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PROGRAM CANCELLED
Susan J. Douglas, Catherine Neafie Kellogg Professor of Communication Studies, The University of Michigan
Since the 1920s, radio has brought African-American music, voices, and humor into American homes. African-American culture, through radio, helped shape the tastes, cultural practices—indeed the very identities—of many white people, especially youth. Susan Douglas will review this history and argue that despite segregationist employment practices within the industry and racist depictions on the air, radio was the most desegregated of all mass media in the twentieth century. As a medium that denied sight to its audience, radio played a key role in breaking down racial barriers in the United States.
Pictured above: Dorothy Brunson, the first African American woman in the nation to own a radio station.
Also of Interest: Radio Contact: Tuning In to Politics, Technology, and Culture, an exhibition at the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, open through December 9, 2016.
Free event parking available at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.
