Ethel L. Payne | |
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| Born | (1911-08-14)August 14, 1911 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | May 28, 1991(1991-05-28) (aged 79) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Other names | Ethel Lois Payne |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Years active | 1950–1991 |
Ethel Lois Payne (August 14, 1911 – May 28, 1991)[1][2] was an American journalist, editor, and foreign correspondent. Known as the "First Lady of theBlack Press," she fulfilled many roles over her career, including columnist, commentator, lecturer, andfreelance writer. She combined advocacy with journalism as she reported on theCivil Rights Movement during the 1950s and 1960s. Her perspective as anAfrican American woman informed her work, and she became known for asking questions others dared not ask.[3]
First published inThe Chicago Defender in 1950, she worked for that paper through the 1970s, becoming the paper's Washington correspondent and an editor for over 25 years.[4] She became the first female African-Americancommentator employed by a national network whenCBS hired her in 1972. In addition to her reporting of American domestic politics, she also covered international stories, and worked as a syndicated columnist.[4][5]
In 2022, theWhite House Correspondents' Association created the Dunnigan-Payne Lifetime Achievement Award in memory of Payne and fellow White House reporterAlice Dunnigan.[6]
Payne was born inChicago, Illinois, to William A. Payne, aPullman porter who was the son of Tennessee farmers who were former slaves,[7] and Bessie Payne (née Austin), a former Latin teacher who was from Ohio, the daughter of former slaves from Kentucky.[5][8] The fifth of six children, Payne's siblings were Alice Wilma, Thelma Elizabeth, Alma Josephine, Lemuel Austin, and Avis Ruth. She grew up on Chicago'sSouth Side.[5] The family first settled inWest Englewood, thenWest Woodlawn, and then moved back to West Englewood. In 1917, they bought a house located across the street from the Greater Saint JohnAME Church, where the family belonged and participated in community events.[5]
In Chicago, Payne attended Copernicus Elementary School, thenLindblom Technical High School, where one of the writing teachers, who inspired her, had also taught authorErnest Hemingway.[9] Both schools at the time had very few African-American students, and walking to school through largely white neighborhoods was sometimes challenging.[5]
From the late 1920s to early 1930s, Payne attendedCity Colleges of Chicago, then known as Crane Junior College, and theGarrett Institute's Chicago Training School for City, Home and Foreign Missions.[10][11] In the 1940s, Payne received a three-year certificate. From 1940 to 1942, she attended night school atMedill School of Journalism atNorthwestern University.[8]
From 1939 to 1947, Payne worked as a library assistant at theChicago Public Library.[8][10] She also became an activist with the Chicago branch of theNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and was an organizer of the June, 1942 Chicago rally forA. Philip Randolph and theMarch on Washington Movement, which sought to promote equal-employment opportunities for African Americans.[12]
In May 1948, Payne left her job as a senior library assistant at the Chicago Public Library to move to Tokyo, where she had a job as a service club hostess at the Army Special Services club, an organization similar to the Red Cross.[8] She held this job from 1948 to 1951, eventually becoming the Director of the United States Army service club at the quartermaster depot in Tokyo, Japan.[10]
Payne yearned to be a writer at a time when few such opportunities existed for African-American women.[13] She began her journalism career rather unexpectedly while in Japan. She allowed a visiting reporter fromThe Chicago Defender to read her journal, which detailed her own experiences as well as those of African-American soldiers. Impressed, the reporter took the journal back to Chicago and soon Payne's observations were being used byThe Defender, an African-American newspaper with a national readership, as the basis for front-page stories.
In 1951, Payne moved back to Chicago to work full-time for Sengstacke Newspapers, the publisher ofThe Chicago Defender. She worked as an Associate editor and reporter from 1951 to 1978. After working there for two years, in 1953, Payne took over the paper's one-person bureau in Washington, D.C. and became the Washington correspondent for Sengstacke Newspapers, a position she held until 1973.[10] In addition to national assignments, Payne was afforded the opportunity to cover stories overseas, becoming the first African-American woman to focus on international news coverage.[14] In this position, Payne was only one of three accredited African Americans on theWhite House Press Corps.[7]
During Payne's twenty-five year career withThe Chicago Defender, she covered several key events in the Civil Rights Movement, including theMontgomery bus boycott anddesegregation at theUniversity of Alabama in 1956, as well as the1963 March on Washington.[15] She and the African American authorRichard Wright attended the 1955Bandung Conference, and Wright showcased some of his exchanges with her in his 1956 bookThe Color Curtain: A Report on the Bandung Conference.[16]
Payne earned a reputation as an aggressive journalist who asked tough questions. She once asked PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower when he planned to ban segregation in interstate travel. The President's angry response that he refused to support special interests made headlines and helped push civil rights issues to the forefront of national debate.
In 1964, Payne attended the signing by President Johnson of theCivil Rights Act of 1964, where the President gave her one of the pens he used to sign the legislation.[5]
In 1966, she traveled toVietnam to cover African-American troops, who were involved in much of the fighting. She subsequently covered theNigerian civil war and the International Women's Year Conference inMexico City, and accompanied Secretary of StateHenry Kissinger on a six-nation tour of Africa.[14]
In 1972 she became the first African-American woman radio and television commentator on a national network, working on CBS's programSpectrum from 1972 to 1978, and after that withMatters of Opinion until 1982.
In 1978, Payne became an associate of theWomen's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP).[17] WIFP is an American nonprofit publishing organization. The organization works to increase communication between women and connect the public with forms of women-based media.
In 1978, she was appointed as a professor for the School of Journalism atFisk University inNashville, Tennessee.[18]
In an interview a few years prior to her death, Payne said, "I stick to my firm, unshakeable belief that the black press is an advocacy press, and that I, as a part of that press, can't afford the luxury of being unbiased . . . when it come to issues that really affect my people, and I plead guilty, because I think that I am an instrument of change."[7] On May 28, 1991, aged 79, Payne died of aheart attack at her home in Washington, D.C.
Ethel Payne was one of four journalists honored with a U.S. postage stamp in a "Women in Journalism" set in 2002.[14][19]
In 2022, theWhite House Correspondents' Association created the Dunnigan-Payne Lifetime Achievement Award in memory of Payne and fellow White House reporterAlice Dunnigan.[6]
On November 30, 2023, the White House named its briefing lectern the Dunnigan-Payne lectern in honor ofAlice Dunnigan and Payne, the first two Black women in theWhite House press corps.[20]
Prompted by her work in Africa as a foreign correspondent and to honour the name of a journalist who covered seven U.S. presidents and was a war correspondent, theNational Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) awards "Ethel Payne Fellowships" to journalists interested in obtaining international reporting experience through assignments in Africa.[21]
Several of Ethel Payne's belongings and awards are on view at theAnacostia Community Museum in Washington, D.C.
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