Lemuel Tucker (May 26, 1938 – March 2, 1991) was an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

. Born in

Saginaw, Michigan Saginaw () is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw and Saginaw County are both in the area known as Mid-Michigan. Saginaw is adjacent to Saginaw Charter Township and considered part of Greater ...

, Tucker graduated from Central Michigan University in 1960. Tucker was one of the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

s to work as a television network reporter. He began his career at

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in 1965 as a general assignment news correspondent, and served as news director at

WOR-TV WWOR-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area as the flagship of MyNetworkTV. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Fox flagship WNYW (ch ...

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from 1970 to 1971. He moved to

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

in 1972 and to

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

in 1977, where he worked until his death. He was winner of two Emmy Awards, and made the

master list of Nixon political opponents Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans * Grandmaster (chess), National Maste ...

for his reporting. Although Lem Tucker's life was brief, his career accomplishments were memorable. Tucker was the first African American elected to the position of student body president at CMU. That election took place when less than one percent of the student body was black. Previous to his election, only one other African American had been elected to a similar position in the United States. While at Central, Tucker was considered one of the university's top forensic students. He served as a chapter president of Pi Kappa Delta, a national speech honorary fraternity. He won his first Emmy in 1979 for his coverage of black America and his second in 1983 for a series about hunger in America. While working for the networks, he covered numerous major news events, including the Vietnam War, the Kent State University shootings and the Iran hostage crisis. He covered social unrest and riots in Newark, Miami and Harlem. He also reported from the Woodstock Festival. In 1981, he was covering President Ronald Reagan's speech at the Washington Hilton Hotel and witnessed the shooting of the president. He was broadcasting live reports on CBS Radio within minutes of the incident. He was applauded by his colleagues and others in the media for his continuous and thorough coverage, which he provided well into the next morning. During the course of his career, Tucker returned numerous times to his alma mater to speak to students about politics, share reflections on college life and offer insight regarding work as a national network correspondent. Tucker had a keen sense of humor. In an address given to the CMU community in the early 1980s, he told his audience he was amused to have been asked back to speak at the university, given that during his days as student body president, he "quibbled a lot" with the administration. He said, "How rare for me to be given a microphone and be invited to speak at CMU. Now I am on stage in front of administration and applauded." Tucker has one daughter, Linn Carol Tucker. His death in 1991 was due to liver failure.

References

Lem Tucker Speaker Series
. Lem Tucker was commissioned as a 2LT US Army Armor and graduated in class AOO6 from the U.S. Army Armor School at Fort Knox KY 1961 {{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, Lem 1938 births 1991 deaths American male journalists Journalists from Michigan People from Saginaw, Michigan Central Michigan University alumni NBC News people African-American journalists African-American television personalities 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century African-American people