Michele E. Clark (June 2, 1943 – December 8, 1972) was an American journalist. Clark was the first African–American woman to serve as a television correspondent for
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...
.
[ As a correspondent at ]WBBM-TV
WBBM-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the market's CBS network outlet. Owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, the station maintains studios on West Washington St ...
, Clark covered the 1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries.
Clark died in the December 1972 crash of United Airlines Flight 553 at Chicago's Midway Airport
Chicago Midway International Airport is a major commercial airport on the southwest side of Chicago, Illinois, located approximately 12 miles (19 km) from the city's Chicago Loop, Loop business district, and divided between the city's C ...
, while investigating the Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the Presidency of Richard Nixon, administration of President Richard Nixon. The scandal began in 1972 and ultimately led to Resignation of Richard Nixon, Nix ...
. Her death has been widely described as cutting short a promising career. Michele Clark Magnet High School in Chicago is named after her.
Biography
Early life and education
Clark was born in Gary, Indiana
Gary ( ) is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 69,093 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it Indiana's List of municipalities in Indiana, eleventh-most populous city. The city has been historical ...
on June 2, 1943.[ Her parents were Harvey Clark, Jr. and Johnetta Clark.][ They met while attending ]Fisk University
Fisk University is a Private university, private Historically black colleges and universities, historically black Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus i ...
, and her father served in World War II and worked as a bus driver and the manager of an appliance store. Clark had a younger brother, also named Harvey Clark, who became a reporter at WCAU
WCAU (channel 10) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is owned and operated by the NBC television network through its NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Mount Laurel, New Jersey–licensed ...
.[ The family's decision to move into an all-white neighborhood of ]Cicero, Illinois
Cicero is a town in Cook County, Illinois, United States, and a suburb of Chicago. As of the 2020 census, the population was 85,268, making it the 11th-most populous municipality in Illinois. The town is named after Marcus Tullius Cicero, a R ...
sparked the Cicero race riot of 1951, of which they were the victims.
Clark attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools
The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (also known as Lab, Lab Schools, or U-High, abbreviated UCLS) is a private, co-educational, day pre-school and K-12 school affiliated with the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. Almost half ...
, followed by Grinnell College
Grinnell College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalis ...
and Roosevelt University
Roosevelt University is a private university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1945, the university was named in honor of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The university enrolls arou ...
.[ In 1970, Clark graduated from the Summer Program in Journalism for Members of Minority Groups there, and that program was subsequently renamed the Michele Clark Fellowship Program for Minority Journalists.] Clark graduated from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism sch ...
in 1972.[ Prior to the start of her career as a reporter, Clark worked at ]United Airlines
United Airlines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois that operates an extensive domestic and international route network across the United States and six ...
, and as a model.[
]
Career
Clark began her journalism career at WBBM-TV
WBBM-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the market's CBS network outlet. Owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, the station maintains studios on West Washington St ...
, a CBS station in Chicago.[ She became a CBS News correspondent][ at a time when few women and few African Americans worked as network correspondents, and was hired at around the same time as three other women: ]Connie Chung
Constance Yu-Hwa Chung Povich (née Chung; born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist who has been a news anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks American Broadcasting Company, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her m ...
, Lesley Stahl
Lesley Rene Stahl (born December 16, 1941) is an American television journalist. She has spent most of her career with CBS News, where she began as a producer in 1971. Since 1991, she has reported for CBS's ''60 Minutes''. She is known for her ne ...
, and Sylvia Chase. Clark was the first Black woman network reporter for CBS Television
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 ...
. Even though she was a new reporter, Clark was assigned to cover the 1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries for CBS.[ This has been described as her "most prominent assignment".] She was slated to become a correspondent on ''60 Minutes
''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style o ...
'' in 1973.[
]
Death
Clark died on December 8, 1972, at the age of 29, in the crash of United Air Lines Flight 553 at Midway Airport
Chicago Midway International Airport is a major commercial airport on the southwest side of Chicago, Illinois, located approximately 12 miles (19 km) from the city's Chicago Loop, Loop business district, and divided between the city's C ...
in Chicago.[ At the time of her death, Clark was working on reporting related to the ]Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the Presidency of Richard Nixon, administration of President Richard Nixon. The scandal began in 1972 and ultimately led to Resignation of Richard Nixon, Nix ...
, which was still being covered up. This has led to speculation that, if Clark had not died, she might have broken news of the Watergate scandal. Clark's presence on the flight became a feature in conspiracy theories regarding the crash of Flight 553, suggesting that the crash was related to a cover-up of Watergate.
Recognition and legacy
Clark has been identified as a "star" journalist who died at the start of a promising career.[ ]Bill Kurtis
Bill Kurtis (born William Horton Kuretich; September 21, 1940) is a retired American television journalist, television producer, narrator, and news anchor.
Kurtis was studying to become a lawyer in the 1960s, when he was asked to fill in on a ...
recalled that at Clark's funeral, CBS executive Richard S. Salant said that Clark's death was "as if Ed Murrow had died at a young age".[
Clark is the namesake of Michele Clark Magnet High School, a public magnet high school on the west side of Chicago, Illinois.] The school was originally called Austin High School when it opened in 1972, but was renamed in honor of Clark in 1974.
After Clark's death, the summer program that she attended at Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
was renamed the Michele Clark Fellowship Program for Minority Journalists, partly in recognition of efforts she had made to keep the program running when it had run low on funds. Clark is also the namesake for the first fellowship of the 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 ...
, the Michele Clark Fellowship. She has continued to be memorialized on CBS television.
Clark was portrayed by actress Prema Cruz in the 2023 HBO miniseries ''White House Plumbers
The White House Plumbers, sometimes simply called the Plumbers, the Room 16 Project, ODESSA or more officially, the White House Special Investigations Unit, was a covert White House Special Investigations Unit, established within a week of the pu ...
''.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Michele
1943 births
1972 deaths
People from Gary, Indiana
20th-century American journalists
20th-century American women journalists
20th-century African-American women writers
20th-century American women writers
20th-century African-American writers
African-American journalists
African-American women journalists
Journalists from Indiana
American political journalists
American television reporters and correspondents
American women television journalists
CBS News people
Grinnell College alumni
Roosevelt University alumni
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1972
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the United States