Story 03
"Women don't go on trips like this."
During President Truman’s 1948 re-election campaign, Alice Dunnigan joined the press pool that accompanied Truman on his cross-country "whistle-stop" train tour.
The American Negro Press refused to fund her, so she paid out of her own pocket. She was the first Black woman reporter to travel with a US President. Dunnigan's presence on the Presidential Special made national headlines when a military policeman in Wyoming grabbed her from behind Truman's motorcade despite her press badge. Truman later acknowledged and encouraged Dunnigan, saying "If you have any further trouble, please let me know." Dunnigan later recalled the trip as "an unforgettable experience, by far one of the highlights of my journalism career."
