Hazel Garland

Hazel B. Garland (January 28, 1913 – April 5, 1988) was a journalist, columnist and newspaper editor.

She was the first African-American woman to serve as editor-in-chief of a nationally circulated newspaper chain (the New Pittsburgh Courier).

Born into a farming family, she was the eldest of 16 children.

Although a bright and capable student, she dropped out of high school at her fathers instigation, and spent time working as a maid in order to provide financial assistance to her family.

Hazel B. Garland was born Hazel Barbara Maxine Hill near Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1913.

She was the eldest of 16 children born to George and Hazel Hill, who were at that time farmers.

After moving to Pennsylvania in the early 1920s, her father began working as a coal miner and the family eventually settled in Belle Vernon in 1932.

As the eldest child, Hill was called on to assist her mother in raising her 15 younger siblings.

She was an enthusiastic and talented student, and had hoped to continue with her education.

However, before she could complete high school, her father requested that she drop out to allow a younger brother to continue, with the intention of his eventually attending college.

Hill found work as a maid, while her younger brother would eventually refuse a college scholarship in favour of a failed relationship.

Hill later recalled that her father was not in favour of female education, stating that it was a waste of money as they would eventually get married and stop working anyway.

Although no longer attending school, Hill spent her spare time in the local library reading.

She also spent time in the evenings dancing, singing and playing the drums for local bands, and for a short time considered a career in entertainment.

While at a party, she met Percy Andrew Garland, a window display decorator and photographer from McKeesport, Pennsylvania.

It was, however, during a church program when Garland played a trombone solo that they fell in love.

After her marriage in 1935 she became a housewife, raising her daughter Phyllis and playing an active role in various voluntary organisations.

On January 26, 1935, they were married and their only child, Phyllis, was born in October of that year.

Throughout her career, Garland credited her family for supporting her achievements and encouraging her dedication to the paper.

Garland was a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team.

Her reports of club activities gained her attention from local newspaper editors and by 1943 she was writing a regular column.

In 1943 she was on the publicity committee for the local YWCA when the reporter due to cover a tea held in honour of the first black staff worker at the association became lost on the way and only arrived after the event had finished.

As a club reporter, Garland had made her own notes during the afternoon, and was encouraged to write them up and send it to the newspaper.

The editors at the Pittsburgh Courier were impressed, and asked her to cover similar community events for them as a stringer, for which she was paid $2 an article.

Garland produced so much material that her articles were eventually combined into a column called Tri-City News, which began appearing in the Pittsburgh Courier in late 1943.

At the time, mainstream media rarely carried any positive news about African-American communities or accomplishments, and Garland's naturally conversational tone and community-centric focus on weddings, honours, jobs and even tragedies along with her increasing reputation for professionalism, reliability and skilled writing quickly earned her a positive reputation.

In 1946 she joined the staff of the Pittsburgh Courier full-time, and by 1960 she was editor of both the entertainment and the women's sections of the newspaper.

By 1946, the Pittsburgh Courier was one of the most widely read black newspapers in the United States, and published a total of 14 editions, both local and national, as well as employing international reporters in cities around the world.

That year, the paper offered to begin training some of its stringers to become full-time journalists, an opportunity that Garland was quick to take up.

Initially providing vacation cover for other members of staff at the paper, she eventually became a general assignments reporter for the paper.

In 1951, Garland became a member of the Pittsburgh chapter of The Girl Friend's, Inc., a prestigious African American women's civic society.

In 1955 she became the first African-American journalist to write a regular television column, Video Vignettes, which would go on to become one of the longest running television columns in newspaper history.

Along with her friend and colleague Toki Schalk Johnson, in 1961 Garland became one of the first African-American members of the Women's Press Club of Pittsburgh.

In 1974 Garland was made editor-in-chief, and in the same year she was named 'Editor of the Year' by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.

She retired from her editorial role in 1977 due to health problems, although she continued writing and remained in an advisory role to the publishers until her death in 1988.

In 1978 and 1979 she served as a juror for the Pulitzer Prize for journalism.

She died on April 5, 1988, aged 75, in McKeesport Hospital due to a heart attack after surgery on a cerebral aneurysm.

After her marriage, Garland settled into life as a housewife and mother.

With support from her mother-in-law she also became active in local voluntary organisations.

As she was a keen writer, Garland was often asked to act as club reporter.