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| death_date = {{Death date and age|1984|04|27|1917|09|06}}
| death_place = New York City, New York
| resting_place = [[Burr Oak Cemetery]], [[Alsip, Illinois]]
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| burial_place = <!-- may be used instead of resting_place and resting_place_coordinates (displays "Burial place" as label) -->
| burial_coordinates = <!-- {{coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline}} -->
| education = [[Hyde Park Academy High School|Hyde Park High School]]<br /> [[Northwestern University]]
| alma_mater =
| occupation = Writer (radio and books)
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| family =
| awards = [[Radio Hall of Fame]]<br />[[National Recording Registry]] ([[Library of Congress]])<br />[[Audie Award for Autobiography or Memoir]]
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}}
'''Richard Isadore Durham''' (September 6, 1917 – April 27, 1984) was an African-American writer and radio producer.<ref name="auto">[https://www.radiohalloffame.com/richard-durham Richard Durham] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221116032045/https://www.radiohalloffame.com/richard-durham |date=2022-11-16 }} – [[Radio Hall of Fame]]</ref><ref name=BlackPast>{{Cite web|url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/durham-richard-1917-1984/|title=Richard Durham (1917–1984)
==Early life==
==Career==
Leaving the IWP in 1942, Durham worked as a freelance writer. Two national shows, ''[[Lone Ranger|The Lone Ranger]]'' and ''[[Ma Perkins]]'', used his scripts.<ref name=Flow /> Durham wrote for ''[[New Masses]]'', the ''[[The Chicago Defender|Chicago Defender]]'', the ''[[Chicago Star]]'' and the ''[[Illinois Standard]]'' newspapers.<ref>Library of Congress: Chronicling America – [https://www.loc.gov/item/sn87062321/ The Chicago Star (Chicago, Ill.) 1946–1948] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205001819/https://www.loc.gov/item/sn87062321/ |date=2022-12-05 }}</ref><ref>Library of Congress: Chronicling America – [https://www.loc.gov/item/sn82015060/ The Illinois Standard (Chicago, Ill.) 1948–1949] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205003811/https://www.loc.gov/item/sn82015060/ |date=2022-12-05 }}</ref> At the same time he joined the [[Communist Party, USA]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pecinovsky |first1=Tony |title='Word Warrior' a good book on democratic media |journal=[[People's World]] |url=https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/word-warrior-a-good-book-on-democratic-media/ |date=December 9, 2015 |quote=Reviewing the book ''Word Warrior'' by Sonja D. Williams |access-date=November 12, 2023 |archive-date=November 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231112164658/https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/word-warrior-a-good-book-on-democratic-media/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
His first radio series was ''Democracy{{snd}}USA'',
===''Destination Freedom''===
Following his early radio writings, Durham wrote and produced the [[radio drama]] ''[[Destination Freedom]]''.<ref name="dunning">{{cite book
===Post-''Destination Freedom''===
After ''Destination Freedom'' Durham was the national program director of the [[United Packinghouse Workers of America]]. He resigned in 1958.<ref>[[Chicago Public Library]] – [https://mts.lib.uchicago.edu/collections/findingaids/index.php?eadid=MTS.durham Mapping The Stacks – Guide to the Richard Durham Papers, 1939–1999] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221117190122/https://mts.lib.uchicago.edu/collections/findingaids/index.php?eadid=MTS.durham |date=2022-11-17 }}</ref> He then was a [[press agent]] for [[T. R. M. Howard#Politics|T. R. Howard]] during Howard's [[Illinois's 1st congressional district#Election results1958|1958 run for Congress]].{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}
====''Muhammed Speaks'' editing====
In the 1960s Durham was the editor of ''[[Muhammad Speaks]]'', a [[Nation of Islam]] newspaper in Chicago.<ref>{{cite web
| last=Askia
| first=Muhammad
| author-link=Askia Muhammad
| title=Muhammad Speaks a Trailblazer in the Newspaper Industry
| publisher=A&E publishers
| date=March 14, 2001
| url
| access-date
| archive-date=16 November 2022
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221116233749/http://www.finalcall.com/national/savioursday2k/m_speaks.htm
| url-status=live
