The Other Black Radio: Voices for Justice

The Other Black Radio: North Carolina Voices for Justice
by Bruce Dixon, Black Agenda Report
When, for the first time in decades, the FCC opened up a licensing window for new full-power FM community radio stations, mostly in rural areas around the country, the Pacifica Foundation, Prometheus Radio and several other outfits made a specific attempt to raise the number of African American owned and run community radio stations in the South. Out of their efforts, more than a hundred grassroots organizations, quite a few of them black, applied for new station licenses, especially in the South. This is not your daddy's black radio, or your momma's, or Radio One's discredited, conscienceless and commercial radio. This is the dawn of a new paradigm in black radio --- the other black radio.The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement Radio Barn Raising in Greenville, South Carolina
http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/media_justice/the_other_black_radio_north_ca%3D5886Shannon Young gives the background of black radio in North Carolina: "To learn more about the historical context for black radio in Monroe County, North Carolina, I *highly* recommend the book "Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams & the Roots of Black Power" by Timothy B. Tyson, published by the University of North Carolina Press. It's an excellent read; one of those books that's hard to put down once you crack it open.

If you've never heard of Robert F. Williams (his remarkable life story is pretty much absent from history books), you can read an overview here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Williams

"The "Radio Free Dixie" book references several Pacifica Radio interviews in its footnotes. I couldn't find anything by searching for "Robert F. Williams" online at pacificaradioarchives.org but a search for "Radio Free Dixie" produced a match for a 60 min reel recorded by Chris Koch in 1963. I'm not sure if the reel has been digitized.

"The Freedom Archives compiled an audio documentary on Robert F. Williams in collaboration with Mabel Williams, his widow and partner-in-struggle. The documentary is available for order here:
http://www.freedomarchives.org/RFW.html"

Follow the links!
-Shannon

Saint Clair Bourne Passes

Photo Credit: Chester Higgins, Jr.
"Most of mainstream and public television in the late ’60s, and even during the ’70s,” he said, “was from the point of view of an outsider looking at a subculture — white people looking at black people. We said we identify with and are a part of the subjects we are filming.” -- SCB

St. Clair Bourne, pioneer filmmaker and activist, died on Saturday due to complications following an operation to remove a brain tumor. His many great documentaries will continue to be a definitive collection of African American art and history. He did the key biographical films on Paul Robeson, Amiri Baraka, Walter Mosley, Gordon Parks, John Henrik Clarke and Langston Hughes among others. His film on Spike Lee and the making of "Do the Right Thing" was called as tense and ingrossing as the film itself. In addition to producing and directing many films that chronicle the experience of Black Americans, St. Clair founded Chamba Notes, an important list serve and website.
The New York Times Obituary has a video of him on their site. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/arts/18bourne.html
Arrangements have been set for 7:00 pm on January 25th, 2008 at Riverside Church to memorialize the life and untimely loss of St Clair Bourne.