to get a loan and other funding to pay for my ACU education.
My first broadcast “job” was working as a KACU-FM deejay. Some of the professors who influenced my career, directly and indirectly, were Dr. Marler, Dr. Jeff Warr (’72), Dr. Cheryl (Mann ’76) Bacon, Dr. Paul Faulkner (’52) and Dr. Carl Brecheen (’52).
Additionally, I had a student job working in the maintenance department with Ross Blasingame (’58). A few years ago, I wrote another Texas Highways magazine profile about Abilene and Ross.
Many, many other names come to mind, including Dewby (’50) and Amos Ray, Earline Perry (’48), and her daughter, Susan (’77). I am especially grateful to Phillip Morrison and his late wife, Mary Margaret, who gave my late mother, Rowena Whiting, a ride from Memphis to Abilene for my 1983 graduation. Their son, Jim Morrison, M.D., also graduated that same year.
I recall how generous some of the students were who also lived in the then-McDonald Hall. When I did not have the funds to purchase a meal ticket or needed clothes, several students donated their meal tickets and extra clothing items to me.
Lastly, I will always cherish the memory of the home economics professor who gave me a pair of state-of-the-art scissors for her sewing class. My parents did not have the resources to pay for such luxuries.
