By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire
Tributes continued to pour in for Joe Madison, the discuss present host, activist and philanthropist often known as “The Black Eagle.” After a prolonged bout with prostate most cancers, the favored SiriusXM host died on Feb. 1. He was 74.
Madison’s loss of life comes as America observes the beginning of Black Historical past Month. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., president and CEO of the Nationwide Newspaper Publishers Affiliation (NNPA), acknowledged, “On behalf of the Nationwide Newspaper Publishers Affiliation, representing the Black press of America, we specific our profound condolences to the household of Joe Madison. As a trailblazer and constant freedom fighter journalist and broadcaster, Joe Madison embodied the essence and braveness to talk fact to energy.”
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris additionally supplied their ideas. “Whether or not it was a starvation strike for voting rights or his advocacy for anti-lynching laws that I used to be proud to register 2022, Joe fought onerous in opposition to injustice,” Biden acknowledged. Madison aligned his platform along with his goal, Harris added. “By his decades-long profession in radio, he championed the combat for fairness and justice. Our nation is best due to his voice.”
Based on his official bio, the native of Dayton, Ohio, was an All-Convention working again at Washington College in St. Louis the place he was additionally a baritone soloist within the college choir and a disc jockey on the campus radio station. He earned his bachelor’s diploma in sociology, turning into the primary particular person in his household to graduate faculty.
At age 24, he grew to become the youngest govt director of the NAACP’s Detroit department earlier than being appointed the group’s nationwide political director and finally being elected to the Nationwide Board of Administrators the place he served for 14 years. Throughout his tenure on the NAACP, Madison led a whole lot of volunteers on a sequence of profitable voter registration marches, together with a cross-country “March for Dignity” from Los Angeles to Baltimore. The marches garnered 1000’s of signatures for an anti-apartheid invoice in Congress.
Madison’s radio profession started in 1980 at Detroit’s WXYZ. He continued his broadcast journey to WWDB in Philadelphia, WWRC and WOL in Washington, DC. The recognition of his WOL program led to syndication on the Radio One Discuss Community and its XM satellite tv for pc channel which merged with Sirius to grow to be SiriusXM in 2008. In 2023, Madison celebrated his fifteenth anniversary with SiriusXM.
In 2015, Madison set the Guinness World Document for the longest on-air broadcast, 52 hours. Through the record-breaking present, he raised greater than $250,000 for the Smithsonian Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition. 5 months later, Madison made historical past once more by broadcasting reside from Cuba and turning into the primary American radio host to take action in additional than 50 years.
In 2021, Madison went on a 73-day starvation strike to encourage passage of voting rights payments. Unbeknownst to his listeners, he was combating prostate most cancers throughout his starvation strike. When requested if he understood the hazard he was in, he replied, “I’m prepared to die.”
His bio additional famous that just a few months after his starvation strike, the Emmett Until Antilynching Act handed within the Senate with the assistance of Madison’s continued push on the radio. His efforts had been seen by many, together with the then Speaker of the Home Nancy Pelosi, who publicly thanked him for one more combat for justice.
Madison and his spouse Sharon have been married for greater than 45 years they usually presently reside in Washington, D.C. Their blended household consists of 4 youngsters, 5 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
In an announcement, Madison’s household invited followers and associates to ship condolences. “Joe devoted his life to combating for all those that are undervalued, underestimated and marginalized. On air he typically posed the query, ‘What are you going to do about it?’. Though he’s now not with us, we hope you’ll be a part of us in answering that decision by persevering with to be proactive within the combat in opposition to injustice. The outpouring of prayers and help over the previous couple of months lifted Joe’s spirits and strengthened us as a household. We proceed to ask for privateness as we collect collectively to help one another by means of this tough time.”
This text was initially printed by NNPA Newswire.
