WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — Dorothy Butler Gilliam was the first African-American female reporter hired at The Washington Post in 1961.
Ever since her time at The Post, Gilliam has worked to make America's newsrooms look more diverse, like the real America, she said in a recent interview on Great Day Washington.
While at Great Day, she recalled several stories of racial injustice as she embarked on her early career as a journalist.
"The problems arose when I was sent out to do stories," Gilliam said. "It was 1961. Washington, DC was still a very segregated city. I would walk out and try to hail a cab after I got my assignment and no cab would stop for me."
The racial prejudice was also in the newsroom, according to the history-making journalist. Gilliam said many colleagues (but not all) would act like they didn't know her while out covering stories around Washington. She said it was so bad that she remembers crossing the street to avoid a colleague in order to avoid the humiliation of being ignored and was almost hit by a car.
Gilliam was sent to cover the integration of the University of Mississippi and had to sleep in a funeral home because hotels close to the campus would not service African Americans in the 1960s.
But even with all the challenges stacked against Gilliam, she persevered. She got her stories and kept on going.
Gilliam left The Post for a period of time to raise her children. She returned in 1972, and worked for more than 30 years as a columnist, often focusing on issues of education, politics and race.
Yet her goal of raising up young journalists of color didn't go away. Gilliam served as the president of the National Association of Black Journalists from 1993 to 1995. Then in 1997 Gilliam became director of the Young Journalists Development Project, which helps local high schools develop journalism programs.
Gilliam said, while there are more journalists of various ethnic backgrounds in newsrooms across the country, there aren't enough in management.
"It's so important to have diverse opinions [at the top]. That is something I see has not changed," Gilliam said.
"You can't see America only through white eyes. You need people of all genders and all races so you have a clear picture of what's actually going on in your community. And if the media is not diverse, the country is ill-informed."
To see Dorothy Butler Gilliam and hear her speak about her memoir Trailblazer: A Pioneering Journalist's Fight to Make the Media Look More Like America get tickets to her book-signing event, Friday, Feb. 8 at Metropolitan A.M.E. Church at 6:30 pm. She will be joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Eugene Robinson.