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 Watch with Roland Martin''. He was also a

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

contributor, appearing on a variety of shows, including '' The Situation Room'',

Anderson Cooper Anderson Hays Cooper (born June 3, 1967) is an American broadcast journalist and political commentator who anchors the CNN news broadcast show ''Anderson Cooper 360°''. In addition to his duties at CNN, Cooper serves as a correspondent for ''6 ...

's '' AC360'', and many others. In October 2008, he joined the '' Tom Joyner Morning Show'' 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 Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. His maternal great-grandparents had migrated from

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

, 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, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

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 in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

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 program '' 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 ''NewsOne 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 politician, attorney, and political commentator who served as the seventh lieutenant governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2007 and as chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) f ...

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, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

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 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player

David Beckham Sir David Robert Joseph Beckham ( ; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Primarily a right winger and known for his range of passing, cross ...

, 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 GLAAD () is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization. Originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals in the media and entertainment industries, it has since ...

(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 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 Donna Lease Brazile ( ; born December 15, 1959) is an American political strategist, campaign manager, and political analyst who served twice as acting Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). She is currently an ABC News contributor, ...

, who then leaked them to

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

’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, 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) * ''NewsOne Now'' (2013–2017) * ''The Roland Martin Show'' (2016, radio) * ''Roland Martin Unfiltered'' (2018–present)

Articles

*"What to 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 Journalists from Houston Radio personalities from Chicago Texas A&M University alumni Louisiana Baptist University alumni American writers of Haitian descent People from Leesburg, Virginia CNN people 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people