First two Black women in White House press corps honored with lifetime achievement awards

African American reporters, Alice Dunnigan and Ethel Payne both received posthumous honors Saturday during the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Dunnigan was the first African American female reporter to be credentialed at the White House in 1947. She was joined on the beat by Ms. Payne a few years later.

Both women distinguished themselves during the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, regularly pressing him at his press conferences – when no other reporters would – about his administration’s support for civil rights for Black Americans.

Dunnigan and Payne, both of whom penned articles for the Chicago Defender, were recognized by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), which bestowed the Dunnigan-Payne Prize for Lifetime Career Achievement Award to each.

The WHCA announced they would present the award, which recognizes meritorious service throughout an individual’s career as a White House correspondent.

During a black-tie gala at the Washington Hilton on Saturday, Gayle King of “CBS Mornings” presented the award to relatives of Dunnigan and Payne, who died in 1983 and 1991, respectively.

“This association of White House reporters has never given its due to these two pioneering WHCA members who paved the way for so many,” said WHCA President Steven Portnoy.

“We are proud to see to it that Alice Dunnigan and Ethel Payne will be forever remembered for their service to the profession and to the American public,” Portnoy said.

Black Press Archives at Howard University Gets Preserved, Digitized Thanks to $2M Grant

The Howard University Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (MSRC) received a $2 million grant from the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation to support the preservation and digitization of the Black Press Archives, a newspaper collection of titles by Black journalists, editors and publishers. MSRC worked in partnership with the Center for Journalism and Democracy to secure this critical gift, and the center will be committing additional funds to the project to ensure a significant number of publications in the Black Press Archives are available in an online repository for worldwide research.

“Documenting and telling our stories has always served as a source of truth and power for the Black community in the United States and across the African diaspora,” said Howard University President Wayne A. I. Frederick. “The Black Press Archives is a unique and deeply important resource for Howard University faculty and students as well as the broader research community. We are very pleased to receive the support of the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation to digitize the archives – an important milestone that advances Howard’s mission to share the story of the Black experience with the world.”

The Black Press Archives represents more than 2,000 newspaper titles from the United States, Africa and the African diaspora. It has 2,847 microfilm reels of newspapers, totaling over 100,000 individual issues of newspapers. The collection includes complete files of Black papers as well as the records of Black editors, publishers and journalists.

“I am excited for MSRC’s partnership with the Center for Journalism and Democracy and grateful for the generous support of the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation,” said Moorland-Spingarn Research Center Director Benjamin Talton, Ph.D. “Black newspapers and journalists are essential pieces in the history of African-Americans and Black people globally. One cannot fully tell the story of the Black experience without the Black press. I am proud to have MSRC at the center of sharing that legacy. Our digitization project will bring greater equity in access to this important resource. For the first time ever, those who lack the financial means and time to travel to the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center will be able bring this history into their classrooms and homes through our online database.”

The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation supports organizations that advance social justice by empowering world-changing work in investigative journalism, documentary film, arts and culture, and democracy. The foundation has supported numerous other social justice archive projects, including digitization of photographer Ernest C. Withers civil rights photo collection and production of a full-length documentary on Withers; a production of “And Then They Came for Us,” a full-length documentary about the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II; and production of the “Making Gay History” podcast, which draws on a decades-old archive of rare interviews that bring LGBTQ voices to life.

“We were immediately intrigued when Ms. Hannah-Jones and the archives scholars at Howard described the treasure trove of Black press materials in its collection – from the legendary Chicago Defender and Amsterdam News, Los Angeles Sentinel and Washington Afro-American, to global publications as well as the records of Black publishers, editors and journalists,” said President and CEO of the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation Jonathan C. Logan. “Nikole herself has relied on this archive in her own work. The cataloguing and digitizing of this amazing collection will make it possible to share this indispensable resource with the world – students, journalists, scholars – everyone, anywhere. JLFF is so proud to partner with Howard to help bring to life the reporting and stories that, in many cases, would be lost to history but for the Black press.”

The grant will also be used to hire staff, purchase equipment and supplies, and fund scholarships for students and scholars at HBCUs to visit the on-site collection. The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation’s generous support will provide more than half of the overall budget needed to complete the archival project.

The Center for Journalism and Democracy is seeking additional support for this pivotal project. The center’s founder, Nikole Hannah-Jones, also serves as the inaugural Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at the Cathy Hughes School of Communications at Howard University. The center will officially launch in Fall 2022.

“For generations, the stories of Black people in America were not deemed worthy of telling by the newspapers delivered to the homes of white people. Those journals documented only one version of the lived American experience,” said Hannah-Jones. “The Black press served – and continues to serve – to celebrate, commemorate and honor Black lives in this country and to push this nation to live up to its highest ideals. Howard University has always understood the value and necessity of uplifting, documenting and fighting for Black lives, and the students we will support through the center will utilize and learn from this impressive archive. I am deeply grateful that the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation has chosen to fund the processing and digitization of the Black Press Archives, which are a tremendous gift not just to Howard but to the nation and the world.”

MSRC is currently housed in Howard’s storied Founder’s Library. In 2015, MSRC began its Digital Production Center to manage the digitization and digital preservation of its extensive archive of African-American history. Through digital preservation, MSRC hopes to better support the preservation of the global Black experience in perpetuity. The grant also will be used to support scholars and cover the costs of research.

Only black reporters allowed in Georgia mayoral race event

Organizers of a meeting to discuss an upcoming mayoral race in Georgia barred reporters from attending — unless they were African-American.

The Wednesday meeting at a church in Savannah was held to try to unite the city's black community behind a single candidate for mayor in the Nov. 5 election. Signs at the door said "Black Press Only!"

