Women in the News

  Ethel Lois Payne

August 14, 1911 – May 28, 1991

Issued by USPS September 04, 2002

Front Cover of Book: publication date February 17, 2015

Ms. Ethel Payne passed away at the age of 79, in her home in Washington D.C.. According to the 1991 obituary in the New York Times she was survived by her sister.

In many articles Ethel was often described as “the first lady of the black press.” A title she earned for many reasons. She began her career in the early nineteen-fifties, when she joined the  Chicago Defender . However, according to Wikipedia, her journalistic career unexpectedly began when she was working as the Director of the Army Special Services club in Yokohama,  Japan. A reporter from the Chicago Defender   was visiting Japan and she allowed him to read her journal, where she had written about her experiences and those of the African-American soldiers.  The reporter was so impressed he took her writings back to Chicago.

On page one of The Chicago Defender dated November, 18,1950 her by-line was on the article entitled, Army Club Director Says Japanese Girls Playing Gis For Suckers . I found this article in the archives available through Pro Quest Archiver, which archives 100s of newspapers; archives for The Chicago Defender 1921-1967. In this article she explains how the “Chocolate Joes” are perceived in Japan. She also points out the “Chocolate Joes” found being stationed in Japan opened an entire new way of life. Even though surrounded by tons of Army regulations “life in Japan became an escape from the irking confinement of the social caste system and segregation, which he left behind him in the United States.”  She goes on the describe how language barriers between the “musume” (Japanese girl) were overcome and how different she is from American women. “In 1946 and 1947, a Gallup Poll on what GI Joe found most satisfying about Japanese women was their meekness and their willingness to serve. A stock comparison with American women would be ‘Too independent, won’t take anything off a man, and wait on a man!'” Once “Suziko San” got under the skins of the GIs they were able to wrangle new wardrobes and money from the GIs. The next step was to marry a GI and obtain all the things that comes with being a military wife.

That article was a beginning for Ethel Payne, she moved back to Chicago to write for The Chicago Defender. She worked there for two years then she moved to Washington D.C. where “she took over the paper’s one-person bureau. In addition to national assignments, Payne was afforded opportunity to cover stories overseas, becoming the first African-American woman to focus on international news coverage.”

Her career highlights include covering many key events in the Civil Rights movement. She interviewed Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr, she was present during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, desegregation at the University of Alabama (1956), the March on Washington (1956). When she attended the 1956 Bandung conference in Indonesia she was the only black correspondent. She covered African-American troops in Vietnam (1966). She covered the Nigerian civil war and the International Women’s Year Conference in Mexico City (1975). In 1976 she accompanied Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on a tour of Africa. Between 1972 and 1978 she was the first African-American woman to be a commentator on a National Network; CBS. The program was entitled Spectrum.  Followed by Matters of Opinion until 1982.

On August 12, 2011, the Opinion page of  The Washington Post, writer James McGrath Morris wrote about Ethel Payne. It begins, “On the morning of July 7, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower entered the Treaty Rom in the Executive Office Building, where 165 members of the overwhelmingly white and male press corps were gathered.” After reporters asked if Eisenhower supported the admission of Red China to the United Nations, did the pending farm bill meet with the administration’s approval, etc.. Ethel Payne asked “a carefully formulated question.”The question was one that reflected the growing hopes of African-Americans in the months after the  Brown v. Board Supreme Court decision to desegregate schools.

According to Wikipedia this question earned her a reputation as an aggressive journalist. The president’s response was that he refused to support special interests made headlines and helped push civil rights issues to the forefront of national debate.

James McGrath Morris published Eye on the Struggle a book about Ethel Payne, was published this month. The following is a summary of the book on  Amazon.com.

“Acclaimed biographer James McGrath Morris brings into focus the riveting life of one of the most significant yet least known figures of the civil rights era—pioneering journalist Ethel Payne, the “First Lady of the Black Press”—elevating her to her rightful place in history at last.

For decades, Ethel Lois Payne has been hidden in the shadows of history. Now, James McGrath Morris skillfully illuminates this ambitious, influential, and groundbreaking woman’s life, from her childhood growing up in South Chicago to her career as a journalist and network news commentator, reporting on some of the most crucial events in modern American history.

Morris draws on a rich and untapped collection of Payne’s personal papers documenting her private and professional affairs. He combed through oral histories, FBI documents, and newspapers to fully capture Payne’s life, her achievements, and her legacy. He introduces us to a journalist who covered such events as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Little Rock school desegregation crisis, the service of black troops in Vietnam, and Henry Kissinger’s 26,000-mile tour of Africa.

A self-proclaimed “instrument of change” for her people, Payne broke new ground as the Washington correspondent for the Chicago Defender. She publicly prodded President Dwight D. Eisenhower to support desegregation, and her reporting on legislative and judicial civil rights battles enlightened and activated black readers across the nation. In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson recognized Payne’s seminal role by presenting her with a pen used in signing the Civil Rights Act. In 1972, she became the first female African American radio and television commentator on a national network, working for CBS. Her story mirrors the evolution of our own modern society.

Inspiring and instructive, moving and comprehensive, Eye on the Struggle illuminates this extraordinary woman and her achievements, and reminds us of the power one person has to transform our lives and our world.”