Arizona HERstory on Valley 101: Meet Ayra Hackett, community leader and Black publisher
March is Women's History Month, and the Valley 101 podcast is taking the opportunity to explore the stories of women from Arizona's history whom you might not have heard of.
Opening the series is the story of Ayra Hackett. Entrepreneur, midwife and community leader, she started the first Black woman-owned newspaper in the state: the Arizona Gleam.
Established in November 1929, the Gleam quickly became a premier Black newspaper in the state.
Ayra Hackett was married to the first Black doctor in Arizona, Dr. Winston Hackett. Together they opened the Booker T. Washington Memorial Hospital on the corner of 14th and Jefferson streets in Phoenix. The building used to be the home of Joseph Kibbey, a former territorial governor.
The Phoenix of this time was racially segregated. It was the time of Jim Crow Laws and redlining.
But Ayra Hackett did not let the societal pressures keep her from exploring all kinds of stories in the Black community. Very quickly her paper grew and began publishing both national and international stories.
The Arizona Gleam stopped publishing not long after Ayra's death. But its impact on Phoenix African Americans was lasting.
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Note: Valley 101 is intended to be heard. But we also offer an A.I. translated transcript of the episode script. There may be slight deviations from the podcast audio.
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Contact the producer at kaely.monahan@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter @KaelyMonahan .
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona HERstory on Valley 101: Meet Ayra Hackett, pioneer Black publisher
