[2] Cunningham covered the early civil rights movement and was a reporter and editor for the Pittsburgh Courier.
[2] The largest black newsweekly at the time,[1] the Pittsburgh Courier was an influential presence during and in the years preceding the civil rights movement.
[2] While at the Courier she attempted to interview Bull Connor, in Birmingham, Alabama, but he denied her, with a racial epithet.
[3] In 1970, Cunningham was one of the founders of the New York Coalition of One Hundred Black Women, a non-profit organization dedicated to bettering the lives of black women "and their families through implementing initiatives and services to address important social, political, economical [and] cultural issues.
Tall—almost six feet tall in heels—and with red hair, Cunningham was called "Big East," referring both to her height and her New York City background.