Karen L. Parker

Parker was born in Salisbury, North Carolina and grew up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.^[3] Her parents were Clarice Lucille (née Holt) and Fred Douglas Parker.^[4][5] Her father had a master's degree from Columbia University and taught chemistry at West Forsyth High School and Atkins High School.^[6][1] Her mother had a master's degree from the University of Michigan and taught French and English at Atkins High School, Paisley High School, and William Penn High School.^[4]

Parker graduated from Atkins High School in Winston-Salem in 1961, which had an all-Black student population.^[7][8] She attended the North Carolina Women's College in Greensboro (now University of North Carolina at Greensboro).^[9][5] She decided to attend the college because she and her parents believed integration was important; she was one of five Black students at the Women's College.^[8]

During her freshman year, she filled in for Winston-Salem Journal newspaper's Black reporter, Luix Overbea, for two weeks, writing about the Black community for the Sunday newspaper.^[10] In the summer of 1963, Parker was an intern with the Winston-Salem Journal and Sentinel Communique newspaper.^[11][12] Overbea encouraged Parker to apply to the School of Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).^[10][8]

In the fall of 1963, she transferred to the School of Journalism at UNC.^[13][5] She was the first Black woman undergraduate to attend UNC.^[14][15] As a student there, she participated in Civil Rights sit-ins and marches and was involved with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).^[9][3] She was arrested twice and spent a night in the Orange County Jail for her role in a sit in protest.^[3][10]

While at UNC, she was the vice-president of the UNC Press Club, participated in the exchange program with the University of Toronto, and made the Dean's List.^[16][9][10] Her senior year, she was the editor of the UNC Journalist, the School of Journalism's experimental newspaper; this position was one of the school's top honors.^[12][11] Editors were selected based on experience in journalism, scholarship, and character.^[5][12] She also received a merit scholarship from the School of Journalism for her senior year.^[17][18] She was also admitted to the women's honor society, the Order of the Valkyries.^[10]

She graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1965, becoming the first Black woman to earn an undergraduate degree from UNC.^[19][9]

After graduating from UNC, she was a copy editor for The Grand Rapids Press in Grand Rapids, Michigan.^[3] She worked for the Los Angeles Times for some fifteen years where she was a copy editor and the Sunday news editor until March 31, 1993.^[10][20][8] She left Los Angeles as part of a buy out when the newspaper downsized its staff and then worked in Salt Lake City, Utah.^[20] Later, she became a copy editor with the Winston-Salem Journal.^[19][21] She retired in 2010.^[9]

In 2004, Parker received the Beech Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.^[19] She received The Union Baptist Church Legacy Award in 2005 for her literary contributions that have helped preserve Black history.^[21] In 2012, she was inducted into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame.^[9]

In 2016, UNC created the Karen L. Park Grant awarded to as many as 25 students a year starting in 2017.^[22] In 2021, Parker was added to the Honorific Naming Registry at UNC, placing her in the running as a potential namesake of buildings previously named for a Confederate.^[15]