Quaker Studies

Volume 10 | Issue 1 Article 6

2006 Broadcasting Truth to Power:The American Friends Service Committee and the Early Southern Civil Rights Movement Brian Ward University of Florida, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Ward, Brian (2006) "Broadcasting Truth to Power:The American Friends Service Committee and the Early Southern Civil Rights Movement," Quaker Studies: Vol. 10: Iss. 1, Article 6. Available at: http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/quakerstudies/vol10/iss1/6

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Quaker Studies by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 86 QUAKER STUDIES QUAKERST UDIES 10/1 (2005) [87-108) ISSN 1363-013X 49. The Friend 91,16 (21 April 1933), p. 324; it is possible that 1917 is a typographical error. 50. It is not clear who advised him; it may have been an officer at the court martial. 51. Foucault, M., Discipline and Punishment: 71ze Birth cf the Prison, New York: Vintage Books, 1979 (French edn 1975); Lewis, G.K., Elizabeth Fry, London: Headley Brothers, 1909; Ignatieff, M., A just Measu re cfPa in: The Penitentiary in the Industrial Revolution, 17 5G-1850, New York: Pantheon Books, 1978; Rose, J., Elizabeth Fry, London: Macmillan, 1980. 52. The Friend 91,16 (21 April 1933), pp. 324; 57, 20 (18 May 1917), p. 382; see also Pioneers cf Good J!Vi'/1, p. 4. He may have borrowed some of his tem1inology from P.B. (Percy Bartlett?). BROADCASTING TRUTH TO POWER: News Sheet 53. (25 December 1916), p. 5; cf 25 October 1916, p. 3; 1 May 1917, p. 10. See THE AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE AND THE also Graham, Conscription and Conscience, p. 90. 54. United Church Archives, R.ichard Roberts archive, file 39, 19 September 1916. EARLY SOUTHERN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT 55. FOR 456; 5/3; 19 June 1917. 56. For the Home Office scheme, see Rae, Conscience and Politics, Chapter 8; Graham, Conscrip­ tion and Conscience, Chapter 7; Kennedy, TI1e Hound cfCons cience, Chapter 8. Many NCF members Brian Ward rejected the scheme. Beck's complaint was not unique; many COs who accepted the scheme complained about it; see Ed Beck to C.J. Cadoux, letter dated 25 April 1917. Cadoux' archives are University of Florida, USA in the Bodleian Library, Oxford: Box 9. See also FOR 456; 5/3; letter of 10 January 1917 to Bertrand Russell, then acting NCF chairman. 57. James, S.B., The Adventures of a Spiritual Tramp, London: Longmans, 1925, p. 106. ABSTRACT 58. The Friend 57, 23 (8 June 1917), p. 465; 24 (1 5 June 1917), p. 480. 59. CAB 24/24/1833. He referred to Sparkes' industrial relations work. See Rae, Conscience and This article addresses two gaps in the historical literature on the modern civil rights movement. Politics, p. 210 n. 2; for the release and the politics, see pp. 208-25. First, it highlights the contributions of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) to the 60. The Friend 59, 9 (28 February 1919), p. 128. According to Graham, Sparkes was released struggle for racial justice in the South. Second, it reveals the importance of radio broadcasting in early 'because the King happened to ask who was the author of the Whitley Councils scheme' helping to create a climate in which southern white racial attitudes and discriminatory practices (Conscription and Conscience, p. 243). Sparkes himself compared the Whitley Councils to a ship were challenged. It demonstrates how AFSC-sponsored broadcasts reflectedQuaker principles, but without an engine. also how debates over appropriate programme content exposed the tensions between principled 61. Historians of guild socialism have rarely explained the role of Sparkes. Yet as S.T. Glass and pragmatic considerations, morality and expediency, that shaped the Movement and detem1ined wrote, 'the influence of guild ideas on the build.ingworkers had much to do with the work of the AFSC's role in it. Malcolm Sparkes, a London company d.irector'(The Responsible Society, London: Longmans, 1966, p. 54). See also Carpenter, L.P., G.D.H. Cole, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973, p. 101, and Carpenter, N., Guild Socialism, New York: D. Appleton, 1922, pp. 118-19. For the KEYWORDS troubles Sparkes encountered, see Den Boggende, 'Pacifism and Labor Relations', pp. 101-06. 62. For the influence of nineteenth century Nonconformity, see Bebbington, D.W., Tite AFSC, Quakers, radio, civil rights movement, US South Nonconformist Comcience, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1982. 63. The FOR did not maintain its all-encompassing world-and-life view Roberts propounded. During the 1920s much of it disappeared. INTRODUCTION

In recent decades, historical writing on the origins and development of the southern AUTHOR DETAILS civil rights movement has become ever more sophisticated and wide-ranging.1 The author emigrated from the Netherlands to Canada in 1967. He obtained Inevitably, however, there remain significant gaps in our understanding of the genesis graduate degrees in Art History, Christian Studies and History and completed his and structure of a social revolution that transformed the region's racial arrangements PhD in 1986, at McMaster University, Hamilton, on 'The Fellowship of Recon­ by destroying statutory segregation and ending the widespread disenfranchisement of ciliation, 1914-1945'. He has published articles about Luther and art, marriage rites, African Americans. With no claims to comprehensiveness, this article begins to nineteenth century Methodist fe male education in Ontario, twentieth century address two such gaps in the literature. First, it draws attention to the under-appreci­ Christian school education in Hamilton, and Harriet Martineau. ated contribution of the Quaker-inspired American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) to the struggle fo r racial justice in the South. Second, by examining the Mailing address: AFSC's efforts to use radio broadcasts to promote racial reconciliation, civil rights, Bert denBog gende, 77 Greenbrook Village, Brooks, AB,T1R OR8, Canada. and equality of economic and educational opportunity, it affirms the importance of E-mail: [email protected] that medium in shaping the ideological context and the range of acceptable protest strategies fo r a social movement that grew steadily during the decade after World QUAKER STUDIES 88 WARD BROADCASTING TR UTH TO POWER 89

War Two and flourished during the late 1950s. By yoking together these two AFSC fr equently alluded as it publicly pledged itself to battle racial prejudice and apparently discrete topics, it is possible to illustrate both the elusive potential and the discrimination in post-World War Two America, especially as it appeared in its most inherent limitations of commercial radio as a vehicle fo r progressive racial politics in egregious fo rms in the segregated South. 6 As a 1959 AFSC primer on Race and the South and to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the AFSC's distinctive Consdence in America summarised: approach to promoting racial justice in the South and nation. For forty years the American Friends Service Committee has labored with problems, domestic and world-wide, which stand between mankind and the achievement of THE AFSC AND RACE RELATIONS brotherhood among individuals and nations. A considerable part of our recent effort has been exerted toward replacing segregation with freedom, equality, and mutual trust. In some ways the continued lack of scholarly attention to the role of the AFSC in This has been a natural extension of the historic Quaker concem for the welfare and the civil rights movement is puzzling, since historians have long been interested in rights of persons who face prejudice and discrimination. A Quaker belief that 'there is of God in every man' requires living up to the best in one's self and respecting 'that of the religious coordinates of the southern fr eedom struggle.2 Nonetheless, the role of God' in others. 7 the AFSC in the civil rights movement and the Committee's relationship to the precepts of the Religious Society of Friends remain largely unknown. 3 Originally The AFSC, then, grounded its efforts to promote racial equality in the South deep in fo unded by Quakers in 1917 to offer conscientious objectors an alternative to mili­ the soil oflongstanding Quaker values and beliefS. Nevertheless, it is important to tary service, the AFSC quickly developed an interest in racial affairs amid its other acknowledge that the Committee's active pursuit of racial justice often placed it at commitments to peace work and humanitarian relief. In the mid- 1920s it established odds with the majority of Religious Society of Friends Meetings in the nation, an Interracial Division that was superseded in 1944 by a Race Relations Division and earning it a reputation as a rather radical, vanguard, group in Quaker circles. An then in 1950 by a Community Relations Division. Through these divisions and via a AFSC questionnaire on race relations sent to 700 Friends Meetings in 1961 only network of fo rmal and informal links with other progressive groups and individuals, elicited 250 responses, a low rate of return that the Committee fe lt indicated 'less the AFSC played an important part in the emergence of a mass movement fo r civil concernfo r race relations than one would expect fromthe Society of Friends'. While rights in the South and in the transformation of racial opinion throughout the nation the great majority ofMeet ings agreed that 'discrimination should be ended', less than that enabled the Movement to triumph over statutory discrimination in the region. half of respondents accepted the notion that 'Friends should refuse, personally and corporately, to participate in any pattern of racial discrimination and segregation'. By the mid- 1950s only one third of the Committee's five hundred-strong Only 45 per cent endorsed the legitimacy of direct action protests such as sit-ins that permanent staff members were actually members of the Religious Society of Friends. were designed to dramatise continued racial injustice, although there was greater Nonetheless, the AFSC was always in essence a practical expression of Quaker beliefs in the social arena. This dynamic was reflected in the organisational structure of the support fo r 'organizations designed to bring changes in human relations' and fo r Committee where administrative control resided with a Quaker executive secretary legislation dedicated to ending segregation. Summarizing the results of the question­ who reported directly to a wholly Quaker Board of Directors and oversaw the naire Dick Taylor of the AFSC complained that, with some notable exceptions, 'It operations of various programme committees dominated by Friends.4 Certainly, the seems more meetings rate race as a primary concern than treat it as such'. By AFSC's diverse efforts to combat racial discrimination sprang, as Chairman Henry contrast, the Committee dedicated itself to expose and destroy racial discrimination. 