SPJ's first African-American member ...
... was my good friend,
Lester H. Brownlee.
Les, as he was called, was inducted into SPJ (then known as Sigma Delta Chi) in 1947 while studying at Northwestern University (he earned his master's degree in journalism from NU in 1951). He went on to work across media -- newspapers, radio and television -- and broke down color barriers in several Chicago newsrooms.
Les died at age 90 in November 2005 -- but not before he managed to write his recently released autobiography titled,
Les Brownlee: The Autobiography of a Pioneering African-American Journalist.
Brownlee |
Chicagoans associate this image with the Les Brownlee Journalism Series. The logo was designed by SPJ Web Adminstrator Billy O'Keefe, one of Brownlee's former students at Columbia College Chicago. |
Looking for inspiration, wisdom and a healthy dose of humor? You'll find them in this book. Just a few of the anecdotes I never tired of hearing Les share:
The death of his father, a minister, from appendicitis.The elder Mr. Brownlee died because the then "all-white" Evanston Hospital refused to admit a black man. Oh, the irony: Les died in that same hospital several decades later.
His departure from home. Les was a teenager when his mother implored him to leave. "Every time some little emergency came up, you dipped into your savings," she told him. "You'll never get an education as long as you stay here and let us bleed you."
She went on:
"... Heaven knows this is one of the worst communities you could possibly live in. The white people here are so bigoted that they will go out of their way to keep you down. And the police will make a criminal out of you if you remain here. The colored people here have just given up. Very few of them have a dream that goes beyond Saturday night's pay."
An Winnetka, Ill., police officer eventually found Les sleeping in that city's train station and hauled him to a jail cell. What happened next changed Les' life. That officer probably never figured the young, black man he rounded up would be a first several times over. Les was a pioneer in the U.S. military, the media and journalism education.
His boyhood follies with lifelong friend Arthur C. Nielsen Jr., who went on to build the A.C. Nielsen empire. Long before they headed into the professional world, "Les and Art" had plenty of fun. And it was Les' smarts, good humor and dogged determination that won the admiration of A.C. Nielsen Sr., who provided Les with some financial support during his undergraduate years at the University of Wisconsin.
A.C. Nielsen Jr.'s generous donation to the Chicago Headline Club, SPJ's largest chapter, launched the Les Brownlee Journalism Series in 2002.
His self-described "sharp, damn sharp, but sensitive and humane" approach to reporting. Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass, who studied journalism under Les, wrote a foreward that summed up Les' reporting style beautifully:
"He would tell us about the power of that reporter's notebook, how intimidating it could be to folks who'd been minding their own business until they were hit with something that an editor deemed newsworthy.
"The last thing they needed was some reporter descending upon them, notbook ready, a stranger eager to fix their lives in print and judge them with a stranger's words, as butterfly collectors fix insects with pins on a board.
"Les would tell us: Keep the notebook in your pocket for a while. Get to know the people. Talk to them. Treat them like human beings. Don't ever treat them like the subjects of some study. If you wait, and treat them with respect and let them fil in the blank spaces in a conversation, the're more apt to tell you what they're thinking."