Person · 1911–1991
Ethel Payne
The "First Lady of the Black Press," who questioned presidents and covered the Civil Rights Movement for the Chicago Defender.
An heir to the Black press tradition of [[great-migration|the Defender]] and Ida B. Wells.
From the White House press corps Ethel Payne pressed Eisenhower on segregation and reported the Montgomery bus boycott, Little Rock, and the march to the ballot for a Black readership the mainstream press ignored.