Golden Age of Black Radio - Part 4: Gender Equality and Civil Rights

Gladys Hill, the first "Dizzy Lizzy," in KCOH Houston studio in 1962.

Vivian Benton in Atlanta's WERD studio around 1957.

KYOK Houston deejay Novella Smith (aka "Dizzy Lizzy") standing in front of microphone in 1955.

KYOK Houston personality deejay Katie Timms, a.k.a. "Sister Sue"

Since there hadn't been any women, I was afraid that the woman's reaction might not be positive hearing a woman on the air. But, I was so wrong about that. The women were so supportive. And the sisters were so proud that it gave me courage. And I could talk to them. You know. I could be myself. I didn't have to try to be anything else, because there wasn't anybody else to be like. And that was a big advantage.

-- Vy Higginsen

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Pictured at left is Vy Higginsen at WBLS Radio, circa 1970.

Jacquie Gales Webb is the longtime host of "Sunday Afternoon Gospel" on Howard University's WHUR. While at Smithsonian Productions, she produced the landmark 13-part radio series, “Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was” (1996), which garnered the George Foster Peabody Award and Columbia University Alfred I Dupont silver baton.

Vy Higginsen became New York City's first female deejay in prime time radio on WBLS-FM, which offered the “Total Black Experience.” Under flamboyant program director Frankie Crocker, WBLS-FM became the top station in the city, pioneering the radio format now known as urban contemporary.

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I really enjoyed those early days. And we did - the format was a total Black experience in sound. And we would have different shades of Black, we'd call it. Another shade of Black. Gospel. Another shade of Black. Latin.

And we'd go - and you could never get bored listening to the different varieties of sounds, and rhythms, and beats, and emotions, and moods. And we would clearly set the pace and the mood for the day.

And I took going into peoples' homes very seriously because the power of radio I thought was so great. I mean, how does sitting in this room allow me to come into your bathroom, and your bedroom, and your living room? And it was astonishing, you know, that that existed without seeing it. You know? That power existed. So, all you had to do was turn on that switch and you could tune in to a frequency. And I respected that. You know?

And I wanted to, perhaps, do or say something that might make a difference in somebody's life if they chose to turn the radio on that day. And that was a personal and private goal.

-- Vy Higginsen, WBLS-FM deejay

He [Al Benson] hired an airplane and flew over Mississippi, and dropped things saying "free my people" and all this kind of stuff. I didn't even want to ride a train through Mississippi, let alone fly over it.

-- Jack Gibson

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Many Black deejays took a proactive stance against racial segregation as the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum. In 1956, Chicago deejay Al Benson chartered a plane to drop copies of the U.S. Constitution over Mississippi in an effort to "wake up the citizens" of the state and "remind them that the Supreme Court had ruled against school segregation."

Pictured at left is Al Benson in the studio holding copies of the Constitution in 1956.

SCLC had their offices right under the radio station. And Dr. King's office was there. And as Ralph Abernathy, and Andy Young, and all of them. They used to come there all the time. So whenever we wanted to give announcements, we would, you know, they'd even hand it to us. Or, they'd bring it upstairs to the station. Or if Dr. King, or one of his lieutenants wanted to make a speech direct, what they would do is take a broomstick and hit it on the ceiling. And I knew that was the cue.

So, if I was on the air I'd say, "And we pause in this program for a message from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President of SCLC."

And as I was saying that, I was letting the microphone out the window so that he could put his hand out the window on the first floor and bring the microphone in, make the speech, and the cue was, "Thank you, and we'll see you tonight at Ebenezer Baptist Church," or wherever.

And I would say, "And we have just heard another message from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President of SCLC And now on with our programming."

And then I'd bust loose with saying, "Look out, mama! Here we come with some more of this good, funky music." And then I'd go into my regular act.

-- Jack Gibson, deejay at Atlanta station WERD in the 1950s

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Pictured at left is the building that housed both WERD Atlanta and the SCLC offices.

We had a convention of disc jockeys in Atlanta in 1967. And he [Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.] was our keynote speaker. And he mentioned that the Black broadcaster in this speech was responsible for the Civil Rights Movement. And if it had not been for the prominence of Black personality disc jockeys at different places throughout the South, that the Movement never would have gotten started.

You gotta understand that we were the voice that the people listened to. And if you gave us a message to say, "There will be a meeting tonight of SCLC at say, First Baptist Church." Well then, if you gave that, and it said that, we would just go ahead and elaborate all around it. And do our own thing by saying, "Now look. You've heard me mention it to you before that we're gonna have a meetin' tonight at seven o'clock at the First Baptist Church over there on Hunter Road. Now you know, I know how you all are. You have a time called CP. And you know what I mean when I say CP. So now let's - the Reverend King says we gonna meet at seven o'clock. Don't be come showin' up at no seven thirty and eight o'clock, and all stuff like that. Come on at seven o'clock and be there 'cause this is an importance for me, and you, and for our children. Y'all understand me?"

And that would be one of the ways that we'd be able to personalize the message that was given to us to give to our audience.

-- Jack Gibson, deejay at Atlanta station WERD in the 1950s

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Pictured at left is a sign outside the SCLC office in Atlanta that shared the building with radio station WERD.

And there would have never been a March on Washington if there hadn't have been Black radio. Because Black radio was the communicator between the leaders, and the preachers, and whatnot of the communities, to the people who listened to Black radio. They were the ones that told where the preachers were gonna have their meetings, and where everything was gonna come together. So, Black radio played a very heavy role in the Civil Rights Movement. And so I would consider that to be the top, number one thing that Black radio did in the last thirty or forty years, was the thing that caused the civil rights program to happen.

-- deejay "Jockey" Jack Gibson

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Pictured at left is a KYOK Houston van in front of civil rights marchers in 1967.

If it were not for Black radio, I imagine more cities in the United States would have been burnt to the ground. But, Black radio was involved and was able to communicate with the listeners. And tell the listeners, "Don't go into certain areas because that's where the fire's the heaviest, or they're shooting more, or creating more damage."

And so Black radio led the fight in the riots by suppressing them. And there was a lot of times - I remember James Brown coming in some cities and by his voice on the air, quelled some of the rioting.

-- deejay "Jockey" Jack Gibson

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Pictured at left is the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Parade in Atlanta, Georgia (1980s).

This exhibit compliments the landmark 13-part radio series "Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was" (1996).

The series, produced by Jacquie Gales Webb for Smithsonian Productions and hosted by Lou Rawls, garnered the George Foster Peabody Award and Columbia University Alfred I Dupont silver baton.

For more information about the series, or Black radio in general, please contact The Archives of African American Music and Culture. The AAAMC holds the interviews and production materials related to the "Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was" radio series, along with other archival collections related to Black radio.

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Archives of African American Music and Culture
Indiana University
2805 E. 10th, Suite 180
Bloomington, IN 47408
aaamc@indiana.edu
(812) 855-8547
www.indiana.edu/~aaamc