Langston Hughes & WNYC Radio Series

1943: "…But even more distracting that summer was the rising tension between the races in New York, which itself reflected a nationwide unrest, garish against the backdrop of world war, as blacks and whites clashed over Jim Crow. On July 1, Fiorello La Guardia, the mayor of New York, had written to [Langston] Hughes to ask his help in developing a series of radio programs, Unity at Home-Victory Abroad, which would show 'what New York is, how it came into its present being, and why there is no reason that the peace and neighborliness that does exist, should ever be disturbed.'  The Writers' War Board also wrote Hughes in support of the mayor's campaign, seeking programs that would stress unity, 'so that there will be no danger of race riots in New York.' He agreed to help the mayor and the Board…"{p. 75}

 "…Pressed even harder now by the mayor and the Board for pacifying material, Hughes dutifully sent the authorities some songs and two brief plays—In the Service of My Country, inspired by pictures of blacks and whites working in harmony to build the Alaska-Canada highway,  and Private Jim Crow, about segregation in the armed forces. The Writers' War Board lauded the former as 'the finest job that has been done on this subject' and promptly broadcast it on September 8 on WNYC… "{p.77}

Source: The Life of Langston Hughes, Vol. 2 by Arnold Rampersad. Oxford University Press, 2002.

*The Unity At Home-Victory Abroad series aired between August 15th and September 11^th of 1943. Seven other New York radio stations took part, and we know that WNYC broadcast at least three (if not all) of the eleven programs.