In Black America; The 15th Annual Conference of the Howard University School of Communications

I havent Sanskrit read it yet. I'm John Hansen. Join me this week on In Black America. We focus on the 15th annual conference of the Howard University School of Communications. It is also a time for us to realize the importance of our roles as communicators in affecting change. Our roles will increase significantly in this new information gathering society. The Howard University School of Communications 15th Annual Communications Conference this week on In Black America. This is In Black America, Reflections of the Black Experience in American

Society. At this particular occasion we pause to share, to say thank you, to say congratulations to a few of those who have helped us to build this foundation for the first 15 years of our existence and who have achieved the kind of personal professional excellence within the fields of communications that helps us to set the standards for which our faculty students and alumni reach. Dr. Orlando L. Taylor, Acting Dean, School of Communications, Howard University. The annual communications conference at Howard University emerged in the early 70s in the response to the call of the National Black Communication Society, a student organization for Black American presence and perspective in communication. Under the leadership of Dean Tony Brown, the first conference was held shortly after the school opened and was hosted by the National Black Communication Society. I'm John Hanson and this

week I focus this on the 15th Annual Communications Conference of the Howard University School of Communications in Black America. A number of important things have occurred in our first 15 years. I want to take a time to award and celebrate the school's achievement in addition to the persons that we're going to award and celebrate today. We established the first film program in the nation in a historically black institution. 25% of all new minority newsroom personnel just this past year were graduates of Howard University School of Journalism, Department of Journalism. We have the nation's only graduate program in the field of audiology. We're among only five institutions that historically black institutions that have an accredited program in speech pathology and the only university in the world that offers doctoral trading in this field. We have an emerging continuing and professional

education program in all fields of communication. The guarantee that we will establish life-long learning as a commitment to alumni and communications professionals in the public. Our programs in journalism, radio, television and film are being ready for accreditation. Indeed in two weeks we will have site visitors on this campus to review what I am very optimistic about. That is the application for accreditation for all of those programs. In short then we are poised to launch to launch to Premiership in this discipline. We are proposing to the University the establishment of a Center for Communications Research which should be a catalyst for interdisciplinary research in all spheres of communications. It will be a disseminator of information to the public, to policy makers, to practitioners, to academicians, to researchers. We

intend to publish the proceedings of this conference and all subsequent conferences each year at Howard University. We are in the process of considering the establishment of a journal of communications which will address the critical issues in communications as they affect minorities and goals in the developing nations of the third world. For the past 15 years how would university school of communications as host to what has come to be one of this nation's most important forms for students, academicians, researchers and professionals to discuss communications issues and problems affecting persons of Afro-American ancestry. This year's conference theme was entitled communications, a key to economic and political change. The Ford 8 conference consisted of workshops, seminars and job fair. The conference also featured several special events. This year's award luncheon was dedicated to

retired professor Lawrence A. Steele. Professor Steele spent 14 years of full-time service in the Department of Journalism of the Howard University School of Communications. The Howard University School of Communications Achievement Award was given to the Gillette Foundation and Gordon Parks. Gordon Parks is an author, film director, composer and self-taught photographer who joined Life Magazine's staff in 1949. Born in Forrest Scott Candace and educated in St. Paul Minnesota, Gordon Parks wrote the screenplay and produced directed and scored the film The Learning Tree in 1969. He also directed Chaff in 1971, Chaff's Big Score in 1972, The Supercop in 1973, and Led Belly in 1976. Mr. Parks has also authored four books including his latest offering entitled Shannon. The following is Gordon Parks remarks before accepting his award.

As my old friend Richard Saunders over there who Richard would you stand up one of my boyhood friends. I taught Richard all he knew. It doesn't know much but it's all right. But I'm happy to be here in the Sam Yetto. I pulled out of the Indiana University when I was with Life Magazine because I was going south and I need a reporter and he was still in school so I took Sam with me and he really got me killed down there. Sam Yetto always up front always up front always up front. Well in other words I could tell you I could spend the afternoon talking about Sam Yetto experience with me down the south. I was a northern boy really and he was gonna show me the south and he really got me killed and I wanted to also say you know I probably the wrong guy to have here to talk about communications

