Hallie Almena Lomax (''née'' Davis) (July 23, 1915 – March 25, 2011) was an
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 ...
journalist and civil rights activist.
Early life
Lomax was born in
Galveston
Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Ga ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
. Her parents, Clifford and Geneva Davis,
moved the family to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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when Almena was a child, and that is where she and her sister were raised.
["Almena Davis Wins Wilkie Award." ''New York Age'', March 9, 1946, p. 4.] Her family subsequently moved to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, where she graduated from
Jordan High School in the
Watts
Watts is plural for ''watt'', the unit of power.
Watts may also refer to:
People
*Watts (surname), list of people with the surname Watts Fictional characters
*Watts, main character in the film '' Some Kind of Wonderful''
*Watts family, six chara ...
neighborhood of
South Los Angeles
South Los Angeles, also known as South Central Los Angeles or simply South Central, is a region in southwestern Los Angeles County, lying mostly within the city limits of Los Angeles, south of downtown.
It is "defined on Los Angeles city maps as a ...
.
[ She briefly studied journalism at ]Los Angeles City College
Los Angeles City College (LACC) is a public community college in East Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. A part of the Los Angeles Community College District, it is located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard on the former campu ...
,[ however, she did not graduate and left school to go to work full-time in journalism. Her first job was at the ''California Eagle'', where she worked from 1935 to 1941.][ She joined a church newspaper, the ''Interfaith Churchman'' in early 1941; after she purchased it for fifty dollars,]
Career
In 1941, Lomax started the '' Los Angeles Tribune'', a weekly newspaper targeted at the African-American community, which she ran with her former husband, Lucius W. Lomax, Jr. (1910–73). He was the publisher and she was the editor. She also wrote a weekly opinion column. In 1946, she was one of three winners of the Wendell Willkie Award, established to honor the best black journalists in the United States. During the 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, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
of the 1960s, she left California, with her children, to join the struggle in the South. Later she returned to California, where she worked at the ''San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
'' and the '' San Francisco Examiner''. As a reporter, she covered such topics as the kidnapping of Patty Hearst.You Bet Your Life
''You Bet Your Life'' is an American comedy quiz series that has aired on both radio and television. The original and best-known version was hosted by Groucho Marx of the Marx Brothers, with announcer and assistant George Fenneman. The show deb ...
, hosted by Groucho Marx, alongside Joe Louis.
Personal life
Lomax, a divorcee, had six children, four of whom survived her.Dillard University
Dillard University is a private, historically black university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1930 and incorporating earlier institutions founded as early as 1869 after the American Civil War, it is affiliated with the United Church of C ...
, one of the historically black colleges, in New Orleans, La., and current president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund. Lomax was predeceased by two daughters, Michele L. Lomax, a San Francisco film critic and journalist, who died in 1987, and Los Angeles civil rights lawyer Melanie E. Lomax, who died in 2006.
Baptized Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, Lomax was later a noted agnostic.
References
Further reading
Associated Press, "Almena Lomax, Who Founded Los Angeles Tribune, Is Dead at 95," ''The New York Times,'' April 8, 2011
External links
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
Almena Lomax papers, 1942-2014
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lomax, Almena
1915 births
2011 deaths
People from Galveston, Texas
People from Los Angeles
African-American journalists
Activists for African-American civil rights
Journalists from Texas
Activists from Texas
20th-century African-American writers