Claude Lewis

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Newsweek sports beat opened the door to many journalism opportunities

The seeds of ambition are sometimes planted unwittingly by strangers or distant acquaintances. For Bronx-born Claude Lewis, one such distant acquaintance was Langston Hughes. In 1945, his grammar school teacher at PS 23 invited Hughes to the class to talk about poetry. He encouraged each student to write a poem, which he offered to critique.

When Lewis submitted his verse, Hughes gave the young writer an honest yet scalding assessment. The poetry was plain bad. But Hughes encouraged him to try again. Lewis gave it another shot and shared it with Hughes. The second works were just as bad if not worse.

"You'll never be a poet," Hughes told Lewis. "But you tried again. You have perseverance. You might want to try your hand at newspaper reporting."

Though Lewis didn't run to the nearest newspaper immediately, the idea stayed with him many years. While attending New York City College he worked on the school newspaper, the only African American on the student staff. One of his first assignments was to write a three-part series about blacks, Puerto Ricans and Jews. He completed the first two parts of the series but his editors felt he was not qualified enough to write a piece about Jews.

He continued to attend City College taking night classes. He had married young, at the age of 17 and had a family to support. In search of a job and while riding the bus in Manhattan, he happened to see a sign on 42nd and Seventh Avenue that advertised Newsweek. He decided to drop by the magazine's office and inquire about job opportunities. He asked the receptionist if Newsweek had any positions. She immediately said no. But as Lewis turned to leave she quickly said that there might be a position as an errand boy.

Lewis spent 12 years at Newsweek. His first published story for the news magazine landed in his lap by accident. A friend gave him tickets to see the prize fight between Cuban boxer Benny "Kid" Paret and Emile Griffith. Paret was beaten unconscious in the ring and died 10 days later.

When Lewis told the editor that he was at the fight, the editor told Lewis to write what he saw. Impressed with his story, the editor asked him to continue to write for sports. But he wasn't confined to the sports beat. Whenever they needed a black reporter to cover an issue or event in the black community, they called on Lewis.

Like many black reporters who started around this time, the civil rights movement, protests and riots gave Lewis ample opportunity to do stories outside of the sports beat. In this position, Lewis said he developed a deep sense of race consciousness.

"As I went out into the world, I realized things didn't happen with inevitability," Lewis says. "You had to make things happen."

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