Journalist, 1863-1936
Fearless, innovative, and persistent, reporter Winifred Black, who wrote under the byline Annie Laurie, spared little effort in getting a story. To report about hospital conditions in San Francisco, she dressed as a beggar and pretended to faint in the middle of a street. Her resulting story of being thrown onto a prison cart and dragged to a substandard hospital led to hospital reform and the beginning of ambulance services. To get an interview with President Benjamin Harrison, she hid under a table on the presidential train; to cover a tidal-wave disaster in Galveston, Texas, she dressed as a boy to get past police lines. Black's unflinching reporting style and enterprising nature led her employer, William Randolph Hearst, to give her a variety of plum assignments - she covered nearly every important trial of her day, World War I, and the suffrage movement and was the first woman to cover a prizefight. Nevertheless, she considered herself "just a plain, practical all-around newspaperwoman. That is my profession and that is my pride."
Sandi's Historic Hub is an installment of trivia and insight from daring women in history. Find more details and enter our giveaway here.
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