Payne, Ethel Lois

Payne, Ethel Lois (1911-1991), was an American journalist known for her reporting on the civil rights movement in the United States in the 1950’s and 1960’s. She covered such stories as the 1955-1956 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama; the events surrounding the 1957 desegregation at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas; and the 1963 March on Washington. She is sometimes referred to as the “first lady of the black press.”

Ethel Payne
Ethel Payne

Payne was born in Chicago on Aug. 14, 1911. Her entry into journalism was unexpected. While working in Japan at a U.S. Army Special Services Club after World War II (1939-1945), she allowed a visiting journalist from the Chicago Defender, a newspaper with great influence in the African American community, to read the journal she was keeping. According to Payne’s observations of black Army life, little progress had been made in integrating the armed forces, despite an order by President Harry S. Truman to do so. The visiting journalist was so impressed by Payne’s writing that he showed it to the Defender’s management, and the newspaper soon published excerpts from the journal. In 1951, Payne, back in Chicago, began writing full-time for the paper. She held various positions with the paper until 1978.

In 1966, Payne went to Vietnam to cover the Vietnam War from the perspective of African American troops. She was hired by CBS in 1972, making her the first African American woman to work as a news commentator for a national television network. Payne died on May 28, 1991.

See also Chicago Defender .