Lee Thornton, (November 14, 1941 – September 25, 2013) was an American journalist and correspondent for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

, and professor at

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

and the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

. She was also the first

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

woman to cover the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

. She was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame in 2013.

Personal

Lee Thornton was born on November 14, 1941, in

Leesburg, Virginia Leesburg is a town in and the county seat of Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. It is part of both the Northern Virginia region of the state and the Washington metropolitan area, including Washington, D.C., the nation's capital. European se ...

. She graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1959 and from the former District of Columbia Teachers College. In 1968, she graduated with a master's degree in rhetoric and public address from Michigan State University and earned a doctorate at Northwestern University in 1973. She died on September 25, 2013, due to

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...

Career

Lee Thornton started working for CBS in 1974. In 1977, CBS promoted her to report on President Jimmy Carter's Administration and she became the first African American woman to cover the White House. Afterward, she was at a CBS affiliate in Detroit before joining National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" news program as a weekend host in 1982. After hosting NPR news program, she went to Howard University to be a professor of broadcast journalism. After a brief time at Howard, she went to the University of Maryland, College Park to teach at the Phillip Merrill College of Journalism in 1997. She was the interim dean of the College of Journalism in 2008 and 2009 and retired in 2011. In 2008, Lee Thornton was the first Eaton Broadcast Chair and served as an interim dean, which made her the second African American Woman to be a dean. She was a dean until 2009 and in 2010 she left teaching to serve as the University's Interim Associate Provost for Equity and Diversity.

Notable works of journalism

Lee Thornton was posthumously inducted into the NABJ Hall of fame on January 16, 2014. She was recognized as the first African-American woman to cover the White House for a main TV network called CBS News in 1974. In 1982, For NPR's "All Things Considered", she was the first black host for the radio program. In 1997, Lee Thornton joined Phillip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park. She produced several programs but one in particular was the "Front and Center" program.

Context

Lee Thornton was also known for how she taught students journalism at Howard University and the University of Maryland. At the University of Maryland, College Park, she was able to produce multiple shows on the University's channel UMTV. One show in particular that she helped start was called "Front and Center". "Front and Center" was an award-winning series that showed interviews of fellow journalists. This particular show was on the University's channel and was also on national television. The show was also covered internationally on WorldNet.

Impact

She was known as the first African American Woman to cover the White House for CBS News and one of the women, along with

Helen Thomas Helen Amelia Thomas (August 4, 1920 – July 20, 2013) was an American reporter and author, and a long-serving member of the White House press corps. She covered the White House during the administrations of ten U.S. presidents—from th ...

who "broke barriers" for all women in the White House. An example of careers influenced by Thornton are Robin Roberts, the first black woman to be an anchor on

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

, Athena Jones of

, who as an African American woman covered the

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

administration, and

Soledad O'Brien María de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien (born September 19, 1966) is an American broadcast journalist and executive producer. Since 2016, O'Brien has been the host for '' Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien,'' a nationally syndicated weekly talk sho ...

, a Latina reporter who covered the White House and national.

Awards

* NABJ Hall of Fame (2013) Lee Thornton was awarded for both her teaching and contributions to journalism. She was posthumously inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame in 2013. In 2011, she was named the University of Maryland's "Outstanding Woman of the Year." In addition, a scholarship in her name was established in 2017 by

Radio Television Digital News Association The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA, pronounced the same as " rotunda"), formerly the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), is a United States-based membership organization of radio, television, and online news dir ...

References

External links

National Association of Black Journalists
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thornton, Lee 1941 births 2013 deaths African-American women journalists African-American journalists American women journalists Journalists from Virginia Howard University faculty University of Maryland, College Park faculty People from Leesburg, Virginia American women academics 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women 21st-century African-American women