Hidden Figures: Alice Allison Dunnigan #BlackHERstoryMonth 2/28 (Patreon)

Hidden Figures: Alice Allison Dunnigan #BlackHERstoryMonth 2/28

Alice Allison Dunnigan (April 27, 1906 – May 6, 1983) was a Black American journalist, civil rights activist and author. Dunnigan was the first Black American female correspondent to receive White House credentials, and the first black female member of the Senate and House of Representatives press galleries. Dunnigan was a teacher in Kentucky public schools from 1924 to 1942. After completing a teaching course at Kentucky Normal and Industrial Institute, she taught Kentucky History in the Todd County School System. Noticing that her class was not aware of the Black American contributions to the Commonwealth, she started to prepare Kentucky Fact Sheets as supplements to required text. They were collected and formed into a manuscript in 1939, and finally published in 1982 with the title The Fascinating Story of Black Kentuckians: Their Heritage and Tradition. A call for government workers went out in 1942, and Dunnigan moved to Washington, D.C., during World War II seeking better pay and a government job. She worked as a federal government employee from 1942 to 1946, and took a year of night courses at Howard University. In 1946 she was offered a job writing for The Chicago Defender as a Washington correspondent. As a writer for the Associated Negro Press news service, Dunnigan sought press credentials to cover Congress and the Senate. Six months later, she was granted press clearance, becoming the first Black American woman to gain accreditation. In 1947 she was named bureau chief of the Associate Negro Press, a position she held for 14 years. Dunnigan was the first Black female member of the Senate and House of Representatives press galleries (1947), and the first Black female White House correspondent in 1948. In 1948 Dunnigan was one of three Black Americans and one of two women in the press corps that followed President Harry S. Truman's Western campaign, paying her own way to do it. In 1960 Dunnigan left her seat in the press galleries to take a position on Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign for the Democratic nomination. John F. Kennedy won the nomination, but chose Johnson as his running mate and named Dunnigan education consultant of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. She remained with the committee until 1965. Between 1966 and 1967 she worked as an information specialist for the Department of Labor and then as an editorial assistant for the President's Council of Youth Opportunity. When Richard M. Nixon took over the presidency in 1968, Dunnigan, as well as the rest of the Democratic administration, found themselves on their way out of the White House to make way for Nixon's Republican team. She died of ischemic bowel disease on May 6, 1983, in Washington, D.C. She was inducted into the Black Journalist Hall of Fame in 1985 two years after her death. #HiddenFigures #AliceAlisonDunnigan ****************** Merchandise! MAKE SURE U GETTA SHIRT!! https://www.teepublic.com/user/sssseren Follow me on social media! Instagram: @sensei_aishitemasu Personal Tumblr: http://sensei-aishitemasu.tumblr.com Tumblr for my work: https://sssseren.tumblr.com Snapchat: sssseren GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/tc5wh7q Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seren_sensei ****************** Did you know I wrote a book? ☺️ 'So, About That... A Year of Contemporary Essays on Race and Pop Culture' Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/About-That-Contemporary-Essays-Culture-ebook/dp/B013V0CHK6 Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B013V0CHK6 Digital download (e-book): https://gumroad.com/l/IkUa ****************** Links: Alone atop the Hill: The Autobiography of Alice Dunnigan, Pioneer of the National Black Press (A Sarah Mills Hodge Fund Publication) https://www.amazon.com/Alone-atop-Hill-Autobiography-Publication-ebook/dp/B00T8H9HDC A Black Woman's Experience: From Schoolhouse to White House https://www.amazon.com/Black-womans-experience-schoolhouse-White/dp/0805918825 The Fascinating Story of Black Kentuckians - Their Heritage and Traditions: https://www.amazon.com/fascinating-story-Black-Kentuckians-traditions/dp/B0006E4UME 'Meet the first two African American women in the White House press corps:' https://archives.cjr.org/critical_eye/alice_dunnigan_ethel_payne.php 'CELEBRATING KENTUCKY - ALICE ALLISON DUNNIGAN: https://kyforky.com/blogs/journal/alice-allison-dunnigan 'First black female White House reporter to be honored with bronze statue:' https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/08/21/alice-allison-dunnigan-statue-white-house/1050825002/ 'Newseum to Display Statue of Kentucky's Dunnigan, First African-American Woman to Cover Congress:' http://www.wkyufm.org/post/newseum-display-statue-kentuckys-dunnigan-first-african-american-woman-cover-congress#stream/0 'Newseum Honors First African American Woman To Cover The White House:' https://www.charlestonchronicle.net/2018/09/03/newseum-honors-first-african-american-woman-to-cover-the-white-house/