Abstract
WDSU-TV, the first New Orleans broadcast station in the city to hire a Black reporter and thus racially integrate, claimed that its liberal-leaning owner, Edgar Stern Jr., independently decided to hire Bill Rouselle in 1968, rather than being influenced to do so by federal entities and other factors. Through archival materials, newspaper content, federal reports, and exclusive in-depth interviews of journalists of the period, this study argues to the contrary: federal instigation, a decline in the local white population, and competition among New Orleans TV stations preceded integration at WDSU. While WDSU’s editorials advocated for integration in the early 1960s, years elapsed before the station integrated. Management hired Rouselle because it wanted to televise an African American face, not Black voices. Nevertheless, local Black television reporters instilled hope and pride in the city’s Black community.
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