8 Cadbury wrote in 1956, 'from ideals that have been practiced fo r 300 years by the It is fa r beyond the scope of this article to discuss all of the Committee's many Religious Society of Friends'. At the heart of those ideals, Cadbury explained, was a intellectual, moral, practical, personnel, and financial contributions to the early belief in the equality of all human beings befo re God, a respect fo r personal dignity southerncivil rights movement in any detail. Nonetheless, it is useful to identifYfive that transcended racial, religious and national differences, and a steadfa st commitment key philosophical and programmatic aspects of its race relations work in the region. to the 'free expression of the individual conscience'. Citing Quaker William Penn's First, underpinning all of the AFSC's practical initiatives was a fa ith in the idea of aphorism that 'True godliness does not turn menout of the world, but enables them 'convincement', or persuasion through the deployment of exemplary models of racial to live betterin it, and excites their endeavors to mend it', Cadbury saw the workof reconciliation and brotherhood to inspire wider changes in racial attitudes and the eighty thousand souls who worked fo r or in collaboration with the AFSC as a practices: 'The American Friends Service Committee finds that the technique of collective effort to mend a world torn by war, want, and a lack ofbrotherly love and actually demonstrating the belief to which it wishes people to adhere, is one of the compassion. Seeking to 'prevent discord and suffering', the AFSC strove 'to inspire most effective fo rms of education'.9 Second, the AFSC was also influenced by the understanding between diverse and suspicious peoples through programs which bring Quaker belief that individuals should always act according to the dictates of their them together informally to exchange ideas'.5 own conscience and it urged people to make a personal witness of their efforts to In the nineteenth century, similar convictions had placed Quakers at the fo refront expose and redress racial injustice wherever they encountered it. Third, in program­ of antislavery activity in the United States and beyond - a lineage to which the matic terms, the AFSC sought to 'improve race relations by securing employment opportunities fo r Negroes in fields not traditionally open to them' initially in the 90 QUAKERSTUDIES WARD BROADCASTING TRUTH TO POWER 91

North, but fr om 1953 through an Employment on Merit programme administered reserved fo r whites and then worked with black candidates to prepare them fo r by the Committee's Southeastern Regional Office in High Point, North Carolina. interviews fo r such posts. Another show de scribed an 'experiment in goodwill' in Fourth, it supported and worked fo r the desegregation of southern public schools. Georgia where the AFSC ran an integrated work camp.15 Fifth, it promoted nonviolent direct action protest tactics as a means to effectpeace­ .10 These 'experiments' were portrayed as a direct challenge to segregated norms and fu l social change racist assumptions. Every integrate d AFSC project, camp, or workshop discussed on In often ambiguous and occasionally uneasy combination, these philosophical air represented an exemplary model of racial amity, 'a living de monstration of imperatives and the practical programmes they ge nerated shaped the AFSC's efforts interracial living ...which breaks down stereotypes and replaces misinformation based to broadcast the truth of racial equality and human brotherhood to the power of on lack of actual experience ... This de monstration of interracial harmony is also not racial bigotry, intolerance, and discrimination. They also defined the style and lost to the community in which such a gr oup is living and working' .16 Such inter­ content of the AFSC 's use of radio to spread a message of interracial goodwill and to racial programmes and schemes were at the heart of the AFSC's convincement stimulate local and national, individual, communal, and fe deral opposition to the seg­ doctrine, whether on or off-air. As the Committee explained in a request to the Lilly regation and disenfranchisement at the heart of the South's Jim Crow system. Foundation to help fu nd its public school integration programme in the South, 'one of the most significant activities of our project was that of bringing together in THE AFSC's EARLY RADIO INITIATIVES seminars teachers and administrative staff fromboth the Negro and white divisions of the school system'. As blacks and whites met in these settings, often fo r the first time , The AFSC made its first serious - and none-too-impressive - attempts to use radio 'it was an eye-opener' for many and a whole range of fe ars and prejudices began to to promote tolerance and reconciliation in the racial arena during the mid-1940s. melt away: 'We combined.. . representatives of the already convinced on integration, Some of this early Committee programming wa s distinctly local both in origin and the uncertain, and the opposed. For the most part the already convinced were intended audience. In November 1946, fo r example, the SoutheasternArea office in strengthene d in their convincement, the uncertain became convinced, and the High Point launched a weekly Education fo r Peace series on nearby WBIG-Greens­ opposed either became uncertain in their opposition or were willing to 'go along boro, an unusually progressive southern station with links to Bennett College for with the change" 'Y What such a seminar could to undermine racial bigotry, black women and various labor groups.11 The shows covered a typical range of mistrust, and resistance to integration fo r dozens of participants, radio could do for AFSC concerns likerelief work and nuclear disarmament, but also included discus­ tens of thousands oflisteners. sions of 'peacemaking in the local community', that addressed the question of racial Potentially, one of the most significant opportunitie s to promote the AFSC's racial prejudice and discrimination in North Carolina.12 Other early AFSC radio pro­ agenda on air came in November 1949, when the Committee's Radio Director grammes that highlighted southern racial inequalities were directed more towards George Loft arranged for Clarence Pickett to appear alongside his AFSC colleague national- and sometimes specifically northern- audiences in an effort to stir popular Erroll Elliot on an edition of CBS's popular Church ofthe Air programme . While and ultimately governmental opposition to Jim Crow. In 1947, the Committee Elliot explained the historical de velopment of Quakerism, Pickett used the past to prepared a broadcast for the long-running New World A-Coming radio series on emphasise the contemporary relevance of Friends' beliefS to those seeking a more WMCA-New York that dramatised the events of the Fellowship ofReconciliation's harmonious, just, and tolerant world. '150 years ago John Woolman, one of the most (FOR) Journey of Reconciliation through the upper South to test the region's consistent Quakers this country has produced, refused to eat meals in homes where compliance with the Supreme Court's 1946 Morgan ruling that de clared racial fo od was prepared by slaves', Pickett told his listeners. transportation unconstitutional.13 segregation in interstate He did what he could to heal the wounds of the slave but he saw the con·osive and Many AFSC broadcasts stressed the interracial nature of its own peace, housing, hardening results of slaveholding on the slaveholder. And he never rested until he had and refugee relief programmes. In the summer of 194 7, fo r example, an AFSC 'Peace done all he could to awaken in the man who profited by slave labor a willingness to Caravan' was broadcast on KRES-St Joseph, Missouri. The show fe atured whites, release his slaves. African Americans, and Hispanic Americans discussing issues ranging from the The moral fo r modern Americans was clear enough: it was every right-thinking United Nations, through disarmament, to the problems of displaced persons and the citizen's duty to shun discriminatory institutions, to condemn racial bigotry and need for interracial and intercultural dialogue and education.14 Similarly, among the injustice wherever it appeared, and to take steps to educate the bigots as to the errors ten shows produced by the AFSC fo r WFLN-Philadelphia in 1949 was one on the of their ways. Pickett concluded, 'it is safe to say, ba sed on his success, that if a small Committee's 'Applicant Preparation Programme'. Billed as an 'adventure in human percentage of the Christians ofhis day ha d fo llowed this course, there would never relations' this programme was a variant on the AFSC's Employment on Merit have been a Civil War. And the Negro minority problem might well have hardly scheme in which staff members visited business owners and managers in an effortto existed'. 18 persuade them to consider employing African Americans in jobs traditionally 92 QUAKER STUDIES WARD BROADCASTING TRUTH TO POWER 93

This kind ofappeal to individual conscience and conviction was absolutely central sustaining programmes, or simply the airing of local programmes considered by to the AFSC's approach to the 'race problem' in America. In Race and Conscience, the KYW to be of greater interest. Even more alarming to the AFSC, and indicative of Committee echoed Pickett's words about Woolma n by insisting that 'Today there KYW's increasing nervousness about the whole project, was the station's insistence are no innocent bystanders', in the quest fo r a just society. that the time immediately fo llowing a Committee broadcast should be left fr ee fo r an

