Investigative Journalism Throughout History

1880s

Nellie Bly was only 23 years old when she went undercover at a mental hospital to uncover the wrongdoings taking place there.

1890s

Ida B. Wells uncovered truths about the lynchings of Black men in the South, which led to the stopping of the lynchings.

1950s and 1960s

Moses Newson was working in Memphis on the civil rights movement. He helped educate many Americans on the current civil rights movement.

1960s

Rachel Carson was a marine biologist who covered the effects of pesticides in her book Silent Spring. This eventually led to the ban of the insecticide DDT.

1980s

Morley Safer uncovered that Lenell Geter, a Black man who was convicted of robbing a KFC, was innocent.