My New Black Magazine - NYU Black Renaissance Noire BRN-FALL-206 ISSUE RELEASE | Page 151

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The boom dropped on Black Journal
in Fall 1972, when the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting did not include
the program on a list for future
funding. The program, like many of
its counterparts, was the victim of the
Nixon administration’s opposition to
educational television. The President
targeted what he termed the liberal
bias and cultural elitism of the public
broadcasting establishment, and
was determined to exert increasing
government control over the system.
“The White House wanted to end
public television’s capacity to function
as a strong national network,” noted
one historian. This was, in part,
an attack on the Ford Foundation’s
history of subsidizing significant, often
politically liberal, content on public
television. It also reflected the anxiety
of commercial broadcasters about
potential competition. In the first half
of 1972, the White House attempted
to ban all public affairs programs from
public television and in June Nixon
vetoed a cpb funding bill. This was
also the year when the reorganization
of public broadcasting was completed,
with the official dismantling of net
so that pbs functioned as the sole
programming clearinghouse. There was
no longer an institutional advocate for
Black Journal; it would have to apply
directly to cpb for financing, and
negotiate with pbs to be included in
the national programming schedule.

It did not help matters that some
southern pbs affiliates refused to air the
program. Early in his tenure, Brown
completed a survey that showed that
stations in Little Rock, New Orleans,
Jackson, Norfolk, Pensacola, Nashville,
Puerto Rico, and the eight stations
under the control of the Alabama
Educational Television Commission
literally blacked out the program from
their schedules. Of particular concern
was the state of Alabama, with a
population that was more than 30
percent African American. Faculty of
the University of Alabama and several
citizens groups appealed to the
fcc that this amounted to outright
discrimination. But in July 1970, the
fcc voted that Alabama could drop
Black Journal and Soul! as a matter of
“taste or judgment.” The fcc, made
up of Nixon appointees, was not about
to force the hand of segregationist
broadcasters.

The Nixon administration backlash
served to invigorate a media reform
movement, first started by black
radio disk jockeys in the 1950s to push
broadcasters to better serve black
audiences. Professional organizations
like the National Black Media Coalition,
and grassroots coalitions including
Black Effort for Soul in Television
(best), lobbied for black representation
on the fcc and community participation
in broadcasting decisions. These
activists were instrumental in bringing
Black Journal back from the grave.
While Brown whipped up black
communities for a letter-writing
campaign, the Congressional Black
Caucus, Urban League, and other
groups applied pressure on Washington.
Missouri Congressman William L.
Clay wrote a stinging rebuke to the
cpb President. He declared that Black
Journal “has elevated tv content to
a level that is free of black caricature,
distortion and inferiority, and to many
whites this self-definition is unacceptable.”
In St. Louis, a group called action
picketed the board chairman of cpb,
while in New York the Black Citizens
for Fair Media held a press conference
in support of the program. When the
cpb board met in January, protesters
descended on its Washington, d.c.
meeting. The next day, the cpb
announced Black Journal would receive
$350,000 for the next program year.
It was the only public affairs program
spared from the Nixon administration’s
ax. Among the programs cancelled
was Soul!