In a historic first, a local Texas television station has debuted its anchor team entirely made up of Black women, KCEN reports.
Since May 2, three women at KCEN have been making headlines as television history's first all-Black and all-female anchor lineup. In Central Texas, Jasmin Caldwell, Ashley Carter, and Taheshah Moise work together on the Texas Today show.
The history-making women detailed their experience and the importance of representation with KCEN Senior Producer Crystal Pratt.
Caldwell said, “When I first came to KCEN in 2017, we did not have any African American anchors. “It was completely different.”
Five years later, the show has created the first anchor lineup of its kind.
Moise said, “I just think back to when I was a young girl and I used to watch the news with my parents and I never saw anyone who looked like me." She added, “If I did, they were outside reporting in the cold.”
Carter, the chief meteorologist, noted, “It didn't hit me then that nobody really looked like me, like the people I was watching growing up. But then as I started to do it people started to point it out, how there was not a lot of women who are black and do the weather."
“It kind of added on the responsibility of ok I didn't get to see it growing up, and now little girls in this area are going to see me when they wake up and now it can become a reality," Carter said.
Carter's biggest fear was outsiders downplaying their talents and thinking the station hired three Black women just to hit a diversity quota.
Carter said, "I think it is important to know when people watch us every morning, they will be able to see that each and every one of us earned our position on this team."
She added, “I don't think our news director intentionally did it. “I think he just realized they are all women, and they are all black, but hey they are the best for this show, and this is what we're going to do.”
Moise tearfully said, “You hope for years that you will see change, you hope, you pray, you never think that you will see it. And then it is another layer to be a part of it."
Taheshah Moise, Jasmin Caldwell, and Ashley Carter are on air Monday through Friday mornings on Texas Today.
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