By D. Kevin McNeir
Special to the AFRO
Baltimore has served as home base for most of April Ryan’s life. The award-winning reporter, author and White House correspondent is a proud graduate of Morgan State University.
But for Ryan, who was named as the “Journalist of the Year,” by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in 2017, achieving the distinction as the longest-serving Black woman in the White House press corps has been a far cry from how she envisioned her life during her first years in the media.
“I am considered the ‘Dean of the White House press corps.’ After securing 28 years under my belt, it’s a title that I have honestly earned,” said Ryan. “I have earned the right to ask questions to high level leaders from four U.S. presidential administrations, beginning with former President Bill Clinton, and to have the audacity to expect them to answer my questions truthfully.”
Ryan said over the years, her job has become more difficult, in part because she has always worn her badge as a Black woman, mother and wife with pride, no matter what room she may have occupied or to whom she may have been speaking.
“The way the business works today at places like NPR and CNN, Black women have it tough. There’s been an intentional shift towards conservatism,” she said. “The anti-woke movement has a huge following and that has impacted the number of opportunities the executives in charge believe we would fit. At the end of the day, it’s all about making money and serving the needs and desires of their constituents and investors.”
Perhaps it’s this movement in America– the shift from the liberal to conservative– and the “America First” ideologies, soaked in White supremacy, that explain Ryan’s recent decision to focus on working for the Black Press of America.
“I am comfortable in this space – working with mainstream Black media. It’s home for me,” Ryan said. “It allows for more autonomy in the kinds of stories on which I report. But it also requires that reporters have a keen understanding of U.S. civics. Unfortunately, a lot of reporters today, especially those in television, lack the education about the real goals of the founding fathers – the processes they employed and their objectives.”
Ryan, whose favorite quote is “aspire to inspire,” began her career as a jazz disc jockey at Morgan State’s radio station, WEAA-FM. After a brief stint in Chattanooga, Tenn., she returned to Baltimore where she would be hired as news director for WXYV-FM.
In 1991, she landed the job as radio news announcer at what was then V-103. With each successive promotion, she has continued to display her unique ability for delivering probing questions and shooting from the hip – targeting anyone from moms and pops to presidents and potentates. But she has always remained committed to providing timely news reports that service the African-American community.
As for her mission these days, Ryan emphasized that it’s not something new.
(Photo courtesy of Morgan State University)
“Throughout my career at the White House, I remember hearing about legends like Ethel Payne (often called the First Lady of the Black Press) and before her, Alice Dunnigan who was the first Black woman journalist to be credentialed to the White House and Capitol press corps in 1947,” said Ryan. “I stand on their shoulders and the shoulders of so many other Black reporters.”
Ryan said she was reminded of the importance of carrying on such legacies when she was honored with an award named after Harry McAlpin during a White House correspondents’ dinner several years ago.
McAlpin, a reporter for the Atlanta Daily World and the Negro Newspaper Publishers Association, broke the color barrier in the White House press corps in February 1944. When he entered the West Wing, his fellow correspondents disapproved. Many of them attempted to keep him out of the Oval Office, warning him of how crowded the room would be with him in it. Others failed on promises to share their notes with him. However, after his first press conference, McAlpin met President Roosevelt who said to him, “Harry, “I’m glad you are here.”
(Photo Credit: AFRO Archives)
Ryan said she’s inspired by men like McAlpin and women like Payne and Dunnigan whose exemplary work paved the way for other Black journalists to cover the White House.
“It’s hard to imagine the barriers they faced and overcame, the perseverance and fortitude they maintained and the level of racism and racist reporting which they were forced to confront and endure,” Ryan said. “But because of the standards they set, I am never afraid or intimidated.”
“In this moment of reporting in America, Blacks are being kicked off their seats and kicked out of newsrooms because of the slightest error. Sometimes it’s because of a reporter’s inability to blend in or their refusal to go along with the notion that America is colorblind,” said Ryan. “You must be careful in your reporting. For me, that means reporting what I see and what I hear and allowing the editorializing to be conducted by my readers or listeners.”
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