Inez J. Baskin

Inez J. Baskin. (1916~2007). Born June 18, 1916, in Florala, Alabama, Inez Jessie Turner Baskin was the only child of J.L. and Cora Turner. The family relocated to Montgomery around 1918. She graduated from Booker T. Washington High School and obtained a degree from Alabama State Teachers College (now Alabama State University) in 1953., In the fall of 1954, Baskin took a position at the Montgomery Advertiser. She was tasked with typesetting the "Negro News" pages, which appeared only in copies of the Advertiser delivered to African American communities. Baskin would eventually become the section's assistant editor. Her expertise and skill made her well positioned to cover the unfolding Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56 for out-of-state publications. Through articles for Jet magazine and dozens of newspaper affiliates of the Associated Negro Press, Baskin brought national attention to the boycott and Alabama's expanding civil rights movement., In 1963, Baskin became the first woman to earn a degree from Selma University. Devoted to education and public service, she was active in a number of organizations, including the YMCA, NAACP, and the Alabama Council on Human Relations, and was a prolific writer throughout her long life. Shortly before she died on June 28, 2007, Edinboro University in Pennsylvania named a journalism scholarship in her honor.