People of Culture and Refinement

Ben Major, who owned and then freed Tolbert, Austin, and their families, is a good-looking man with wavy dark hair, thick brows, and expressive eyes. In his late teens, he moves to New Orleans, where he and his brother work in a mercantile business. Slaves are one of the many commodities flowing into and out of the Crescent City. Ben is surrounded by slave markets and auction houses, and his time in the city influences his views on “the peculiar institution.” In 1819, following his brother’s death from yellow fever, Ben returns to Kentucky and marries Lucy Davenport. The couple settles in Christian County, Kentucky, where nearly half the population is enslaved. Supported by slave labor, the couple builds a home and farm, and starts a family.

Organized Action Colorized White Radio in the Crescent City

Black voices on radio provided community building opportunities for African Americans. As such, blacks created an alternative public sphere which allowed them to engage in discourse that unifies people into a collective. The Urban League on the national and local levels aided community building by organizing its members to approach radio station managers beginning in 1941. The organization's directives led to the establishment of the “Negro Forum,” an Afrocentric talk show that integrated the airways in New Orleans in 1946. WNOE station owner James Noe provided O. C. W. Taylor 15 minutes of free airtime on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. Noe's decision to accept the “Religious Forum” was also influenced by his interest in gaining Federal Communications Commission approval to change his position on the dial and increase the station's broadcast power from 250 watts to 50,000 watts.