The Black Press’ Love Affair with
Simeon Booker, Jet magazine’s Washington bureau chief for 53 years, was, as he puts it, “on the frontlines of virtually every major event of the revolution that transformed America,” in the last century. He was the lead reporter on the Emmett Till story as it unfolded in Mississippi and in Chicago in 1955. He was also a leading reporter on the Fidel Castro story for Jet and its sister publication Ebony, when Castro came to power in 1959. Carol Booker, a fellow journalist and co-author with him of Shocking the Conscience: A Reporter’s Account of the Civil Rights Movement (2013), asked him to recall Cuba from his reporting days, starting with his arrival in Havana shortly after Castro’s army defeated Fulgencio Batista, the dictator long supported by the United States government.
Q: What was it like?
SB: The city was still very chaotic. In fact, a mob surrounded the car (I forget whether it was a taxi or a rental or what) that I was riding in with several other journalists, and started rocking it, as though about to flip it. Inside, we all frantically waved our press passes and shouted “journalistas” or “presse” or whatever came to mind until the protesters finally moved on. We were scared nearly to death, but that was how confused and dangerous the situation was.
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The Black Press’ Love Affair with
Fidel Castro