The word "Due" read from top-down and "South" left-right, with the U shared between them. Reminiscent of a compass.

Due South

A look at Norman Lear's impact on Black American television

By Leoneda Inge,

Published December 13, 2023 at 12:25 PM EST

Leoneda Inge, donning James and Florida Evans earrings, with Duke professor Mark Anthony Neal

For more than half of the 20th century, Black actors were relegated to bit roles and side characters in American television. The Amos and Andy Show was one of few Black-led sitcoms of the 1950s.

The ‘60s weren’t much better, with only a few shows like Diahann Carroll’s Julia being one of very few notable examples.

But in the 1970s… the tide started to turn… With popular Black-led sitcoms like Sanford & Son, which debuted in 1972.

It was just the first of several Black shows that would premiere in that decade – and many, including Sanford & Son, were produced by the prolific screenwriter and T-V producer Norman Lear.

Lear died in early December at the age of 101… But his legacy lives on.

Guests

Mark Anthony Neal, an author and James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African and African American Studies at Duke University

Eric Deggans, NPR TV critic

Due South

Leoneda Inge

Leoneda Inge is the co-host of WUNC's "Due South." Leoneda has been a radio journalist for more than 30 years, spending most of her career at WUNC as the Race and Southern Culture reporter. Leoneda’s work includes stories of race, slavery, memory and monuments. She has won "Gracie" awards, an Alfred I. duPont Award and several awards from the Radio, Television, Digital News Association (RTDNA). In 2017, Leoneda was named "Journalist of Distinction" by the National Association of Black Journalists.

See stories by Leoneda Inge

Cole del Charco

Cole del Charco is an audio producer and writer based in Durham. He's made stories for public radio's All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Marketplace. Before joining Due South, he spent time as a freelance journalist, an education and daily news reporter for WUNC, and a podcast producer for WFAE in Charlotte.

See stories by Cole del Charco

Stacia Brown

Stacia L. Brown is a writer and audio storyteller who has worked in public media since 2016, when she partnered with the Association of Independents in Radio and Baltimore's WEAA 88.9 to create The Rise of Charm City, a narrative podcast that centered community oral histories. She has worked for WAMU’s daily news radio program, 1A, as well as WUNC’s The State of Things. Stacia was a producer for WUNC's award-winning series, Great Grief with Nnenna Freelon and a co-creator of the station's first children's literacy podcast, The Story Stables. She served as a senior producer for two Ten Percent Happier podcasts, Childproof and More Than a Feeling. In early 2023, she was interim executive producer for WNYC’s The Takeaway.

See stories by Stacia Brown