in an academic sense but this young lady by name of Mary Carter Williams is the most persistent individual I've ever met in my life. I told her no I can't come she says you are gonna come and get on with it and she's called me every every night and every morning and then when I got here today to meet her I was really looking forward to meeting you know Mary Carter Williams and Mary Carter Williams came to me and said to me hello I miss the Williams and left and I kept saying where is Mary Carter Williams you know I mean as somebody went and got her and brought her to me and I said wow you know I mean so well so much for the jokes I'm very happy to be here it just struck me as Dean spoke that I was I received most of my knowledge about communication right here in this

city in 1942 when I came here as a Julius Rosenwald fellow and I worked with the Farm Security Minestration there I had a chance to work with probably the most famous photographers in the history of documentary photography it was Dorothy Alang, Rostin, Walker Evans, Margaret O'Cott, Post John Vashon the greatest and I suddenly realized that these photographers were doing what I should be doing that was 1942 you must realize that Washington in 1942 was a discriminatory hellhole Roy Stracker who was the head of our group sent me up to go to the motion picture show also sent me to have a lunch at a restaurant sent me to Julius Garfinkle the by-code and of course you know what happened

these place Julius Garfinkle you know just they had a seven salesman on the floor but they were a little busy because we know elsewhere on the floor but me so I took myself a white lounge and laid forth and said when you get a salesman I will be here well the manager came up but I never got the coat I never got the fears I never got into some of the restaurants however I did get something out of that that's memorable for as I'm concerned and I went back until Stracker who was a proteger Rick for Tug Wells and Roy what happened to me today says well I know you were dumb when you walked in here now that's why I sent you out to do all these things and he had my camera he locked up and he said now go out and see the world as far as Washington's concerned because I expected to Washington DC being the seat of the president to be I had come from Minnesota I must tell you that it was going to be a wonderful liberal marvelous democratic

place you know I found different you know so Roy didn't quite know how to explain all this to me he said you know you've got to find us out for yourself you see that char woman down the hall black woman sweeping for voices why don't you go down and talk to her and he took his put his coat on and left well I went down and I talked to the char woman who'd been there for X number of years educated woman and when she told me her story which was so pathetic I ask her could I take a picture of you and she said yes you can and it has it was a picture of her I posed her in front of the American flag with a broom in this hand and a mop in this hand you've probably seen the picture because now it's becoming one of my most popular pixels when I showed it to Roy the next day says my god you're gonna get us all fired house you know you got to do it in the more subtle mantle garden this is just sort of you know you really can't

hit people in the head like this in 1942 in Washington well I thought for sure the picture was destroyed but many many years later I saw this picture to newspaper well I saw that it was that they had it in the Library of Congress so a hopped on a plane got down here as quickly as I could filts the negatives in the file made myself one now so it's all over every place you know but you know it all harps back to really motivation and I'm speaking to young people today not the old pros have been through more than I have possibly but the young people who are aspiring and want to know a little bit of what the old boy here's been through and he's been through plenty of motivation that Howard I mean Washington DC was with enough to make me want to communicate with the route side rest of the world to tell them what I thought of my conditions in

this my homeland I had been born in Kansas where it had not been too easy but I left there when I was 15 and I moved to Minnesota which is much more liberal place but then I met 35 and 40 degrees below zero and nearly froze the day that's a star to death so I had a pretty good dose of America before I got to Washington DC so I had plenty of motivation which I want to talk to you about a little bit motivation perspectives and eventually universality now I just left Paris about two months ago and the leftist jumped right on me when I got there you know it was not interviews they were they were attacks how could you in 1942 in 1945 when old blacks were being hard here or there how could you

possibly have gone to Vogue magazine and worked and life magazine those days I said in other words you're asking me if I sold out to the whites no I didn't say that I said if that's what you're asking me I'm stopping in of you right now you know oh no no sir that's not what we're asking but we're asking you we want to know you know the economic system was against you the academic situation against you I said what do you mean by that he said well you couldn't go to college I said well no I couldn't I didn't finish high school however I you know I did get 16 honorary degrees you know I found myself in a very awkward position here defending America in a sense that had kicked me in the tail all these years you know I mean suddenly here I am waving the flag you know and

that happens and I think Richard will tell you he travels to different parts of Europe and probably faces the same thing I said well he said well they must have been from all black schools I said no only one black school 15 were from white school you know including Harvard jail and and some other schools you know all yeah yeah well I don't know what what to do about you you know I will see I'll turn the Paris paper that you said that the way you accomplished some of this is because you forgot you were black I said what now you've taken that out of context I have said that and I do say this to college students when I go to a different university in college but you must understand what I mean to that that you don't carry a blacklist around on your shoulders at least that is what has helped me because when I went into

