Wayne Dawkins has been a professional journalist for more than 24 years, including 16 years at Gannett newspapers in Westchester, New York, and Cherry Hill, New Jersey, NW Indiana, plus the Daily Press of Newport News-Hampton, Virginia.

He transitioned to academia two decades ago and taught at Hampton’s Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications, then moved on to Morgan State University School of Global Journalism and Communication. Dawkins returned to Hampton in fall 2024.

He is author of “Black Journalists: The NABJ Story,” and the sequel “Rugged Waters: Black Journalists,” plus the biographies “City Son: Andrew W. Cooper’s Impact on Modern-Day Brooklyn,” [2012] and Emanuel Celler: Immigration and Civil Rights Champion” [2020].

In July Dawkins published the double biography, “Sam Lacy and Wendell Smith: The Dynamic Duo that Desegrated American Sports.”

Dawkins is founding editor of Hampton U Scripps Howard School JAC magazine.