Research Catalog

Title

Ethel Payne papers.

Author

Payne, Ethel L.

Publication

1935-1993.

Supplementary Content

Finding aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

22.98 linear feet (59 boxes, 2 oversize folders)

Summary

• Ethel Payne (1911-1991) was an award-winning journalist and syndicated columnist with extensive national and international reporting experience. The Ethel Payne papers mostly consist of materials related to her time as a reporter (both domestic and international); work with various organizations (such as Africare); participation in conferences and symposia; teaching appointments; and interest in civil rights issues, both domestic and international.
• Ethel Payne (1911-1991) was an award-winning journalist and syndicated columnist with extensive national and international reporting experience. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, in August 1911, and attended Crane Junior College, the Garret Institute, and Northwestern University (all in the Chicago area). She spent three years with the Army Special Services in Tokyo, Japan, and returned to the United States in 1951. She soon joined the staff of the"Chicago Defender"as a feature writer and won numerous awards for her work, which led to her assignment in Washington, D. C., as the White House correspondent. She became known for angering President Dwight Eisenhower when she asked him a question about ending segregation in interstate travel. After this encounter and her reportage on Southern desegregation battlegrounds, she was one of the civil rights movement's most visible reporters of issues and topics related to African Americans. Eventually, she would earn the moniker, "first lady of the Black press". Payne also wrote a weekly syndicated column that appeared in various Black newspapers across the country. Payne's international coverage began in 1955 with the Asian-African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia. She covered the civil war in Nigeria, the Vietnam War, and went to China with one of the first groups of American journalists to visit since Nixon's trip in 1972. Payne accompanied various heads of state, including Secretaries of State William Rogers and Henry Kissinger, in 1970 and 1976 respectively, on multinational tours of Africa. Throughout her career, she traveled to thirty countries and interviewed heads of state on six continents, including Chou En-lai, Haile Selassie, Idi Amin, and Winnie Mandela. Additional assignments included the World Council of Churches meeting in Sweden, World Peace Assemblies in Prague and Vienna, and meetings of the UN Decade for Women (1975-1985). Payne was also employed by the AFL-CIO, Democratic National Committee, and CBS News. At CBS, she became the first African American female radio and television commentator on a national network when she was hired as a correspondent for the radio program "Spectrum" In the 1970s, she was a visiting professor of journalism at Fisk University and Jackson State University. In 1978, she received a Ford Foundation fellowship in educational journalism with which she wrote "Roots, Rewards, and Renewal", a monograph on the study of Black colleges in the U. S. Additionally, she was active in various civil rights and international organizations such as Africare, NAACP, the Capitol Press Club (the nation’s oldest Black journalist group), and Delta Sigma Theta, among many others. She won numerous awards including a 1988 Candace Award and induction into the D. C. Commission for Women Hall of Fame, also in 1988; in 2002, she was one of four female journalists honored with a U.S. postage stamp likeness. Payne died in 1991.
• The Ethel Payne papers mostly consist of materials related to her time as a reporter (both domestic and international); work with various organizations (such as Africare); participation in conferences and symposia; teaching appointments; and interest in civil rights issues, both domestic and international. There is a limited amount of personal information, but these papers does include correspondence with family members and information on various awards and honors received. The Correspondence series contains both personal and professional correspondence, the former mostly with friends and colleagues, and the latter with publishers, organizations seeking conference participation or lectures, and subjects of Payne's writing. One of the largest series, Writing, is comprised of Payne's notes, background and research material, drafts, and final publications of her articles, weekly columns, radio scripts, speeches, and lectures. Also included in this series are unpublished works and works by other authors. The Professional series, also substantial, contains printed matter and notes on Payne's various special assignments (such as her coverage of Henry Kissinger's trip to Africa and the Democratic National Conventions) for different publications; additionally, there is printed matter, notes, and correspondence with the various organizations and institutions on whose boards, committees, and/or juries Payne sat. This series also includes materials related to Payne's consultancies, participation in various conferences and symposia, and teaching career (the majority of which was at Fisk University). Most of the these materials consist of correspondence, conference or symposia programs, and other printed matter, such as clippings and program announcements. Lastly, this series contains printed matter on Payne herself. The final series, Subject files, consists of printed matter on various countries, individuals, organizations, and topics; most of the material was used as research and background material for Payne's writing.

Subjects

• Kissinger, Henry, 1923-2023
• Radio journalists
• Foreign correspondents
• Authors, Black
• African American women political activists
• African American women journalists
• African American women educators
• African American women authors
• African American women
• African American newspapers
• Spectrum (Radio program)
• Sengstacke Enterprises
• Chicago defender
• Afro-American Newspapers
• Africare (Organization)
• Jackson, Jesse, 1941-

Access (note)

• Some personnel records closed until 50 years after most recent date in each individual file. Records with personal identifiable information have been redacted.

Source (note)

• Gift of Ethel Payne, 1988.

Location of Other Archival Materials (note)

• Ethel L. Payne papers, MSS81191, Library of Congress

Call Number

Sc MG 353

OCLC

1288574547

Author

Payne, Ethel L., creator.

Title

Ethel Payne papers.

Production

1935-1993.

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

sheet

Restricted Access

Some personnel records closed until 50 years after most recent date in each individual file. Records with personal identifiable information have been redacted.

Location of Other Archival Materials

Ethel L. Payne papers, MSS81191, Library of Congress

Materials Separated from the Resource: Transferred to the Art and Artifacts Division: artifacts. Transferred to the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division: audio and moving image materials. For more information, please contact the division at schomburgaudiovisual@nypl.org or 212-491-2270. Transferred to the Photographs and Prints Division: photographs.

Source

Gift of Ethel Payne, 1988.

Connect to:

Finding aid

Occupation

Foreign correspondents.

Radio journalists.

Research Call Number

Sc MG 353