Ethel Lois Payne (1911-1991)
Journalist, publisher, civil rights leader, educator

Ethel Lois Payne (1911-1991) is often called the "First Lady of the Black Press." She was the first African-American female to report international news. Payne, a native of Chicago, was born on August 14, 1911. She began writing full time for The Chicago Defender in 1951. She reported on many of the major events of the Civil Rights movement including the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1956, desegregation efforts at Little Rock Central High School in 1957, and the March on Washington in 1963. One of her most memorable articles was a series written for The Defender titled "The South at the Crossroads," chronicling the South during the civil rights period. Payne became chief of The Chicago Defender's Washington bureau in 1954. In 1966 she provided on-site coverage of African American troops in Vietnam. She became the first black female radio and television commentator at a national news organization when CBS hired her in 1972. She worked there until 1982. In the early 1980s she campaigned for the release of South African leader Nelson Mandela from prison. Further Reading Streitmatter, Rodger L. "No Taste For Fluff: Ethel L. Payne, African American Journalist." Journalism Quarterly 1991 68 (3): 528-540. ---. Raising Her Voice: African American Women Journalists Who Changed History. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 1994.

She died of a heart attack on May 28, 1991, at age 79.