}}</ref>
===''Bird of the Iron Feather'' soap opera===
While an editor of ''Muhammed Speaks'' Durham created a [[soap opera]] for Chicago's [[WTTW]] television station. ''[[Bird of the Iron Feather]]'' was the first all-Black television soap opera, and ran for 21 episodes, three times a week starting in January 1970. The show's title came from a speech by [[Frederick Douglass]] given in 1847.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qb0-CgAAQBAJ&dq=Bird+of+the+Iron+Feather+Jonah+Rhodes&pg=PA135 |title=Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio, and Freedom |chapter=Chapter 10: Struggling to Fly |isbn=978-
===Other media===
He had a supporting role in the 1972 film ''[[Sounder (film)|Sounder]]''.<ref>[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/90934/sounder#credits ''Sounder'' credits] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221116233749/https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/90934/sounder#credits |date=2022-11-16 }} – [[Turner Classic Movies]] database</ref><ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10716987/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t11 Richard Durham] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205182415/https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10716987/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t11 |date=2022-12-05 }} – IMDb.com</ref>
He also co-wrote ''[[The Greatest: My Own Story]]'', the 1975 autobiography of [[Muhammad Ali]]. The book was adapted into a 1977 movie of [[The Greatest (1977 film)|the same name]].<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076111/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_lk ''The Greatest''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205182413/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076111/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_lk |date=2022-12-05 }} – [[IMDb]]</ref> In 1980 Ali and Durham wrote the article "Why I Must Fight" for ''[[Umoja Sasa]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ali |first1=Muhammed |last2=Durham |first2=Richard |title=Why I MustFight |journal=Umoja Sasa |date=October–November 1980 |volume=20 |pages=20–22 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43690621 |publisher=Career Communications Group |jstor=43690621 |issn=2472-0674 |oclc=6178372480 |access-date=2023-01-25 |archive-date=2023-01-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230125202256/https://www.jstor.org/stable/43690621 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Durham also wrote for the [[Federal Writers' Project|Illinois Writers Project]], ''[[Here Comes Tomorrow (radio program)|Here Comes Tomorrow]]'' ([[WYLL|WJJD/Chicago]]) and ''[[Ebony Magazine]]''.<ref name="auto"/> His own short book of poetry, ''Night Windowpanes'', was published in 1975.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Durham |first1=Richard |title=Night Windowpanes |date=1975 |publisher=Vantage Press |location=New York |oclc=28545023}}</ref>
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===Personal life===
From at least the late 1940s until his death, Durham was married to fellow Northwestern alumnus and prominent Chicago educator Clarice Davis (1919–2018), with whom he had one child, a son, Mark.<ref>{{cite web |title=Clarice Durham |url=https://www.wwdmf.org/clarice-durham |publisher=Woods, Wyatt, and Durham Foundation |access-date=20 December 2022 |archive-date=20 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221220183820/https://www.wwdmf.org/clarice-durham |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Clarice Durham (Obituary) |url=https://legacy.suntimes.com/us/obituaries/chicagosuntimes/name/clarice-durham-obituary?id=18380871 |publisher=Chicago Sun-Times |access-date=20 December 2022 |date=6 May 2018 |archive-date=20 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221220183819/https://legacy.suntimes.com/us/obituaries/chicagosuntimes/name/clarice-durham-obituary?id=18380871 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Photo Standalone 17
Durham ==See also==
* [[Golden Age of Radio]]
* [[Carlton Moss]] – a
* [[Roi Ottley]] – journalist and writer who wrote the radio series ''New World A'Coming'', broadcast by [[WMCA (AM)|WMCA]] in New York City in 1944
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===Books cited, with reviews===
