Witness History
Witness History
Dorothy Butler Gilliam: American news pioneer
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August 2, 2021
13 minutes
Available for over a year
In 1961, the Washington Post newspaper hired an African American woman as a reporter for the first time. Dorothy Butler Gilliam was only 24 when she got the job. At the time there were hardly any women or minorities working in newsrooms. Most of her white colleagues wouldn’t speak to her, taxis wouldn’t stop for her. Dorothy has been speaking to Farhana Haider about the difficulties she faced as a black woman journalist in 1960s America and her fight to diversify the media in the US.
(Photo Dorothy Butler Gilliam Washington Post newsroom 1962. Copyright Harry Naltchayan, The Washington Post.)