Also that year, she became the first African-American female White House correspondent, and was the first black woman elected to the Women's National Press Club. Alice Allison Dunnigan Ms. Dunnigan was born 1906 in Logan County the granddaughter of slaves and daughter of a sharecropper. During Eisenhower's two administrations, the president resorted first to not calling on her and later to asking for her questions beforehand because she was known to ask such difficult questions, often about race. By the time she had reached college, Dunnigan had set her sights on becoming a teacher, and completed the teaching course at what is now Kentucky State University. Alice Allison Dunnigan was the first African American female Dunnigan was born April 27, 1906, in Russellville, In 1925 Dunnigan married a tobacco farmer; however, she felt burdened by the farming lifestyle and soon left the marriage. As a young teacher in the segregated Todd County School system, Dunnigan taught courses in Kentucky history. She likely obtained her strong work ethic from stories about her grandparents and from her father, a sharecropper, and her mother, a washwoman. The Standing Committee of Correspondents (newspaper reporters who ran the congressional press galleries) denied her request on the grounds that she was writing for a weekly newspaper, and reporters covering the U.S. Capitol were required to write for daily publications. Dunnigan was a teacher in Kentucky public schools from 1924 to 1942. When she attended formal White House functions, she was mistaken for the wife of a visiting dignitary; no one could imagine a black woman attending such an event on her own. A small donation would help us keep this accessible to all. Alice Allison Dunnigan. A Sunday school teacher intervened, and Dunnigan was allowed to attend college. She completed the ten years available to blacks in the segregated Russellville school system, but her parents saw no benefit in allowing their daughter to continue her education. Her grandparents had been slaves. Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone! Dunnigan was born in 1906 in Logan County, Kentucky. The couple had one child, Robert William, and separated in 1953. In 1960 Dunnigan left her seat in the press galleries to take a position on After her White House days, Dunnigan returned to writing, this time about herself. All donations are tax deductible. She was barred from entering certain establishments to cover President Eisenhower, and had to sit with the servants to cover Senator Taft's funeral. Associated Publishers Inc. finally published the articles in 1982 as A call for government workers went out in 1942, and Dunnigan moved to Washington, D.C., during World War II seeking better pay and a government job. When Kennedy took office, he welcomed Dunnigan's tough questions and answered them frankly. Her autobiography, Despite her extensive work in government and politics, Dunnigan was most proud of her work in journalism, and received more than 50 journalism awards. Russellville’s school system offered ten years of schooling for black children, but most of these children were expected to work in the fields so the schools were open for only 6-7 months each year. Alice Allison Dunnigan (April 27, 1906 – May 6, 1983) was an African-American journalist, civil rights activist and author. Politicians routinely avoided answering her difficult questions, which often involved race issues. She wrote an autobiography entitled Alice A. Dunnigan: A Black Woman's Experience. Dunnigan was the first African-American female correspondent to receive White House credentials, and the first black female member of the Senate and House of Representatives press galleries.
She began teaching in the Todd County School System in Russellville while taking courses in journalism at In 1948 Dunnigan was one of three African Americans and one of two women in the press corps that covered the campaign of President Harry S. Truman.