The statue in downtown Russellville of Alice Allison Dunnigan, the first Black woman accredited as a journalist covering the White House and Congress, has been named as a Historic Site in Journalism by the Society of Professional Journalists, the organization announced Monday.
The Dunnigan statue, dedicated at Russellville in August 2019, was first unveiled in September 2018 at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.
A native of Logan County, Dunnigan began writing for The Chicago Defender as a Washington correspondent in 1946. A year later, she was named bureau chief of the American Negro Press. The following year, she became the first Black journalist to travel with a president when she joined Harry S. Truman’s whistle-stop tour.
In a press release, the SPJ noted, “In 1960, Dunnigan left her seat in the press galleries to take a position in Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. When Kennedy won, he chose Johnson as his running mate. In 1961, he named Dunnigan education consultant of the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. Following this appointment, she worked as an information specialist for the Department of Labor and then as an associate editor with the President’s Commission on Youth Opportunity.
“Despite her extensive work in government and politics, Dunnigan was most proud of her work in journalism, and received more than 50 journalism awards. After her White House days ended in 1970, Dunnigan returned to writing, this time about herself. In 1974, her autobiography ‘A Black Woman’s Experience: From Schoolhouse to White House’ was released. A new, annotated edition, edited by Carol McCabe Booker, was released in February 2015. It is titled ‘Alone Atop the Hill: The Autobiography of Alice Dunnigan, Pioneer of the National Black Press.’”
Among the speakers for the Dunnigan statue dedication in Russellville last summer was Kentucky New Era editor Zirconia Alleyne, who is among a small number of Black newspaper editors in the United States.
A bronze plaque will be placed at the location to distinguish it as a National Historic Site in Journalism. See a complete list of past winners here.
Dunnigan died in 1983. She was 77.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
