Evelyn Cunningham (January 25, 1916 – April 28, 2010) was an American journalist and aide to

Nelson Rockefeller Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979), sometimes referred to by his nickname Rocky, was an American businessman and politician who served as the 41st vice president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. A member of t ...

.The Associated Press, "Evelyn Cunningham, Journalist and Aide, Dies at 94", ''The New York Times'', April 29, 2010
available online.
/ref> Cunningham covered the early

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

and was a reporter and editor for the ''

Pittsburgh Courier The ''Pittsburgh Courier'' was an African-American weekly newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1907 until October 22, 1966. By the 1930s, the ''Courier'' was one of the leading black newspapers in the United States. It was acqu ...

''. She and the paper's staff were awarded the

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the award ...

in 1998 for their coverage.

Early life

Evelyn Cunningham was born Evelyn Elizabeth Long in

Elizabeth City, North Carolina Elizabeth City is a city in Pasquotank County, North Carolina, Pasquotank County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 18,629. Elizabeth City is the county seat and largest city of Pasquotank County. It ...

, one of two children of a taxicab driver and a dressmaker. The family moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

when Evelyn was a child; she was educated in city schools and graduated from

Hunter College High School Hunter College High School is a secondary school located in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is administered by Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY). Hunter is publicly funded, and there i ...

in 1934 and from

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university with two main campuses, LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It offers more than 500 academic programs at its main campuses, online, and at multiple non-residential. LIU ...

in 1943, earning a bachelor's degree.

''Pittsburgh Courier''

The largest

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

newsweekly at the time, the ''

'' was an influential presence during and in the years preceding the civil rights movement. Cunningham joined the ''Courier'' in 1940Clem Richardson
"Well-versed journalist Evelyn Cunningham writing piece on 'unknown black history'"
''New York Daily News'', November 23, 2009. working from the

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

office at 125th street. She earned the nickname the "lynching editor" due to her extensive coverage of

lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

s in the deep south. While at the ''Courier'' she attempted to interview

Bull Connor Theophilus Eugene "Bull" Connor (July 11, 1897 – March 10, 1973) was an American politician who served as Commissioner of Public Safety for the city of Birmingham, Alabama, for more than two decades. A member of the Democratic Party, ...

, in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

, but he denied her, with a racial epithet. She also met with a number of civil rights leaders, including

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

and

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Is ...

. Cunningham wrote a three-part series on the King family from those meetings. She often worked with Thurgood Marshall, covering the cases he defended. One evening, an after hours club they were attending in Harlem was raided. " heaccosted a cop she knew, telling him, "You can't arrest this man. He is very, very important, he's with the NAACP, you've got to let him go." King, Devil in the Grove, pg. 41.

Work as political aide; later career

After leaving the ''Courier'', in 1962, Cunningham hosted a radio show of her own on

WLIB WLIB (1190 AM) is an urban contemporary gospel radio station licensed to New York City. WLIB is owned by Emmis Communications, along with sister stations WBLS (107.5 FM) and WQHT (97.1 FM). The three stations share studios in the Hudson Square n ...

in New York. She then joined

in 1965 as a special assistant to the then governor. She maintained this title in Washington during his vice presidency. She also served on

Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

's Task Force on Women's Rights and Responsibilities. In 1970, Cunningham was one of the founders of the New York Coalition of One Hundred Black Women, a non-profit organization dedicated to bettering the lives of black women "and their families through implementing initiatives and services to address important social, political, economical ndcultural issues." In the 2000s, Cunningham was appointed to the New York City Commission on Women's Issues by

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...

Personal life

Tall—almost six feet tall in heels—and with red hair, Cunningham was called "Big East," referring both to her height and her

background. A dedicated career woman who once expressed the opinion that "marriage isn't much good for a career woman",Joyce Wadler, "Public Lives: Still Fighting the Battle of the Sexes," ''New York Times,'' April 15, 1998. nevertheless she married four times. Her last marriage was to Austin H. Brown, who died in 2003. A

Juilliard The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

-trained

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

, he was also the first African-American master watchmaker in New York's Diamond District. She had one brother, Clyde Whitehurst Long, who died in 1973, leaving a daughter, whom Evelyn raised. She also had two step-daughters from Austin's previous marriage, which also gave her two grandchildren.

References

External links

A Few Good Women... Evelyn CunninghamEvelyn Cunningham National Visionary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Evelyn 1916 births 2010 deaths People from Elizabeth City, North Carolina African-American journalists American women journalists African-American women writers African-American writers Long Island University alumni American women non-fiction writers 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women 21st-century African-American women