[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 158 (Thursday, October 18, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2185-E2186]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    WDAS-AM: A PIONEERING AFRICAN AMERICAN VOICE IN PHILADELPHIA, PA

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. CHAKA FATTAH

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 18, 2007

  Mr. FATTAH. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize and memorialize 
WDAS-AM, a pioneering radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for 
its extraordinary and historic acts of cultural, spiritual and 
political bravery. This organization has stood for the causes of 
freedom and justice in helping secure the civic and human rights of 
African Americans and deserves the recognition and thanks of this body. 
The momentous victories of the civil rights and protest movements, 
aided by WDAS, led the United States on a new path recognizing the 
human dignity of all people and sparking the modern movements for the 
rights of women, Native Americans, Hispanics and other historically 
disenfranchised people.
  Although WDAS in its historic role is effectively gone, the station's 
phenomenal impact on my hometown and our nation is a story that should 
be told. I am sharing, for the record, a letter I received from Wynne 
Alexander, a Philadelphian who is both a historian of WDAS and the 
daughter of a station co-founder. I believe her words are helpful in 
understanding this remarkable story.

       In 1951, Dr. Max M. Leon and Bob Klein undertook a 
     revolutionary endeavor, instituting one of the nation's first 
     Black Radio stations, WDAS-AM of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 
     This industry-leading broadcast facility had a galvanizing 
     social impact in our state, and in fact, across this country. 
     This was not just a radio station, it was a cultural 
     institution bringing its listeners aspects of every known 
     societal necessity from award winning news coverage, to the 
     finest musical programming, to governmental and religious 
     affairs.
       Thanks to their pioneering actions, station WDAS-AM was 
     eventually joined by other such stations. But none was ever 
     more effective in standing for justice and encouraging 
     enlightenment both locally and nationally. Because of its 
     unique position and timing,

[[Page E2186]]

