Civil Rights Reporters Simeon Saunders Booker Jr. And Roy Reed Die At 99 And 87 : NPR
Simeon Booker Jr.
Two leading journalists who covered the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s died yesterday. Roy Reed was white. Simeon Booker Jr. was black. As NPR's Neda Ulaby reports  each in his own way helped open the nation's eyes to the struggle against racial injustice.
ULABY: Roy Reed went on to cover the civil rights movement for The New York Times. He was 87 when he died.  Simeon Booker  was 99. Both men were there during the pivotal march from Selma to Montgomery  Ala.  when police attacked protesters on Pettus Bridge.  Booker  was working for Ebony and Jet magazines. In 2013   he  told NPR  he  was just as shocked as any other Northerner by what was going on in the South.
ULABY:  Booker  was the first full-time black reporter at The Washington Post. Wil Haygood got there years later. He told NPR in 2007  Booker 's experiences were not easy.
WIL HAYGOOD:  He  would go out and  he  would introduce  himself  to people as  Simeon Booker  of The Washington Post. And  he  said people would throw their heads back and just start laughing out loud in  his  face because they thought  he  was joking because they had never met a black reporter from The Washington Post. I mean  that's just heartbreaking.
ULABY:  Booker 's colleagues would not sit next to  him  in the cafeteria. After only two years   he  left. While working at Ebony and Jet   Booker  heard about the murder of a 14-year-old accused of whistling at a white woman.  He  took a photographer to Emmett Till's funeral. The pictures of Till's open casket and mangled face became a civil rights catalyst.  Booker  found stories no one else could.
ULABY: Wil Haygood says  Simeon Booker  became friendly with an FBI agent who'd tip him off to danger.
 BOOKER : My whole life was one of fright in newspapering when I was in the South.
ULABY: Later  some criticized  Booker  since the FBI was also working at the time to undermine the civil rights movement.  His  wife of 40 years  Carol McCabe Booker  co-wrote  his  memoir. Almost to the end  she says   Simeon Booker  loved speaking about  his  experiences. One question  she said  came up over and over.
CAROL MCCABE BOOKER: What kept you going back down there? And  he  answered so matter-of-factly  it was my job.
Two leading journalists who covered the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s died yesterday. Roy Reed was white.  [TGT]  was black. As NPR's Neda Ulaby reports  each in his own way helped open the nation's eyes to the struggle against racial injustice.
ULABY: Roy Reed went on to cover the civil rights movement for The New York Times. He was 87 when he died.  Simeon Booker  was 99. Both men were there during the pivotal march from Selma to Montgomery  Ala.  when police attacked protesters on Pettus Bridge.  Booker  was working for Ebony and Jet magazines. In 2013   he  told NPR  he  was just as shocked as any other Northerner by what was going on in the South.
ULABY:  Booker  was the first full-time black reporter at The Washington Post. Wil Haygood got there years later. He told NPR in 2007  Booker 's experiences were not easy.
WIL HAYGOOD:  He  would go out and  he  would introduce  himself  to people as  Simeon Booker  of The Washington Post. And  he  said people would throw their heads back and just start laughing out loud in  his  face because they thought  he  was joking because they had never met a black reporter from The Washington Post. I mean  that's just heartbreaking.
ULABY:  Booker 's colleagues would not sit next to  him  in the cafeteria. After only two years   he  left. While working at Ebony and Jet   Booker  heard about the murder of a 14-year-old accused of whistling at a white woman.  He  took a photographer to Emmett Till's funeral. The pictures of Till's open casket and mangled face became a civil rights catalyst.  Booker  found stories no one else could.
ULABY: Wil Haygood says  Simeon Booker  became friendly with an FBI agent who'd tip him off to danger.
 BOOKER : My whole life was one of fright in newspapering when I was in the South.
ULABY: Later  some criticized  Booker  since the FBI was also working at the time to undermine the civil rights movement.  His  wife of 40 years  Carol McCabe Booker  co-wrote  his  memoir. Almost to the end  she says   Simeon Booker  loved speaking about  his  experiences. One question  she said  came up over and over.
CAROL MCCABE BOOKER: What kept you going back down there? And  he  answered so matter-of-factly  it was my job.