Sonja D Williams - Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio, and Freedom

THE NEW BLACK STUDIES SERIES

Edited by Darlene Clark Hine and Dwight A. McBride

A list of books in the series appears at the end of this book.

Richard Durham, Radio, and Freedom

SONJA D. WILLIAMS

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS

Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield

2015 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

1 2 3 4 5 C P 5 4 3 2 1

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Williams, Sonja D., 1952

Word warrior : Richard Durham, radio, and freedom / Sonja D. Williams.

pages cm. (The new black studies series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-252-03987-4 (cloth : alk paper)

ISBN 978-0-252-08139-2 (pkb : alk paper)

ISBN 978-0-252-09798-0 (e-book)

1. Durham, Richard, 19171984.

2. African American authors20th centuryBiography.

3. African American journalistsBiography.

4. African American political activistsBiography.

I. Title.

For Clarice Davis Durham and Mildred Sonia and Clarence Banks Williams

radioed with a grant from Figure Foundation speak, word syllable word

Somewhere in this ocean of Negro life, with its crosscurrents and undercurrents, lies the very soul of America.

It lies there regardless of the camouflage of crackpots and hypocritesfalse liberals and false leadersof radio's Beulahs and Amos and Andys and Hollywood's Stepin Fetchits and its masturbation with self-flattering dramas of passing for white such as Pinky and Imitation of Life.

It lies there because the real-life story of a single Negro in Alabama walking into a voting booth across a Ku Klux Klan line has more drama and world implications than all the stereotypes Hollywood or radio can turn out in a thousand years.

Richard Durham, 1949

This book would not have been completed without the loving support of family members, friends, and professional associates. Certainly my parents, Mildred and Clarence Williams, primed me for this journey. For as long as I can remember, they encouraged my love of literature and the arts. Dedicated readers themselves, they did not think it strange that my face always seemed to be in a book throughout my childhood.

Additional encouragement came from my godparents Joan Jones and James Thomas, second Mom Dorothy Israel, brother Craig, sister-in-law Maria, nieces Symone and Tiffany, aunt Bernita Babb, cousins Cleo Alexander, Melanie and Pamela Babb, Florence and Joe Bennett, Doris and Leatrice Brown, Shannon Donley Levan, Charles and Linda Jones, Luther Jones, Susan McLean, Clara and Blaine Richardson, and Leica and Sean Williams.

Cherished longtime friends Debra Floyd and Stacie Brown have also been there from the book's conception and first words, pushing me to write, revise, and revise yet again. Other friends sustained me by offering places to stay, meals, critical analysis, or just plain encouragement. They included Barbara Allen, Chris Arrasmith, Joanna Banks, Emmitt Bowes, K. Brisbane, Carlotta Campbell, Elissa, Shanta, Rebe, and Yohance de la Paz, Mimi Duncan, Frank Edwards, Candice Francis, Linda Davis-Fructoso, Marcia James, Dottie Green, Dinah Griggsby, Maisha Hazzard, Willard and Susan Jenkins, Kipp Kahlia, Michelle Lawrence, Rodger McCoy, Joan Merrill, Isheri Milan, Peggy Miller, Richard Newell, Rochelle Fortier-Nwadibia, Heather Parish, LaTonya Peoples, Sandra Rattley, Lloyd Redwing, Clerene Romeo-Jackson, Dianna Tazolli, Karolyn van Putten, my breast-cancer-fighting walking buddies and fellow DC Water Wizards swim team members.

Writer-friends Michele Bertrand, ALelia Bundles, Stephanie Deutch, Marcia V. Ellis, Sharon Ford, Amina Hasaan, Oya Johnson, Raki Jones, Elaine Lee, Matthew Nicther, Andrew Marble, E. Ethelbert Miller, and Ronald Williams were working on their own projects but still found time to offer advice. Additional feedback came from some wonderful writers I met while taking classes at The Writer's Center (TWC) in Bethesda, Maryland. Thanks to Stephanie Boddie, Nancy Derr, Michael Kirkland, Paul Langosch, Cheryl LaRoche, Bonny Miller, Diana Parsell, and Michael Scadron for their insightful critiques and monthly camaraderie. TWC workshop leaders, including Ken Ackerman, Shannon O'Neill, and David Stewart, along with publishing consultant Krishan Trotman, helped me fine-tune everything from my book proposal to chapter drafts. And I truly appreciated the analysis and inspiration provided by Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Writers Workshop leaders Wil Haygood and Jabari Asim, as well as fellow Haygood Literary Lionesses and other Hurston/Wright workshop participants.

Also, I want to send thank you hugs to my Howard University colleagues who read and commented on various chapter drafts. Those scholars include Professors S. Torriano Berry, Lamont Gonzalez, Yanick Rice Lamb, Judi Moore Latta, Candace Shannon Lewis, Abbas Malek, Reginald Miles, Kay Payne, and Ted Roberts; Chairs Gregory Carr, Phillip Dixon, Bishetta Merritt, James Rada, and Dana Williams; and Deans Gracie Lawson-Borders, Chukwuka Onwumechili, Jannette Dates, and Rochelle Ford.

Howard University alums Keith Alexander, Daudi Gardner, Larry Shields, Dackeyia Simmons Sterling, TaJuan Mercer, and Stephanie Vann regularly checked in to spur me on, while graduate students Janelle Bowe and Fredric Kendrick graciously assisted with the research and organization of manuscript notes and citations. Naming my students, past and present, who have inspired and humbled me could easily fill several pages. Suffice to say that these young people represent the best of their generation.

Fellow academicians Kelly Cole, Richard Courage, Brian Dolinar, Michelle Gordon, Aisha Hardison, Michael Keith, Jason Loviglio, Daniel Marcus, Imani Perry, Alexander Russo, Christopher Sterling, and Susan Sumylan provided thoughtful critiques. Retired Northeastern Illinois University professor and author J. Fred MacDonald has cheered me on from the beginning, generously providing access to relevant audio/visual materials and scripts from his resource-rich media archives, now housed in the Library of Congress.

I would also like to thank Chicago history scholar Timuel D. Black Jr., along with Susan Motley and Stephanie Dortch of the Vivian G. Harsh Society, who supported me with a research fellowship in Professor Black's name. Fellow recipient Sherry Williams (no relation) and I spent many days and long hours in the Harsh Research Collection's reading room. Retired senior archivist Michael Flug, curator Robert Miller, librarians Beverly Cook, Denise English, and Cynthia Fife-Townsel, and clerks Lucinda Samuel and Page Nadia Thomas made our work in the collection a joy.

Richard Durham's surviving relatives, including siblings Caldwell, Clotilde, Earl, and Winifred, and nieces Barbara J. Durham Smith and Bernice Durham, along with his wife, Clarice, and adult son Mark were very supportive. I am especially grateful to Mrs. Durham for her patience, quiet dignity, and gentle pressure. She graciously answered my endless stream of questions. Additionally, she put me in touch with several of her husband's colleagues and friends, and she provided access to materials not contained in the documents she donated to the Harsh Collection. She inspired me to stay on the path and get the book done.