HBCU Radio Preservation Project: Lucius T. Outlaw, Jr.
Dr. Lucius T. Outlaw, Jr., dives into growing up in the "Emmett Till Generation," finding his calling in teaching, the impact of local radio, mentorship, and more!
Does this Wednesday remind you of anything? It should…today’s the day for a new episode 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.
Fisk University alumnus and Starkville, MS, native Dr. Lucius T. Outlaw remembers a socially complex environment during his youth. Counting himself as part of the “Emmett Till Generation,” he reflects on the tense social environment brought on by segregation and racial violence; though not every interracial interaction was negative, he remembers having to be aware of which people and areas were safe to interact with. His extended family followed routes of the Great Migration, with many members settling in Chicago or St. Louis. Along with cultural pride, education was highly valued in his family, and Dr. Outlaw knew he wanted to attend school out-of-state, leading him to Fisk.
‘‘Radio, particularly WLAC, was a powerful influence. We grew up listening because that became the avenue where you would then know about and get access to all this recorded music.”
In Nashville, WLAC was a 100,000-watt radio station, whose radio waves could at times even be picked up in the Caribbean. In the evenings, the music switched to genres like R&B, and Dr. Outlaw recalls listen to the station frequently while growing up. Through his church, he would sometimes be featured on the radio as part of youth-group initiatives. Once in college, a variety of experiences characterized Dr. Outlaw’s time at Fisk: pledging Alpha Phi Alpha, deciding to pursue philosophy, traveling abroad, becoming president of the student government, hearing Dr. King speak, and witnessing the ongoing civil rights movement all informed his journey. Along the way, Dr. Outlaw decided to pursue teaching. He saw it as a valuable way to inspire students and give back to the community, and many of his students became involved in radio, from interns to disc jockeys.
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.
