Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Dunnigan (1906-83) tells readers that she was born in rural Kentucky, the great-granddaughter of a white slave owner and the determined daughter of an exceptionally industrious sharecropper father and washerwoman mother. A top student in spite of her grueling farm chores, iron-willed Dunnigan began writing local news stories as a teenager. She earned a teacher's certificate in record time; took charge, at 18, of a dilapidated one-room schoolhouse; and wrote a boldly feminist column. She also freed herself from two disastrously exploitative marriages to stay true to her calling. Once in Washington, D.C., Dunnigan served as bureau chief for the Associated Negro Press, prevailing over vicious opposition to become the first African American woman to secure press credentials for the Capitol and the White House. Dunnigan subsequently accompanied President Truman on a whistle-stop tour through 18 western states (and does she ever have stories to tell) and so enraged President Eisenhower with her probing questions about civil rights policy that he didn't call on her at press conferences for two years. Undaunted, Dunnigan covered landmark cases at the Supreme Court and fought zealously to become Washington's first and only woman sportswriter. Ultimately, Dunnigan muses, gender discrimination proved to be a far greater obstacle than racism and may well be the reason she was paid, throughout her entire stellar reporting career, so meagerly she had to routinely pawn her watch to have money for food. Dunnigan's indelible self-portrait affirms that while the media landscape has changed, along with some social attitudes and practices, discrimination is far from vanquished, and we still need dedicated and brave journalists to serve as clarion investigators, witnesses, and voices of conscience.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2015 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Editor McCabe Booker (Shocking the Conscience) succeeds marvelously in revealing the voice and spirit of the groundbreaking mid-20th-century journalist Dunnigan (1906-83). This significantly trimmed version of the author's original 600-plus page autobiography, which she self-published in 1974, smartly splits its focus between Dunnigan's early years as a daughter, student, wife, and teacher in rural Kentucky and her hard-won second career triumphs as a writer, political reporter, and civil rights-conscious journalist. Particular highlights include Dunnigan's straightforward-yet-vivid recollections of family and friends during times of prewar poverty, and the relentless nature of her fight to gain credibility as an accredited White House reporter in the 1940s and 1950s. Readers who begin unfamiliar with Dunnigan's struggles and accomplishments will be utterly convinced of them by the book's end-although they may wonder at her story's slightly abrupt and unsatisfying ending, the result of some tough-but-fair editing choices by Booker. VERDICT This poignant, engaging true story beautifully supplements Dunnigan's 2013 induction in the National Association of Black Journalist's Hall of Fame. It is highly recommended for scholars and general readers interested in the history of journalism, especially the black press, women in journalism, and the national press corps.-Robin Chin Roemer, Univ. of Washington Lib., Seattle (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.