Deborah Mathis, a native of Little Rock, Arkansas

Little Rock, Arkansas

Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...

, is an African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 and author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

. Her journalism career began as a reporter for the Arkansas Democrat, a major newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 in Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

. She also worked in television news in Little Rock and Washington

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

. She was White House correspondent for the Gannett News Service. She returned to Arkansas and newspaper journalism at the Arkansas Gazette as an editorial columnist and associate editor. (The Arkansas Democrat and the Arkansas Gazette are now merged into the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is the newspaper of record in the U.S. state of Arkansas, printed in Little Rock with a northwest edition published in Lowell...

.)

She is a regular commentator on America's Black Forum

America's Black Forum

America's Black Forum is an Emmy Award-winning nationally syndicated weekly news broadcast targeted to an African American audience. The show started in 1977, and is one of the longest running U.S...

 and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services

Tribune Media Services

Tribune Media Services is a syndication company owned by the Tribune Company.The company has two divisions, "News and Features" and "Entertainment Products"...

. Her recent book, Yet a Stranger: Why Black Americans Still Don't Feel at Home has met with mixed reviews.

Ms. Mathis lives with her husband and children in Chevy Chase, Maryland

Chevy Chase, Maryland

Chevy Chase is the name of both a town and an unincorporated census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland. In addition, a number of villages in the same area of Montgomery County include "Chevy Chase" in their names...

.

Further reading

• Deborah Mathis, Yet a Stranger: Why Black Americans Still Don't Feel at Home, Warner Books, 2002, hardcover, 258 pages, ISBN 0-446-52636-3