Richard Durham: Difference between revisions

| resting_place = [[Burr Oak Cemetery]], [[Alsip, Illinois]], (cremated remains)

'''Richard ("Dick") 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)|date=March 28, 2014|publisher=[[BlackPast.org]]|access-date=November 13, 2022|archive-date=November 4, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221104042150/https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/durham-richard-1917-1984/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Richard Durham Biography|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOMoZURRqlg&list=PLlUoyloCGlWwWpbzUccApPOWYsOP4mu0Z&index=2|publisher=Old Time Radio Researchers|via=YouTube|format=audio|access-date=2022-11-13|archive-date=2022-11-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221113181524/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOMoZURRqlg&list=PLlUoyloCGlWwWpbzUccApPOWYsOP4mu0Z&index=2|url-status=live}}</ref>

HeDurham was born in [[Raymond, Mississippi|Raymond]], [[Hinds County, Mississippi]],<ref name=BlackPast /> and moved with his family to Chicago in 1921.<ref name=LOC_Video>[https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-7193/ ''Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio & Freedom''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205010104/https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-7193/ |date=2022-12-05 }} – video presentation from the [[Library of Congress]] featuring author Sonja D. Williams</ref> He attended [[Hyde Park Academy High School|Hyde Park High School]] and [[Northwestern University]].<ref>Smith, Judith E. (204). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Fxwk-GXDdnYC&pg=PA208&dq=%22richard+durham%22+%22hyde+park%22+northwestern Visions of Belonging: Family Stories, Popular Culture, and Postwar Democracy, 1940 – 1960] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230628075118/https://books.google.com/books?id=Fxwk-GXDdnYC&pg=PA208&dq=%22richard+durham%22+%22hyde+park%22+northwestern |date=2023-06-28 }}''. New York: Columbia University Press. p.&nbsp;208. {{ISBN|0231121709}}.</ref>

Beginning in 1939, Durham worked tnon the Illinois Writer's Project (part of the [[Federal Writers' Project]] – IWP).<ref name=Flow>{{cite web |last1=Williams |first1=Sonja |title=Word Warrior Richard Durham: Crusading Radio Scriptwriter |url=https://www.flowjournal.org/2015/05/word-warrior-richard-durham/ |website=Flow |publisher=Department of Radio-Television-Film, [[University of Texas at Austin]] |date=May 19, 2015 |access-date=November 12, 2023 |archive-date=March 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230328045317/https://www.flowjournal.org/2015/05/word-warrior-richard-durham/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Dolinar, Brian|title=Federal Writers' Project |date=June 28, 2016 |publisher=African American Studies |isbn=978-0190280024 |doi=10.1093/obo/9780190280024-0021 |oclc=6785186412}}</ref> In 1940 he wrote two short radio dramas entitled ''The Story of [[Winslow Homer]]''<ref>{{OCLC|77309330}}</ref> and ''The Story of [[Auguste Rodin]]''.<ref>{{OCLC|77309329}}</ref> An essay, "The philosophical basis of [[Sterling McMurrin]]", was also published.<ref>{{OCLC|367540475}}</ref>

His first radio series was ''Democracy{{snd}}USA'', sponsored by the ''Chicago Defender''.<ref name=Flow /> It aired in 1946 on Chicago's [[WBBM (AM)|WBBM]].<ref name="Ellett">{{cite web |last1=Ellett |first1=Ryan |title='Destination Freedom': 'A Garage in Gainesville' and 'Execution Awaited' (September 25; October 2, 1949) |url=https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/DestinationFreedom.pdf |publisher=Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Board |access-date=December 30, 2022 |archive-date=December 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221225407/https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/DestinationFreedom.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> The next year he started the dramatic Black [[soap opera]] radio series, ''[[Here Comes Tomorrow (radio show)|Here Comes Tomorrow]]'' on [[WYLL#WJJD|WJJD]].<ref name="Ellett"/>

