KCAA Legacy in Radio

Governor George Wallace

Confederate Flag

Our 16th president Abraham Lincoln signed into law the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862 abolishing slavery in America effective January 1, 1863. Texas is listed as the second state of the eleven states that were to release all persons held as slaves within the United States. Lincoln went on to say no person or state should repress or make efforts to repress any former slave person as they pursue actual freedom. The good people of Texas in defiance of the law did not tell 250,000 slaves they were free until June 19, 1865 two and a half years after their rightful freedom. So the good white government and people of Texas were in defiance of the country's laws and said this is what we want to do as a state. They never paid the enslaved people for these two years of free labor and that led to the Celebration of Juneteenth out of Texas as their Freedom Day.

Dennis Baxter

Wallace Allen

Just like history has made footnotes of these other major moments of defiance,  KCAA's defiant posture is next in line.

Jackie Robinson

"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives," Jackie Robinson.

The first book I read completely was about Jackie Robinson. Growing up in a baseball family and town, the sport was in my blood. I was especially excited when Jackie hit the majors. I did not know what was at stake to have a Black man in the majors because everyone I played with in North Carolina was Black. Blacks and Whites were forbidden by law to play together in the fifties. But listening to my dad and uncles talk on the porch and at the barber shop I soon learned what was at stake with Jackie playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. I did not understand at the time what he went through to play ball everyday, but now I understand the giant Jackie Robinson was, he did leave an impact on society.

He was a trailblazer on and off the field and never backed down. I remember reading about the time he was stationed at Fort Hood in Texas and was ordered to sit at the "back of the bus.' He refused. Now mind you Jackie was an officer in the United States military and swore to die for the same guy. He refused and generated a public outcry from other Black servicemen. It is no surprise who came to his defense -  the NAACP and the Black Press, led by the Pittsburg Courier and the Chicago Defender. The military filed charges against him but Jackie was exonerated from the court martial. This is the kind of man Jackie was.

It has been 60 years since he had to go through what Satchel Paige called "The Noble Experiment" of Blacks playing a game with White men. Of course, that led to corporate America following suit by hiring Blacks in their companies. That also led to the fall of segregated public swimming pools because they found out our color would not wash off. Jackie played ball while being ostracized by some of his teammates and all of the other teams in the league plus some of the fans in the stands. Can you imagine being called a "n-----r"  while petting a black cat that someone put on the field for you. Or going to the park to play a silly baseball game and have someone say "we are going to kill you if you play."

It took a Christian man like Branch Rickey to say this is silly to waste the talents of the Black race, so he set out to find the perfect man. He had to test him and explain what was at stake for him and the game. I had a similar conversation with Mr. Cliff Gallup at Edison before they gave me the position of being the first Black to read meters for them. We have come a long way from those days but today two major league teams do not have Black players, one is located in Atlanta. It is not Atlanta's fault but society as a whole took its eye off the prize of integration. As we celebrate the legacy of Jackie Robinson, I want to leave you with another one of his profound comments, "we ask for nothing special only to be permitted to live as you live as our constitution promises".