Ethel Payne
ETHEL L. PAYNE
1911-1991
Fearless Civil Rights Reporter
Olivia Sloss
Term Paper
JOU 4102
November 7, 2012
ETHEL PAYNE (1911-1991) Ethel Lois Payne was born on August 14, 1911 in Chicago to William and Bessie Austin Payne. She was the granddaughter of slaves. Her father was a Pullman Porter who moved to Chicago from Memphis, Tennessee, as a part of a great black migration. Payne was the fifth of six children, with four sisters and one brother who was chronically frail and often bullied by other boys. Payne would leap into the fight to protect him. Her father died from a disease contracted while handling soiled laundry on the trains when she was 12, leaving their family without financial means because her mother didn’t work. The Paynes were then forced to open their home to boarders, with two or three people sleeping in each of the bedrooms, and Ethel’s mother began teaching high school Latin and cleaning other people’s homes, but she still managed to encourage Payne’s early talent for writing. Payne’s interest in writing arose from nightly sessions where her mother read the Bible and literature to Payne, her brother, and her four sisters. Payne attended Lindblom High School in a white school district and endured taunts, name-calling and rocks thrown at her while walking through a segregated neighborhood every day. Payne excelled in English and history, with her English teacher urging her to write essays and stories. Payne’s childhood dream was to become a civil rights lawyer. In a quote from her diary, she writes “…just as I was so fierce about protecting my brother, I had a strong, strong, deeply embedded hatred of bullies…. So I said, ‘Well, I want to grow up and be a lawyer, and I want to defend the rights of the poor people.’” She attended Crane Junior College briefly, and then the Chicago Training School, which later merged with Garrett Theological Seminary. Unfortunately, she was denied admission to the University of Chicago Law
1911-1991
Fearless Civil Rights Reporter
Olivia Sloss
Term Paper
JOU 4102
November 7, 2012
ETHEL PAYNE (1911-1991) Ethel Lois Payne was born on August 14, 1911 in Chicago to William and Bessie Austin Payne. She was the granddaughter of slaves. Her father was a Pullman Porter who moved to Chicago from Memphis, Tennessee, as a part of a great black migration. Payne was the fifth of six children, with four sisters and one brother who was chronically frail and often bullied by other boys. Payne would leap into the fight to protect him. Her father died from a disease contracted while handling soiled laundry on the trains when she was 12, leaving their family without financial means because her mother didn’t work. The Paynes were then forced to open their home to boarders, with two or three people sleeping in each of the bedrooms, and Ethel’s mother began teaching high school Latin and cleaning other people’s homes, but she still managed to encourage Payne’s early talent for writing. Payne’s interest in writing arose from nightly sessions where her mother read the Bible and literature to Payne, her brother, and her four sisters. Payne attended Lindblom High School in a white school district and endured taunts, name-calling and rocks thrown at her while walking through a segregated neighborhood every day. Payne excelled in English and history, with her English teacher urging her to write essays and stories. Payne’s childhood dream was to become a civil rights lawyer. In a quote from her diary, she writes “…just as I was so fierce about protecting my brother, I had a strong, strong, deeply embedded hatred of bullies…. So I said, ‘Well, I want to grow up and be a lawyer, and I want to defend the rights of the poor people.’” She attended Crane Junior College briefly, and then the Chicago Training School, which later merged with Garrett Theological Seminary. Unfortunately, she was denied admission to the University of Chicago Law