     its contributions to the causes of freedom and justice make 
     WDAS-AM the premiere Black station in the history of this 
     country.
       Dr. Leon and Mr. Klein did not do this in a time of peace 
     and prosperity. It was a time of dangerous social upheaval. 
     The realities of Jim Crow America were still very much alive 
     in 1951, including racially motivated murders of social 
     progressives, lynchings, segregated schools, housing, public 
     transportation, drinking fountains, and certainly the 
     majority of White shop owners did not want Black people 
     shopping in their stores. This was the climate in which Leon 
     and Klein found themselves having to change the minds of 
     White, retail America, showing them and Madison Avenue the 
     humanity, strength and beauty of the Black community. In 
     their everyday actions, these two White men finessed, asked, 
     implored and when necessary demanded that the rest of White 
     Philadelphia and White America respect the Black community 
     the way they did. What Max Leon did in allowing his young 
     son-in-law to make this stand was an extraordinary act of 
     courage and should go down as one of the greatest leaps of 
     faith in the history of American Business.
       WDAS was the only station to stand up for the rights of 
     minority broadcasters, successfully suing Arbitron 
     Industries, proving they were racist in their listenership 
     accounting methods of America's minorities. In winning this 
     class action judgment against Arbitron, WDAS paved the way 
     for equality in the market place for all minority 
     broadcasters and with the ensuing enhanced revenues, proved 
     to all of corporate America the vitality and economic 
     strength of the Black community.
       By the mid 1950s, WDAS had established one of the first and 
     only full service broadcast news departments providing major 
     coverage of every civil rights breakthrough during a historic 
     era in our nation's history. The newsroom was packed with 
     cutting edge, highly talented journalists. WDAS was there 
     bringing first hand reporting from Brown v. the Topeka Board 
     of Education, Rosa Parks' refusal to take a back seat, the 
     Montgomery Bus Boycott, to the Little Rock, Arkansas riots, 
     the Birmingham Church Bombings, the integration of Alabama 
     University, Dr. King's marches on Washington D.C., his 
     winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the passage of the Civil 
     Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. WDAS 
     reporters and radio personalities covered every aspect, from 
     the marches in the street to the presidential signatures at 
     the White House.
       WDAS was responsible for bringing Dr. King to Philadelphia, 
     forging his alliance with NAACP president Cecil Moore, Esq. 
     WDAS then sponsored a parade down Market Street in 
     Philadelphia introducing Dr. King to the city. They also 
     commissioned buses taking Freedom Riders to the South and 
     supplied buses to take people to all of Dr. King's marches. 
     WDAS' unprecedented and innovative programming efforts are 
     also credited with keeping Philadelphia calm in the wake of 
     King's assassination. Other cities expressed their anguish in 
     violent riots. Philadelphia mourned their loss in the non-
     violent manner Dr. King always advocated.
       In a letter written one year after King's assassination, 
     King confidant and Ambassador Andrew Young said this about 
     WDAS:
       ``For the past number of years WDAS and its manager Robert 
     Klein have been of great service to Dr. King and the Southern 
     Christian Leadership Conference. They have supported us 
     editorially, financially, spiritually and with a great amount 
     of their air time. . . To our knowledge there is no station 
     in America that has worked harder, longer and with more 
     dedication for Black people than WDAS in Philadelphia.''
       Demonstrating its enormous cultural awareness and forward 
     thinking, WDAS also made a broadcast home for Malcolm X. Very 
     few, if any stations can make that claim and almost none of 
     them welcomed both Dr. King and Malcolm X, during their 
     lifetimes.
       WDAS also celebrated a resounding victory against racism 
     when it supported and partnered with Cecil Moore, Esq. in his 
     victorious effort to integrate Girard College. This move was 
     first advocated years earlier on the station's airwaves by 
     revered Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Raymond Pace 
     Alexander.
       For decades, WDAS was instrumental in leading, supporting 
     and encouraging the various consciousness-raising and 
     financial boycotts to curtail United States business 
     involvement in South Africa until that government effectively 
     fell, ending its racist policies.
       Years earlier, WDAS was also the spearhead when Rev. Dr. 
     Leon Sullivan launched his boycott against the Greyhound Bus 
     Company in Philadelphia. Together they were successful in 
     racially integrating the staff of drivers and personnel.
       Rev. Sullivan and the Zion Baptist Church were not alone. 
     From Bright Hope Baptist to the Church of the Advocate and 
     many more stops in between, the ``overground'' railroad 
     forged by WDAS performed major works of social progress in 
     partnership with the leaders of every major church in 
     Philadelphia and neighboring states as well. Their hands of 
     partnership also extended to any and all of the smaller 
     churches within that area.
       WDAS held numerous ``radiothons'' raising money to benefit 
     churches and people in need. One of the most famous of these 
     broadcasts was a House of Umoja-inspired ``life-a-thon''--a 
     gun surrender program where gang members and others brought 
     in their weapons and pledged themselves to the principles of 
     non violence.
       WDAS worked with hundreds of national and local social 
     activists among them, Dick Gregory and Father Paul Washington 
     helping to calm the city during the days after the King 
     assassination. WDAS assisted a future national leader in 
     youth awareness, Sister Falaka Fattah of the House of Umoja, 
     who was strategizing and creating revolutionary ways of 
     handling troubled young people in an extraordinary effort to 
     stop the frightening gang warfare and fatalities gripping the 
     city in 1969 and `70. Partnering with other exceptionally 
     brave, strong, predominantly female social activists, WDAS 
     News and the station's Public Affairs Departments helped 
     dramatically cut those gang death statistics through a 
     concerted effort of community outreach, special news 
     reporting and social programs.
       WDAS launched an anti-drug campaign in the early 1970s. The 
     highly vaunted ``Help A Junkie Bust A Pusher'' program helped 
     the station win one of its 13 Valley Forge Freedom Foundation 
     Medals. Those medals were joined by scores of Associated 
     Press Awards and recognition from other social, journalistic 
     and governmental organizations dedicated to amelioration. The 
     station's ``Job Hunt'' program, initiated at the height of a 
     crippling recession and the editorial excellence of Jim Klash 
     won the station the highly coveted Armstrong Award.
       WDAS was also responsible for the legendary Freedom Shows 
     where the finest Rhythm and Blues talent in the world was 
     brought into Philadelphia for the benefit of worthy civil 
     rights and social organizations. This amazing care and 
     concern was also amplified by the station's award winning 
     public affairs department.
       WDAS was also the home of one of the first Black talk shows 
     in the history of this country, the first in Philadelphia and 
     probably the first show on the East Coast: The Listening 
     Post, with Joe Rainey.
       WDAS charities raised and distributed hundreds of thousands 
     of pre-1980 dollars to thousands of people in the tri-state 
     area, year after year.
        WDAS also contributed to the enormous popularity of Rhythm 
     and Blues music and helped elevate African American R & B 
     artists. At a time when Black artists could not get their 
     records played on White radio stations, at a time when Black 
     radio talent could not get hired at White stations, at a time 
     when Black artists were being paid as little as one tenth of 
     what White artists were making, at a time when Black artists 
     could not walk through the lobbies of the clubs in which they 
     were appearing, WDAS forged an atmosphere of respect and 
     reverence, creating quality showcasing for what was destined 
     to become one of this country's greatest musical 
     contributions to the world. The list of R & B stars helped by 
     WDAS is hundreds of names long. The music history books note 
     WDAS was the first in the country to play records by Sam 
     Cooke, Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, Marvin Gaye, Buddy 
     Holly, The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder and Will Smith. WDAS also 
     created jobs and respect for Black talent in every phase of 
     broadcasting and radio production. Radio remained a very 
     segregated industry well into the 1970s. WDAS not only gave 
     opportunities to racial minorities, their staff of women on-
     the-air was equally impressive.
       So let us recognize that this outpouring of caring concern, 
     extraordinary strength, diligence and humanity brought about 
     profound social changes which benefited an entire nation. 
     This magnificent endeavor of amelioration allowed us to 
     benefit from the gifts and talents of all of our people. Let 
     this cultural institution be remembered for the beacon it 
     was, lighting the way in times of need, and in so doing, 
     inspiring similar visionary efforts for future generations to 
     come.

  I thank Ms. Alexander for sharing this story and commend the work of 
her father and all of the people involved in the laudable work done by 
WDAS-AM in Philadelphia over the years on behalf of our community, 
country and world. While there is certainly more work to be done, we 
would not have come this far without these brave and dedicated souls.

                          ____________________