When Ethel Payne stood to ask President Dwight Eisenhower a question at a White House press conference in July 1954, women and African-Americans were rarities in the press corps. Payne was both, and wrote for The Chicago Defender, the legendary black newspaper that in the 40s and 50s, was read in black American households the way The New York Times was in white ones.
In Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, First Lady of the Black Press, author James McGrath Morris, examines her life and legacy.
From Selma To Eisenhower, Trailblazing Black Reporter Was Always Probing
Photo credit: Courtesy of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center/Harper Collins
Caption:Â Ethel Payne interviews a soldier from Chesapeake, Va., in Vietnam in 1967.