Harper's Bazaar first and I met Alexi Brodovic was then the art director he'd seen my work in the morning and I walked in the afternoon he got up looked at me and says yes what can I do for you I said you have my photographs he says you're Gordon Parks I said yes well he spoke three cigarettes walked around a table eight times and said you know I have to say to you in all honesty this is a Hurst organization and they do not hire Negroes I said thank you Mr. Brodovic give me my pictures and I walked out I walked over to Vogue magazine to Alex Lieberman and Alex says Gordon I like your pictures I don't know what it's gonna work but we're damn sure gonna try that was the difference in the two organizations right Alex Lieberman and I tried and we're still friends today and that was way back in 1941 or something before most of you were born and so that was the difference in the in the two men now the lady from Tunisia who was

interviewing me said but you know how could you say such a thing as you're forgetting your black I said you don't walk around saying that you are white right or do you but why should I walk around saying I'm a black artist you go and you say you're an artist I go and say I'm an artist and that's the way it should be I don't if I call up Hurst organization tell them I'm a black photographer they may say well fine come around in February we can use your black history month I don't want that you know I want to work every day of the year and that's what I tell you know so there we are now as far as perspective is concerned and since I could talk to you here all week my hope that my grandest hope is that I could have ten of the youngest brightest black students you know girl boy I don't care which in any field and just having with

me for a year so I can unload unload my seven three three years of experience on them and just say do let's do that do that and you know just bask in that Lori I think I could change the world this this whole nation around I really could you know and that's thank you that's my ambition to someday to get ten of the brightest black kids in the world right around me you know and talk to them every day you know even cook for them you know I would I cook for them and you know just just send them out there well you know you have to get some perspective and I and I can't my time is limited so I must well on one thing how I solved one of the greatest problems that I had when I went to Life magazine and I think was 1948 I was the only black there and that was the problem everybody had tremendous building in New York City knew me because I was black

and had a black mustache it was black then I never knew I never know anyone you know I had developed a way of saying oh hello if someone looked at me or somebody you know hello how are you you know for this hi hi hi hi you know I felt in fact very Japanesey hi but so I had I had to develop a certain skin I I left I left all my wonderful friends in Harlem had not made friends with the white shit so I was on an island all by myself I was doing story on Harlem gang leader at the same at the same time during story on fashion and getting ready they were getting ready to send me to Paris to the collections there so I was you know I was all over the place you know I didn't quite know where I was I hadn't gotten a hold of myself but finally they decided to harm me and get me all the countries soon as possible they sent me to Paris for two years you know

there I met chem you I met lots of French writers and so forth so that people who I got a different perspective Richard Wright came there then when I was living in Paris and I already I had learned from Roy Stracker right here in Washington did you see that the way that I could communicate with people at first was through the camera that it could be with the most potent weapon that I could possibly use right then and I did now when I went to Paris I was suddenly free of all the problems that one as a black man has to live through here in America and so suddenly I was composing music suddenly I was writing poetry suddenly I was writing prose suddenly I was doing things that I never dreamt that I could do and that was because my mind for the first time was free I didn't have to worry about driving with my family from France down to Khan where we had a summer house as I would have if I had driven from Minnesota to

Kansas City where we were going to sleep for the night we were welcome with open arms nobody came out and said hey glad you're here anything said hi neighbor that was it you know what I mean and my daughter told me in French that's what they said hi neighbor I didn't know you know so the whole whole thing whole world opened up for me in Europe strangely enough and I understood then what was happening so I just gathered it all in brought it back here to America I would never be an expert on the no conditions because I had been born here my parents have been born here my grandparents born here America was me I was a part of America America was part of me and I was determined to come back and fight for its rights now that's where I run into my problem because but this time is not in during the 60s I was a life magazine now life magazine needed a communicator especially with the black panthers the black Muslims Malcolm

