2007 at the age of 88, after serving as Jets Washington Bureau chief for 51 years. Booker served as the Washington, D.C. bureau chief of the Johnson Publishing Company, interviewing presidents, members of Congress, as well as notable civil rights leaders, Martin Luther King Jr., Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, A. Philip Randolph and James Farmer. During his long career, Booker was recognized by his peers with numerous awards, including a Wilkie Award. In 1982, he became the first African-American journalist to win the National Press Club's Fourth Estate Award for lifetime contributions to journalism. On January 17, 2013, Booker was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists' Hall of Fame. In 2015, he was awarded the George Polk Career Award. In February 2017, 17 members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bipartisan bill nominating Booker for a Congressional Gold Medal. Death Booker died on December 10, 2017, in Solomons, Maryland, from pneumonia-related complications, at the age of 99. He is survived by his wife Carol McCabe and three children: Simeon III, Theresa, and Theodore. A memorial service for Booker was held on January 29, 2018, in Washington National Cathedral. Published books Shocking the Conscience: A Reporter's Account of the Civil Rights Movement (University Press of Mississippi, April 2013) Susie King Taylor, Civil War Nurse (McGraw-Hill, June 1969) Black Man's America (Prentice-Hall, 1964) References Further reading Simeon Booker, "A Negro Reporter at the Till Trial", Nieman Reports, January 1956. Simeon Booker, "My Jet Years — 1953–2006", Jet, November 13, 2006. W. Ralph Eubanks, "Remembering the Pioneering Black Journalist Simeon Booker, 'The Man from Jet'", The New Yorker, December 12, 2017. Howard W. French, "The Legacy of Simeon Booker, a Pioneer of Civil Rights Journalism", The New York Times, December 13, 2017. Amber Larkins, "Sixty-Five Years of Covering the News", American Journalism Review, December 2012/January 2013. Curtis Stephen, "Simeon Booker Was a Leader Among Early, Unheralded Reporters on Race", Columbia Journalism Review, December 15, 2017.Simeon Booker Obituary'', (Washington, The Associated Press/AP, 2017) legacy.com 1918 births 2017 deaths American civil rights activists African-American journalists African-American non-fiction writers American non-fiction writers George Polk Award recipients Journalists from Maryland Journalists from Washington, D.C. Nieman Fellows The Washington Post journalists Virginia Union University alumni Writers from Baltimore Writers from Youngstown, Ohio 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people Activists for African-American civil rights American civil rights activists (civil rights movement)