Voice of the People: an Examination of Black Radio

The central theme of my thesis is the analysis of Black radio, as it has come to be, from its beginnings in the mid-thirties to present day. In particular I want to look at the ways in which radio has been used as a catalyst for change in the black community particularly in the social, cultural, artistic, and political realms. The use of public broadcasting, even in its early days, served a large role in deciphering the careers of the artists whose music was being played. For early black musicians, having their music played over the airwaves meant that their audiences could grow exponentially bigger and it became much easier to widen their fan bases this way. I also want to examine the role of the Black DJ as exemplary of the New Negro identity. The first pioneers of black radio were it's DJs. They were ordinary people who were facing the same segregation and discriminatory issues as other blacks were, yet they found a way to reach out to overcome those obstacles. Using radio, they serve the community and create a common voice that would instill a sense of solidarity in people that would probably never be close enough geographically feel close in a such the way they did.  Early black DJ's were somewhat of "cultural heroes", as they were often looked to by rural and newly migrated black urban populations as a social, political, and economic compass. In the text Legendary Pioneers of Black Radio, Author Gilbert Williams explains of black DJs, "..they were truly of the people. Black DJs became cultural heroes because they were the vanguard of African-American culture. As thousands of African Americans left farms and plantations, they needed someone to tell them how to survive in the concrete jungles of urban America. Black DJs performed this vital role." In his text, Gilbert also discussed how early black DJs were greatly admired by their listeners. Many of their followers were blacks who were freshly migrated from the south and felt greatly uprooted and bewildered in their new radically different cities. For them, African-American DJs provided them with a guiding voice and a sense of familiarity and relief. With the guidance of a few pervasive black radio personalities, black radio made great strides. The late 1940s saw both the first all-black radio station (WDIA, based out of memphis) and the first black-owned radio station (WERD, Atlanta) WERD was, incidentally, housed in the same building as the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Council) headquarters. Reportedly, Dr. King was at the SCLC headquarters often and would use a broom to bang on the ceiling and signal to WERD if he wanted to speak on the broadcast. This is just one of many ways that black radio was used as a source of political agency. Radio was invaluable to other groups, such as the Black Panther Party, as an instrument for mass communication of their agendas.
Through the 80s and 90s, black radio saw a mass commercialization and a sharp transition from the deep politicization it had underwent leading up to the civil rights movement. Presently, most radio stations are owned by one of only a few conglomerate corporations, and virtually no "black" stations remain. However, through the promotion of early black musicians, the advent of the black DJ as a cultural hero, and the capability to unify entire communities with a common voice, black radio played a critical role in the manifestation and mobilization of the New Negro identity.

Mapping the New Negro

In doing a close reading of both Baldwin and Locke's caricature's of the New Negro, I saw both some similarities and some differences. Both Baldwin and Locke see the new Negro as an architect of an entirely new lifestyle. Both authors encourage the new Negro to be archaic, dynamic, and revolutionary but in different ways.  Locke describes the new Negro as an artist, creator, poet, and progressive. He celebrates the 'renaissance' occuring in Harlem and regards the New Negro as a rebirth of art, music, culture and modernist thinking. The New Negro, Locke states, "exudes more than just energy- [he] exudes a quality suspiciously like joy, the great quality that J.A. Rogers sees in Jazz. The energy and joy in The New Negro have political purposes; they are subversive, and thus come tinged with a quality not unlike a thrilling psychological neuroticism, which serves to authenticate the modernist identity of the New Negro." (Locke xxii). In contrast,  Baldwin starts off with the analysis of Jack Johnson, the black heavyweight champion of the time. Baldwin feels that Johnson encompasses everything the New Negro identity should be comprised of. Not only did Johnson regularly challenge black social norms and white hegemony, his actions served to galvanize the entire black population of Chicago. Using Johnson as an example for the greater black community, Baldwin writes, "Placing the Johnson story within the black context crystallizes how he did more than challenge Social Darwinism but, in the words of historian Jeffrey Simmons, 'foreshadowed, and in some ways helped create, the New Negro" (Baldwin 4-5) Another quality that Baldwin emphasizes over Locke is the boldness and entreprenuerial spirit of the New Negro. According to Baldwin, the New Negro should exemplify bravery and risk-taking. He should not be afraid to disrupt social norms, especially those in line with white hierarchal infrastructure. Locke does have similar ideas about a certain fearlessness that the New Negro should have, but leans more towards using an artistic medium as a form of expressing it. A bold attitude and fresh way of thinking typify both what Locke and Baldwin think they New Negro should be, but  they differ in the idea of what can or should be used as a catalyst for achieving such successes.