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 R._M M._Howard Howard#Politics|T. R. Howard]] during Howard's [[Illinois%27s_1st_congressional_district's 1st congressional district#Election_results1958Election results1958|1958 run for Congress]].{{cncitation needed|date=November 2023}}

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=978-0252097980 |last=Williams |first=Sonja D. |date=August 30, 2015 |pages=130–145 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |via=[[Google Books]] |access-date=June 25, 2023 |archive-date=June 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230627141302/https://books.google.com/books?id=qb0-CgAAQBAJ&dq=Bird+of+the+Iron+Feather+Jonah+Rhodes&pg=PA135 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Sergio Mims, February 24, 2017, [https://shadowandact.com/amp/bird-of-an-iron-feather-televisions-first-black-soap-opera-that-was-too-hot-for-television "''Bird of an Iron Feather'' – Television's First Black Soap Opera That Was Too Hot for Television] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205003820/https://shadowandact.com/amp/bird-of-an-iron-feather-televisions-first-black-soap-opera-that-was-too-hot-for-television |date=2022-12-05 }}, ''Shadow & Act''.</ref><ref>[https://current.org/2016/06/remembering-a-public-tv-drama-that-delved-into-lives-of-black-chicagoans/ "Remembering a public TV drama that delved into lives of black Chicagoans"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221225201724/https://current.org/2016/06/remembering-a-public-tv-drama-that-delved-into-lives-of-black-chicagoans/ |date=2022-12-25 }} Sonja D. Williams, June 14, 2016, Current.org</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/bird-iron-feather|title=Bird of the Iron Feather|date=October 23, 2017|website=Television Academy Interviews|access-date=December 5, 2022|archive-date=March 24, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324002129/https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/bird-iron-feather|url-status=live}}</ref>

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 [No Title]|author=|date=March 6, 1954|work=The Chicago Defender|page=8|quote=A Lively Square Dance captures the feet and fancy of children of Chicago's Ellis Community Center... . In the photo, Mark Durham and Eleanor Newhoff pause to catch their breath. Mark is the son of Mrs. Clarice Davis Durham, director of the school.|id={{ProQuest|492884645}}}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=High Schools Are Proud of Star Seniors: Classmates Choose Star Seniors; Hyde Park|author=|date=June 19, 1966|work=The Chicago Defender|page=2, Sec.&nbsp;10|quote=Mark Durham, 17, the star senior from Hyde Park High School, is a football player who writes poetry. [...] He said he caught the 'writing bug' from his father, who is also a free-lance writer. ...|id={{ProQuest|178977830}}}}</ref>

Durham himself died on April 27, 1984, of a heart attack while on a trip to New York City.<ref name=Williams>Williams, Sonja D. (2015). ''[https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p081392 Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio, and Freedom] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221116021229/https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p081392 |date=2022-11-16 }}'' University of Illinois Press, New Black Studies Series, {{ISBN|978-0252081392}}, {{OCLC|915152208}}, {{JSTOR|10.5406/j.ctt16d68sz}}</ref>{{rp|177}} Following a memorial cemetery at A.A. Rayner and Sons mortuary, his cremated remains were interred at [[Burr Oak Cemetery]] in [[Alsip, Illinois]].<ref name=Williams/>{{rp|2–7, 178}}

* [[Carlton Moss]] – a 1930–40's1930–40s Black radio dramatist

* {{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=978-0252037696 |oclc=885228982 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8iwrdivn4dMC |doi=10.5406/illinois/9780252037696.001.0001}}

* {{cite web |last1=Ellett |first1=Ryan |title=Destination: Radio, A Look at Some of Chicago’sChicago'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 Encyclopedia– oflisted Black Radio in the United States, 1921–1955, published by McFarland Press in 2011 and available on their website www.mcfarlandpub.comabove. (Originally published in ''The Nostalgia Digest'', Winter, 2013)}}

* {{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 |JSTORjstor= 10.5406/jillistathistsoc.109.3.0252|doi=10.5406/jillistathistsoc.109.3.0252}}

[[Category:Federal Writers' Project people]]
[[Category:Historians of African Americans]]