African American female journalist, Alice Allison Dunnigan, will be honoured with a bronze statue at the Newseum in Washington DC.
Alice Allison Dunnigan was the first African-American woman to cover the White House.
Her statue will be unveiled on 21 September and will be shown until 16 December this year.
Newseum is a museum that encourages freedom of the press and highlights its importance to the American constitution’s First Amendment: Freedom of Speech.
This comes in a time where US president Donald Trump deems journalists “the enemy of the people.
Dunningan covered stories about President Truman in the 1940s and 50s and was the first female African American journalist to receive access to cover some of the most important stories of her day.
She was also the head of the Associated Negro Press between 1947 and 1961.
Her statue which will be exhibited at Newseum was created by artist Amanda Matthews who is from the same state as Dunnigan, Kentucky.
After December this year, the statue will be moved to Dunnigan’s hometown of Russellville, near the West Kentucky African American heritage Centre which is a park that is dedicated to the civil rights movement.
According to Newseum, Dunnigan famously stated:
“Race and sex were twin strikes against me. I’m not sure which was the hardest to break down.”
