Perseus Academic: I See Black People by Kristal Zook

The recent trend toward media consolidation has silenced the diverse voices that reached minority and marginalized audiences across the airwaves. I See Black People is the first narrative history to explore the precipitous decline of African-American owned stations, and argue why this failure affects us all.

The story begins in Detroit, 1975, with the foundation of America's first black-owned television station. We learn the little-known stories of Clara McLaughlin in East Texas, the first black woman to own a television station, and of Booker Wade in Oakland, California, who currently owns and operates one of the two last African-American controlled public television stations in the country.

These successes are contrasted against the failure of the Black Family Channel, the World African Network, and Russell Simmons's Fabulous TV. By offering insight into the breakdowns of public policy that have impeded black access to ownership over the past thirty years, Zook explores the current state of the media and questions what direction it will take in the future.

Kristal Brent Zook is a freelance journalist who lives in New York City. She is the author of Black Women's Lives: Stories of Power and Pain.

Kristal Brent Zook, Ph.D., is an associate professor of journalism at Hofstra University and an award-winning contributing writer with Essence magazine. She is the author of Color by: The Fox Network at the Revolution in Black Television and Black Women’s Lives: Stories of Power and Pain. She lives in New York City.