Theodore Poston is believed to be the first African American to cross the color line into the newsroom of a metropolitan “white” newspaper.
Born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, Theodore Roosevelt Poston graduated from Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial College in 1928 with journalism degree. He moved to New York where he worked for his brother Ulysses on an occasional paper, New York Contender. In 1931, Poston became city editor of the Amsterdam News in 1935.
In 1936, Poston began writing freelance articles for New York Post and was soon hired full-time, an unprecedented event for an African-American reporter. In 1940, he became a member of the “Black Cabinet,” an informal network of African-Americans advising the Roosevelt administration. He served as head of the Negro News Desk in the Office of War Information and was responsible for relations with Negro press. He returned to the Post in 1945, remaining until his retirement in 1972. He died in 1974.
