Payne, Ethel (1911–1991)

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Payne, Ethel (1911–1991)

African-American journalist. Name variations: Ethel Lois Payne. Born on August 14, 1911, in Chicago, Illinois; died on May 4, 1991; daughter of William Payne (a Pullman porter) and Bessie (Austin) Payne (a high school Latin teacher); educated at Lindblom High School, Crane Junior College in Chicago, the Garrett Institute, and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Awards, honors: received first prize, Illinois Press Association, for series on adoptions (1952); honorable mention, Heywood Broun Memorial Award, for series on "Industry, USA" (1953); Third Annual World Understanding Award, Chicago Council for Outstanding Reporting (1956); Citation for Outstanding Reporting, Windy City Press Club, Chicago (1957); award for Vietnam report, Capital Press Club, Washington, D.C.; Excellence in Journalism Award, African Methodist Episcopal Church; 100 Outstanding Black Women citation, Operation PUSH, Chicago (1967); citations from National Urban Coalition, National Association of Business & Professional Women, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and National Association of Black Journalists; Roosevelt University, Chicago, Freedom Award (1970–80); testimonial dinner establishing professorship at Fisk University, Washington, D.C. (1982); Distinguished Service Award, Africare, Washington, D.C. (1983); Award for International Reporting, Capital Press Club (1985); chosen as one of the Top 100 Black Business & Professional Women of 1985, Dollars & Sense magazine; Transafrica African Freedom Award (1987).

Ethel Payne was one of the few African-American women journalists covering Washington, D.C., in her era. An investigative reporter for some 40 years whom many of her peers called "The First Lady of the Black Press," she was also the first African-American woman radio and television commentator employed by a national network and a passionate advocate of civil rights.

Payne got her start in journalism while working as an Army service club director in Tokyo, Japan, from 1948 to 1951. She was visited by two correspondents from the Chicago Defender, which throughout much of the 20th century was the most influential black newspaper in America. Payne had been recording in her diary observations on discrimination within the American forces stationed in Japan, and the correspondents persuaded her to send these to the Defender. What the paper published revealed illegal segregation within the military, and news of the hundreds of babies that American soldiers fathered with Japanese women and then abandoned. Returning to Chicago, Payne enrolled in the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. After receiving her degree, she joined the staff of the Chicago Defender, for which she would write for 27 years.

The paper soon transferred her to Washington, D.C., where she became a White House correspondent. Race issues were rarely mentioned in much of the American press, which sought either to avoid or to ignore such stories at that time, but Payne sought to create public awareness of racial injustice. At a press conference, she asked President Dwight D. Eisenhower to explain why the Howard University choir, which had been invited to perform alongside choirs from Emory and Duke universities at a Republican celebration on Lincoln Day, had been prevented from performing. Expressing surprise, Eisenhower responded he would apologize if indeed a racial snub had been intended. This story received extensive coverage, and while it brought attention to a legitimate problem, it also brought Payne accusations from some African-American journalists of simply trying to get her name known. In another confrontation with Eisenhower over bringing an end to segregated practices in interstate travel, he bristled and, in her own words, "chewed [her] out," saying that he did not intend to do any "special favors for any special interest group." After this incident, she was banned from White House press conferences. She nonetheless remained intent upon exposing and attacking segregation and the treatment of minorities.

Civil rights were a top priority for Payne, who often quoted activist Frederick Douglass' admonition to "agitate, agitate, agitate." She covered the civil-rights movement continuously from the mid-1950s, including the 1955–56 Montgomery bus boycott inspired by Rosa Parks , the 1963 church bombing that killed Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carol Robertson , and Cynthia Wesley (all children and known as the Birmingham Four ), and the March on Washington the same year. Among the many other stories she reported were those on wars and revolutionary movements in Africa, the experiences of African-American soldiers in the war in Vietnam (where she spent three months), the Apollo 17 Moon Launch, and the International Women's Year Conference in Mexico City in 1975. Throughout the next decade, she continued to travel and report widely, in the U.S., Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America. Payne was a commentator on CBS radio and television for ten years, and, after she left the Defender in her late 60s, wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a professorship in journalism established in her name at Fisk University, she continued freelance reporting and traveling until her death in 1991.