{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=8324810e-9860-48ab-963b-473b6e59deb8", "Portman Honors Simeon Booker for Receiving Honorary Doctor of Letters from Youngstown State University", "2013-12-18", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "OH", "Rob Portman", "P000449", "www.portman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 Last week, U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) honored Simeon Booker on receiving an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Youngstown State University on December 15, 2013. Booker became the first African-American reporter for the Washington Post, served as Washington Bureau Chief for Jet Magazine for fifty-one years, and was a well-known journalist during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.\u00a0\r\nThe full Congressional Record entry can be found below and here.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\r\nHONORING SIMEON BOOKER\r\nMR. PORTMAN.\u00a0 Mr. President, I rise today to honor Simeon Booker as he receives an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Youngstown State University on December 15, 2013.\u00a0 Mr. Booker has devoted his life\u2019s work to chronicling the history of the civil rights movement in America.\r\nAs an African-American college student in the 1940s and 1950s. Mr. Booker experienced discrimination firsthand at what was then Youngstown College. Refusing to accept the indignities he found there, he transferred to Virginia Union University where he continued to champion the rights of black students.\u00a0\r\nEarly in his career, he was hired by his hometown newspaper, The Youngstown Vindicator, where he would write local columns focused on the city\u2019s African-American population and summaries for the local black baseball leagues.\u00a0 He went on to work for the Cleveland Call and Post and was offered the esteemed Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in the 1950s.\r\nMr. Booker became the first black reporter for The Washington Post in 1952, and also wrote for Jet and Ebony magazines. Mr. Booker was witness to the rise of the great civil rights leaders of that time -- Martin Luther King, Jr., the Kennedy brothers, Whitney Young and many others.\u00a0 He wrote about Martin Luther King\u2019s non-violent movement for civil rights, and covered the 1963 March on Washington.\r\nMr. Booker has received recognition from his peers, having been awarded both the Newspaper Guild Award and the Wilkie Award.\u00a0 As a journalist, he became the first African-American to win the National Press Club\u2019s Fourth Estate Award in 1982.\u00a0 He most recently authored \u201cShocking the Conscience: A Reporter\u2019s account of the Civil Rights Movement,\u201d an account of a half-century of American history.\u00a0 Earlier this year, he was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame.\r\nMr. President, I would like to honor Simeon Booker for his lifetime contributions to our country in the fields of journalism and civil rights and congratulate him on his recognition at Youngstown State University.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=8324810e-9860-48ab-963b-473b6e59deb8"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5046189073473215, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}