Payne, Ethel Lois
1911-1991 · Contribution: 1951-1982
Washington correspondent
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
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Quick facts
- Born
- 1911, Chicago, Illinois
- Active since
- 1951
- Category
- Press & Photography
- Best known for
- 'First Lady of the Black Press'
Impact on the world
Payne wielded the White House press conference as a lever to force civil rights onto the national agenda, openly rejecting neutrality as 'an instrument of change' for her community.
Sources
- Smithsonian Magazine
1 more sources and references are available to members.
Related visionaries
Dunnigan, Alice Allison
1906-1983
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
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
Garland, Hazel Barbara Maxine
1913-1988
Rose from unpaid community club reporter to become, in 1974, the first African American woman to serve as editor-in-chief of a nationally circulated newspaper chain when she took the helm of the New Pittsburgh Courier