White reporters were denied entry, while at least two black reporters and the publisher of a local African-American newspaper were allowed inside, the Savannah Morning News reported . Television cameras and recording devices were also prohibited.

The newspaper said the Rev. Clarence Teddy Williams, who organized the meeting, declined to discuss the entry policy.

Van Johnson, a Savannah city councilman and one of three black mayoral candidates to have announced campaigns so far, attended the Wednesday meeting at Bolton Street Baptist Church. Johnson said afterward he relayed "my vision for an inclusive Savannah, a progressive Savannah."

Asked by a local TV station about only black reporters being allowed inside, Johnson said: "It's not my meeting. Again, I was asked to come give a statement, and so I came and I gave a statement."

Louis Wilson, who says he's running for mayor again after an unsuccessful 2015 campaign, also attended the meeting.

Regina Thomas, a former Georgia state senator and one of the incumbent mayor's black challengers, skipped the church gathering Wednesday. She said the meeting appeared divisive and was scheduled too early in the campaign. The deadline for candidates to sign up for the race is Aug. 23. Thomas said she also had a scheduling conflict: her Bible study group met Wednesday night.

[SOURCE: YAHOO NEWS]

NEWSEUM DISPLAYING SCULPTURE OF ALICE ALLISON DUNNIGAN, FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN TO COVER THE WHITE HOUSE AND CONGRESS

On Sept. 21, a sculpture of Alice Allison Dunnigan, the first African American woman to receive press credentials to cover the White House and Congress, will go on display at the Newseum. The museum will unveil the Dunnigan sculpture in a short ceremony at 1 p.m. at the “Make Some Noise” exhibit on Level 4. Following the unveiling, the Newseum will host a program at 2 p.m. entitled, “Remembering Alice Allison Dunnigan” in the Knight TV Studio. The program will feature Carol Booker, who edited an autobiography of Dunnigan, artist Amanda Matthews, who created the statue and Dunnigan’s granddaughter Soraya Dunnigan Brandon. This program is free with Newseum admission.

Dunnigan, who began her journalism career in Kentucky before moving to Washington, D.C., was a pioneering journalist who rose to the top of her profession despite racist policies that segregated black journalists and sexist attitudes that severely limited opportunities for women in a male-dominated workplace. The life-sized bronze sculpture was created by Kentucky sculptor Amanda Matthews and is being cast at the Prometheus Foundry in Lexington, Ky.

During World War II, Dunnigan moved to Washington, D. C. to work at the War Labor Board. After the war ended, Dunnigan went to work for the Associated Negro Press and became the head of that organization’s Washington Bureau on Jan. 1, 1947, a job she held for 14 years supplying stories to 112 African American newspapers across the United States.

Dunnigan was the first African American woman accredited to report on the White House, covering presidential press conferences. She also became the first African American woman to gain press credentials to report on Congress, the State Department and the Supreme Court. She also made history by being the first African American woman on a presidential tour when she went on the whistle-stop tour with President Truman.

Throughout Dunnigan’s career, she battled the rampant racism and sexism that dominated the mostly white and male professions of journalism and politics. She once famously stated, “Race and sex were twin strikes against me. I’m not sure which was the hardest to break down.”

In 2015, the Newseum hosted a program about Dunnigan, “Inside Media: Alice Dunnigan, Pioneer of the National Black Press.”The program featured Carol McCabe Booker, who edited and annotated a new edition of Dunnigan’s autobiography, “Alone Atop the Hill.”

The sculpture will be on display at the Newseum through Dec. 16, 2018. It will then be taken to Dunnigan’s hometown of Russellville, Ky., and installed on the grounds of the West Kentucky African American Heritage Center as part of a park dedicated to the civil rights movement.

James Clyburn: Democrats must advertise in the Black Press to win in November

During an interview with NNPA (National Newspaper Publishers Association) Newswire Rep. James Clyburn (Dem, South Carolina) made three suggestions he thinks Democrats should follow to increase black voter turnout so that they can win big in the 2018 mid-terms. One was to advertise in the Black Press

From the NNPA Newswire interview:

...Democrats shouldn’t rely on an anti-President Donald Trump wave to get out the vote. Finally, Clyburn said that candidates must advertise in the Black Press, if they want to win in November.

“We are also talking about districts where Barack Obama won twice and where Hillary Clinton also won, but these voters don’t turn out for the so-called ‘off-year elections,’” Clyburn said. “We can’t let these voters feel like we’re taking them for granted.”

Clyburn, 78, said he was recently taken aback by one candidate, who said that he could win the Black vote by running on an anti-Trump platform.

“Wait one second,” Clyburn said that he told the individual. “We can’t just go around being ‘Republican-light.’ We have to be out there putting forth an alternative message, for our base, and we have to reach out to Black voters and let them know we’re not taking them or any of our base for granted.”

To that end, Clyburn said advertising campaigns must largely include the Black Press.

“It’s very, very important…Chairman Richmond and I have had candidates in and we’ve been telling them that one of the best ways to demonstrate that you’re not taking the Black vote for granted is to advertise in the Black Press,” Clyburn said.

The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) is the oldest and largest trade group representing the Black Press, comprised of more than 200 Black-owned newspapers operating in the United States.

“I’ve been in [the Black Press]. My daughter and I ran a newspaper down South, so I know that candidates tend to take Black media for granted,” Clyburn said. “They tend to judge Black media the same way they do other media and you just can’t do that, because the business model is totally different.”

Each Sunday after attending Morris Brown A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C., Clyburn said he and other churchgoers habitually pick up the local Black-owned newspaper.

“People tend to pay attention to the headlines, the stories and the ads in the Black Press so it’s vitally important that candidates know this,” Clyburn said.