Simeon Saunders Booker, Jr.

Famous Civil Rights reporter and journalist, first Black reporter for the Washington Post

August 27, 1918 – December 10, 2017

Simeon Saunders Booker, Jr. was born in Baltimore, Maryland. His family moved to Youngstown, Ohio when he was five years old. While attending Covington Street Elementary School in Youngstown, Booker wrote a poem that was published in the local newspaper.  While a high school student, some of Booker’s stories were published in the Baltimore Afro American.  Booker’s early start as a journalist lead to a career that included work as the first Black reporter at the Washington Post.

Booker is best known for his trailblazing reporting during the civil rights movement while working for Jet and Ebony magazines. His coverage of the 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi and the subsequent trial are some of the most famous pieces of journalism from the civil rights era.  For over 50 years, Booker documented and reported on all of the key events of the civil rights movement.  He became known as the” Dean of the Black Press”. Simeon Booker was known for his courage and truthful journalism.

Later in his career, Booker spent weekends and vacations relaxing at his Cove Point Beach home in Calvert County and fishing in the Chesapeake Bay. He died at Solomons Island at the age of 99.

Awards he received during his career included: the Nieman Fellowship, a Wilkie Award, The National Press Club’s Fourth Estate Award for lifetime contributions to journalism, the George Polk Award for Journalism. In 2010, he was awarded the Congressional Black Caucus Phoenix Award. Booker was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists‘ Hall of Fame in 2015.

Additional Resources

More on Simeon Booker can be found at Inspiring African American Men of Calvert County, Calvert County Library, 2018. Book.

Simeon Booker’s book, Shocking the Conscience: A Reporter’s Account of the Civil Rights Movement.

Simeon Booker’s Biography (thehistorymakers.org)