{"id":9858,"date":"2022-08-08T08:06:15","date_gmt":"2022-08-08T12:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=9858"},"modified":"2022-08-05T16:22:24","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T20:22:24","slug":"in-tribute-walt-shepperd-62","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2022\/08\/08\/in-tribute-walt-shepperd-62\/","title":{"rendered":"In Tribute: Walt Shepperd \u201962"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Nov. 27, 1940\u2013May 11, 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A fixture in central New York journalism and longtime community organizer, Walt Shepperd \u201962 used his pen and perseverance to make the voices of others heard. \u201cThe height, the hair, and the hat caught your attention,\u201d wrote NewsChannel 9 journalist Tim Fox. \u201cBut it was the voice that really made a difference, in print or in person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like many young post-grads of his era, after Colgate, Shepperd attended the 1963 March on Washington, eager to address inequalities African Americans faced: \u201cThe wonderful thing that was alive there \u2026 was the networking of people you would connect with, and the connections would be very real,\u201d Shepperd said in the PBS docuseries <em>Memories of the March<\/em>. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He continued on this mission during the summer of 1964, recruiting and training students from upstate New York colleges to teach in Freedom Schools in Mississippi, where teachers aimed to deliver a better education to Black students who suffered from the separate and unequal school system in the state. In November of that year, Shepperd returned to the Northeast. \u201cStokely Carmichael\u2019s admonition for Caucasians to go fight for freedom in their own backyards rang especially true for me,\u201d Shepperd said in an essay reflecting on his participation in the Freedom Summer. \u201cI returned to Syracuse to join the efforts of the Community Action Training Center, the largest organizing project of America\u2019s War on Poverty.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Upon his return to Syracuse, the Colgate history major got to work, becoming a voice for his community and spending 35 years covering politics, human rights, community issues, and arts for the <em>New Times<\/em>, the city\u2019s alt-weekly newspaper. \u201cThe <em>New Times<\/em> was a mission,\u201d Shepperd told WAER in 2006. \u201cMany people said if I hadn&#8217;t been there, there were many voices in this area which would not have been represented. I felt my responsibility was to represent those voices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Aside from his work in journalism, Shepperd helped create a vibrant arts community for teenagers in Syracuse. In 1976 he co-founded The Media Unit, a nonprofit broadcasting and theater troupe. Until its closure in 2019, the group held several stage productions each year and produced a local TV program. \u201cGrowing up on the South Side, I had joined a gang and become too much for my parents,\u201d Tammy Reese told community news outlet The Stand upon Shepperd\u2019s retirement from The Media Unit. \u201cThe Media Unit definitely saved my life. I was able to be on TV, do touring shows, earn a college scholarship, and become the successful business woman I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Throughout his career, Shepperd earned several accolades for his work in media, such as the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Syracuse Press Club and the CNY Book Award for Significant Contributions to the Art of Writing and Poetry. \u201cSyracuse has lost a legend,\u201d Mayor Ben Walsh Tweeted after Shepperd\u2019s death. \u201cWalt touched so many lives through his writing and his transformative work with our city\u2019s youth at The Media Unit. We will miss him dearly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At Colgate, Shepperd was a member of Theta Chi, the debate society, intramural baseball, and the men\u2019s basketball team. He died on May 11 at the age of 81. His daughter, Lorca, was by his side.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A tribute to Walt Shepperd \u201962, longtime central New York journalist who died in May 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1222,"featured_media":9870,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[165,433,1077],"coauthors":[168],"class_list":["post-9858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alumni-spotlights","category-alumni-updates","tag-history","tag-journalism","tag-social-justice"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-2z0","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2022\/08\/Walt-Shepperd-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9858"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10050,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9858\/revisions\/10050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9858"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=9858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}