Eye on the Struggle: January 2015

Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, The First Lady of the Black Press

The granddaughter of slaves and the daughter of a Pullman porter, Ethel L. Payne rose to become the nation’s preeminent black female reporter of the civil rights era, chronicling the movement’s seminal moments for a national black readership hungry for stories that could not be found in the white media. From publicly challenging President Eisenhower’s commitment to desegregation in the 1950s to capturing the lives of black troops in Vietnam in the 1960s, she became known simply as “the First Lady of Black Press.”

Eye on the Struggle tells the story of Payne’s astonishing rise from South Side Chicago to the press corps of the White House. It’s a story inextricably linked to the dark history of segregation and the grassroots struggle to end it. It is also a deeply personal tale of a woman who discovered her calling late in life and summoned the strength to confront the powerful, defy journalistic conventions, and forsake marriage and children for a larger cause.

Eye on the Struggle

Friday, January 2, 2015

Happy New Year!

Order the book!

About Me

Translate

Blog Archive