Michele E. Clark (June 2, 1943 — December 8, 1972) was an American journalist. She was the first African-American woman to be a television correspondent for

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the '' CBS Evening News'', '' CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 4 ...

. As a correspondent at

WBBM-TV WBBM-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. Owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, the station maintains studios on West Washington ...

she covered the

1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries From January 24 to June 20, 1972, voters of the Democratic Party chose its nominee for president in the 1972 United States presidential election. Senator George McGovern of South Dakota was selected as the nominee through a series of primary elec ...

. Clark died in a plane crash in 1972, at the age of 29, while investigating the

Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's contin ...

. Her death has been widely described as cutting short a promising career.

Michele Clark Magnet High School Michele Clark Academic Prep Magnet High School (commonly known as Clark Prep, Clark Academic Prep and Michele Clark Magnet High School) is a public 4–year magnet high school located in the Austin neighborhood on the west side of Chicago, Illinois ...

in Chicago is named after her.

Early life and education

Clark was born in

Gary, Indiana Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city has been historically dominated by major industrial activity and is home to U.S. Steel's Gary Works, the largest steel mill complex in North America. Gary is located along th ...

on June 2, 1943. Her parents were Harvey Clark, Jr. and Johnetta Clark. They met while attending

Fisk University Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1930, Fisk was the first Africa ...

, and her father served in World War II and worked as a bus driver and the manager of an appliance store. Clark had a younger brother, also named Harvey Clark, who became a reporter at

WCAU WCAU (channel 10) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Mount Laurel, New Jer ...

. The family's decision to move into an all-white neighborhood of

Cicero, Illinois Cicero (originally known as Hawthorne) is a suburb of Chicago and an incorporated town in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 85,268. making it the 11th largest municipality in Illinois. The town of Ci ...

sparked the

Cicero race riot of 1951 The Cicero race riot of 1951 occurred July 11–12, when a mob of 4,000 whites attacked an apartment building that housed a single black family in a neighborhood in Cicero, Illinois. Background The aftermath of World War II saw a revival of whit ...

, of which they were the victims. Columbia J-School00

Clark attended the

University of Chicago Laboratory Schools The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (also known as Lab or Lab Schools and abbreviated as UCLS though the high school is nicknamed U-High) is a private, co-educational day Pre-K and K-12 school in Chicago, Illinois. It is affiliated w ...

, followed by

Grinnell College Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College. Grinnell has the fifth highest endowment-to-stu ...

and

Roosevelt University Roosevelt University is a private university with campuses in Chicago and Schaumburg, Illinois. Founded in 1945, the university was named in honor of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The unive ...

. She graduated from the

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism ...

in 1972. In 1970 she graduated from the Summer Program in Journalism for Members of Minority Groups there, and that program was subsequently renamed the Michele Clark Fellowship Program for Minority Journalists. Before the start of her career as a reporter, Clark worked at

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

, and as a model.

Career

Clark began her journalism career at

, a CBS station in Chicago. She became a CBS News correspondent at a time when few women and few African Americans worked as network correspondents, and was hired at around the same time as three other women:

Connie Chung Constance Yu-Hwa Chung (born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist. She has been an anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von B� ...

Lesley Stahl Lesley Rene Stahl (born December 16, 1941) is an American television journalist. She has spent most of her career with CBS News, where she began as a producer in 1971. Since 1991, she has reported for CBS's ''60 Minutes''. She is known for her ne ...

, and Sylvia Chase. Clark was the first black woman network reporter for

CBS Television 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 ...

. Even though she was a new reporter, Clark was assigned to cover the

for CBS. This has been described as her "most prominent assignment". She was slated to become a correspondent on ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique st ...

'' in 1973.

Death

Clark died on December 8, 1972, at the age of 29, in the crash of United Air Lines Flight 553 at

Midway Airport Chicago Midway International Airport , typically referred to as Midway Airport, Chicago Midway, or simply Midway, is a major commercial airport on the Southwest side of Chicago, Illinois, located approximately 12 miles (19 km) from the Lo ...

. At the time of her death, Clark was working on reporting related to the

, which was still being covered up. This has led to speculation that, if Clark had not died, she might have broken news of the Watergate scandal. Clark's presence on the flight became a feature in conspiracy theories regarding the crash of Flight 553, suggesting that the crash was related to a cover-up of Watergate.

Recognition

Clark has been identified as a "star" journalist who died at the start of a promising career.

Bill Kurtis Bill Kurtis (born William Horton Kuretich; September 21, 1940), is an American television journalist, television producer, narrator, and news anchor. Kurtis was studying to become a lawyer in the 1960s, when he was asked to fill in on a tempora ...

recalled that at Clark's funeral, CBS executive Richard S. Salant said that Clark's death was "as if Ed Murrow had died at a young age". Clark is the namesake of Michele Clark Magnet High School, a high school in Chicago, Illinois. The school was originally called Austin High School when it opened in 1972, but was renamed in honor of Clark in 1974. After Clark's death, the summer program that she attended at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

was renamed the Michele Clark Fellowship Program for Minority Journalists, partly in recognition of efforts she had made to keep the program running when it had run low on funds. Clark is also the namesake for the first fellowship of the

Radio Television Digital News Association The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA, pronounced the same as " rotunda"), formerly the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), is a United States-based membership organization of radio, television, and online news dire ...

, the Michele Clark Fellowship. She has continued to be memorialized on CBS television.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Michele 1943 births 1972 deaths People from Gary, Indiana 20th-century American journalists African-American journalists American women journalists African-American women journalists Journalists from Indiana American political journalists American television reporters and correspondents American women television journalists CBS News people Grinnell College alumni Roosevelt University alumni Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1972 Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the United States