The first step starts with you where you are. You are a witness -for right or wrong. instant rebuttal of anything that AFSC commentators had said. The station also You have a choice to make ... Since your daily life touches the problems of segregation, required the AFSC to submit a summary of it programme script on the Monday you must resolve to separate yourself from discrimination in your personal activities and before the scheduled Sunday broadcast so that it could be vetted fo r content.24 19 associations. On 16 February 1951 the AFSC Board's executive committee de cided that there were simply too many strings attached to the KYW deal and put the idea of a regular In 1949, however, not as many people heard this me ssage on radio as the AFSC had programme on hold while it made fu rther inquiries about broadcasting protocols and hoped. The Church ofthe Air broadcasts were usually carried by about 75 stations, possibilities. The Committee approached the Federal Communications Commission including 13 southern affiliates, but no southern stations accepted the show when to see if this degree of content control was actually legal, but the Commission upheld Pickett and Elliot appeared. This silence offered mute testimony to the AFSC's the legitimacy of KYW's rules. Desperate to find another, less demanding and less reputation as unequivocal opponents ofJim Crow and other fo rmsof racial discrimi­ timorous partner, the AFSC also talked to three other Philadelphia stations- WIP, nation. It also portende d the problems the AFSC would encounter in the 1950s as it WFIL, and WCAU. These fa cilities proved equally reluctant to associate with an sought to capitalise on radio's elusive potential to shape attitudes, discourse and organisation that wa s not only committed to attacking racial discrimination, but that practices in the racial arena.20 also advocated reconciliation with the Soviet Union and nuclear disarmament at the By its own admission, the AFSC's initial 'efforts to reach the widest American public through the me dium ofradio was restricted to informal spot programs'. 21 This height of the Cold War and anticommunist zealotry in America. On 8 March 1951, mainly involved grasping occasional guest slots fo r Committee representatives on the AFSC abandoned its hopes of finding a permanenthome fo r its programmes with established ne twork radio shows like Church of the Air and NBC's popular The any individual station.25 Deeply frustrated, it slashed its radio budget fromUS$ 1 0,000 University of Chicago's Round Table, on which the AFSC staff- including 'men and to US$2500 and reassigned Radio Director George Loft to other Committee women of color, who fe el deeply the upsurge of a new sense of dignity in colonial business. By the time of the Board's finance committee meeting in October 1951, peoples' - appeared on five successive Sundays in mid- 1950?2 The Committee's first radio was ranked last among the budgetary items up for negotiation, while Public sustained effort to rectifY this parlous and rather parasitic ad hoc relationship with Relations Director James Kavanaugh wa s compelled to admit that 'We have been network radio came during late 1950 and early 1951 when the Committee budgeted tr ying to "get off the ground" in this field for the last three years, but haven't gotten 6 US$ 10,000 fo r a six-month experiment in hiring airtime fo r weekly AFSC news very fa r'. 2 commentaries on KYW-P hiladelphia. The station wa s an NBC affiliate, although after the experience there was little optimism that these shows Church of the Air EDWIN T. RANDALL AND FRIENDLY WORLD BROADCASTING would be picked up by many of the ne twork's southern affiliates. Instead, it was intended that tapes of the broadcasts would be distributed to regional AFSC offices It was in the midst of the AFSC's gr owing disillusionment with its efforts in radio where more intimate local contacts, such as the one the High Point office had that salvation of a sort appeared in the person of Edwin T. Randall. For the best part cultivated with WBIG, might open up greater opportunities. On 2 February 1951, of a de cade, the story of the AFSC's efforts to use radio to promote civil rights was the management of KYW agreed to broadcast the shows, providing that the AFSC inextricably linked to the efforts of Randall and his 'Friendly World Broadcasting' agreed to warn the station management in advance of any potentially controversial project. Randall, son of a Methodist minister and educator, was born in Leaven­ subject matter. 23 worth, Kansas on 30 June 1896. After a lengthy period accompanying his peripatetic This proviso was merely the first of a whole series of escalating demands and fa ther around the country and a stint in the Aviation Section of the Signals Corps caveats introduced by KYWand its owners, the Westinghouse Corporation, based in during World War One, he secured a degree fr om Northwestern University, worked Washington, DC. First, KYW insisted that the show should be transferred from a for a while as a newspaper journalist and as a probation officer before embarking on a paid time slot to a fr ee public service slot. On one level this mea nt that the AFSC career in radio. Ra ndall wa s able to combine his te chnical training fr om the military would save money, since it did not need to buy airtime . On another level, however, with his strong social and religious convictions to become the national Radio it made the shows fa r more vulnerable to being dr opped or shunted around the Director of the Christian Rural Overseas Programme. He also hosted popular schedules. While KYW assured the AFSC that the shows would not be moved commercial programmes on stations in Minn eapolis-St Paul, Philadelphia , and without 'good cause' this was oflittle comfort since 'good cause' could include the Worthington, near Columbus, in 0 hio, which wa s where he wa s working in 19 50 sale of the allotted 'free' time slot to a paying customer, the scheduling of network when he approached the AFSC about making some programmes on its behalf27 94 QUAKER STUDIES WARD BROADCASTING TRUTH TO POWER 95

Ohio Quaker, George A. Patterson, advised the Committee to take seriously moderates often struggled to cope with racial changes that were developing much Randall's overtures about 'the possibility fo r radio work in publicity fo r the Service more quickly and radically than their gradualism could accommodate , Randall's brief Committee '. Patterson explained that Randall had 'developed a large listening public' radio slots fo und ever wider exposure in the South. on WFRD-Worthington and was very good at interviewing people. Moreover, he By early 1957, Randall was able to report that in the previous two years a total of vouched fo r Randall's special interest in civil rights and peace issues, noting that 77 southern stations had re quested at least one tape fromhim - and 59 had asked fo r influential Gandhian strategist and sometime AFSC worker Bayard Rustin was more than one . Moreover, while these clients included many tiny local outlets, 12 among those interviewed. 'He has considerable knowledge ofthe AFSC and what it were powerfulSO,OOO-watt stations with enormous reach. Not all ofthe tapes these has done and what it is try ing to do', Patterson continued. 'He has discussed on air southernfa cilities re quested pertained to race relations. Yet even on this most fi·aught the FOR and the F[ederal] E[employment) P[ractices) C[ommission) work of the of subjects, there was a steady increase in demand. For example, 20 stations in the 2 AFSC and [is) fe arless of controversial subjects if a principle is involved' . 8 South took Clarence Pickett's February 1956 re port fromMo ntgomery on the bus From the AFSC's perspective Randall's approach was especially timely given the boycott that had brought Martin Luther King to public notice, including three sorry state of its own efforts to use radio. Not only did it approve of Randall's Alabama stations and black-oriented WDIA in Memphis.31 In late 1958, broadcasts attachment to the nonviolent protest tactics propounded and practiced by Rustin and applauding the efforts of2000 citizens to persuade the governorof Virginia to re open FOR, but it appreciated the fa ct that costs to the AFSC would be minimal. Randall's the public school system in Norfolk - which local authorities had closed down rather productions were initially fu nded in part by a small Ford Foundation grant to the than comply with a court order to integrate - proved even more popular. 'The AFSC, but much of the money came out of his own pocket. Working on a shoe­ Norfolk tape seems to have started a kind of brush fire', Randall wrote excitedly to string budget, but driven by a fierce commitment to social justice, Randall produced Harold Fleming, executive director of the Southern Regional Council (SRC), the literally thousands of five-to-seven minute taped radio slots during the 1950s ( 419 region's leading bi-racial Liberal organisation. 32 between October 1954 and September 1955 alone) on all manner oftopics central to It is easy to detect the imprint of a distinctively Quaker attitude towards conflict the AFSC's mission, including many de voted to developments in southern race resolution and social justice on these broadcasts. This, in turn, helps to explain why relations. 