After witnessing the Memorial Day Massacre in college, KATHARINE GRAHAM recognized how vital storytelling in media can be for relaying truths that often get buried. Though her family owned The Washington Post, her assignments were relegated to more female-centric sections like the society columns. But in 1963, when her husband, the publisher at the time, died by suicide, she was thrust into the publisher role three days later. The timing was heavily fraught with political upheaval; Katharine published the Pentagon Papers, and more famously, entrusted her staff to break the Watergate Scandal, which led to the resignation of President Nixon. Watch as actor and advocate Sharon Lawrence tells the story of publishing pioneer, Katharine Graham.
Sharon Lawrence is an accomplished television, film and stage actress who is perhaps best-known for her multiply Emmy Award-nominated and SAG Award winning portrayal of ADA Sylvia Costas Sipowicz in NYPD Blue. She is a former Chair of Women in Film Foundation among other philanthropic pursuits.
Katharine Graham was born in New York on June 16, 1917, and later relocated to Washington D.C.. Her family was wealthy, and her father, Eugene Meyer, bought The Washington Post in 1933 at a bankruptcy auction. Katharine attended Vassar College then transferred to the University of Chicago where her interest for labor issues was sparked. After working at a San Francisco newspaper to cover the wharf strike, she eventually started working at her family paper in 1938. Two years later, Katharine married Philip Graham, a clerk to a Supreme Court Justice. And in 1946, her dad handed over The Washington Post to Philip. But in 1963, Philip died by suicide and the paper was turned over to Katharine, who became, at the time, the only female publisher of a global newspaper. This time period was crucial to our nation’s politics, and The Post was integral in revealing the Watergate scandal to the American people. During her time as publisher, Katharine became the first woman elected to the board of directors at the Associated Press, and received numerous highly-esteemed awards like the Elijah Paris Lovejoy award, the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Pulitzer Prize for her memoirs, and posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Katharine died on July 17, 2001, in Sun Valley, Idaho.
