THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Geraldine “Jerri” Lange

January 3, 1925 – April 28, 2021

“We are responsible for the country we have. We are responsible for everything we see, feel and hear around us. So let’s be responsible about what comes in our homes and changes our behavioral patterns, our habits or whether we hate or love each other and show our children how to solve problems not through the end of a gun, but through negotiation and through love.” Jerri Lange, 2007

Broadcast journalist, author, activist, professor. First African American woman in the editorial department at Newsweek, 1952; at the San Francisco Chronicle (editorial secretary), 1963; and on the San Francisco mayor’s staff (personal secretary), 1967. In 1975, Lange served as host of Womantime, a KQED (PBS) program about the changing roles of women, which became a national television show re-named Turnabout. Served as San Francisco host for the International Year of the Woman, 1975. 

Photo 1. Jerri Lange, Television Host of Turnabout, 1978. Photo 2. Jerri Lange April 14, 2021.