This is an archived page from 2021. Find out more
Destination Freedom Black Radio Days in association with the Broadway Podcast Network are partnering to distribute a new series produced by donnie l. betts, based on and honoring Richard Durham’s historical radio dramas.
The podcast will be available every other Wednesday exclusively from the Broadway Podcast Network, on the BPN App.
Find it now at BPN.FM/destinationfreedom.
Destination Freedom Black Radio Days, dramatized the lives of great figures from the African-American and other people of color communities past and present, aimed at fighting the stereotypes of them in media. It was originally written and produced by Durham, airing on WMAQ in Chicago from 1949 to 1951. The show walked a daring line between reform and revolution and was shut down by its network in 1950, as McCarthyism and anti-communism tightened its grip on American broadcasting. Using new scripts as well as drawing on archives, the new podcast Destination Freedom Black Radio Days illuminates a largely unknown, but important chapter in the history of human rights and tells how radio played its part from the very beginning.
Mr. betts “has a deep appreciation for the beauty of Mr. Durham’s research and writing skills.” This was also recognized by Durham’s induction into the National Broadcast Hall of Fame. With Black Radio Days betts continues that tradition by producing new audio dramas exploring current issues that plague the BIPOC community, such as racial injustice, gender inequities, police use of force, educational issues.
The 2021 season of Destination Freedom Black Radio Days will examine the issues facing communities of color beginning with Clinnesha Sibley’s The Cleaning Ladies and Bound by Blood directed by donnie l. betts. The blood of two great leaders binds these productions together. The Cleaning Ladies takes place in Manhattan on February 21, 1965 in the Audubon Ballroom, the day of Malcolm X’s assassination. Bound by Blood takes us to the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN, the night of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination.