President George H.W. Bush

This is the twenty-fourth in Arab America’s series on American pathbreakers of Arab descent. The series includes personalities from entertainment, business, sports, science, academia, journalism, and politics, among other areas. Contributing writer, John Mason, writes about our twenty-fourth pathbreaker, Helen Thomas. Born in 1920 in Winchester, Kentucky, Thomas was the seventh of nine children of immigrants from Tripoli, Lebanon. Helen was an American reporter and author, and a long-serving member of the White House press corps. She covered the White House during the administrations of ten U.S. presidents—from the beginning of the Kennedy administration to the second year of Obama’s tenure. Thomas’ pro-Arab comments got her into hot water towards the end of her career.