Two Years After Being Dropped by MSNBC, Duke Alum Melissa Harris-Perry Isn't Going Away

My life and work have been connected to political scientist Melissa Harris-Perry—who received her bachelor's at Wake Forest and her Ph.D. at Duke—ever since she wrote Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought, which was published in 2004. Among other things, the book examined how my sermons and columns influenced the political views of members of the congregation I served. I had no doubt that Melissa would rise to the top.

In 1999, I performed her first wedding ceremony. The marriage didn't last, but with Melissa, that's not an indication of failure, but more of a reflection of her ability to pull herself up when a person—or cable TV network—disappoints her.

Starting in 2012, she developed a following at MSNBC, where she hosted the Melissa Harris-Perry Show on weekend mornings. She called it "Nerdland"—an unrepentantly wonky exploration of the week's political happenings. She redefined what it meant to be a nerd and created space for conversations about black women in politics.

In February 2016, Melissa wrote a widely publicized email to her show's staffers announcing that her show was taken off the air "in the midst of a campaign season" without explanation. "I am not a token, mammy, or little brown bobble head," she continued, adding that she would only return if she were allowed to do substantive work. NBC responded that many of its daytime shows had been "upended" because of breaking political news, but the relationship was beyond repair, and Melissa never went back on the network.

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