MN State History Day Runner-up and National Qualifying video by Zoe Campion (’21) and Elsa Carlson (’21).

In 1954, Ethel Payne, a Black journalist for the Chicago Defender, questioned President Eisenhower’s stance on a law that would ban segregation within interstate travel. The President’s vehemence against her question helped Payne realize the important role she could play in communicating the black perspective through journalism. Previously, Civil Rights issues had been purposely neglected by the white media, but Paynes’ questions highlighted to the white press the inequalities faced by African Americans. Ethel Payne’s perspective on reporting communicated racial disparities to a larger audience, a stance that has been continued by journalists in modern times.