* Williams, Sonja D. (2015). ''[https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p081392 Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio, and Freedom]'' University of Illinois Press, New Black Studies Series, {{ISBN|978-
** {{cite journal |last1=Pecinovsky |first1=Tony |title='Word Warrior' a good book on democratic media |journal=[[People's World]] |date=December 9, 2015 |quote=Reviewing the book ''Word Warrior'' by Sonja D. Williams}}
** {{cite journal |last1=Burroughs |first1=Todd Steven |title=Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio and Freedom |journal=American Journalism |date=March 3, 2016 |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=104–105 |doi=10.1080/08821127.2015.1134983 |s2cid=183764477 |issn=0882-1127 |oclc=6026209311}}
** {{cite journal |last1=Sheppard |first1=Josh |title=Williams, Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio, and Freedom |journal=Journal of Radio & Audio Media |date=2016 |volume=23 |page=188 |doi=10.1080/19376529.2016.1156400 |s2cid=147771885 |issn=1937-6529 |oclc=6034487340}}
** {{cite web |last1=Nelson-Strauss |first1=Brenda |title=Sonja D. Williams – Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio and Freedom |url=https://blackgrooves.org/sonja-d-williams-word-warrior-richard-durham-radio-and-freedom/ |website=blackgrooves.org |publisher=Black Grooves |access-date=12 November 2023 |date=2 February 2016}}
** {{cite web |last1=Woodford |first1=John |title=A Word Warrior for Freedom |url=https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/atc/4594.html |website=[[marxists.org]] |date=March–April 2016|access-date=12 November 2023}}
==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last1=Bogle |first1=Donald|author1-link=Donald Bogle |title=Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks|edition=4th |year=2001|orig-year=1973 (Viking) |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|isbn=978-0-8264-1267-6|oclc=53220186}}
* {{cite book |last1=Dolinar |first1=Brian |editor-first1=Brian |editor-last1=Dolinar |title=The Negro in Illinois : the WPA papers |date=2013 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |location=Urbana |isbn=978-
* {{cite book |last1=Ellett |first1=Ryan |title=Encyclopedia of Black Radio in the United States, 1921–1955 |year=2012 |publisher=McFarland & Co., Inc. |location=Jefferson, NC |isbn=978-1476693392|oclc=1369512406}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Guzman |editor1-first=Richard D. |others=[[Carolyn M. Rodgers]] (forward)|title=Black Writing From Chicago: In the World, Not of It? |date=2006 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |location=Carbondale |isbn=978-0-8093-2703-4 |pages=119–126 |chapter=Richard Durham (1917–1984)|oclc=62324506| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NYHV1P4we4UC&dq=%22Richard+Durham%22&pg=PA119|via=Google Books}}▼
* {{cite web |last1=Ellett |first1=Ryan |title=Destination: Radio, A Look at Some of Chicago's African-American Radio Pioneers, Pt. 2 |url=https://ryanellett.wordpress.com/category/here-comes-tomorrow/ |date=July 29, 2017|website=Wistful Vistas: Old Time Radio |publisher=Blog at Wordpress.com |access-date=18 November 2023 |quote=The material in this article was adapted from entries in Ryan Ellett’s book – listed above. (Originally published in ''The Nostalgia Digest'', Winter, 2013)}}
▲* {{cite book |editor1-last=Guzman |editor1-first=Richard D. |others=[[Carolyn M. Rodgers]] (forward)|title=Black Writing From Chicago: In the World, Not of It? |date=2006 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |location=Carbondale |isbn=978-
* {{cite journal |last1=Kavanaugh |first1=Brian |title=''Destination Freedom'' (1948) & Fred Pinkard & Richard Durham |journal=Old Time Radio Times |publisher=Old Time Radio Researchers Group|date=March–April 2022 |issue=119 |pages=13–16 |location=Lawrence, Kansas|url=https://otrr.org/FILES/Times_Archive_pdf/2022_02%20MarchApril.pdf}}
* {{cite web |last1=Lawrence-Sanders |first1=Ashleigh |title=History, Memory, and the Power of Black Radio |url=https://www.aaihs.org/history-memory-and-the-power-of-black-radio/ |website=Black Perspectives |publisher=African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS) |access-date=February 2, 2023 |date=March 16, 2018}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=MacDonald |editor1-first=J. Fred |editor-link=J. Fred MacDonald|title=Richard Durham's Destination Freedom |date=1989 |publisher=Praeger |location=New York |isbn=978-
