R.I.P. Thomas A. Johnson, a pioneer in the field of journalism, died Monday in Queens at the age of 79. Johnson was the first black reporter to work at Newsday, and he went on to be the first black reporter at the New York Times. As a reporter during the 1960 in an all-white newsroom, he was called upon to both report the news and offer a perspective that no one else in the newsroom had. He won several awards for covering black servicemen in Vietnam and Europe, and is also one of the founders of Black Enterprise. [NYT]