X stokely Carmichael cleaver and all the rest and I set back you know silently sucking my thumb waiting you know I mean because they tried to avoid sending me out there me while I had done my homework I had to learn how to write in Paris I was ready I set back so finally after three years trying they came to me and said Gordon do you think you could do the black Muslims with a white reporter I said nay do you think you can do it with a black reporter I said I don't know yeah I really don't know I don't know I think it's gonna be most difficult for me even to get there myself well they said why don't you try I said I will try well Malcolm X and I got together Malcolm I had communicated with Malcolm you understand I had communicated with stokely I had communicated with cleaver I had communicated with the black panthers not

personally but through my work they knew what I stood for by that time they knew now life magazine at that particular time although I was with them eventually for 25 years did not know whether or not they could trust me out there amongst my brothers to report accurately and I don't blame them you know but that was the only thing they could do and I was determined in the behalf of all reporters who would follow me that I would walk that tight rope and I told my black brothers when I went out there stokely and Malcolm all them don't do nothing you don't want me to report baby because I'm a reporter okay I also told a life magazine no white reporter can write my story but that time life only had five writers ABC Whipple a few others I said I will have to but Gordon you never had you only have five I said I am sorry you want

these stories I'm gonna write them and that's the way they went down I could not one word would change the whole color of the story one word you know and I knew that and I knew I had to check my story out every night on a weekend before it went to press in Chicago so I had to travel with the panthers two boys were shot I book two boys were killed when I traveled with the Muslims I would Malcolm X I was stokely and a lot of funny things happen but I learned an awful lot and I realized that to be able to communicate with the world I had to first be able to communicate with the panthers then communicate with the editors life magazine and then bring it all together so I will wound up a rather what you might call a subjective objective reporter you know that's the best

way I can describe I was never called an uncle Tom by the the brother and life magazine never accused me of reporting and other than anyway I should at times they they always sent me to do assignments all over the world royalty fashions crime poverty anything but I was never said you know given a assignment simply because I but when Martin Luther King died they said garden this is yours I said I want it and thanks to that's for when I could do a better job than somebody else because I was close to the situation but all in all I learned an awful lot during that period there were lots of young promising black writers promising black filmmakers and when the struggle

sort of petered out if it has a lot of those promising young people were forgotten about we had a lot of promising young black writers a lot of promising young black filmmakers even the focusing house were hiring editors to look for them ball ones far next time was on fire and a lot of young black writers were on the horizon the medical all died they began to fire the editors forgot about all the promising young writers now I went on to Hollywood I did my thing I've done six films in Hollywood again I must tell you that I never expected to be a director in Hollywood I don't think America expected it but let me tell you how it happened I can tell you in three minutes it happened

less John Casabella says go to Hollywood with your book learning tree it's a great book don't let anybody else direct it I'm going to introduce your guy that hates my guts I hate his guts but come on out I said fine I got there Kenny Hammond says the day when do you want to do the film I said that didn't come out here to play Kenny he said when do you want to do the film I said three weeks let's start he says you got it he said you wrote the book now who do you want to write screenplay I said I don't know he writes out here he says why don't you write the screenplay I said I've never written a screenplay says what you never directed either I said okay I said you got it I went to his house that day and I he had a new piano and he said this came from England would you like to play it I said yep I have to do he said what's that I said that's the theme from the learning tree stuff I did he said why don't you do the music I said okay you know by the end that's it coming like that he says it's actually the first black director in Hollywood I think you should produce because you

gonna need some cloud I said okay fine let's go I think a really thing is trying to get rid of black directors forever to give me all that to do but I was determined that I was going to do it you know maybe if I got the best possibly I was the only amateur on set to tell you the truth so yeah a lot of things one must do when one gets into position to do it we must never ever once we get out of the pit not look back reach down and pull somebody with it because that's what it's all about Gordon Parks noted author filmmaker photographer and composer if you have a comment or would like to purchase a cassette copy of this program write us the address is in black America longhorn radio network UT Austin Austin Texas 787 12 for in black America's technical producer Walter Morgan I'm John Hanson join us next week you've been listening

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