author
Louis E. Lomax
1922–1970
A pioneering Black journalist and author, he helped bring the civil rights era onto television screens and into national debate. His writing on race, politics, and Black public life made him an influential voice in mid-20th-century America.
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About the author
Born in Valdosta, Georgia, in 1922, Louis E. Lomax became one of the most visible Black journalists of his generation. Sources consistently describe him as the first African American television journalist, and his career moved across reporting, teaching, broadcasting, and book writing.
He studied at Paine College, then earned a master's degree from American University and later a Ph.D. from Yale. Alongside journalism, he wrote several books on race and public life, including The Negro Revolt, When the Word Is Given, and To Kill a Blackman, works that reflected his close attention to the civil rights movement and major Black political figures.
Lomax is especially remembered for helping introduce many Americans to voices and debates that mainstream media had often ignored. He died in 1970, but his work still stands out for its ambition, urgency, and willingness to ask difficult questions.