Barbara Ciara, WTKR News 3 Managing Editor, Evening Anchor and Hampton Roads news icon, is leaving broadcast news to begin a new phase of her life.
Ciara published her first news article in a college newspaper, which initiated a 50-year career in print and broadcast. She is marking the milestone by refocusing her life goals. Newly engaged, Barbara and her fiancé have plans for world travel.
Barbara Ciara has been a fixture in Hampton Roads television news for more than 40 years, but the award-winning journalist is just as well-known nationwide for her advocacy for journalists of color.
“It was about representation [of Black journalists] in numbers. It was about representation in stories,” said Barbara during her conversation with us about her legacy. “Are [journalists of color] well represented in newsrooms? Not just in the front [of the camera] like an anchor position, but in the back? Are we producers? Are we news directors? Are we general managers? Are we owners?”
Barbara’s advocacy began earlier in her career in Hampton as a leader of the Hampton Roads Black Media Professionals.
But, to fully tell the story of Barbara Ciara the journalist, you have to look at the stories she's told over her more than 40 years on Hampton Roads television.
Just ask her friends and former colleagues — they'll tell you, Barbara's a force.
"She not only was on TV every night, but she was literally within the community," said WHRO's Barbara Hamm Lee.
"She's a true journalist. She's an absolute true journalist," said former WAVY-TV anchor Alveta Ewell.
"I'm not afraid of any reporter on planet Earth. But if I ever had to go up against Barbara Ciara, I'd be nervous," said Byron Pitts, ABC News Nightline co-anchor and Barbara's former colleague.
When we sat down to talk, Barbara recalled standing up to her boss early in her career.
"I'd gotten a scoop about a judge who had been arrested for trying to solicit a prostitute. And he did not believe in my sources. And the newspaper beat us the next morning, and I stood on my hind legs and said, 'I hope you don't miss another opportunity to get a scoop again,'" Barbara recalled.
We must also acknowledge the impact she's had off the anchor desk, helping St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the American Diabetes Association, and also serving the community with the non-profit For Kids and on the Virginia Aquarium Board.
