WEST ENGLEWOOD — Lindblom Math & Science Academy celebrated the life of 1930 alumna Ethel Payne on Thursday, exploring the late African-American journalist as a writer who wasn't afraid to ask questions and helped put the spotlight on the struggles of black people.
Payne, who died in 1991 at the age of 79, started her journalism career late in life: She was 40 when she began writing for the historic Chicago Defender weekly newspaper in the early 1950s. While at the Defender, the West Englewood native reported on the civil rights movement, covering significant events such as the Montgomery bus boycott and the 1963 march on Washington.
Payne also reported from the White House for several years, where she covered press conferences of presidents from Dwight Eisenhower to Ronald Reagan.
At Lindblom, 6130 S. Wolcott St., James McGrath Morris, author of “Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, The First Lady of the Black Press," talked about her amazing and groundbreaking life.
McGrath Morris said that Payne asked pointed questions and understood the significance of asking them when other reporters were around — the answers she elicited brought wider attention to issues such as segregation.
In his book, he recounts how Payne's asking President Eisenhower about an incident where a group of black singers from Howard University had been barred from an event led to national news coverage.
The biographer said he learned about Payne when he Googled “100 famous journalists” one day.
“She was on that list,” said McGrath Morris, who then began to learn more about her. He said he checked her archives and was surprised that the boxes that held her papers were unexplored.
“I knew the story was mine, and I immediately went after it,” he said, adding that he “fell in love with her” during the process of gathering the information.
“She kept enduring, and that’s a hallmark strength,” McGrath Morris said.
In his book, McGrath Morris says when Payne attended Lindblom it was mostly white. She walked a mile to get to the school and when she crossed Loomis Boulevard "you were in all-white territory," he writes.
"She endured taunts, epithets and the occasional rock thrown at her," McGrath Morris reports.
Her writing caught the attention of one particular teacher, Miss Dixon, who encouraged her. After graduation, she took classes at Northwestern University.
Lauren Stewart, 15, a Jones College Prep freshman, came to hear McGrath Morris' talk Thursday with her mother.
“I didn’t know about Ethel Payne, but I am happy I came,” she said.
“I think she was an amazing person. She broke down barriers, and she wasn’t afraid to ask questions that would reveal the truth about things going on in our society,” said Stewart, adding that she aspires to be a journalist one day.
Kathy Chaney, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, moderated a discussion after McGrath Morris's talk. Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s wife, Amy Rule, and 3rd Ward Ald. Pat Dowell also attended.
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