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mentorship

By Anslem Samuel | Published January 28, 2011 | Full size is 296 × 320 pixels

Cultivate young talent: Swanston received the coveted Ida B. Wells Award—named after the newspaper editor who crusaded against segregation and lynching in the Jim Crow South—for her devotion to mentoring generations of African American journalists. In fact, Walterene "Walt" Swanston, who worked for the San Francisco Examiner, created one of the nation's first minority journalism training programs in 1966. At NPR, she diversified the radio airwaves. Owing her professional success to a number of "teachers," her charge to seasoned professionals: "Pass it on."

Cultivate young talent: Swanston received the coveted Ida B. Wells Award—named after the newspaper editor…