Cronkite dean reflects on MLK's vision

Jan. 15—With Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrated tomorrow, Jan. 15, it's a fitting time to ask: How open to diversity is Scottsdale?

A veteran journalist and academic leader gives the city high marks for inclusivity.

Battinto L. Batts Jr., a longtime newspaper man and dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU, is a relative newcomer to the Valley — and a brand-new Scottsdale resident.

He moved here last month, around the time he was invited by Scottsdale's Community Celebrating Diversity to speak at CCD's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration dinner.

The organization proudly notes Scottsdale was the first Arizona city outside of Phoenix to host its own annual MLK celebration.

With a fresh view, Batts was asked to imagine King's view of the Valley and Scottsdale in 2024.

After taking a moment to ponder the question from his Tempe office, Batts gave an answer that was optimistic but pointed — not unlike King's philosophy of using nonviolent, persistent means to demand change.

"What I would say if I had the opportunity to talk to him," the dean said, "I would ask these questions: 'Are you seeking perfection? Or are you seeking a process by means that we can address our differences, or address our grievances, or address our understanding and try to work together?'"

The East Coast native, who is relatively new to the Southwest, thinks King, who was assassinated in 1968, would approve of the atmosphere here.

"My hope is that he would look at Scottsdale and surrounding communities and see — of course, we can always point out things that could perhaps be better, but there's things that are going very, very well," Batts said.

"There's a process of us coming together and that there's a desire to try to make this community even stronger than it is ... and for it to be a welcoming and open community, for people to want to be a part of it."

Surely influenced by his chosen field, which demands critical thinking and tough analysis, Batts stressed his vision for Scottsdale does not mean utopian views.

"We do not necessarily have to agree 100% on everything," he said, "but that we can still find a way to live in harmony and work together and that we can minimize conflict."

All-around journalist

Before moving on to Florida and Cincinnati, Batts launched his career as a reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, near the Virginia town where he was raised.

He recalled the advice of a veteran reporter, who pulled him aside, telling him: "Don't let them make you the 'Black reporter.'"

Batts said the advice "stuck with me. This is a middle-aged, white man who told me that — and what he was trying to say is ... cover your assignments as you're given. But look to be much more than someone who can only cover this particular community."

Taking that advice, Batts covered everything from sports to business to local government.

He quickly learned a journalist's greatest tools: eyes and ears.

"I think that my specialty always in my journalism career is the ability to listen to people and to connect to people — to hear them out," Batts said.

Working the cops beat as a young journalist, he would be assigned to get reactions from families of murder and car-wreck victims, "when maybe perhaps the newspaper reporter coming and knocking on the door was the last person that they wanted to see."

He smiled, recalling the nerves and adrenaline popping as he would park his car and slowly walk up to the home of a grieving family.

Many young journalists in those situations would say "not for me," turn around and find a less challenging job.

Not Batts.

"And I've got a fair number of doors slammed in my face. But then I think about the times when I was welcomed in — a mother wanted to talk about her son or a father wanted to talk about his daughter or a husband wanted to talk about the loss of his wife."

He reflected on the gain-trust, gain-story method, during which he would spend hours at a family's kitchen table, "and walking away with a very detailed story about this person's life.

"And so, the ability to listen and to connect with people and to disarm people, I think is something that has served me well," Batts said.

Around the time he was settling into his career, some key community leaders in Scottsdale — CCD's founding members Sandra Rembrandt and Don Logan — listened to their community.

"Their vision was for Scottsdale to host its own Martin Luther King Jr. celebration," the CCD website narrates. "They had a passion for Dr. King's legacy and felt citizens from the Scottsdale community would take pride in hosting a celebration in its own community."

Before coming to the Valley to lead ASU's journalism program, Batts, 55, was director of journalism strategies for the Scripps Howard Foundation in Cincinnati.

He holds a doctorate in higher education management from Hampton University and master's degree in media management from Norfolk State University.

In Virginia and the Cincinnati area, Batts lived and worked in far more diverse communities. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, Scottsdale is 83% white, with a scant 2.1% Black population.

Yet Batts said his new city is hardly making he and his wife, Tamala, and daughters Lyndsay, Mayah, Olivia and Jourdan feel like outsiders.

"I love where we live," he said, breaking into a grin. "I love being able to see the mountains. I love the quiet neighborhoods. I love the fact that the streets are walkable."

But there is more to his view than the physicality of Scottsdale.

"I can't get over ... our neighbors and just how welcoming they have been in our community here," Batts marveled.

"And so it's really special and I feel truly embraced."