Dorothy Leavell

ing that it was the big city bright lights that did it. “I had never seen a city so lit up. In Pine Bluff, I recalled how at night in the pitch blackness, you could not see your own hands in front of you.” Then she had the occasion to visit the University of Chicago and decided that she was going to live her future life in the city of bright lights and go to U of C.

So, when she graduated, valedictorian from Merrill in 1962 she applied. To complete her application package, an interview with an Alumnus from the University of Chicago was required. The university set it up . “The alumnus lived 42 miles away from Pine Bluff and my father’s car was not in the shape to drive the distance, so one of my high school teachers Miss Ella, McPherson drove me on that fateful Saturday.”

Upon meeting the young Dorothy, the Caucasian woman looked at her and her first words to her were not ‘Hello, how are you?’ Instead, she said you know that you’re not going to be accepted?”

Ms. Leavell expressed that her experiences of many adverse circumstances, living during a very racially segregated period, had prepared her and therefore, “I was not totally taken aback.

But I must admit, I was not prepared to hear the racist remark from her because I thought of her as Chicago-educated and more progressive than the ignorance, she exposed that day.

Ms. Leavell’s victory was that she did not react and didn’t address her question but instead focused on completing the interview which she did without a hitch. On the way home Ms. McPherson expressed how she felt hurt for her that the woman had responded to her as she had and never acknowledged her with a proper greeting. Ms. Leavell, says, “I really didn’t remember anything else she had said. To Ms. Leavell, it was a rude awakening of the reality of the times . . . “And of course, when I got the letter from the university, I was not accepted. Yeah. So, it didn’t change my plans to come to Chicago.”

In retrospect, she said much of my demeanor and manner derived from the training at Merrill. I know that my confidence and being able to navigate almost anything was developed at Merrill. But more than that, the nurturing that I received from the faculty at that high school was just amazing. We, just did not feel inferior, because from day one, our teachers told us ‘you can be whatever you want to be, you are smart. You are loved. You have support. And we live that, right?”

Ms. Leavell who visited relatives every summer in Chicago began working at the Chicago Crusader at age 14. And much to her father’s warning about talking too much out of fear for her life she talked. The very vocal young Dorothy almost cost herself a job. She had been set up for an interview at the Crusader by Kate, a friend of her aunt’s friend who worked there. But the day before her interview they would attend The Chicago Theater downtown on State, to see the premiere of the film “A Raisin in the Sun,” starring Sidney Poitier.” During the ride home with a male gentleman Kate knew, she went on and about many things including her actual age.

The next day, she was shocked to see that she was interviewing with the man who had dropped her and Kate off the previous evening. She had been instructed to say that she was 19. What a surprise to them both. Still, Mr. Balm Leavell Jr., the professional that he was, kept his promise and interviewed her, with no intention of hiring the underage teen. “But in my favor, several young women who worked in the office boycotted the paper. Kate was the only one who showed up.” Recalls Ms. Leavell.

Realizing that he had no one on staff but Kate, he asked, “can you answer the phone?”

I answered, “Yes, sir.”

“Can you type?”

Again, I answered, “ Yes, sir. I can type.”

He said, “Okay, I’m going to pay you $35 a week.”

“That was my first job and has continued to be my place of employment now for 62 years.”

Ms. Leavell is clear to note that there were no shenanigans between the two until she was a grown woman of 20 years. “Balm Leavell Jr. was a perfect gentleman,” she says, “I think I was the one that did the flirting.”

Ms. Leavell continued to work every summer before graduating and even returned during Christmas break to work at the Crusader, learning the newspaper business. As time progressed over the summers, “I was taught by the Crusader accountants at Jones and Anderson how to post transactions and read financial statements.” Little did she know that destiny was preparing her for the long road ahead. “That’s what I did. And the company was pleased with how well I did it. Consequently, Mr. Leavell l awarded me a $100 bonus. when I left to return home to finish school at the end of summer,” she says with a smile.

The plan was to attend Roosevelt University and work part-time at the newspaper. “But my plans were derailed momentarily by an illness I suffered. I could neither attend school nor work. Eventually, I got better and resumed my plan.”

Fast forward, at age 19, I was the Office manager and married that year. Taking the helm of the Crusader Group was not more than I bargained for, but it was the other matters that challenged Ms. Leavell the most.

She expressed that her deceased husband had a family of four children with a woman he married twice prior to the one they shared. They fought me for the ownership, but with the help of Mr. Jefferson who years later told me what he had told Balm’s older children, that he supported me because he felt that I cared about the paper and that it would be in capable hands under my leadership. Her leadership proved Mr. Jefferson correct in his assessment of her. Since 1968 her responsibilities have grown in immense magnitude and have broadened from the publisher of the Crusader Newspaper Group where her first effort was to implement changes that modernized the production process.

In 2018 she became the Chairman of the Board of STM Reader LLC, publishers of the Chicago Reader Newspaper. The year prior on June 23, she was elected Chairman of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) for the third time, the only Black newspaper trade organization. Her previous tenure with the NNPA spanned from 1995 to 1999 consecutively. The NNPA has a readership of more than 15 million readers. Under her leadership, she increased visibility and international stature. She led a controversial delegation to Nigeria to investigate the political crisis in the country, As a media advocate, Ms. Leavell was a resolute and vocal supporter for the delayed controversial confirmation of Alexis Herman as U.S. Secretary of Labor and attended the swearing in ceremony of 1997.

• She has served in numerous capacities at the NNPA for more than 54 years

• 2006 she was elected Chairman of the NNPA Foundation, which oversees the philanthropic arm of the News Service.

• Supports the arts and donated her personal art collection of commissioned pieces valued over $50,000

• She has received numerous honors from NNPA Publisher of the Year in 1989 to her most recent 2022, “Distinguished Service Award “from the Illinois Press Association during a dinner sponsored by the Cook County Suburban Publishers, Inc.

• January 2023 she was sworn in as the first Black Woman Chairman of the Illinois Press Association

• She was Interviews and recorded by the History Makers in April of 2003

For more information on her honors checkout www.chicagocrusader.com