Ida E. Lewis

Born in Malvern, Pennsylvania, Lewis graduated from Swarthmore High School in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania in 1952. She earned her bachelor’s degree in public relations and journalism from Boston University in 1956.

Lewis began her career in 1957 as a reporter for the Amsterdam News and then for the The New York Age. From 1963-1969 she lived in Paris, France, where she worked as a contributing writer for publications including Le Monde, Le Figaro Magazine and Jeune Afrique. She also interviewed African dignitaries for the BBC; reported from Africa on assignment with Life magazine; and wrote her first essay collection, The Deep Ditch and The Narrow Pit. In 1969, Lewis returned to the United States as a correspondent for Jeune Afrique. In 1970 she became the second editor-in-chief of Essence magazine, but she left after only a year to launch Encore, a news magazine that provided African-American perspectives on global issues. This made Lewis the first Black woman to publish a national magazine.

In 1979, Lewis joined the faculty of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. During the 1980s she worked as a political consultant and press agent; her clients included Ross Perot, Abraham Hirschfeld and Adam Clayton Powell IV. In 1998 Lewis became the first female editor-in-chief of the NAACP's The Crisis magazine.

She was actively involved with the Boston University College of Communication. She was an adjunct professor of journalism, served on the Dean’s Executive Advisory Board, and established the Ida E. Lewis Scholarship Fund to support minority students in journalism. She also served on the Boston University Alumni Council and the Boston University College of Communication’s National Alumni Committee.

Lewis received the Award for Excellence in Journalism from the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, and the Woman of Distinction Award from Kingsborough Community College at the City University of New York.

• Ida E. Lewis oral history interviews at The HistoryMakers
• "More About Ida E. Lewis", BU Today
• "Ida Lewis, Encore, First Black News Publication", San Francisco News, 2019