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Alumni > Alumnus/Alumna of the Year Awards > Randall Pinkston - 2003 Alumnus of the Year

Randall Pinkston - 2003 Alumnus of the Year

Millsaps College named Randall Pinkston as the 2003 Alumnus of the Year in recognition of his contributions to American News Journalism. A native of Yazoo County, Randall Pinkston has been a New York-based CBS News correspondent since 1994. He reports regularly for the "CBS Evening News" and contributes to other CBS News broadcasts. Pinkston has most recently covered the war in Afghanistan from the front lines in Tora Bora and Jalalabad, devastating earthquakes in Turkey, the Albanian refugee crisis in Kosovo and U.S. military participation in the Balkans, and Saddam Hussein’s past refusals to allow U.N. inspection officers to enter Iraq.

Randall received both a 1996 Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism and the Edward R. Murrow Award for the documentary "CBS Reports: A Legacy of Shame." He is also the winner of two Emmy Awards: one in 1998 for his coverage of the death of Princess Diana and another in 1997 for his work reporting the Flight800 disaster. Prior to his New York assignment, he was based at the CBS Washington bureau, where he joined the network as a White House correspondent. While there, Randall became a fixture on "CBS This Morning" and CBS Radio, reporting on the Persian Gulf War.

Before joining CBS News, he worked for WCBS-TV the CBS-owned station in New York (1980-90). While at WCBS-TV, he was honored by the New York State Associated Press Broadcasters Association, the Council of Churches of the City of New York, and the Scripps Howard Foundation for a series on the lack of government care for the mentally ill and physically handicapped.

He received the Outstanding Journalist Award from Black Citizens for a Fair Media and the Public Service Award from the Greater New York Safety Council for his reporting on teenage drunk driving, reports that helped set the stage for changes in the state's drunk driving laws. He began his career in Jackson as an anchor/reporter at WLBT-TV and as an announcer at WJDX-FM Radio.