Norman Lumpkin, who helped bring diversity to television news in Alabama, has died.
A spokesman for Ross-Clayton Funeral Home in Montgomery confirmed that Lumpkin died Tuesday morning.
Lumpkin worked for radio stations in Montgomery and Indianapolis, Indiana, before being hired by WSFA-TV in Montgomery in 1969 as the first African-American TV reporter in the capital city.
The station assigned him to cover George Wallace in the 1970 campaign for governor, and he went on to a long career at the station. After leaving WSFA in the 1990s, he worked for another Montgomery station before becoming spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.
Longtime WSFA anchor Bob Howell called Lumpkin "a real pioneer." Lumpkin was inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences prestigious Silver Circle in 2007.
