Record numbers of journalists formed unions over the last few years. During the pandemic, we saw the

biggest upsurge in labor organizing and journalism since the 1930s. Just this week, journalists at the

Atlantic announced that they were forming a union affiliated with the News Guild. That's why it's amazing that I'd never heard of one of the

first people to lead a journalism unionization movement. Marvel Cook was a crusading black

journalist who organized one of the first chapters of the Newspaper Guild, and she reported

on labor and race until she was

pushed out of journalism by red-baiting. Today, we're welcoming Louis Raven Wallace onto the podcast

to tell that story. He's the creator of The View from Somewhere, a podcast about journalism

with a purpose, and author of the book, The View from Somewhere, a podcast about journalism with a purpose, and author of the book,

The View From Somewhere, Undoing the Myth of Journalistic Objectivity. For years, he's been

researching journalists in U.S. history whose stories haven't been thoroughly told, because they

were marginalized by a structure they didn't see them as real, objective

reporters.

And that's what happened to Marvel Cook.

Marvell Cook was at home in New York when she got the call.

The United States Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Yeah, that guy.

Wanted her to testify. I remember spending that weekend getting as beautiful as I know how to get.

Getting a very conservative but beautiful dress out to wear. I felt so sorry for my husband. Here he is., married to this girl who looked like she was going to be a society, somebody, and she gets herself in all this mess.

She was a society lady in a way. She was the fair-skinned daughter of radical black socialists from Mancato, Minnesota. She was a

communist and an investigative journalist. She was a close friend of Paul Robeson and had worked

for W.E.B. Du Bois. Marvell Cook was amazing. The McCarthy hearings, as you might remember,

eventually became infamous for targeting journalists and entertainers,

...