NYPR History Notes

WNYC Founder and Fashion Plate Grover Aloysius Whalen

Tribute to the Distinguished African-American James Weldon Johnson

"Two weeks after the funeral service, on July 14, 1938, the radio station WNYC broadcast five addresses delivered in memory of James Weldon Johnson. They were delivered by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, Col. J.E. Spingarn (brother of Arthur B. Spingarn), Ada Scott Dunbar, Walter White, and William Pickens. La Guardia described Johnson as 'a fighter for the rights of his people and the rights of all' who 'played an important part in the historic developments of his span of life.' 'James Weldon Johnson wrote Under the Bamboo Tree,' La Guardia continued, 'but he didn't lie lazily under it. He went out and worked and fought. He won respect and admiration in every field of endeavor in which he engaged.' As La Guardia observed, the struggle for citizenship and equality in his political work was tied to his art, making the art not an end in itself but one tied to 'historical developments' in America."

Source: Morrissette, Noelle, James Weldon Johnson's Modern Soundscapes, University of Iowa Press, 2013, pgs. 193-194.

The Missionary Response

"It seems too bad for you to torture yourself by listening to WQXR when you could easily get so much of the music that you like on such a station as WNEW... WQXR came into being because there is a large audience for the type of music which, you say, makes you ill.

"Perhaps you have not given "good music" and yourself a fair chance to become friends. After all it takes time to assimilate what many people call heavy music, but it is much the same to a developing music lover as moving to a large city is for a small-town person. At first he is overwhelmed by the tremendous buildings and skyscrapers, but it isn't long before he is able to accept them as part of his life. And so for the great symphonies and concertos and etc..."

Source: Excerpt from a letter by WQXR Musical Program Director Douglas A. MacKinnon to listener Kathryn Breeze of 1112 Park Avenue, NYC, July 17, 1941, Douglas MacKinnon Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

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WQXR - 'Long Reads' from WWII