quently at mainstream institutions, and jazz musi-
cians were recognized as important contributors to
and participants in Americans’ national heritage.
Further Reading
Davis, Miles, with Quency Troupe.Miles: The Autobi-
ography. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1980. De-
tails the evolution of jazz itself during the 1980’s,
in addition to the evolution of Davis’s own musi-
cal style and career.
Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns.Jazz: A Histor y of
America’s Music. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.
Includes more than five hundred photographs
along with the stories of men and women who
contributed to jazz from its beginnings through
the end of the twentieth century.
Garlena A. Bauer
See also Academy Awards; African Americans; Art
movements; Compact discs (CDs); Music; Pop mu-
sic; Racial discrimination; Television.
Jennings, Peter
Identification Canadian American journalist
Born July 29, 1938; Toronto, Canada
Died August 7, 2005; New York, New York
Canadian-born Peter Jennings connected with the Ameri-
can people and became one of the countr y’s most trusted
news reporters, anchoring ABC’sWorld News Tonight.
As a Canadian citizen, Jennings enjoyed a useful outsider’s
view of the United States.
In 1983, Peter Jennings took his seat as anchor
for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC)
network news, a position he would hold for the next
twenty-two years. Ambitious and hardworking, Jen-
nings had transformed himself from a high school
dropout to a suave, self-educated man of the world.
Through his reliable, sincere reporting, he devel-
oped a personal relationship with the American peo-
ple. Jennings helped ABC become America’s most
watched news network.
Jennings first appeared on the U.S. news scene in
1964 as a callow, twenty-six-year-old correspondent.
His first experience as a sole news anchor for the
network, hostingPeter Jennings with the News(1965-
1967), was a colossal failure, and he was reluctant
ever to try the job again. Instead, Jennings traveled
overseas and gained experience as a foreign corre-
spondent. Between 1978 and 1983, he was one of
three co-anchors forWorld News Tonight, serving as
the program’s foreign anchor. Appearing in his sig-
nature trench coat, Jennings would often report
from the streets of London. He also traveled to the
world’s hot spots, often putting his own life in dan-
ger. In 1982, he journeyed to Beirut to cover the Is-
raeli invasion of Lebanon.
In 1983, Jennings returned to the United States as
a temporary replacement for ailing anchor Frank
Reynolds. Upon Reynolds’s unexpected death, ABC
offered Jennings the job as sole anchor and senior ed-
itor. The show was officially renamedWorld News To-548 Jennings, Peter The Eighties in America
Peter Jennings examines his Canadian Club Arts and Letters
Award, awarded to him at the Canadian Consulate General in
New York City in 1984.(AP/Wide World Photos)