* {{cite journal |last1=MacDonald |first1=J. Fred |title=Radio's Black Heritage. ''Destination Freedom'', 1948–1950 |journal=[[Phylon]] |date=March 1978|volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=66–73 |doi=10.2307/274433 |jstor=274433 |issn=0031-8906}}
* {{cite book |last1=MacDonald |first1=J. Fred |title=Don't Touch That Dial. Radio Programing in American Life (1920–1960) |year=1991|orig-year=1979|publisher=Nelson-Hall |location=Chicago |pages=327–370 |chapter=Stride Toward Freedom – Blacks in Radio Programing|isbn=978-
* {{cite journal |last1=Rocksborough-Smith |first1=Ian |title='I had gone in there thinking I was going to be a cultural worker: Richard Durham, Oscar Brown, Jr. and the United Packinghouse Workers Association in Chicago |journal=[[Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society]]|publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |location=Springfield, IL|date=Fall 2016 |volume=109 |issue=3 |pages=252–299|oclc=60620289|issn=2328-3335 |
* {{cite book |last1=Savage |first1=Barbara Dianne |title=Broadcasting Freedom: Radio, War, and the Politics of Race 1938–1948 |date=1999 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill & London |isbn=978-
* {{cite web |last1=Webb |first1=Jacqueline Gales |title=Black Radio : Telling It Like It Was, circa 1920s–1997, bulk 1991–1995 |url=https://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/findingaids/view?brand=general&docId=VAC0316 |website=Archives Online at Indiana University |publisher=Archives of African American Music and Culture (AAAMC) |access-date=November 12, 2023 |format=Repository index}}
* ''Richard Durham Papers 1939–1999'', {{OCLC|651014993}}
* ''Richard Durham's Destination Freedom : scripts from radio's Black legacy, 1948–50'' (with [[J. Fred MacDonald]]), {{ISBN|978-
* {{cite book |last1=Tracy |first1=Steven C. |title=Writers of the Black Chicago Renaissance|chapter=Richard Durham |page =185|date=2011 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |location=Urbana |isbn=978-
* {{cite book |title=Chicago Renaissance, 1932–1950 : a flowering of Afro-American culture images and documents from the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection |date=2000 |publisher=Chicago Public Library |location=Chicago |oclc=44761204 |edition=eBook}}
==External links==
* {{commons-inline}}
* {{rhof}}
* [https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/durham-richard-1917-1984/ Richard Durham (1917–1984)] at [[BlackPast.org]], (McBride, Colin. March 28, 2014)
* [https://archive.org/details/DestinationFreedom Destination Freedom programs]
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* [https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-7193/ ''Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio & Freedom''] – video presentation from the [[Library of Congress]] featuring author Sonja D. Williams
* [https://news.wttw.com/2017/10/12/word-warrior-traces-uncommon-life-chicago-writer-richard-durham ‘Word Warrior’ Traces Uncommon Life of Chicago Writer Richard Durham], Nick Blumberg, October 12, 2017, WTTW
* [https://archive.org/details/RichardDurham/page/n19/mode/2up Durham's security file] – from the [[FBI]]
* [https://coloradotints.com/the-story-of-richard-durham/ "Destination of my Own: The Story of Richard Durham"] – drama written by Mike Broemmel, starring TGKAFG, presented by TINTS – Theater in Non-Traditional Spaces (Aurora, CO), October 2022 & [https://theatrixdenver.wellattended.com/events/a-destination-of-my-own-the-story-of-richard-durham July 2023]
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:1917 in radio]]
[[Category:1984 deaths]]
[[Category:1984 in radio]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American screenwriters]]
[[Category:Activists for African-American civil rights]]
[[Category:African-American historians]]▼
[[Category:African-American journalists]]
[[Category:African-American male writers]]
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[[Category:African-American radio]]
[[Category:African-American television writers]]
[[Category:American television writers]]
[[Category:American male television writers]]
[[Category:American documentary radio programs]]
[[Category:Federal Writers' Project people]]
[[Category:Historians of African Americans]]
[[Category:Historians of the civil rights movement]]
[[Category:Hyde Park Academy High School alumni]]
[[Category:Members of the Communist Party USA]]
[[Category:Northwestern University alumni]]
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