The Things They Left Behind

In doing a close reading of both Wilkerson's  The Warmth of Other Suns and Locke's The New Negro, I found some connections in Countee Cullen's poem Heritage to The Things They Left Behind in Wilkerson's text. Heritage is about the differences in culture and lifestyle one encounters when leaving the homeland (which in this case is Africa) and the struggle to acclimate while still maintaining nostalgia. There is one stanza in particular that I feel exemplifies the feelings and contentions of Wilkerson's text:

Quench my pride and cool my blood
Lest I perish in their flood
Lest a hidden ember set
Timber that I thought was wet
Burning like the dryest flax
Melting like the merest wax
Lest the grave restore its dead.
Stubborn heart and rebel head.
Have you not yet realized
You and I are civilized?


In The Things They Left Behind, Wilkerson discusses heritage and southern cultural identity that many black southerners kept even after they had chosen to migrate north. She explains, "The South was still deep within those who left, and the sight of some insignificant thing would take them back and remind them of what they once were...As best they could, the people brought the Old Country with them - a taste for hominy grits and pole beans cooking in salt pork, the "sure enoughs" and "I reckons" and the superstitions of new moons and itchy palms that had seeped into their very being."
Even though Cullen's piece deals with a separation from the native homeland as Africa, I feel that there is a definite connection in terms of the emotions being played out in the poem and the short story. When Cullen writes "Quench my pride and cool my blood/lest I persish in their flood",  I think that it is something that a lot of southern transplants could identify with. Leaving the South, they left behind everything that was familiar and normal to them. Even though they were anxious to leave behind the repression of Jim Crow, I'm sure there were parts of the South and southern culture that they identified with and were sad to leave behind. Just as African natives leaving Africa hold a tight bond with the homeland, Wilkerson is saying that Southern blacks feel a tight bond to the South, even though they made the decision to leave. In Langston Hughes poem, A Kinder Mistress,  he explains that even though he loves the beauty and charm of the South, he must leave and go to the North where he can be free. I think that a lot of migrants made the decision to leave for similar reasons. They left the South but it left an imprint on their identities such that they took a small piece of it with them when they left.

How I ended up here.

Whenever I engage in small talk with other people, at work, on campus, where ever, the question always comes up, 'So, what's your major?'. As soon as I tell them mine is Black Studies,  I always kind of enjoy the reaction I get. People are almost always surprised, and many of them don't even know what Black Studies is. At first, I found this sort of exasperating and would sometimes just blurt out 'Psychology' (my previous major) to avoid having to explain myself any further. But now that I'm a graduating senior, I welcome the question and don't mind explaining my obscure, little-known major to anyone. I usually tell them that to me, Black Studies is a little bit of everything: some psychology, some sociology, some poli-sci and global studies, some anthro, some history. Another question I get almost as commonly once I've revealed my major is 'so..how did you get into that?' Some people just can't figure out why in the world someone who is obviously not black would want to major in, or even bother to learn about, black studies. That's when I tell them that Black Studies explores and dissects something that in absent in every other major: activism. Transferring into UCSB in August of 2009, I was a psychology major and proud of it. But as I took more and more psych classes, I began realizing that Psychology (at this school at least) is not for me. In the Spring of 2010, I took a Black Studies 129, "The Urban Dilemma" with Roberto Hernandez. I didn't know it at the time, but this class would prove to be the one that convinced me to make the switch to Black Studies. The class focused on the 1992 L.A. Civil Unrest and the events that led up to it, and it really opened my eyes to a world I had never even looked at, much less even knew existed. I began to see  institutions differently, not as they were, but how they could be reshaped or improved. That same spring I went to a panel discussion on campus put on by the Black Student Union from UCSD, regarding several acts of racism and hate crimes that had been committed on their campus. The fact that something like that could happen on a UC campus, a place that is supposed to be a cradle for diversity and tolerance, made me sick to my stomach. Before attending that discussion, activism had always been something that I viewed as negative and extremist, but afterwards I realized that it is a critical element for change, and the people who stand up for what they believe in are not crazy, just really brave. Taking classes in Black Studies has really above all else inspired me to become an activist. Mostly in small ways, but it definitely changed the way I see things. I now see the world as it could be, not just simply as it is, and plan accordingly.