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109 CHAPTER SIX Spreading the Word Each year The Advocate … sponsors a program of radio talks, school and college lectures and Negro literature public exhibits. — “Negro History Week,” the Advocate, January 23, 1932, 2 We shall continue our program in an effort to harmonize relations between the Negro and white races. To that end, we favor interracial contacts through churches, conferences, parlor-groups et al. — “A New Year,” the Advocate, January 2, 1932, 2 Radio was an increasingly popular form of entertainment and information in Oregon, and across the United States, in the 1920s. Governmental restrictions on the use of radio waves during World War I had been lifted, and David Sarnoff’s dream of a “Radio Music Box” in every home seemed destined to become reality—especially after he was promoted to general manager of RCA in 1921.1 That summer, he “made the burgeoning radio business a national institution overnight” when the company donated a “radiophone transmitter” to broadcast the Jack Dempsey-Georges Carpentier fight from New Jersey. (Dempsey won the fight. One week later, he announced that he “was unwilling to fight Jack Johnson, ‘or any other negro fighter.’”)2 More than half a million people were projected to listen to the July 2nd boxing match; that did not include the huge crowd expected to jam Times Square in New York City, where three large horns had been mounted so people could hear updates relayed from ringside.3 One year later, Westinghouse could not keep up with demand for its radio sets—the company was churning out twenty-five thousand per month in 1922—prompting the New York Times to observe that in just “twelve months,” radio had “become the most popular amusement in America” due to the variety of “programs suited to all ages and tastes.”4 For Negroes, the radio opened up a world of entertainment that often was denied them due to Jim Crow restrictions at clubs, theaters, and dance halls. Black Portlanders invited friends and visitors over for elaborate dinner-dancing parties that lasted well into the night and featured musical broadcasts.5 When the cast of The Green Pastures was in Portland, for example, Cannady let Thelma and DeNorval Unthank use her home to host “an informal reception and dancing party” for about sixty people. The A Force for Change 110 “delightful affair” began at 11 p.m and lasted until 3:30 a.m. and included music from the radio and an “impromptu program” of songs by cast members.6 Once local radio stations became affiliated with networks like the National Broadcasting Company, founded in September 1926, black families in Portland and around the nation were able to participate in milestones such as the fiftieth-anniversary celebration of Tuskegee Institute, or the first broadcast by a sitting U.S. president.7 And when the Mills Brothers made it big in the early 1930s with hits including St. Louis Blues, Cannady commented on radio’s ability to break down color barriers: “Weekly, millions of people welcome Negro artists into their homes via … the radio.”8 People could listen to the deep voice of Paul Robeson or dance to the music of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and other jazz artists— though the musicians, and the genre, remained controversial through the 1920s.9 B Listeners in the Pacific Northwest welcomed the Mount Olivet Baptist Church choir, directed by Shirley McCanns, into their homes, too. One Sunday evening in 1927, a remote feed from the church sent “Negro Folk Songs” out to listeners around the state.10 Aileen Davidson, the white clubwoman in central Oregon who had sought Cannady’s help, told Cannady how much she and some friends had enjoyed the broadcast.11 This feedback—coupled with the number of letters sent to Mount Olivet’s pastor—prompted Cannady to observe: “The program was greeted by a large and enthusiastic visible audience and a still larger invisible audience. Even before the program was well under way, telephone messages of congratulations were pouring into the KGW radio station. … Keep it up, Mt. Olivet—” she added, “it is just another means of helping to solve the race problem.”12 Cannady also was a frequent guest of KGW, which offered a variety of programs to help fill its round-the-clock format.13 She parlayed a focus on public health into a number of broadcasts during the annual observance of National Negro Health Week, established in 1915 by Tuskegee Institute President Booker T. Washington to encourage the...

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