Louis Lomax

Louis Emanuel Lomax (August 16, 1922 – July 30, 1970) was an African-American journalist and author. He was also the first African-American television journalist.

Early years Lomax was born in Valdosta, Georgia. His parents were Emanuel C. Smith and Sarah Louise Lomax. He subsequently attended American University, claiming he was awarded an M.A. in 1944, as well as claiming he attended Howard University and Yale University, where he had indicated he earned a Ph.D. in 1947. his second was Wanda Kay (1961–1967), and his third was Robinette Kirk (1968–1970). He lived in Baldwin Harbor, New York.

Career Lomax began his journalism career at the Afro-American and the Chicago Defender. These two newspapers focused on news that interested African-American readers.

In 1959, Lomax told his colleague Mike Wallace about the Nation of Islam. Lomax and Wallace produced a five-part documentary about the organization, The Hate That Hate Produced, which aired during the week of July 13, 1959. The program was the first time most white people heard about the Nation and its leader, Elijah Muhammad, as well as its charismatic spokesman, Malcolm X.

Lomax later became a freelance writer, and his articles were published in publications such as Harper's, Life, Pageant, The Nation, and The New Leader. His subjects included the Civil Rights Movement, the Nation of Islam, and the Black Panther Party. In 1961, he was awarded the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for his book, The Reluctant African.

From 1964 to 1968, Lomax hosted a semi-weekly television program on KTTV in Los Angeles. In 1968, he signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation maintained a file on Lomax containing over 150 pages. On July 30, 1970, Lomax was returning to New York after completing a lecture tour on the West Coast when he died in a car accident along Interstate 40, 26 miles east of Santa Rosa, New Mexico. His body was identified by his Hofstra class ring.

Selected works The Reluctant African (1960) The Negro Revolt (1962) When the Word Is Given: A Report on Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and the Black Muslim World (1963) Thailand: The War That Is, The War That Will Be (1967) To Kill a Black Man: The Shocking Parallel in the Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. (1968)