Race and Radio: The Alabama Negro Extension Service Broadcasts, 1940–1945

Abstract

In July 1940, the Negro Division of the Alabama Extension Service began monthly radio broadcasts in an attempt to broaden its educational reach. Between 1940 and 1942, these radio broadcasts did more than educate African-American farm families; they also communicated ideological messages that were primarily racist and segregationist, representing the dominant ideology of the deep South. Starting in late 1942, the hegemonic demands of a federal government involved in a world war resulted in an ideological shift within the radio broadcasts of the Negro Extension Service. Analysis of the broadcasts provides evidence of the role radio plays in communicating dominant values and attitudes.