29 Randall's productions managed to find a berth on southern radio even as the fo rces One ofhis earliest successes was a series of five short reports by the AFSC's Irene of white segregationist resistance were gathering strength and the policing of racial Osborne on the desegre gation of schools and other public accommodations in orthodoxy became more stringent. Amid growing militancy on both sides of the Washington, DC, which had taken place with seemingly little opposition prior to the racial divide, Randall's programmes consistently fo cused on stories of individual Supreme Court's Brown decision on school desegregation in May 1954. Osborne, redemption and community reconciliation. They threw the spotlight on calm, however, stressed the fa ct that this triumph was no overnight occurrence , but the responsible leaders, both black and white, who eschewed violence and coercion and re sult of a long, painstaking exercise in grassroots community mobilisation and favoured dialogue, education, and moralsuasion in order resolve the South's racial dialogue with the school authorities and other municipal and fe deral leaders. She crisis. Thus, in early 1956, when Clarence Pickett re ported on the Quaker mission to noted that AFSC organisers had been patiently working 'for more than a year before Montgomery to support the bus boycott, it was 'to commend re sponsible parties on the de segregation programme began'. Although they told a dramatic story, these both sides fo r avoidance of violence in the real and very serious conflict, to talk to radio shows were clearly envisaged as more than mere reportage. The programmes both sides and to discover the human values involved'. Reve alingly, Randall was at were de signed to be educational and inspirational. Offering a typically AFSC variant pains to assure those southern stations contemplating airing the Montgomery on the convincement doctrine , they were designed to show other southern broadcast that, 'It ve ry definitely does not re present the approach of a group of communities how peaceful integration could be achieved. 'We fe el that a gre at deal northerners undertaking to tell people what to do, but of a group of Christian people has been learned that might be helpful and encouraging to others fa cing the same seeking to understand a situation in which people on both sides are trying to work problems', Randall wrote in his blurb encouraging stations to consider airing the out baffiing problems in terms of the Christian way of life'_33 shows.30 In this re spect, Randall displayed great sensitivity to the mores ofthe white South Given their subject matter, it was little surprise that fe w southern stations accepted as it confronted thedese gregation crisis. His broadcasts carefully echoed a traditional the chance to broadcast Osborne's accounts of how black activism had helped to southern white emphasis on indigenous efforts to propagate interracial goodwill as secure the pre-emptory desegregation of Washington's public schools. Of the 21 the key to maintaining civic order and social ham10ny. It was because Randall's stations airing the reports, only fo ur were based in the South: WTSP-St Petersburg, messages seemed so re assuringly fa miliar and relatively moderate in the heart of a Florida; WGAP-Maryville, Tennessee; WDVA-Danville, Virginia; and KFYO-Lub­ maelstrom of protest activity and social disorder, that at least some southern broad­ bock, Texas. While this was a modest beginning, Randall was fa r fr om disheartened. casters saw fit to use them. Moreover, by stressing the moral coordinates ofthe quest Over the next fe w years, as the campaign against segregation gathered momentum, as to abolish racial discrimination, the programmes also had the capacity to prick the white Massive Resistance to that campaign hardened, and as southern white racial religious consciences of white southerners: consciences that were a potential we ak 96 QUAKER STUDIES WARD BROADCASTING TRUTH TO POWER 97 link in the white struggle to preserve Jim Crow. Ultimately, as histoi;"ian David Chappell has argued, most de vout white southerners fa iled to find in their religious perfect law', Bennett urge d the AFSC to take a more pragmatic approach and beliefs the same scriptural justification and spiritual inspiration fo r the fight to initially pursue a limited bill that would end racial discrimination in governmental maintain segregation at all costs that black southerners- and many of their white agencies and practices. 'This is', he argued, 'perhaps, the first opportunity since the allies- fo und fo r their fight to destroy it.34 30s of moving the Civil Rights Legislative story offde ad center'. Incremental pro­ gress here, Bennett fe lt, could break the logjam of congressional inaction and serve as Randall's success in gaining access to at least some southern stations had much to an exemplary model fo r comprehensive legislation in the fu ture.36 The palpable do with the way in which his broadcasts re plicated a rhetoric of moderation, home tension �n �ennett's memo between the practical de mands of politics- ge tting the rule, and interracial understanding fa miliar to many southern whites-and some of best legtslatton that was available - and the moral imperative to seek broader the region's African Americans, too. Nevertheless, there were important differences legislation that would outlaw discrimination at all levels of society, was re flected in between Randall and the AFSC and most southern-based white racial progressives many ofthe AFSC's internal debates on its approach to promoting meaningful racial who still fa voured a gradual process of racial change, the pace and trajectory ofwhich change in the South. It also animated the AFSC's debates about the appropriate was to be de termined largely by fo lks much like themselves. The AFSC may have content of Ed Randall's radio work in the late 1950s. preferred dialogue and consensus, but it was unequivocal in its public support fo r the A other fa to that dist�nguished the AFSC from mostwhite southernracial pro­ immediate end to segre gation and disenfranchisement. Moreover, unlike most white � � � gre sstve orgamsattons was tts support fo r mass black direct action campaigns to hasten southern racial progressives, the AFSC had fe w problems with the idea of using the end ofJim Crow practices providing that the de monstrators-l ike those Clarence fe deral authority to help re alise this goal. Pickett had lauded on-air from Montgomery - used nonviolence . From their While Quakers have ofte n been wary about the coercive dimensions of state inception, Ed Randall's radio programmes had fre quently promoted the righteous­ power and cautious about political - or personal- lobbying fo r many of the same ness, as well as the effective�ess, of nonviolent direct action tactics. By doing so, they philosophical re asons, the popular notion that they have been disintereste d in, or had helped to extend pubhc awareness and a good deal of popular approval fo r the somehow above, the world of politics and legislation, is misleading. In June 1943, use of radical, Gandhian, civil disobedience in the pursuit of quintessentially Ameri­ the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), with AFSC ve teran E. can de ocratic rights. In 1956, fo r example, one programme had fe atured English Raymond Wilson as its first executive secretaty, had been fo unded on the conviction J_U Gandhtan Regmald_ Reynolds; a year later James Bristol, the AFSC's dire ctor of that 'We as Friends have a re sponsibility to contribute as best we may to the shaping Peace Education, had talked about 'the meaning of non-violence as a me ans of ofwise and right legislation in those areas in which our principles and the causes we bringing about social change' drawing examples fr om Montgomery and South believe in are closely affected'. Racial justice was one such cause and among the Africa.37 FCNL's earliest campaigns were those against the poll-tax and other undemocratic One of the most attractive fe atures of nonviolent protest fo r those associated with impediments to voting rights in the South and fo r a fe de ral anti-lynching bill.35 the AFS� was its potential �or bringing about an end to racial discrimination not by In June 1955, a month afte r the Supreme Court's second Brown ruling raised compulston, but by redeemmg and converting southernwhite hearts and minds. This segregationist anxietiesby calling fo r school de segregation with 'all deliberate speed', is o e reason w�y Randall liked to fe ature southern converts, even grudging and a secret memo fr om Dick Bennett, se cretary of the AFSC's Community Relations � eqmvocal ones hke Omar Carmichael, the superintendent of schools in Louisville, Program, affirmed the importance of fe deral civil rights legislation in hastening the Kentucky. In 1957, nine southern stations, including the 50,000-watt WSB in transformation of southern race re lations. Just as the FCNL had eschewed the Atla t�, took a show fe aturing Carmichael's account of school de segregation in traditional 'political pressure methods of lobbies maintained by groups working in � Lomsvtlle. Al hough n avowed supporte r of segregation, Carmichael had re luctantly their own narrow interests' in order to 'work in the manner and spirit of Friends, : � accepted t�e mphcatwns_ of the Brown de cisions and dutifully begun the integration presenting our point of view to individual members of the House and Senate ... � of the Lomsvtlle school system, thereby providing leadership in what Randall gushed endeavoring to win the assent of reasonable minds and enlist sympathies with the was ' ne of t�e most re markable de monstrations of racial de mocracy in our history'. objectives sought', so Bennett proposed working behind the scenes to encourage ? On atr, Carmichael fre ely confessed his own surprise at the smoothness with which a reluctant congressmen and senators to support a bill 'which would fo rbid any substantial amount of school integration had already taken place and at the fa ct that Government from discriminating against people on the basis of race, creed, national black children had not been a disruptive influence in the classroom.38 With the Ku origin, etc'. He acknowledged that by fo cussing merely on discrimination by Klux Klan re surgent and the White Citizens Councils blossoming, Randall seized government agencies and fe derally fu nded entities, this kind of civil rights bill fe ll upon any such indications that beyond the ranks of diehard segregationists southern short of the comprehensive legislation being sought by the National Association fo r white racial attitudes might be thawing. In keeping with the idea of convincement, the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which would also protect against �e then conspicuously aired such stories fo r others to learn fr om and emulate. Thus, discrimination by individuals and private organisations. Nevertheless, while m June 1957, Dr Carl Hansen, the assistant superintendent of schools in Washington, applauding the NAACP fo r its de te rmination to 'settle fo r nothing less than the DC, was invited to express his own sense of wonderment at the success of the school 98 QUAKER STUDIES WARD BROADCASTING TRUTH TO POWER 99 de segre gation programme in that city, insisting that 'what has happened constitutes a 2. ' 1. Negroes, people identified with integrationist organizations like the NAACPand social n1iracle'. 39 the Southern Regional Council, 3. people connected with any presently integrated

