Website www.rolandsmartin.com Height 1.79 m | Role Journalist Name Roland Martin | |
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Full Name Roland Sebastian Martin Born November 14, 1968 (age 55) ( 1968-11-14 ) Houston, Texas, U.S. Occupation News reporter, civil rights activist Spouse Jacquie Hood Martin (m. 2001) Movies President Barack Obama: The Man and His Journey Books Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith, Speak, Brother!: A Black Man's View of America Similar People Tom Joyner, Martin Luther King - Jr, Soledad O'Brien, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton Profiles | ||
Notable credits The Chicago Defender, CNN | ||
Roland Sebastian Martin (born November 14, 1968) is an American journalist, syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate, and author. He is a commentator for TV One and the host of News One Now, a one-hour weekday morning news show on the network.
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He was also a CNN contributor, appearing on a variety of shows, including The Situation Room, Anderson Cooper's AC360, and many others. In October 2008, he joined the Tom Joyner Morning Show as senior analyst.
Books authored by Martin include Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America, Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith and The First: President Barack Obama's Road to the White House as originally reported by Roland S. Martin.
Life and career
Martin was born in Houston, Texas. His maternal great grandparents had migrated from Haiti to Louisiana, where his family is from. He graduated with a B.S. in journalism from Texas A&M University and a master's degree in Christian communications from Louisiana Baptist University.
During the 1990s, Martin was a contributor on the BET Sunday morning news program Lead Story. He is the former executive editor of the Chicago Defender. Martin hosts a morning radio talk show on WVON in Chicago, and was with CNN as a contributor from 2007 to 2013. He guest-hosted Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull while Brown was on maternity leave in April and May 2009.
He became the host of TV One's first Sunday News show Washington Watch with Roland Martin in 2009. It ran for 4 years and is currently off the air.
In March 2013, Martin announced on Twitter that he was leaving CNN. His last day was on April 6, 2013.
It was announced on July 9, 2013, that Martin would be the host of TV One's first live one-hour, weekday morning news program titled News One Now. The program premiered on November 4, 2013.
Also, Roland hosted a three-hour radio show called "The Roland Martin Show".
Martin and his family currently reside in Leesburg, Virginia.
Issues
Martin has defended Michael Steele and other black Republicans against charges of being "Uncle Toms", arguing that the label is inappropriate.
Roland Martin is a supporter of charter schools.
Controversy
On February 5, 2012, Roland Martin's Twitter account responded to an underwear advertisement featuring the association football player David Beckham, stating "If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham's H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him!" GLAAD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) responded on its website: “Martin’s tweets today advocating violence against gay people weren’t an accident — they are a part of a larger pattern for Martin. Anti-gay violence in America is a serious problem". In response to the tweets, it was reported that Roland Martin had been suspended by CNN for the controversial remarks. His suspension was lifted on March 14, 2012.
Wikileaks posting e-mails showing that Donna Brazil and Roland Martin were feeding questions to Hillary Clinton ahead of time in the CNN Democratic (Debate) Town Hall.
Roland Martin also made racist, and xenophobic comments in regards to Cuban-Americans regarding Fidel Castro saying that Cubans who were celebrating the death of Fidel Castro are traitors, and Miami Cubans are not real Cubans. Roland Martin while condemning Donald Trump for his "Muslim Ban" never condemned Fidel Castro for his Ban on Mosques under his Communist regime. Roland Martin also continued that Fulgencio Batista (who's grandfather was a slave that fought in Cuba's Independence War) was a Coon, House Nigger, and Uncle Tom unlike Barack Obama.