My New Black Magazine - NYU Black Renaissance Noire BRN-FALL-206 ISSUE RELEASE | Page 146

By 1969 there was a significant
increase in black public affairs television
programs with more than 20 local
shows across the country. Years later,
Greaves would boast that “Black
Journal was the flagship… It stimulated
localities throughout the country to
begin to seriously thing about having
their own local shows.” Many of
these programs used the magazine or
talk-show format to highlight black
community concerns. In New York
City alone, programs on public
television included Inside Bed-Stuy,
and Where It’s At, while the local abc
affiliate launched Like It Is hosted
by black journalist Gil Noble. There
were also novel approaches, such as
Job Man Caravan on South Carolina
public television, which helped match
black job seekers with employment.

BLACK RENAISSANCE NOIRE

At the end of Black Journal’s first year,
the program was nominated for an
Emmy Award. However the anniversary
was launched with re-runs, packaged
as “best of ” segments from the year,
rather than new episodes. After the first
installment, Greaves announced on
the air that he faced as much as an 80
percent budget cut that would place
severe constraints on the show’s reporting
and filmmaking capabilities. Jack Gould,
wrote in the New York Times that the
show, once conceived as a balm to heal
racial strife, faced abandonment. “In a
nation beset by so much racial tension,
such a development should not be
allowed to happen,” Gould complained.
“‘Black Journal’ provides the road to
true understanding, and if a corporation
wanted to do its share in resolving a
national problem, Mr. Greaves and
his colleagues deserve every monetary
consideration…”

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Financial instability was a constant
challenge for Black Journal’s
leadership. For the first four months
of programming — June through
September 1968 — the Ford Foundation
provided $100,000 per episode.
Funding from the new Corporation for
Public Broadcasting kept things rolling
through December 1968. Next the
network and the show’s producers
sought corporate underwriting. Coca
Cola and Polaroid each contributed
monies for the first three months of
1969 and net stepped in with enough
support to get through June, the end
of the first program year. Meanwhile,
Black Journal crews continued to
develop ambitious content. A two-part
film broadcast in the Spring explored
the lives of African Americans in
southern cities like Atlanta and New
Orleans. The program investigated
how black voters struggled to get their
candidates into office and the persistent
violence and economic intimidation
they encountered,