Celebrating Our Legendary Black Female Journalists: Ethel Payne and Natalie Moore

Born on the South Side of Chicago in 1911, Payne was known as the First Lady of theBlack Press for her tenacity in bringing human rights and civil rights issues to printed media. Through her journalistic efforts to uncover discrimination, she established her identity as an activist and courageous reporter and gained the attention of the Chicago Defender, which had a national circulation.

Ethel Payne

As the first Black woman to join the White House press corps, Payne had a front seat to Civil Rights issues, as she was able to have direct access to President Eisenhower and question him about issues on segregation and discrimination throughout the US.

After some of Payne’s questions rattled the President, she received considerable backlash but continued to work tirelessly to bring civil rights issues to the forefront of media attention. She also traveled internationally to cover the Korean and Vietnam wars.

In the 70s, Payne became a commentator for CBS and entered the world of television and radio broadcast. In the late seventies, Ms. Payne left both the Defender and CBS and self-syndicated her own column.

While Ethel Payne passed away in 1991 at the age of 79, she had reported from 30 countries, six continents, covered two wars and the political campaigns and administrations of six presidents. She had campaigned for the freedom of Nelson and Winnie Mandela and interviewed legendary political figures, including Martin Luther King and Idi Amin.

Payne blazed her own trail and paved the way for burgeoning journalists.

Carrying the baton for influential Chicago journalists is our own Natalie Moore. Moore, a Chicago native is an author and the acclaimed South Side bureau reporter will celebrate her 12th year at WBEZ this Spring.

WBEZ journalist and author, Natalie Moore

Moore enthusiastically covers inequality and segregation, deriving inspiration from the late Ethel Payne. “I look at her as an unsung groundbreaker,” says Moore. “More people should know her name. She did so much – covering the Civil Rights Movement, covering the White House, being at the Defender. I look at her as one of those unsung heroes that paved the way for journalists like me.”

Ethel Payne would most certainly be proud of Natalie, recipient of several well-deserved accolades, including the 2017 Chicago Library Foundation’s 21st Century Award and the 2016 Chicago Review of Books nonfiction award for The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation.

Similar to Payne, Moore tackles what could be perceived as difficult issues in both her books and

journalism –sparked by her own intellectual curiosity.“A lot of what I do is inspired by creating books that I want to read that aren’t done. For The SouthSide […] I really wanted to push segregation to the forefront.”

Moore speaks very passionately about the segregation that has become emblematic of Chicago, and her hope is that her readers and listeners understand the crux of the problem: “We [Chicago] won’t be a world-class city until we acknowledge and begin to dismantle it. It’s so incredibly cliché to say, well, let’s have a conversation first. I do think that segregation is seen as the default, or that people are just living where they want to live, and there’s no acknowledgment of the past or the present and how policy decisions are made, or how the housing market works. We have to have a reckoning with that and start to hold our elected officials accountable. It’s about resources and power.”

The problems aren’t simply about the geography that Black people occupy in the city. According to Moore, there are deeper ramifications. “There’s been research that shows that it’s easy for Black people to slide backward on the economic channel. And we still see police brutality and discrimination against black homeowners. It’s a mixed bag. there are successes and wins, but there are still struggles.”

As Moore thinks about her future in journalism, she’s very happy in her esteemed role as our South Side Lois Lane. “Of course,” she says, “there’s more shine if you’re a national reporter, but it’s important to have local voices, and I find it an incredible privilege to be able to report in my hometown. I’ve always tried to look at my career as an arc. Each book does a little bit better than the last book, but the work expands and I just want to continue on that journey.”

Gina B. is a podcaster, comedy writer, film producer, journalist and owner of Naturals by Gina B. She can also be found on social media @ginaspot, @naturalsbyginab.and www.iamginab.com