Baltimore-native White House correspondent April Ryan on being a black woman in the press corps
BALTIMORE -- April Ryan got her start in Baltimore.
It's where she was born and attended college.
Now, she is the longest-serving Black female White House correspondent, a job she has held for 25 years.
Ryan has been through five presidential administrations while conducting countless interviews with world newsmakers and presidents.
WJZ anchor Vic Carter sat down with the Baltimore native and Morgan State graduate to discuss her career, the ups and downs and what she would tell young Black children about pursuing their dreams.
Ryan talked about her years covering former President Donald Trump, which became the most tumultuous time of her life.
She was called a loser by Trump and she said she received death threats and had a bomb mailed to her home.
"I watch her get up, you talk about somebody who is a loser, she doesn't know what she's doing," Trump told reporters while outside the White House. "She gets publicity, and then she gets a pay raise, she gets a contract with, I think CNN, but she is very nasty and she shouldn't be."
Vic Carter: How would you describe what happened in terms of the way you were treated while you were doing your job at the White House?
April Ryan: You're in a home that I had to move to because of threats. FBI has been here. Bomb squads have been at home. I mean, for asking the question, being a journalist, doing what we have been trained to do. The First Amendment protects Freedom of the Press, but to raise my hand and ask simple questions, my life has been threatened. The safety of my home is threatened.
Carter: More specifically, what was said to you while you were in the White House?
Ryan: What was said to me? "Sean Spicer: stop shaking your head." "Sarah Huckabee Sanders: stupid question," "President told me to sit down on numerous occasions at one press conference."
Carter: You're not the only person in the White House press corps who asked tough questions. Now, why were you targeted, you think, for this type of treatment?
Ryan: I came from a Bluetooth network asking about issues that they did not want to address. And, they thought if they could get me out, they would send a message to others.
Don't ask that, be afraid because we retaliate to you. Why me? Because again, I'm a Black woman, singular, by myself, pretty much because I didn't have a whole cadre of producers and writers and things behind me.
I was pretty much a team of one, but what they didn't understand is the family. I come from the town I come from, the school I come from. It took a lot to get me in that space and I wasn't going to let words and threats move me. I did nothing wrong. Nothing. Nothing.
Carter: Not many people know the actual toll this took on you personally. You mentioned it a little in your book. What happened to you?
Ryan: The toll, it came out physically. I lost a lot of my hair. I've been going to a doctor in Columbia, Maryland, who helped me get my hair back and she said a lot of it is stress. You know? Think about waking up, having to make sure you're safe, making sure your house is secure, and making sure your children are OK.
Ryan draws strength from some of the most powerful Black women in the country and in history, among them, Valarie Jarrett, the former advisor to President Barack Obama, along with Vice President Kamala Harris, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Susan Rice, Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey.
These are just a few of the women she holds in high regard in her book and uses as examples for little Black girls.
"But you know women from all walks of life inspire me and just lift me up," Ryan said. "I mean, from the janitors at the White House, to the teacher at the schoolhouse over here, the principal at the schoolhouse, to the pastor's wife, to the women who said I reached my hand out in prayer, that when you asked a question that was going to be OK. You know, women from all over inspire me."
Vic Carter: What's the lesson that you leave for little girls?
Ryan: The lesson I leave to little girls, the lesson I'm going to tell that little girl who lived in Northeast Baltimore, in Northwest Baltimore City, you're enough. You can be into anything that you want to be as long as you get a good education. Just like my late mother used to say, ''You are enough and believe in yourself, and don't let anyone box you in.'"
