HBCU Radio Preservation Project: John Mendez
Rev. Dr. John Mendez discusses his educational journey, growing up in Harlem, intertwining faith and activism, and his dedication to community advocacy.
Dial in to this week’s edition of the HBCU Radio Preservation Project! As a collaborator in the project, the Margaret Walker Center serves as a repository for the histories of HBCU stations and the community members who have been a part of them.
Meet Rev. Dr. John Mendez, who credits his childhood in Harlem and the Bronx as bringing him an early understanding of cultural experience and social justice. His parents made a point to emphasize the importance of education, and though he faced obstacles during his early education, Rev. Dr. Mendez achieved academic success. He graduated from Shaw University in 1972, and while in attendance there, he helped establish WSHA, the university’s radio station. In addition to radio, his other interests included psychology, and he has also long been invested in social justice movements such as labor rights and Black Power.
“Despite what happened in a lot of the movements, I never lost my zeal for social justice. I just had to find some new ways to do it.”
In addition to activism, seminary has been an important calling in his life. He sees these roles as interlinked and has been known to take his congregation to city council meetings to actively weigh in on community issues, emphasizing his belief in the church as a platform for change—even when he faces criticism for his approach. Rev. Dr. Mendez has also been active with Native American communities in helping to advocate for land and environmental justice. As for radio, he believes that HBCU stations embody platforms for community discussion, awareness, and discourse. He wishes to have a legacy of activism and compassion and encourages younger generations to take up the call to strive for positive change.
There’s much more to hear, so click on the video below!
About the Project
Each Wednesday, tune into our YouTube channel, @mwalkercenter, to catch a new oral history from the HBCU Radio Preservation Project!
We are proud to partner with several organizations for the HBCU Radio Preservation Project, which is dedicated to honoring and preserving the rich history and cultural resource of HBCU radio.
Here’s some more info from their website:
Much of the material created at these stations is at risk of being lost, though they document the rich history and diversity of the Black experience through the Civil Rights era and beyond. The goals are to preserve the stations’ audio collections and to foster a community of sustainability for the stations and institutional archives on campus.
The project provides preservation training and workshops for campus stations, archivists and community members, recruiting HBCU graduates as interns and fellows.
Field archivists will collaborate with stations and campus archivists on collections assessments and follow-up field services such as inventories, reformatting, rehousing, and other preservation activities.
Oral historians will interview a range of community members to document the history of the stations. Training in gathering oral histories and using historical audio in content creation will also be offered. Other goals include launching an interactive website, a podcast series, and annual symposia.
