Lillian Thomas Fox

Lillian J. B. Thomas Fox (1866–1917) was an African-American journalist and clubwoman active in Progressive Era Indianapolis. She rose to prominence in the 1880s and 1890s as a civic leader and writer for the Indianapolis Freeman, a leading national black newspaper at the time, and the later joined the Indianapolis News as Indiana's first black columnist for a white newspaper. At the Freeman, where she was the only woman on the editorial staff, Fox's writings favored Booker T. Washington approach on black economic progress. She became a well-known speaker and activist, founding the Indianapolis Women’s Improvement Club and the Indiana State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, as well as becoming involved in national organizations. She was especially an advocate for improving access to public health and fighting tuberculosis within the Indiana black community. Her pioneering column in the Indianapolis News, "News of the Colored Folk," ran for 15 years from 1900 to 1915 before her she retired for health reasons. In 2014, she was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame.