OBIT - Everett C. Parker ALSO Behind Black TV Reporters

WASHINGTON - Sept. 20, 2015 - PRLog -- OBIT - Everett C. Parker ALSO Behind Black TV Reporters
Inspired Second Law Suit in DC Which Finally Got Blacks on Local TV

WASHINGTON, D.C.  (September 20, 2015) - Everett C. Parker, now being widely hailed, at his passing, for winning a major legal battle which established the legal right of citizens to oppose the licenses of broadcasters over racial issues, also inspired a legal action which pressured TV stations to finally begin hiring African Americans as on-air reporters, first in the nation's capital and then elsewhere.

        More specifically, his work was the inspiration for a law suit brought by 16 well known Black leaders and activists, including future DC mayor Marion Barry Jr., which forced WMAL-TV - and then other DC-area TV stations - to begin hiring Blacks for significant on-air roles, primarily as reporters.

        In 1969, the George Washington University Law School organized a challenge to the renewal of the broadcast license of a major District TV station, charging that it was not adequately serving the needs and interests of the largely-black citizens of Washington DC in its programming, and more specifically that it refused to hire African Americans as reporters or for any other significant on-air roles.

        Shortly after the legal petition was filed on September 2, 1969, the station began to hire not only Black reporters, but it also hired a black woman to co-host a morning program.  This was apparently the first time African Americans had appeared in significant on-air roles on TV programming originated in the nation’s largely black capital, and possibly the first time anywhere in the country.

        Even more remarkably, the other major TV stations in DC then sought out the petitioners to ask how they could likewise better serve the interests of the African American community.

        In reality, they were asking what they had to do to prevent their own broadcast licenses from being challenged, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf, who helped formulate the legal action.

        Within months, the other major DC-based TV stations also likewise began to employ African Americans as on-air reporters.

        Later, using the WMAL legal action as a model, activists in other cities with large black populations threatened similar legal actions, and TV stations in those communities finally broke the color barrier and began featuring African American reporters in significant numbers.

        But the first major group of black TV reporters came from Washington DC, says Banzhaf.

        Black reporters not only served as role models in cities with significant black populations, but also often began to report on issues of significance in the African American community which might not otherwise have been perceived as important by white reporters and by other white news executives.

        Their race may also give them an access, and an insight, which white reporters might not otherwise have, suggests Banzhaf, who has won over 100 legal actions aimed at illegal discrimination.

JOHN F. BANZHAF III, B.S.E.E., J.D., Sc.D.
Professor of Public Interest Law
George Washington University Law School,
FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor,
Fellow, World Technology Network,
Founder, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
2000 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052, USA
(202) 994-7229 // (703) 527-8418
http://banzhaf.net/ @profbanzhaf