Banging on the Door

This study concerns the racial integration of radio broadcasting in the United States. It explores the federal government’s role in prohibiting station owners from discriminating against African Americans regarding employment. It argues that the federal government played a leading role in laying the foundation for Black people to enter full-time employment in broadcasting. President Lyndon B. Johnson enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC provided investigatory authority and later prosecutorial power to enforce antiracial discrimination laws. Johnson also empaneled the Kerner Commission to look at the causes of the massive urban riots in 1967. The commission concluded that mass media’s failure to hire Blacks compounded the problem. In 1969, the Federal Communications Commission announced to broadcast licensees that racial discrimination was intolerable. The study discusses additional factors leading to integration, such as the advent of television, which siphoned much of radio’s audience. Station owners then began to target programming to Black people.