{"id":6023,"date":"2024-02-08T05:01:11","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T05:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=6023"},"modified":"2024-02-13T05:06:37","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T05:06:37","slug":"remembering-joe-madison-the-black-eagles-legacy-and-fight-for-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=6023","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Joe Madison: \u2018The Black Eagle\u2019s\u2019 Legacy and Fight for Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by\u00a0<span class=\"author vcard\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtoninformer.com\/author\/staceybrown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Stacy M. Brown<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Tributes continued to pour in throughout Friday for the talk show host, activist and philanthropist known as \u201cThe Black Eagle.\u201d After a lengthy bout with prostate cancer,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemadison.com\/bio\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Joe Madison\u00a0<\/a>the popular SiriusXM host died on Feb. 1 at 74.<\/p>\n<p>Those familiar with the popular SiriusXM host and his legacy noted his death, fittingly, comes as America observes the start of Black History Month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the over 60 years that I have been in the civil rights movement, Joe Madison has been an effective freedom fighting communicator. His radio show informed and listed the aspirations of African Americans and others to continue to cry out for freedom, justice and equality,\u201d said celebrated activist and President of the National Newspaper Publishers Association Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis. \u201cBlack radio was a key force that helped to keep the freedom movement and therefore in\u00a0 the passing of Joe Madison we must fight to keep Madison\u2019s courage and use of the radio and media to\u00a0 continue the March for freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n<div class=\"newspack_global_ad scaip-1 fixed-height\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-caf9af3267-0\">Even the Biden-Harris administration acknowledged Madison as a freedom fighting force.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cWhether it was a hunger strike for voting rights or his advocacy for anti-lynching legislation that I was proud to sign in 2022, Joe fought hard against injustice,\u201d President Joe Biden said in a statement with Vice President Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMadison aligned his platform with his purpose,\u201d Vice President Kamala Harris said. \u201cThrough his decades-long career in radio, he championed the fight for equity and justice. Our nation is better because of his voice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Activist and radio and television personality, the Rev. Mark Thompson, told The Informer, Madison was a leader in activism over the airwaves.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJoe and I were coworkers for over three decades\u2014 first at Radio One and WOL, and then at Sirius XM. But we were not just coworkers, we were co-activists,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cJoe coined the term for himself, \u2018radio activist,\u2019 but we would all do well to live up to that term to live up to that name in his memory.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n<div class=\"newspack_global_ad scaip-2 fixed-height\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-2bd992b9b0-0\">Radio personality Tavis Smiley also released a statement in Madison\u2019s honor. \u201cPulling and praying for the family of Joe Madison,\u201d Smiley said. \u201cHe loved us so, and was dedicated to our freedom and liberation everyday he cracked the mic. His voice will be sorely missed.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>According to his official bio, the native of Dayton, Ohio, was an All-Conference running back at Washington University in St. Louis where he was also a baritone soloist in the university choir and a disc jockey at the campus radio station. He earned his bachelor\u2019s degree in sociology, becoming the first person in his family to graduate college.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bAt age 24, he became the youngest executive director of the NAACP\u2019s Detroit branch before being appointed the organization\u2019s national political director and eventually being elected to the national board of directors where he served for 14 years.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bDuring his tenure at the NAACP, Madison led hundreds of volunteers on a series of successful voter registration marches, including a cross-country \u201cMarch for Dignity\u201d from Los Angeles to Baltimore. The marches garnered thousands of signatures for an anti-apartheid bill in Congress.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bMadison\u2019s radio career began in 1980 at Detroit\u2019s WXYZ. He continued his broadcast journey to WWDB in Philadelphia, WWRC and WOL in Washington, D.C. The popularity of his WOL program led to syndication on the Radio One Talk Network and its XM satellite channel which merged with Sirius to become SiriusXM in 2008. In 2023, Madison celebrated his 15th anniversary with SiriusXM.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n<div class=\"newspack_global_ad scaip-3 fixed-height\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-dc2e0e383b-0\">In 2015, Madison set the Guinness World Record for the longest on-air broadcast, 52 hours. During the record-breaking show, he raised more than $250,000 for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Five months later, Madison made history again by broadcasting live from Cuba and becoming the first American radio host to do so in more than 50 years.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Veteran journalist Charles Robinson, Madison\u2019s longtime producer, shared what the activist contributed to radio.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was in the unique vanguard of Black radio,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cHe was topical, funny and tough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2021, Madison went on a 73-day hunger strike to encourage passage of voting rights bills. Unbeknownst to his listeners, he was fighting prostate cancer during his hunger strike. When asked if he understood the danger he was in, he replied, \u201cI am willing to die.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His bio further noted that a few months after his hunger strike, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act passed in the Senate with the help of Madison\u2019s continued push on the radio. His efforts were noticed by many, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who publicly thanked him for another fight for justice.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-4    \">\n<div class=\"newspack_global_ad scaip-4 fixed-height\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-ca419f6974-0\">Madison and his wife of more than 45 years, Sharon, lived in Washington, D.C. \u00a0Their blended family includes four children, five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u200bIn a statement, Madison\u2019s family invited fans and friends to send condolences:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJoe dedicated his life to fighting for all those who are undervalued, underestimated, and marginalized.\u00a0On air he often posed the question, \u2018What are you going to do about it?\u2019 Although he is no longer with us, we hope you will join us in answering that call by continuing to be proactive in the fight against injustice. The outpouring of prayers and support over the last few months lifted Joe\u2019s spirits and strengthened us as a family. We continue to ask for privacy as we gather together to support each other through this difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Madison\u2019s longtime coworker and fellow freedom fighter, Thompson reflected on the radio activist\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe would want his legacy to be, in his own words, \u2018that we will never again be undervalued, underestimated or marginalized.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Source: Published without changes from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtoninformer.com\/joe-madison-black-eagle-legacy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Washington Informer Newspaper<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by\u00a0Stacy M. Brown Tributes continued to pour in throughout Friday for the talk show host, activist and philanthropist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-black-history"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6025,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023\/revisions\/6025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}