The effectiveness of Randall's broadcasts depended chiefly on their capacity to enterprises ... 4. people who have come into prominence primarily because they have demonstrate to white southernersthe possibility of peacefulsocial change by showing expressed themselves as whole heartedly in favor of or willing to accept complete examples of where this had already happened. Randall hoped to use radio to integration, 5. people who would be identified as 'carpet baggers'. persuade the mass of white southerners to re cognise the basic humanity of African This, Sanders admitted, left a 'pretty narrow [field] in which we must look fo r Americans, the righteousness of the black struggle, and the disfiguring effects of an persons who would be useable in the South'Y immoral Jim Crow system on the lives ofboth races. However, this agenda meant Despite these limitations, Sanders still fe lt that Randall's radio slots served a useful that Randall sometimes fe atured influential southern white racial moderates who, fo r purpose by fe atming southerners like Dabbs and journalists Hodding Carter and a variety of tactical, personal, and political reasons, were still unwilling to embrace Jonathan Daniels 'who have stuck their necks out, even a little way'. He even the cause of immediate integration and fre quently rejected the legitimacy of mass provided a list ofnine themes that would re sonate with southern social and religious protest or fe de ral intervention in the racial arena. A good example was the South traditions and which might there fore pass through the mesh of radio censorship if Carolina ge ntleman-farmer and English professor James McBride Dabbs. Introduced introduced by respected white southern moderates. Acceptable theme s included by Randall as a 'dyed-in-the cotton six-generation Southerner', in the 1940s Dabbs became convinced that segre gation would have to end and joined the SRC, statements to the effect that 'The Supreme Court de cision is the law of the land and eventually becoming its president in 1957. Nonetheless, Dabbs had serious re serva­ we might as well get used to it'; that 'the de cision is in harmony not only with law tions about the wisdom of trying to effect immediate desegregation under the banner but with Christian conscience in an issue which is fu ndamentally a religious problem of the fe de ral government. Instead he maintained an unflappable belief that ordinary and which permits of only one solution in Christian te rms'; and 'that distinctions of God-fearing southerners could be persuaded, rather than compelled, to see the errors race in educational, economic, and social life, should be made as inoperative as color of segre gation and therefore to participate willingly in dismantling Jim Crow. of hair and eyes'.42 According to historian John Egerton, Dabbs' 'faith was that the rank and file of If there was nothing much to alarm any AFSC staff members in this schema, more de cent southerners were the re al majority, and his aim was to touch them ge ntly, to problematic was the fa ct that Sanders, like Randall, was also willing to fe ature guests appeal to their innate sense offair play'. In 1957, Dabbs appeared on one ofRandall's who did not actually support integration at all, providing that they would publicly productions, de nouncing the racist hotheads of the Massive Resistance movement 'deplore violence and intimidation in any fo rm against the securing by Negroes of and appealing to the mass of white southerners to obey what he saw as their better the rights which have been de clared theirs by law'. Sanders and Randall both fe lt moral instincts and extend the region's reputation fo r 'courtesy, good manners, and a that, at a time when 'even the slightest suggestion of an exception to segregation will sense of re al values' into the racial arena. 40 be inflammatory', broadcasts along these lines were still a realistic possibility and While many Quakers in the AFSC were very sympathetic to the idea that it was would offer access to southern white 'homes and hearts closed to almost any other far better to persuade, rather than coerce white southerners to accept racial integra­ approach' on the racial issue. This situation might not be ideal, but in their minds the tion, to other activists inside the Committee and beyond, Dabbs' endlessly patient choice was between re aching southern whites with radio messages that urged calm gradualism seemed woefully anachronistic in 1957. He seemed to represent a brand obedience to the law and stressed the moral obligation to pursue better race re lations, oftemporising white moderation that was increasingly viewed as part of the South's or not reaching southern whites at all . 43 racial problem, rather than a means to se curing black genuine equality anytime soon. Barbara Moffett and Alex Morisey took a rather different view of things. Both As such, his appearance on Randall's radio programme, along with appearances by fu ndamentally objected to the presence on AFSC-sponsored radio slots of anyone other whites whose progressive credentials were even more dubious, spurred a series who, in Sanders' phrase, still took 'a position short of fu ll, immediate, and outright of pointed exchanges between Randall and staff in the AFSC's Community integration'. In a lengthy memorandum to Sanders fo llowing an AFSC staff meeting Relations Division. That dialogue dramatically re ve aled the complex interplay of at Guildford College, Morisey simply stated, 'We see no valid re ason to help those pragmatism and principle in the AFSC's approach to the freedom struggle . who would admit on our programs that they do not fa vor integration even though Aside fr om Ed Randall, the key players in this debate were Olcutt Sanders, Alex they de plore violence and intimidation against Negroes'. Invoking the name ofJohn Morisey and Barbara Moffett. Sanders was greatly impressed with Randall's efforts. Kaspar, who was then making a name fo r himselfby stirring up racial violence in the Moreover, he appreciated the logistical problems Randall fa ced in trying to ge t South in an effort to prevent de segregation, he concluded that 'If we can in con­ supporters of immediate de segregation any kind of hearing on southern stations. science support the pro-segregationists then, to carry the idea to an extreme, we With this in mind, Sanders wrote to Morisey in January 1957 listing five categories would be obligated to provide a fo rum fo r John Kaspar or some equally de spicable of speakers who 'under almost any circumstances ...would not likely be ge nerally characters'. 44 acceptable' on southern radio: Morisey and Barbara Moffett both fe lt that Randall and Sanders were too pessi­ mistic in assuming that certain groups or individuals would always be 'unacceptable' 100 QUAKER STUDIES WARD BROADCASTING TRUTH TO POWER 101 on southern radio. To hold such a view, Morisey argued, was tantat:nount to Moffett recognised that the AFSC was built fo ursquare upon the principle of accepting that white southern racial attitudes might never change. 'The situation in fo llowing the dictates of conscience. This was the source of the AFSC's strength and the South is not static', he insisted, 'and those who work in the South or close to the conviction and Moffett and Morisey would not allow that to be negotiated, even if problems of the region do not grant this . If they did then they would be fo olhardly restricting its radio guests to avowed integrationists substantially reduced the to extend themselves on such a hopeless task '. Barbara Moffett conveyed similar Committee's access to the southern airways and, therefore, undermined its capacity sentiments fr om the AFSC staffwho had met at Guildford College. The fe eling there to influence the process of peaceful racial change at all. 'Must we compromise a firm was that 'Perhaps we did not need to set our sights too low and that there was real position on race relations to guarantee use of our material on southern stations?' possibility fo r getting a rather fo rthright message on some stations'. For both Morisey Moris ey asked rhetorically. 'I think there is a general agreement in the Service and Moffett, the real task confronting those involved in the AFSC's radio work was Committee that, as much as we regret it, there are certain avenues of communica­ to try to expand the range of voices deemed acceptable on the southern airways to tions not open to us because of the ideals we hold'. 49 include those who supported the immediate end ofjim Crow.45 The AFSC's staunch adherence to these ideals made it a fo rmidable ally in the Not content with urging Randall to fe ature more radical white southerners, southern fr eedom struggle. But it also threatened to make life impossible fo r Edwin Morisey and Moffett also fe lt that the broadcasts should pay more attention to the Randall and Olcutt Sanders, who complained that the Community Relations African Americans at the heart of the struggle fo r their own freedom. Morisey Division's principles on who should and should not be fe atured on AFSC-sponsored pointed out that an increasingly mobilised black community was unlikely to take radio was in danger ofbecoming 'so uncompromisingly absolutis t that they cannot kindly to having cautious southern white moderates with a penchant fo r prevarica­ encompass anyone who would really be acceptable on southern stations'. 50 Alvin tion and tokenism paraded as the best hope fo r racial justice in the region. Indeed, Gaines, a southern Quaker educator who had worked extensively in radio, wrote to Morisey contended that southern white moderates like journalists Hodding Carter the AFSC's Executive Secretary, Lewis Hoskins supporting this view. In an environ­ and jonathan Daniels, both of whom Sanders had suggested would make ideal radio ment where 'no representative of the NAACP is likely to breech the wall of reject­ spokespersons on AFSC-sponsored shows, 'may not serve our purpose, rather, they ion built up against that organization in the South', Gaines argued that Randall had may help defeat it'. Daniels, he explained, 'has taken a moderate stand but he asks little alternative but to turn to those southerners who might actually get a hearing on Negroes to 'voluntary [sic) segregate' themselves. This no self-respecting Negro can the region's airways. 'True', Gaines admitted, 'they might not reflect the finest of stomach'.46 Friends' principles', but 'they would be southern, carrying their passports in their Notwithstanding Olcutt Sanders' realistic assessment that Mrican Americans advo­ voices', and 'they would be planting doubts in the minds of the segregationalist [sic] cating integration would be unacceptable to most southern broadcasters, Morisey as to the validity and rightness of segregation, the unworthiness of the Negro, etc'. insisted that the AFSC should seek more black representatives fo r its radio shows. Such overtures, he argued, might be especially effective in reaching 'the exploited, 'One of the grave deficiencies we fa ce is the fa ct that too little opportunity has been duped, so-called poor white trash who is the backbone of the segregation fo rces' and given fo r Negroes to be heard on the subject of their own aspiration', he complained who was therefore most in need of education and enlightenment. 'Proper doubt', to Sanders. 'The major media of mass communications, controlledalmost exclusively Gaines insisted, 'can often, "like the fe ar of the Lord", be the beginning of wisdom'. by white persons, still effectively denies them this opportunity. Surely the Service Radio broadcasts by even the most prevaricating and cautious of southern white Committee can make an effort to right this wrong?' Barbara Moffett agreed. The moderates might sow such seeds of doubt in the minds of poor whites and, Gaines AFSC, she explained, considered helping the South to understand the 'aims and insisted, this was not only important, but realistically the best Randall and the AFSC methods of the NAACP ... an educational job of highest priority' and she urged could hope fo r in the present racial climate. 51 Randall and Sanders to try to get NAACP executive secretary Roy Wilkins on a By the end of 1957, the tensions between the AFSC's idealism and the practical programme to describe 'exactly what the processes are that are used by the NAACP concerns fa ced by Ed Randall had become almost intolerable. When it became and what its goals are'. She also recommended that they approach Martin Luther apparent that the Ford Foundation would not be renewing the grant fr om which the King offering him airtime to 'get his message before more people in the South', :md AFSC had subsidised Randall's work, the Committee decided to redefine its links more particularly to publicise the potential ofthe nonviolent tactics he had learnedto with the broadcaster. In October 1957, Olcutt Sanders issued a press release 'to deploy so effectively during the Montgomery bus boycottY announce a changed relation to radio programs being produced by Ed Randall'. Ultimately, Alex Morisey and Barbara Moffett's primary concern was that Sanders explained that, 'because ofAFSC financial limitations - and to give Ed the Randall's broadcasts should accord with the AFSC's best principles concerning the greater flexibility that he fe els his radio work requires - his programs will continue as pursuit of racial justice. As Moffett put it, 'our role in the South [is) that of a "stirrer his personal undertaking'. 52 The split was partial and more or less amicable. Although of conscience and advocate", not primarily that of a reconciler- at least not in the the Committee no longer fu nded Randall or participated in his programme produc­ sense of not taking a position ... Given this role it would seem that any radio etiorts tion in any direct capacity, Randall continued to accept AFSC ideas fo r programmes in the South should fo llow that general concept'.48 Although not a Quaker herself, and guests and regularly put his recording fa cilities at the Committee's disposal. 102 QUAKER STUDIES WARD BROADCASTING TRUTH TO POWER 103

Periodically, Randall would also approach the Committee fo r fu nding, although that that Randall might be able to supply, since it would 'be an effective tool in impli­ hardly made it unique. In dire financial straits after the suspension of AFSC fu nds, menting [sic] this transition with a minimum offuss'.56 Similar encomiums appeared Randall initially bankrolled his newly incorporated Friendly World Broadcasting throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. WFAI-Fayetteville, North Carolina, consid­ project fr om his own savings and a modest contribution from the Southern ered the 'interviews with James Dabbs most extraordinary and timely', and urged Conference Educational Fund (SCEF). Thereafter, his most important benefactor that, 'they should be distributed more widely' to promote peaceful racial change. and most important organisational contact until the mid-1960s was the SRC. Randall himself believed that the broadcast on the campaign to reopen Norfolk's Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, Ed Randall continued to make hun­ public schools had significantly influencedevents in nearby Richmond, explaining to dreds of short programmes each year. In terms ofthe content of his signature five-to­ the SRC's Harold Fleming that the show 'was used elsewhere, notably by WRVA, seven minute radio spots there was little change fromthe kinds of programmes about the 50,000-watt CBS station at Richmond, where, within a week after its broadcast, southern racial reconciliation that he had been making since the early 1950s. The both newspapers reversed their positions on massive resistance'. If the causal main difference was that once fr eed fr om the AFSC's exacting scrutiny Randall did connection here was less simple than Randall implied, at least he had synchronicity not need to agonise quite so much about whether his participants and subject matter on his side. 57 were unimpeachable advertisements fo r immediate desegregation. In one extreme The fa ct that cash-strapped groups like the AFSC and later SCEF and the SRC example of this new latitude, in 1961 Randall even allowed notorious segregationist endorsed and financially supported Randall's work, also indicates that these organisa­ Lester Maddox, then chairman of GUTS (Georgians Unwilling to Surrender), to tions fe lt there was some practical value in progressive radio broadcasting. Indeed, participate in an discussion with Dr Heywood Hill, an Atlanta physician and educa­ SCEF's Don Stephens could not believe that Barbara Moffett and the AFSC had ever tor deeply committed to desegregating the city, arguing that this would produce 'a withdrawn backing fo r Randall's work. 'That lady has never appreciated the impor­ fa ir and impartial presentation of the issues'. Shortly afterwards, however, Randall tant role radio can play in reaching millions of fo lk with important messages which showed where his sympathies lay. In 'A City Changes Its Mind' he proudly reported printed matter and personal contacts can never do', Stephens wrote testily to Harold ' "The Queen City of the South", has firmlydetermined to open its schools with the Fleming. 58 Fleming himself became a regular correspondent with Randall, even degree of desegregation required by law - and without violence!' Again, here was an suggesting subjects fo r Friendly World programmes. 'The work of FWB generally example intended to encourage other cities to fo llow suit with Randall explaining, has been very helpful', Fleming wrote, 'we are convinced the service makes a real somewhat prematurely, how 'the die-hard segregationists are a defeated and incon­ contribution'. 59 siderable minority, who are not likely to offer any effective resistance to the orderly process of education in Atlanta'.53 CONCLUSIONS In 1963, Randall speculated on the ways that radio shows could influence their audiences. 'People listening to a well designed radio programme somehow fe el In conclusion, there seem to be two major and interlocking lessons to be drawn from themselves not only listeners but also, in some odd way, participants. This is the the story of the AFSC's early experiments in radio. The first involves a recognition element in this gift we have fr om God which we have never really understood or that one of the most remarkable aspects of this story is that the AFSC managed to get used with more than marginal adequacy'.54 The fa ct that Randall, by this time so much news about gathering black protest, fe deral legislation and judicial rulings, already a veteran of two decades of socially engaged, religiously rooted broadcasting, and the steady erosion ofJim Crow's practices onto southern radio at all, not that it was still trying to understand the complex ways in which his broadcasts could affect listeners, says much about the difficulties of evaluating the nature and extent of the could not do more. Whites still owned all but three of the nation's radio stations in medium's power and influence. It raises the vexing question of how effective 1960, occupied virtually all the important management and sales positions in the Randall's radio work was in promoting Quaker ideas, AFSC strategies, and generally industry, and made up a vast majority of sponsors and advertisers on most outlets. Given this racial configuration of capital and executive power in radio, harnessing fu rthering the cause of racial equality in the South. Inevitably, perhaps, the evidence radio's latent potential as a tool of racial enlightenment or a vehicle of mass mobilisa­ here is fragmentary and largely anecdotal. Randall himself recognised that 'this is a tion was never an easy task. This was especially true in the South, where there were question to which there is no conclusive answer. It is all guess work'.55 grave risks of economic and terroristic reprisals fo r any broadcasters who allowed More substantively, Randall drew encouragement fromthose stations that did use challenges to the racial status quo on air. Consequently, there was always a tension his programmes and from activists engaged in the struggle. In August 1956, Joe Long, news director at WNOX-Knoxville, wrote to say that comments on the between the best hopes of reformers, who sought to use the medium to promote broadcast about the Montgomery bus boycott had 'varied', but that he was generally racial justice, and the practical and logistical limitations placed upon those hopes by the realities of the industty. Finding exposure on southern radio stations created surprised by its 'unusual acceptance in our listening area (six states) and practically all precisely this kind of dilemma fo r the AFSC in the 1950s. As Ed Randall and Olcutt comment has been fa vorable'. Long tacitly endorsed the efficacyof Randall and the Sanders appreciated, getting onto the southern airways at all sometimes meant AFSC's fa ith in convincement by welcoming any fu rther material on desegregation QUAKER STUDIES 104 WARD BROADCASTING TRUTH TO POWER 105 tempering the bold condemnations of discrimination and calls fo r integration and defined the scope, timing, and nature of the AFSC's contribution to various movements fo r social racial brotherhood to which the Committee was dedicated. Not all AFSC members justice in American and beyond. were willing to accept this compromise. The second lesson concerns the ways in which those same tensions, between the NOTES doable and the desirable, also circumscribed the AFSC's broader relationship to the burgeoning struggle fo r racial justice in the South. Indeed, while author-activist 1. For good overviews ofthis historiography see Lawson, S., 'Freedom Then, Freedom Now', Gerald Jonas was absolutely correct to assert that, 'among the principles affirmed by in Lawson, S., Civil R(f,!hts Crossroads, Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2003, pp. 3-30; the AFSC is the fu ndamental Quaker notion that there is no necessary conflict Eagles, C., 'Towards New Histories of the Civil Rights Era',Journalof Southern His tory 66, 2000, pp. 815-48. between idealism and practicality', the fa ct remains that there were fr equent tensions 2. The first serious studies of African-American protest and its most conspicuous leaders quickly between the demands of moral conviction and expediency that took time to work placed the southern black church and its ministers at the organisational, ideological, and emotional through and resolve. It was the Quaker commitment to the inviolability of individual center of the early Movement. Although subsequent scholarship has refined that picture by conscience and their confidence that consensus on all matters of social discord could highlighting more secular sources and vehicles fo r black resistance in the South - and by reminding be achieved that made the AFSC such a positive fo rce fo r racial change. Paradoxi­ us that not all black ministers or churches were supporters of or active in the Movement - the church remains close to the heart of most analyses of the early southern civil rights campaign and cally, however, those same empowering convictions could sometimes hamstring the there has been a recent slew of studies dealing with the diverse responses of individual denomi­ organisation, leaving it embroiled in lengthy, occasionally highly abstracted and nations and religiously-rooted organisations like the National Council of Churches and the Delta surprisingly fractious debates over principles and tactics. Even Jonas conceded that, Ministry to the quest fo r black fr eedom and equality. See, fo r example, Alvis, J., Rel(f?ion & Race: 'The Quaker approach to decision-making may break down entirely when opinion is SouthernPres byterians, 1946-1983, Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1994; Chappell, D.L., so evenly divided on matters of conscience that neither side can fe el comfortable A Stone ofHo pe: Prophetic Rel(qion and the Death of Jim Crow, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004; Collins, D.E., When the Churc/1 Bell Rmt}? Racist: T1zeMe thodist Church and the with a compromise'. Furthermore, he added, 'at best, the consensus process is time­ 60 Civil R(qhts Movement in Alabama, Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1998; Findlay, J.F ., Jr, consuming and exhausting'. Church People in the Strug!?le: T1zeNa tional Cormcil of Churches and the Black Freedom Mo vement, 1950- One consequence of this modus operandi was that non-Quakers associated with the 1970, New York: Oxford University Press, 1993; Newman, M., Getting R(qht With Cod: Southern AFSC often fo und themselves simultaneously impressed and frustratedby the patient Baptists and Desegr�'?ation, 1945-1995, Tuscaloosa: University ofAlabama Press, 2001; idem, Divine contemplations of their Quaker colleagues about the correct course of action, fe aring Agitators: The Delta Ministry and Civil Rights in Mississippi, Athens: University of Georgia Press, that it could often result in no, or unacceptably tardy, action on important issues. 2004; Webb, C., F('?llf Against Fear: SouthernJews and Black Civil R(qhts, Athens: University of During the 1960s, as the AFSC became even more deeply engaged in the civil rights Georgia Press, 2001. movement, this complex relationship between principle and programmatic demands, 3. While the coverage is decidedly patchy, it would be wrong to imply total neglect of the AFSC's civil rights work in the South. For example, William Chafe discusses the AFSC's general between Quakers and non-Quakers, reappeared in many fo rms. Even Barbara concern fo r desegregation and its 'Merit on Employment' programmes in his study of the Moffett seems to have reconceptualised her sense of the proper relationship between Movement in Greensboro in Civilities and Civil R('?hts: Greensboro, NC, and the Black Stru,qglefor principle and practicalities in her work as head of the Community Relations Freedom, New York: O:ll:ford University Press, 1980; Susan Lynn mentions the Committee's race Division. As Jonas summarised, by the early 1970s Moffetthad established a marked relations work as part of her study of women's social activism in the period afterWorld War Two preference fo r concrete, specific, viable programmes over 'grandiose strategical in Progressive Wo men in Conservative Times: Racial Justice, Peace and Feminism, 1945 to the 1960s, concepts or sweeping manifestoes'. In a phrase that offered an elusive but telling Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992; fo m1er AFSC staffer Connie Curry notes the blend of admiration and disapproval fo r this 'tough-minded administrator', Jonas Committee's support fo r the efforts of Mae Bertha Carter and her fa mily to desegregate Mississippi's schools in her memoir-cum-history, Silver R(�hts, Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Press, argued that if Moffett 'can be said to have an operational philosophy, it is that the 1995. quicker a dispute over social priorities and moral principles can be reduced to the 4. Jonas, G., On Doincf! Good, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971, pp. 87-88. 61 programme level, the greater the chance fo r a satisfactory resolution'. 5. Cadbury, H., The Sources of Hope: AFSC Condensed Armual Report 1956, January 1957, This, of course, was some way removed fromthe kind of principled absolutism Philadelphia: American Friends Service Committee Archives (hereafter, AFSC). that Moffett had demonstrated in her dealings with Ed Randall and his radio 6. For more on the Quakers and slavery, see Drake, T., Quakers and Slavery in America, New initiatives in the late 1950s. Ultimately, however, the challenge fo r historians of the Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1950; Hilty, H., By Land and By Sea: Quakers Cor!front Slavery and its Af termath in North Carolina, Greensboro: North Carolina Friends Historical Society, 1993; AFSC is not to become too obsessed by the urge to weigh the relative importance of Soderland, J., Quakers and Slavery: A Divided Sp irit, Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 1989. idealism and realism in assessing the Committee's work in southern race relations. 7. Race and Conscience in America: A Review Prepared fo r the American FriendsService Committee, Rather, what is needed is a more flexible approach; one that acknowledges that it Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1959, p. iii. was the simultaneity of these impulses towards principle and practicalities, the 8. 'A Summary of Race Relations Questionnaires', fo lder: Administration, Conference on complex interaction of these sometimes competing, often complimentary impera­ Race Relations, box: Community Relations: Southern Program, 1961, AFSC. tives, and the dynamic between Quaker and non-Quaker personnel, that always UAKER STUDIES 106 Q WARD BROADCASTING TR UTH TO POWER 107

