Offers a look at the life and career of the first African American reporter to work at a mainstream daily newspaper - (Baker & Taylor)

Booklist Reviews

Add this biography to the lengthening list of studies of the African American generation that laid the groundwork for the mid-century civil-rights movement. Poston (1906^-74) may be journalism's equivalent of Negro League ballplayers who spent time in the "majors" after Jackie Robinson broke the color line. A Hopkinsville, Kentucky, native, he supported his study at Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial College by working as a railroad porter and dining-car waiter. Poston went to Russia in 1932 with other U.S. blacks to make a film on racism, then was a Pittsburgh Courier reporter and city editor at Harlem's Amsterdam News. He helped Heywood Broun found the American Newspaper Guild, joined the Federal Writers' Project, and worked for the Office of War Information during World War II. Poston wrote for the New York Post, becoming one of the first black journalists to gain a full-time position in the mainstream (i.e., white) media. Viewed as their "dean" by younger journalists, such as the late Bob Maynard, Poston lived a fascinating life, well worth examining. ((Reviewed December 15, 1998)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews