In 1977, Strickland interviewed Eleanor Holmes Norton, the first woman to chair the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and D.C.'s first female delegate to the United States Congress. Major stories that Strickland covered include the 1977 Washington, D.C. attack and hostage taking, (theHanafi Siege) in D.C.(1977), and the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama. In 1990, Strickland covered the arrest of D.C.'s Mayor Marion Barry, Strickland was forced to narrate the FBI tape, with the sound muted from the raid, because of Barry's expletive-laced comments. He also covered the Mount Pleasant riots in 1991.