Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio, and Freedom (New Black Studies Series) - Softcover

Williams, Sonja D

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0252081390 ISBN 13: 9780252081392

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2015

Synopsis

Posthumously inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2007, Richard Durham creatively chronicled and brought to life the significant events of his times. Durham's trademark narrative style engaged listeners with fascinating characters, compelling details, and sharp images of pivotal moments in American and African American history and culture. In Word Warrior , award-winning radio producer Sonja D. Williams draws on archives and hard-to-access family records, as well as interviews with family and colleagues like Studs Terkel and Toni Morrison, to illuminate Durham's astounding career. Durham paved the way for black journalists as a dramatist and a star investigative reporter and editor for the pioneering black newspapers the Chicago Defender and Muhammed Speaks . Talented and versatile, he also created the acclaimed radio series Destination Freedom and Here Comes Tomorrow and wrote for popular radio fare like The Lone Ranger . Incredibly, his energies extended still further--to community and labor organizing, advising Chicago mayoral hopeful Harold Washington, and mentoring generations of activists. Incisive and in-depth, Word Warrior tells the story of a tireless champion of African American freedom, equality, and justice during an epoch that forever changed a nation.

About this title

Book Description:

The life of an inventive African American media writer and tireless champion of freedom, equality, and justice

From the Back Cover:

"The enigmatic life of writer and radio [dramatist] Richard Durham has, for years, cried out for probing and understanding.  Sonja D. Williams has answered the call with this fiercely smart and important book.  It is an important achievement." - Wil Haygoodauthor of The Butler: A Witness to History"Sonja Williams' exhaustively research biography of Richard Durham sheds valuable light on an inexcusably neglected historical figure.  As Williams proves, the right to tell the story is a critical part of the quest for equality and power - and those who fought for that right should be remembered with gratitude."- Jabari Asimauthor of What Obama Means...for Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Future"Durham's fierce spirit, strategic mind, and creative genius leap to life as he navigates the streets, boardrooms, and radio studios of Chicago.  Without this book, this very important story surely would have been lost."- A'Lelia Bundlesauthor of On Her Own Ground: The LIfe and Times of Madam C.J. Walker"From the Great Migration to the Black Power Movement, Richard Durham's story illuminates movements and events of momentous scope and significant."-Richard A. Courageauthor of The Muse in Bronzeville: African American Creative Expression in Chicago, 1932-1950"Williams' book does smart and invaluable work not only about Durham and his particular talents and contributions, but about the black political and cultural left in Chicago during the span of his career.-Barbara D. Savageauthor of Broadcasting Freedom: Radio, War, and the Politics of Race, 1938-1948Word Warrior is a volume in the New Black Studies Series, edited by Darlene Clark Hine and Dwight A. McBride, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0252081390
• ISBN 13: 9780252081392
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272