Richard Isadore Durham (September 6, 1917 – April 27, 1984) was an African-American writer and radio producer.Richard Durham – Radio Hall of Fame
Early life Durham was born in Raymond, Hinds County, Mississippi, and moved with his family to Chicago in 1921.Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio & Freedom – video presentation from the Library of Congress featuring author Sonja D. Williams He attended Hyde Park High School and Northwestern University.Smith, Judith E. (204). Visions of Belonging: Family Stories, Popular Culture, and Postwar Democracy, 1940 – 1960 . New York: Columbia University Press. p. 208. .
Career Beginning in 1939, Durham worked on the Illinois Writer's Project (part of the Federal Writers' Project). In 1940 he wrote two short radio dramas entitled The Story of Winslow Homer and The Story of Auguste Rodin. An essay, "The philosophical basis of Sterling McMurrin", was also published.
Leaving the IWP in 1942, Durham worked as a freelance writer. Two national shows, The Lone Ranger and Ma Perkins, used his scripts. Durham wrote for New Masses, the Chicago Defender, the Chicago Star and the Illinois Standard newspapers.Library of Congress: Chronicling America – The Chicago Star (Chicago, Ill.) 1946–1948 Library of Congress: Chronicling America – The Illinois Standard (Chicago, Ill.) 1948–1949 At the same time he joined the Communist Party, USA.
His first radio series was DemocracyUSA, sponsored by the Chicago Defender. It aired in 1946 on Chicago's WBBM. The next year he started the dramatic Black soap opera radio series Here Comes Tomorrow on WJJD.
Destination Freedom Following his early radio writings, Durham wrote and produced the radio drama Destination Freedom. In cooperation with The Chicago Defender, he began this series over NBC Chicago outlet WMAQ in July 1948, with scripts emphasizing the progress of African-Americans from the days of slavery to the ongoing struggle for racial justice. Two episodes – "A Garage in Gainesville" and "Execution Awaited"are part of the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.
Post-Destination Freedom After Destination Freedom Durham was the national program director of the United Packinghouse Workers of America. He resigned in 1958.Chicago Public Library – Mapping The Stacks – Guide to the Richard Durham Papers, 1939–1999 He then was a press agent for T. R. Howard during Howard's 1958 run for Congress.
Muhammed Speaks editing In the 1960s Durham was the editor of Muhammad Speaks, a Nation of Islam newspaper in Chicago.
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.Sergio Mims, February 24, 2017, "Bird of an Iron Feather – Television's First Black Soap Opera That Was Too Hot for Television , Shadow & Act.Williams, Sonja D. (June 14, 2016), "Remembering a public TV drama that delved into lives of black Chicagoans" , Current.org.
Other media He had a supporting role in the 1972 film Sounder.Sounder credits – Turner Classic Movies databaseRichard Durham – IMDb.com 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 same name.The Greatest – IMDb In 1980 Ali and Durham wrote the article "Why I Must Fight" for Umoja Sasa.
Durham also wrote for the Illinois Writers Project, Here Comes Tomorrow (WJJD/Chicago) and Ebony Magazine. His own short book of poetry, Night Windowpanes, was published in 1975.
Political activity During Harold Washington's 1982 mayoral election Durham worked to improve Washington's political speeches.
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.
Durham died on April 27, 1984, of a heart attack while on a trip to New York City.Williams, Sonja D. (2015). Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio, and Freedom University of Illinois Press, New Black Studies Series, , , Following a memorial cemetery at A. A. Rayner and Sons mortuary, his cremated remains were interred at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.
See also Golden Age of Radio Carlton Moss – a 1930–40s Black radio dramatist Roi Ottley – journalist and writer who wrote the radio series New World A'Coming, broadcast by WMCA in New York City in 1944
References
Books cited, with reviews
Williams, Sonja D. (2015). Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio, and Freedom University of Illinois Press, New Black Studies Series, ,
Further reading
Richard Durham Papers 1939–1999, Richard Durham's Destination Freedom : scripts from radio's Black legacy, 1948–50 (with J. Fred MacDonald),
External links
Richard Durham (1917–1984) at BlackPast.org, (McBride, Colin. March 28, 2014) Destination Freedom programs Destination Freedom Black Radio Days Podcast, from Apple Podcasts Destination Freedom Black Radio Days, from KGNU News – Boulder Community Broadcast Association
"History, Memory, and the Power of Black Radio", by Ashleigh Lawrence-Sanders, March 16, 2018 – African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS) Mapping the Stacks – Guide to the Richard Durham Papers, 1939–1999 – Chicago Public Library Richard Durham – Radio Hall of Fame Richard Durham Papers – Chicago Public Library archives Richard Durham – KeyWiki Richard Durham Destination Freedom – Goodreads Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio & Freedom – video presentation from the Library of Congress featuring author Sonja D. Williams ‘Word Warrior’ Traces Uncommon Life of Chicago Writer Richard Durham, Nick Blumberg, October 12, 2017, WTTW Durham's security file – from the FBI "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 & July 2023 Richard Durham, 1949 at the Chicago Public Library Digital Collections