Dunnigan, Alice Allison
1906-1983 · Contribution: 1947-1961
Washington correspondent
Became the first African American woman credentialed to cover the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court, breaking into the Senate and House press galleries in 1947 and covering three U.S. presidents over a fourteen-year Washington career
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Quick facts
- Born
- 1906, Russellville, Kentucky
- Active since
- 1947
- Category
- Press & Photography
- Best known for
- First Black woman credentialed to cover the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court
Impact on the world
Dunnigan forced open the most exclusive rooms in American journalism to Black women and used her hard-won access to keep civil rights on the presidential agenda.
Sources
- BlackPast.org
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Related visionaries
Payne, Ethel Lois
1911-1991
Became, alongside Alice Dunnigan, one of the first Black women in the White House press corps, earning the title “First Lady of the Black Press” for three decades of Washington and international reporting for the Chicago Defender that helped set the national civil rights agenda
McAlpin, Harry Sylvester
1906-1985
Became the first African American reporter accredited to and to attend a U.S. presidential press conference, entering the Oval Office on February 8, 1944, over the objections of the all-white White House Correspondents’ Association
Ryan, April Danielle
1967-present
Served as a White House correspondent for nearly three decades beginning in 1997, becoming the longest-serving Black female reporter in the White House press corps and covering five presidential administrations for American Urban Radio Networks and later theGrio
Cooke, Marvel Jackson
1903-2000
Became, in 1950, the first African American woman to work as a reporter at a mainstream white-owned newspaper when she joined New York’s Daily Compass, capping a career in which she was already the first woman reporter in the 40-year history of the New York Amsterdam News