Roland Sebastian Martin (born November 14, 1968) is an American journalist. He was a commentator for TV One, the host of ''News One Now'', and ''Washington on Watch With Roland S. Martin''. He was also a

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

contributor, appearing on a variety of shows, including '' The Situation Room'', Anderson Cooper's '' AC360'', and many others. In October 2008, he joined the ''

Tom Joyner Morning Show The ''Tom Joyner Morning Show'' is an American nationally syndicated radio program, hosted by veteran broadcaster Tom Joyner. The program, which aired on Urban contemporary- and Urban adult contemporary-formatted stations across the United States, ...

'' as senior analyst. He currently hosts a web series, ''Roland Martin Unfiltered'' on YouTube. Books authored by Martin include ''Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America'', ''Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith'' and ''The First: President Barack Obama's Road to the White House as originally reported by Roland S. Martin'' and, " White Fear: How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds"

Life and career

Martin was born in Houston, Texas. His maternal great-grandparents had migrated from Haiti to

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, where his family originates. He graduated with a B.S. in journalism from

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

and a master's degree in Christian communications from Louisiana Baptist University. He is the former executive editor of the ''

Chicago Defender ''The Chicago Defender'' is a Chicago-based online African-American newspaper. It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered the "most important" newspaper of its kind. Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim ...

''. From 2005 to 2008, Martin hosted a morning radio talk show on

WVON WVON (1690 AM "The Voice of the Nation", originally "Voice of the Negro") is a radio station serving the Chicago market, which airs an African-American-oriented talk format. WVON is owned by Midway Broadcasting Corporation, and broadcasts at 1 ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and was with

as a contributor from 2007 to 2013. He guest-hosted '' Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull'' while Brown was on maternity leave in April and May 2009. He became the host of TV One's first Sunday News show Washington Watch with Roland Martin in 2009. It ran for 4 years and is currently off the air. In March 2013, Martin announced on Twitter that he was leaving CNN. His last day was on April 6, 2013. It was announced on July 9, 2013, that Martin would be the host of TV One's first live one-hour, weekday morning news program titled ''News One Now''. The program premiered on November 4, 2013. On December 7, 2017, Martin announced on air that TV One had canceled the show due to low ratings from Black viewers, but that he would still remain involved with the network. On January 14, 2018, it was announced that Martin had won two NAACP Image Awards for the show. Also, Roland hosted a three-hour radio show called ''The Roland Martin Show''. He currently hosts a web series, ''Roland Martin Unfiltered'' on YouTube.

Issues

Martin has defended

Michael Steele Michael Stephen Steele (born October 19, 1958) is an American political commentator, attorney, and Republican Party politician. Steele served as the seventh lieutenant governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2007; he was the first African-American ...

and other black Republicans against charges of being "Uncle Toms", arguing that the label is inappropriate.

Controversy

On February 5, 2012, Roland Martin's

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account responded to an underwear advertisement featuring the

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player David Beckham, stating "If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham's H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him!" GLAAD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) responded on its website: “Martin’s tweets today advocating violence against gay people weren’t an accident — they are a part of a larger pattern for Martin. Anti-gay violence in America is a serious problem". In response to the tweets, it was reported that Roland Martin had been suspended by CNN for the controversial remarks. His suspension was lifted on March 14, 2012. In 2016, Martin was revealed to have leaked CNN town hall questions to former DNC Chair Donna Brazile, who then leaked them to Hillary Clinton's camp when he was acting as guest-moderator. According to Politico, in an email the day before the March town hall to senior Clinton staffers, then DNC Chair Donna Brazile wrote: “From time to time I get the questions in advance” and included the text of a question about the death penalty. An email later obtained by Politico showed that the text of the question Brazile sent to the Clinton campaign was identical to a proposed question Martin had offered CNN.

List of broadcasts

* '' Washington Watch with Roland Martin'' (2009-2013) * ''News One Now'' (2013-2017) * ''The Roland Martin Show'' (2016, radio) * ''Roland Martin Unfiltered'' (2018–present)

Articles

*"What would Jesus really do?" *"The new reality for Bush and the Democrats" *"Obama Birth Issue is Nutty" *"Roland Martin is on Watch"

References

External links

*
Roland Martin Features on Ascots
at

Creators Syndicate Creators Syndicate (also known as Creators) is an American independent distributor of comic strips and syndicated columns to daily newspapers, websites, and other digital outlets. When founded in 1987, Creators Syndicate became one of the few suc ...

Podcasts of Martin's recent articles

TV ONE website for Washington Watch with Roland Martin

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Roland S. 1968 births Living people African-American writers African-American journalists African-American television personalities American Protestants American male non-fiction writers People from Houston Radio personalities from Chicago Texas A&M University alumni Louisiana Baptist University alumni American people of Haitian descent Journalists from Texas People from Leesburg, Virginia CNN people 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people