Ethel L. Payne was an African-American journalist, publisher, civil rights leader, and educator known as the “First Lady of the Black Press”.
Payne was born in 1911 in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Englewood, which was a black community surrounded by white neighbourhoods. Payne’s father died when she was 12, and her mother was forced to clean houses and take in lodgers to support the family. Payne’s mother would read the Bible and other literature to her as a child, and this sparked an interest in writing. She showed an early talent for writing, and her mother encouraged her to attend Lindblom High School in a white area. Payne walked through a segregated neighbourhood every day, and was subjected to racial abuse and even had rocks thrown at her. At school, she excelled in English and history, and her English teacher recognised and nurtured her talent, pushing her to write essays and stories, one of which she submitted to a magazine. Some of her work was published in the High School’s literary magazine.
Payne was determined to become a civil rights Lawyer so that she could defend the rights of poor people and stand up to the bullies who had taunted her brother. She briefly attended Crane Junior College and a division of Garrett Biblical Institute before applying to the University of Chicago Law School. Her application was refused, partly due to racial discrimination. Payne then worked as a matron at a girls reform school and a Chicago Public Library clerk. During this time, she became active in civil rights and was appointed by the Governor of Illinois to serve on the state’s Human Rights Commission. In 1948, Payne took a position with the Red Cross in Japan, working as a hostess at an Army Special Services Club. She wrote a diary while there, and a reporter from the Chicago Defender read it and, impressed with her observations he took it back to Chicago. Excerpts of her writing were used on the Defender’s front page, and detailed illegal and immoral practices within the military.
In the early 1950’s, Payne moved back to the U.S. and began working for The Defender as a reporter. In 1952, the Illinois Press Association recognised her writing on the crisis affected the adoption of African American babies as the best news story of the year. In 1954, she became the chief of the Defender’s Washington D.C. bureau and continued to develop her interest in civil rights. She reported on milestones of the civil rights movement, including: the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the forced desegregation efforts at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas; demonstrations in Birmingham and Selma, Alabama; and the 1963 March on Washington. Payne was one of a few black female reporters in Washington at the time, and was subjected to racial and gender discrimination. Payne allowed nothing to hold her back, and became an aggressive and determined reporter who was committed to asking difficult questions.
In the mid-1950’s, Payne expanded her focus when being allowed to cover stories overseas, becoming the “first African-American woman to focus on international news coverage.” Payne covered the Asian-African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia and Ghana’s independence movement but it wasn’t until her coverage of the African-American troops fighting in the Vietnam War in 1966 that she got her big break. She investigated American military supplies being sold on the black market, was able to observe the soldiers learning guerrilla warfare and experienced the effects of the chemical agent orange first hand. Payne also covered the Nigerian civil War and the International Women’s Year Conference in Mexico City and travelled to Africa on separate occasions with Secretaries of State William P. Rogers and Henry Kissinger.
In 1972, Payne became the first African-American female radio and television commentator to be employed by a national network when she was hired by CBS. She worked there for a decade, and created segments that discussed topics important to the African-American community. In 1978, after 28 years of service to the Defender she left to begin a freelance career and wrote a syndicated column that ran in six black newspapers across the country. In the early 1980’s, Payne campaigned for the release of Nelson Mandela from prison and travelled to Africa to participate in anti-apartheid demonstrations and tour refugee camps in Somalia, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Payne continued to write and speak at events until her death in1991. She opened many doors for African-American women in journalism and was the recipient of many honours during her lifetime including being named “Woman of Action” in 1980 for outstanding achievements in journalism, presented to her by the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club; the Candace Award of the Coalition of 100 Women in 1998. In 2002, she was honoured with a U.S. postage stamp as part of a “Women in Journalism” series and the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) award “Ethel Payne Fellowships” to journalists interested in obtaining international reporting experience through assignments in Africa.