WASHINGTON – On the morning of March 5, 1964, a 13-year-old boy was on his way walking to the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort. Ordinarily this would not draw much attention except he was with over 10,000 civil rights activists, walking right next to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“How I ended up in the front row next to Dr. King I don’t recall,” said Sherman McAlpin, a civilian employee working in the Information Management Division (N16) at the Chief of Naval Personnel. “My parents used to take me to go when they would do lunch counter sit ins and civil rights marches. I was a participant from a pretty young age, probably around age seven or eight. I can remember that day talking to Martin Luther King Jr. and being in awe. He was one of my biggest heroes at the time only behind my number one hero, which was my dad.”

Sherman McAlpin’s father, Harry McAlpin, worked as a journalist for a collection of black publications across the country and would go on to become the first African-American reporter to attend a press conference at the White House.

“I think it was about 50 different weekly newspapers the he fed news reports and stories to,” said Sherman. “And one of the excuses that the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) used to keep people of color out of the White House press corps was the fact he didn’t work for a daily newspaper, so it didn’t qualify.”

The only person who could overrule the WHCA was President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and that is exactly what happened. Even after Roosevelt’s invitation, a member of the WHCA not-so-subtly informed Harry that he should wait outside the briefing because he may step on someone’s foot in the rush inside, inciting a riot in the White House.

“To which my dad calmly replied, ‘well I always thought the men who made it to the pinnacle of being a reporter and made it into the White House press corps were of the utmost professional quality, so I couldn’t believe that if someone stepped on someone else’s foot that there would be a riot in the White House. However, if that did occur, that would be one of the biggest stories of the year so I think I’ll just go ahead and rush on in and take my chances and ask my own questions’,” Sherman recalled.

On Feb. 8, 1944 Harry McAlpin became the first African-American reporter at a White House press briefing. As he moved toward the president’s desk with all the other reporters, President Roosevelt said to him, “Glad to see you, McAlpin.” Even though the WHCA couldn’t deny Harry McAlpin the right be at the briefing, they could still deny him the right to be a part of the WHCA, which they did.

 “After leaving the press corps he found time to go and finish a law degree at an all-black law school, Terrell School of Law, and he moved back to Louisville, Kentucky to practice law,” said Sherman. “He practiced both private law and spent some time as a commonwealth attorney in Louisville. Everything that he decided to do, he rose to the top of that profession. “

It is not lost on Sherman that without the struggles of the men and women who fought for equal rights, to include the marches he was part of during his childhood, there are many opportunities he would never have had. 

“I went to the Air Force Academy, which had been a childhood dream of mine. I was in the 16th graduating class,” said Sherman. “Without the struggles that people like Martin Luther King and my father went through, the military academies would probably have taken much longer to integrate. It’s because of men like that that let me get to where I am. I served 20 years as a Minuteman missile launch officer and retired as an 0-4. Since 2001, I’ve worked for the Navy, first as a contractor and then as a career civilian.”

American society has changed dramatically since the time of Sherman’s childhood. A huge reminder of those changes was his invitation to an event attended by the first African-American president.

“In 2014 the White House Correspondents’ Association contacted me and invited me and my family to the correspondents’ dinner,” said Sherman. “They were announcing a journalism scholarship in my dad’s name and making him a permanent member, posthumously of course, of the White House Correspondents’ Association. It was a pretty emotional night for me, I had trouble holding it all together. There were three standing ovations at the dinner, one each for President Obama arriving and departing; and then the third was when the President of the White House Correspondents’ Association spoke about my dad. I just hope he was watching.”

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