Louis R. Lautier (1897-1962) was the first African-American journalist admitted to the White House Correspondents' Association (1951) and to the National Press Club (1955).
In 1945, Lautier became Washington correspondent for the National Negro Publishers Association, which provided news stories to the black press.
The Standing Committee of Correspondents, a group of reporters that decided on credentials for the Senate and House press galleries, rejected his application because his client papers were mostly weeklies and the press gallery admitted only reporters for daily papers.
[6] He became a member of the White House Correspondents Association in 1951 and began attending their annual dinners two years later.
[7][8] Lautier retired from the NNPA in 1961 to become special assistant to the chairman of the Republican National Committee and to write a column, "Looking at the Record," which the RNC distributed to the black press.