9. Memo to Sydney Bailey, Non-Governmental Organizations Conference, 6 January 1955, 26. Lewis Hoskins, memo to Finance Committee, 'Recommendations of Program Evaluation folder: General, box: Community Relations Division, 1955, AFSC. Committee', 22 October 1951; John Kavanaugh, letter to Lucy G. Morgan, 17 October 1951, 10. AFSC, Race Annual Report, 1945, folder: AFSC Race Relations Relations Committee, both references, folder: Radio/Television - General, box: General Administration, 1951 : Central Committee, Annual Report tor 1945, box: Race Relations File 1944 (A-Z), 1945 (A-Z). See also, Services, Publicity Department, AFSC. Sarah Herbin, memo: 'In Retrospect to Southern Staffand Southern Programs Committee', 23 27. Edwin T. Randall, 'Who in the World is Edwin T. Randall?', n.d., reel 2, SouthernRegion August 1963, folder: High Point Employment on Merit, box: Community Relations Division, Council Papers Microfilm Collection, George M. Smathers Libra1y, University of Florida, 1963, Rights of Conscience, Southern Program; Jean Fairfax, memo to Sub-Committee on Gainesville (hereafter, SRC). Southern Programs, 8 November 1960, folder: Program Priorities, box: Community Relations 28. George A. Patterson, letter to Ray Newton of AFSC, n.d., folder: Radio/ Television - Division, 1960, all references, AFSC. There were many other dimensions of the AFSC's race General, box: General Administration, 1950: Central Services, Publicity Department, AFSC. relations work in the South that warrant further attention from scholars, not least its work to 29. 'Report on Radio and TV Activity, October 1954-September 1955', 20 October 20 1955, eradicate discrimination in housing practices, although this efforts was focused more in northern folder: Information Service, Audio Visual, Radio and Television, box: General Administration, cities during the period covered in this article. 1955: Information Service (American Section) to Publications, AFSC. 11. For more on WUIG see, Ward, B., Radio and the Stru,gglefo r Civil R(ghts in the South, 30. 'Radio Programs Available on Tape, 5 to 7 Minute Conversations, 1955-, List B', folder: Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004, pp. 78-79, 87-88, 214. Information Service, Audio Visual, Radio and Television, box: General Administration, 1955: 12. Southeastern Area News, December 1946, North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, Information Service (American Section) to Publications, AFSC. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The significance of radio to the civil rights struggle is a 31. 'Summary of Programs Requested by Southern Stations', 1957, folder: Information Service, relatively unexplored field. See Savage, B.D., Broadcasting Freedom: Radio, Wa r, and the Politics of Audio Visual, Radio and Television, box: General Administration, 1955: Information Service Race, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999; Walsh, S., 'Black-oriented Radio and (American Section) to Publications, AFSC. the Civil Rights Movement', in Ward, B., (ed.), Media, Culture, and the Modern African American 32. Edwin T. Randall, letter to Harold Fleming, 10 November 1958, reel 2, SRC. Freedom Strug'?le, Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2001, pp. 67-81; Ward, Radio and the Stru<'S.gle fo r Civil Rights. 33. 'Clarence Pickett, Visit of Quaker Team to Montgomery, Alabama', folder: Information . Services, Radio/Television Work, box: General Administration, 1956: Information Service (News 13. New Wo rld A 'Comit(l(,November 18, 1947, WMCA, Program Areas: Race Relations, Senes Releases) to InternationalAff airs Seminars of Washington (Seminar Meetings - 'Next Steps in US E, folder: FOR Projects & Co-Sponsorship Journey of Reconciliation, 1947, box: 20, Fellowship Development Programs'), AFSC. of Reconciliation Papers, Swathmore College Peace Collection. 34. Chappell, A Stone ofHop e. 14. AFSC Annual Report, 1947, p. 22, AFSC. 35. Wilson, R.E., Up hillfo r Peace, Richmond, IN: Friends United Press, 1975, pp. 15-17, 145-47 15. George Loft, memo to Henry Beerits, WFLN Broadcasts, 23 September 1949, folder: (quote on p. 16). Radio, WFLN AFSC Series, box: General Administration, 1949: Central Services, Publicity 36. FCNL Policy Statement (1943) quoted in Wilson, Up hill fo r Peace, p. 18. Dick Bennett, Department, AFSC. confidential memo 'Civil Rights Legislation', 30 June 1955, folder: Civil Liberties and Civil 16. Memo to Bailey. Rights, Non-Project, box: Community Relations, 1955: Projects, Non-Projects, Educational 17. 'Community Relations Program Request to the Lilly Endowment for Supp01t of a Program Materials for Children, AFSC. of Public School Integration in the Southeast', 10 January 1955, folder: Foundations-Lilly 37. 'Radio Programs Available on Tape - 1956 - List M: Reginald Reynolds, 5 Spots', folder: Endowment, box: Administrative Section, 1955, AFSC. Information Services, Radio/Television Work, box: General Administration, 1956: Information 18. C. Pickett, 'The Quaker Faith: It Current Significance', Radio Address on CBS's Church of Service (News Releases) to International Affairs Seminars of Washington (Seminar Meetings - the Air, 20 November 1949, folder: Radio Church of the Air Program, box: General Admini­ 'Next Steps in US Development Programs'), AFSC. 'Radio Programs Available on Tape -1957 - stration, 1949: Central Services, Publicity Department, AFSC. List A-5 to 6 Minute Spots: James Bristol', folder: Information Services, Audio Visual Aids, 19. Race and Conscience, p. 42. Radio & Television - 'Friendly World Series', box: General Administration, 1957: Information 20. See, George Loft, memo to Anne Hatifeld, 31 October 1949, and George Bliss, letter to Services to Intemational Affairs Seminars to Washington, AFSC. Dear Friend, 1 November 1949, folder: Radio Church of the Air Program, box: General Admini­ 38. 'Summary of Programs Requested by Southern Stations', 1957, folder: Information Service, stration, 1949: Central Services, Publicity Department, AFSC. The southern stations regularly Audio Visual, Radio and Television, box: General Administration, 1955: Infornution Service taking Church of the Air were: KLOU-Lake Charles, WWL-New Orleans, and KWKH-Shreveport, (American Section) to Publications, AFSC. 'Radio Programs Available on Tape - 1956 - List 0', all Louisiana; WFOY-St. Augustine and WGBS-Miami, both Florida; WGWC-Selma, Alabama; folder: Information Service, Audio Visual, Radio and Television, box: General Administration, WTOC-Savannah and WGPC-Albany, both Georgia; WKIX-Columbia, South Carolina; 1955: Inforn1ation Service (American Section) to Publications, AFSC. WWNC-Ashville, North Carolina; KROD-El Paso, Texas; WJ QS-Jackson, Mississippi, and 39. 'Radio Programs Available on Tape - 1957 List D - 5 to 6 Minutes Spots: Dr Carl WRVA- Richmond, Virginia. Hansen', folder: Information Services, Audio Visual Aids, Radio & Television - 'Friendly World 21. AFSC Annual Report, 1947, p. 21, AFSC. Series', box: General Administration, 1957: lnforn1ation Services to International Affairs Seminars 22. Pickett, C., 'AFSC on the Air', AFSC Bulletin (October 1950), p. 6, AFSC. to Washington, AFSC. 23. George Loft, memo to Clarence Pickett, 'AFSC Radio Commentator Project', 3 April 40. 'Radio Programs Available on Tape - 1957 -List D - 5 to 6 Minutes Spots': James M. 1951, folder: Radio/Television - Radio Commentator Project, box: General Administration, Dabbs, folder: Inforn1ation Services, Audio Visual Aids, Radio & Television - 'Friendly World 1951: Central Services, Publicity Depa1tment, AFSC. Series', box: General Administration, 1957: Inforn1ation Services to International Affairs Seminars 24. Loft, memo to Pickett, AFSC Bulletin (June 1951), p. 9, AFSC to Washington, AFSC. Egerton,]., Speak Now A,�ainst the Day: The Generation bifore tlteCivil R�f?hts 25. Loft, memo to Pickett, AFSC Bulletin (June 1951), p. 9, AFSC. Movement in the South, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994, p. 552. 108 QUAKER STUDIES QUAKER S' ISSN 1363· 41 . Olcutt Sanders, memo to Alex Morisey, 31 January 1957, fo lder: Information Services, Audio Visual Aids, Radio & Television - Correspondence, box: General Administration, 1957: Information Services to International Affairs Seminars of Washington, AFSC. 42. Sanders, memo to Morisey. 43. Sanders, memo to Morisey. 44. Alex Morisey, memo 'Radio Programs' to Olcutt Sanders, 8 February 1957, folder: Inforn1ation Services, Audio Visual Aids, Radio & Television - Correspondence, box: General Administration, 1957: Information Services to International Affairs Seminars ofWashinb>ton, AFSC. 45. Morisey, memo 'Radio Programs' to Sanders. 46. Morisey, memo 'Radio Programs' to Sanders. 47. Morisey, memo 'Radio Programs' to Sanders. 48. Barbara Moffett, memo 'Radio Programs' to Olcutt Sanders, 8 February 1957, fo lder: Infom1ation Services, Audio Visual Aids, Radio & Television - Correspondence, box: General PESTANA, < Administration, 1957: Infom1ation Services to InternationalAff airs Seminars ofWashington, AFSC. Cambridge t 49. Morisey, memo 'Radio Programs' to Sanders. £15.99. Rep 50. Sanders, memo to Morisey. 51. Alvin Gaines, letter to Lewis Hoskins, 4 March 1957, fo lder: Infom1ation Services, Audio Visual Aids, Radio & Television - Correspondence, box: General Administration, 1957: Pestana's 20C Information Services to International Affairs Seminars ofWashington, AFSC. summary was 52. Olcutt Sanders, 'Proposed Arrangements with Ed Randall', 2 October 1957, fo lder: interest whic; Infom1ation Services, Audio Visual Aids, Radio & Television - Correspondence, box: General The topic Administration, 1957: Inforn1ation Services to InternationalAff airs Seminars ofWashington, AFSC. but one shou 53. 'Radio Programs Available on Tape - 1961 -List W', 'Radio Programs Available on Tape - 1961 - List X', both reel 2, SRC. Pestana cc 54. E.T. Randall, 'The Exciting Story of "A Yankee in the Heart of Dixie"', n.d.; Edwin chronologica. Randall, letter to Paul Rilling, 26 September 1962, both, reel 2, SRC. Massachusew 55. 'Report on Iladio and TV Activity, October 1954-September 1955'. fr om 1656 (d 56. Joe B. Long, letter to Edwin Ilandall, 21 August 1956, fo lder: Information Services, from the Puri Iladio/TelevisionWork, box: General Administration 1956: Infom1ation Service (News Releases) to International Affairs Seminars in Washington (Seminar Meetings - 'Next Steps in US and Anne H1 Development Programs'), AFSC. context. The· 57. 'Radio Programs Available on Tape - 1959 - List 0'; Edwin Ilandall, letter to Harold The autho Fleming, 18 May 1959, both reel 2, SKC. fo r her comp 58. Don Stephens, letter to Harold Fleming, 25 November 1958, reel 2, SRC. groups, besid 59. Harold Fleming, letter to whom it may concern, n.d. [1964?], reel 2, SKC. underlines th 60. Jonas, On Doinc!i Good, pp. 86, 89. 61. Jonas, On Doinc!i Good, pp. 156-57. exterior bapti by Robert B: age, and mad AUTHOR DETAILS reader that at time. It was Brian Ward is a professor of history and Chair of the Department of History at the yielding to th University of Florida. He is the author of several books, including Just My Soul the seventee11 Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness and Race Relations, London: Uni­ reluctant tole: versity College London; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998, and Radio To have s and the Strugglefo r Civil Rights in the South, Gainesville: University Press of Florida, colonial Mass 2004. Carla Gardin: (but did not 1 Mailing address: have read it!; Brian Ward, Department of History, 025 Keene-Flint Hall, University of Florida, Working on 1 Gainesville, FL 32611, USA. E-mail: [email protected] settlers on thi