“I had very little idea of what I was supposed to be doing, so I set out to learn. What I essentially did was to put one foot in front of the other, shut my eyes, and step off the edge.”

Katharine Graham worked for the Washington post and soon became the owner after the death of her husband, Philip Graham in 1963.  She became the first female Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a Fortune 500 company in 1972. 

On June 16, 1971, Graham was presented with a fragment of the Pentagon Papers. There had been a court order restraining the press publication of the Papers. Despite this, she risked the Washington Post company and allowed the paper to be published on June 17, 1971.

The government appealed to the papers being published, the Supreme Court however ruled the publication of the Pentagon Papers couldn’t be restrained. The release of the papers propelled the Washington Post into the highest position of American journalism.

From 1972 to 1974, Graham continued to lead The Washington Post during the Watergate Scandal, which eventually led to the  resignation of Nixon on August 8, 1974.

Graham’s efforts of protecting press freedom was recognized in 2000 when she was named one of International Press Institute’s (IPI) 50 Press Freedom Heroes in 2000.

“Katharine Graham is such an inspiration to me because of how she paved the way for women. She had an immense impact on journalism as a whole, and I’m glad she got the recognition she deserved,” states Casey O’Donnell, 27.

Graham published her memoir, Personal History in 1998, which allowed her to obtain the Pulitzer Prize for biography.

A year after her death, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002, which is known as the highest civilian honor in the Nation. 

In 2017, “The Post” was released which covers Graham’s leadership while dealing with the government and the fellow men she worked with.