Garland, Phyl

Phyllis T. Garland was born in 1935 in McKeesport, PA and received a B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University in 1957. Her father was the noted Pittsburgh area photographer Percy A. Garland and her mother, Hazel Garland, had worked for the The Pittsburgh Courier, a nationally distributed Black newspaper, in a variety of positions since 1943 including editor in chief from 1974 to 1977. Phyl began her career as a reporter and writer for The Pittsburgh Courier . She joined the Chicago staff at Ebony in 1965 as a contributing editor and music critic, where she covered all aspects of black musical activity and wrote the record review column "Sounds" from 1972-1977. From 1969-1972 she served as the New York editor and Director of Editorial Operations for the Johnson Publishing Company in New York. From 1978-1994(?) she also reviewed black popular music recordings for Stereo Review . Garland was the author of The Sound of Soul (Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1969) and Michael : In Concert, with Friends, at Play (New York: Beekman House, 1984), a book on Michael Jackson. Garland was an Assistant Professor of Black Studies at SUNY, New Platz from 1971-1973 and a Professor in the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, New York, from 1973 until shortly before her death on November 7, 2006. Over the course of her career, Garland wrote many feature articles for publications ranging from Ebony to Good Housekeeping as well as scripts for radio and television.

Among her many honors are the 1992 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Black Musicians Conference. She served on the Board of Trustees for Jazzmobile (NY), the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, the Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson Scholarship Funds, the Modern School (NY), and the Advisory Board for the NY Association of Black Journalists.

From the guide to the Phyl Garland Collection, circa 1952-2005, bulk 1972-1990., (Indiana University, Archives of African American Music and Culture (AAAMC) http://www.indiana.edu/~aaamc)