For Harry McAlpin, the recognition is 70 years overdue.
McAlpin, a correspondent for the Atlanta Daily World, covered his first Oval Office press conference in 1944 over the objection of the Correspondents' Association. At the time, the association was an all-white club and for years it blocked black journalists from attending.
Franklin Roosevelt agreed to admit McAlpin to a news conference after meeting with frustrated leaders of the Negro Newspaper Publishers Association. But there were limits to the doors even Roosevelt could open.
