Launch of LDF and United Church of Christ Joint Program Against Broadcasting Employment Discrimination

    —_ 

Omfige of Commnication NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE 
‘WITED CHURCH OF CHRIST AND EDUCATION FUND 
289 Park Avenue South 10 Columbus Circle 
New York, New York 10010 New York, New York 
212 - 475-2127, Night: 914-946-0097 212 - JU 6-8397 
Rev. Everett C. Parker, Director Mr. Charles Hays 

FOR PUBLICATION AFTER 1 
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 

NEW YORK, FEB. 25:--A joint effort, unprecedented in the broadcasting in- 

dustry, to bring about fair employment practices and ethnic balance in programming by 

television and radio stations was launched today by two national organizations in- 

terested in civil rights. 

Announcement of the new program was made at a news conference conducted by 

the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Office of Communication of the 

two-million-member United Church of Christ. 

The two agencies will seek to stop unfair racial and religious discrimina- 

tion in employment practices by broadcast station licensees and to help minority 

groups get access to the airwaves. In television and radio programming, primary 

emphasis will be laid on assisting minority groups to achieve adequate news coverage 

of their views and activities, but proper presentation of minorities in entertainment 

and public affairs programs and participation in the managerial functions of stations 

also will be sought. 

Under the terms of the agreement reached by the two agencies, the Leg 

Defense Fund field staff will organize local citizen groups to observe stations and 

spot unfair practices. The Office of Communication will train the groups in monitor- 

ing techniques and teach how to conduct interviews with station managers. It also 

will help the groups to negotiate with station managements and in the preparation of 

petitions before the Federal Communications Commission, when necessary. 

Today's action came after almost three years of what was described in a 

joint statement as "shameful, almost incredible delay" by the FCC in acting to bring 

about fair employment practices in broadcasting. 

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In April, 1967, the Office of Communication, the United Church Board for 

Homeland Ministries and the denomination's Committee for Racial Justice petitioned 

the FCC for a rule requiring stations to engage in fair employment practices. Two 

years later, on June 4, 1969, the commission issued the requested rule, ordering 

that "equal opportunity in employment shall be afforded by all licensees or permit- 

tees of commercially or non-commercially operated standard, FM, television or inter- 

national boradcast stations to all qualified persons, and no person shall be dis- 

criminated against in employment because of race, color, religion or national origin.” 

To provide for enforcement, the FCC also ordered that stations regularly 

report their employment practices. However, the reporting process and the rule it~ 

self have been nullified by the commission's failure to approve the forms to be used 

for the reports. 

One effect of the joint program announced today will be the start of 

direct negotiations with stations for the immediate hiring and training of blacks 

and other minorities. Another expected result will be to place on the FCC direct 

responsibility for failure to regulate the broadcasting industry in the area of 

employment practices. 

Blacks, Orientals, American Indians and Spanish-surnamed Americans were 

declared by the FCC in its rule making as being among those minorities with which 

it is concerned. 

"The commission, when it laid down its rule after more than two years of 

inaction, declared that the nation is faced with a serious racial crisis, yet they 

have dawdled for an additional eight months without setting up a simple set of forms 

as the basis of a reporting system. This is a shameful, almost incredible delay,” 

said a joint statement by the Rev. Dr. Everett C. Parker, director of the Office of 

Communication, and Miss Jean Fairfax, director of legal information and community 

service, Legal Defense Fund, and a member of the Central Committee of the World 

Council of Churches. 

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"How long will the commission abuse our patience? Long ago the FCC 

should have proceeded from simple enforcement of a badly-needed rule on employment to 

a requirement that the industry set up an extensive recruitment and training program 

for blacks and other minorities. The responsibility for meeting the needs of the com- 

munity rests on the station licensee. He cannot meet this obligation without having 

employees from minority groups to help guide station policy and to participate in 

on-the-air programming. 

"The racial crisis is so great that private citizens and organizations 

no longer can wait for the dilatory tactics of indifferent governmental agencies to 

run their courses. We cannot hope to cover every station in every area. That is the 

FCC's responsibility. But, for the first time, our joint action will make possible 

a national effort to create a third force for fair employment in broadcasting," the 

joint statement said. 

The United Church of Christ agency already has furnished advice and legal 

counsel to citizen groups in several communities where agreements have been reached 

with stations to employ blacks, notably in Texarkana, Texas, where KTAL-TV signed a 

contract with twelve black community groups guaranteeing fair employment practices 

and insuring programming for the black community. Negotiations are now going on in 

Atlanta between stations and black organizations which are being advised by Office 

of Communication staff members and lawyers. 

The Office of Communication began its program to protect the rights of 

blacks on the air in 1964 when it asked the FCC to deny a license renewal to WIBT, 

a television station in Jackson, Miss., on grounds that it did not serve the interests 

of blacks in that area who constitute about 45 per cent of the population. When the 

FCC refused to hold a hearing on the charges and dismissed the church agency as not 

having the right to standing before it, the Office of Communication appealed to the 

U. S. Circuit Court. 

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4. 

In a landmark decision, written by Chief Justice Warren Burger, then a 

Circuit Court judge, the court granted standing to the public to intervene in FCC 

license renewal proceedings and ordered the commission to hear the charges against 

WLBT. When, after a hearing, the FCC still refused to penalize the station, the 

court revoked the WLBT license in a second landmark decision written by Justice Burge. 

Eight months after that decision, the same licensee still operates WLBT. 

The Office of Communication this month helped file a petition to ask that the station 

be turned over to a non-profit group until a permanent licensee can be designated. 

During the pendency of the WLBT litigation, the United Church of Christ 

agency has assisted citizen groups in other areas to observe stations to assure that 

minority groups are treated fairly on the air. An effort has been made to obtain 

fairness through negotiations with stations rather than through litigation. Only when 

a station refuses to consult with the citizen group is a petition filed with the FCC 

to deny renewal of its license. Such petitions are now pending against KAYE, Puyal- 

lup, Wash., and WOIC, Columbia, S. Car. 

"The broadcast ing industry must be brought to the point where it recog- 

nizes its responsiblity to the entire community, not just to its advertisers," Dr. 

Parker said in explaining why the United Church agency has devoted itself to champ- 

ioning citizen rights in broadcasting. "Blacks and other minorities are entitled to 

access to the airwaves, which they own as much as does the station licensee. In many 

parts of the country the so-called minority is really the majority, but even this 

fact does not give black people adequate access to television and radio. 

"The mass media have the power and the capacity to lead the nation into 

practicing racial equality. But their support of this cause will not have any 

effect until they show clearly that they are practicing racial equality themselves." 

HEHEHE EH 

February 24, 1970