Dr. Grady James At 100 Celebrates Lifetime Legacy Of Advancing Media

By Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter
New Journal and Guide

For the past six-plus decades, Dr. Grady James has contributed to the development of the African American presence in various paths of journalism, including broadcast and print journalism.

Most of his professional journey occurred at Norfolk State University where he was hired by provost, Dr. Lyman Beecher Brooks in 1960 and spent the next four decades before retiring

On Saturday, February 7, family, friends, former students and admirers gathered at Grand Affairs in Virginia Beach to help Dr. James celebrate his legacy and  his 100th birthday.

In a recent interview with the GUIDE, James was asked about his legacy which evolved from the era of Jim Crow segregation to today.

“Starting at Bethune-Cookman as a student, I always believed in using the media to  educate and enlighten people,” said James. “I always enjoyed teaching students—that was the goal of our profession, especially at an HBCU. I have seen so much change  in the world through the lens of a camera and the words I wrote.  I think I have made a difference in the lives of people and in  the field of journalism.”

An 11-year-old Grady James discovered his love for public speaking and later broadcasting.

Born in Ocala, Florida, his father died three years later. His godparents helped the son of a single mother who raised him and six other siblings alone, get a scholarship to college.

At 15, he was a  freshman at Bethune-Cookman College (BCC), which had no media program,   so he chose Business Administration at the HBCU founded by Mary McLeod Bethune. James worked  to pay off his tuition at the Bethune Funeral Home run by her son, and he served as his boss’ babysitter.

Too small for varsity football,  James worked for the school’s public affairs office writing sports stories for the Black-owned newspaper,  The Pittsburgh Courier.

As  president of the class of 1950, he landed a job  at Daytona Beach’s WROD-AM radio station, hosting the “Sepia Serenade,” a jazz and popular music program.

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During an interview with the GUIDE a decade ago,  James said  his career in broadcasting was on track at that time.  But, instead,  he was drafted  into the U.S. Army, which had been recently desegregated by President Harry S. Truman.

He was assigned to Fort Polk, in Louisiana to the 509th Heavy Tank Battalion, an all-Black unit.

Later at Fort Hood in Texas and Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, he gained essential media training

After the military, with his wife, Ida, and two offspring in tow, it was off to Chicago to attend broadcasting school at Columbia College.

After that, he earned a Master’s in Media at Indiana University before being hired at Southern University in Baton Rouge in 1957 as Director of the Audio-Visual Services and he taught in the School of Education.

Off campus, he worked at WXOK-AM in Baton Rouge, hosting a weekly radio  show “Sunday Morning Sports Page.”

Arriving At Norfolk State University

The Norfolk Unit of Virginia State was casting a national recruiting net for academics with Master’s and Doctoral degrees led by then provost, Dr. Lyman Beecher Brooks, and James was snared in 1960.

“I hated coming through that tunnel every morning from Portsmouth, where we moved,” recalled James.  “There were only two buildings at the school: Tidewater Hall (Brown Hall), which housed administration, the library, and classrooms.

The other was the former clubhouse of a golf course, which barred Blacks from using it, called the “White House”.

James taught education majors how to run projectors and create “bulletin boards.” He also wanted to use his broadcast/journalism skills.

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He did play-by-play work  for NSU football games on WRAP-AM and later WHIH AM in Portsmouth.

He was also instructing Norfolk Public School teachers to use the TV in the classroom before he took another tour of academic training at Indiana University in 1966 for a Master’s, then a doctorate from Temple.

Before he left, the school constructed the Communication Building, Madison Hall, and James helped build the initial infrastructure for NSU’s Mass Communication program.

When he returned to Norfolk, he taught audio-visual and mass communications programs on campus, he said. He was a studio cameraman at WYAH-TV, owned by Conservative GOP Evangelist Pat Robertson.  He worked shows like “The Jim and Tammy Show” and other live show programs.

James was an educator at NSU and  was given the opportunity to  develop programming at local commercial broadcast outlets to use his skills in  media, highlighting Black culture and NSU’s image.

WTAR-TV (now WTKR) News Director offered him a job co-producing a monthly documentary centered on urban affairs.

“I told him I would do it, but I did not want to be the Black cultural expert,” said James. “The first program we did was on the Urban Church. I selected Bank Street Baptist Church,  the home church of Dr.  Brooks.”

James never interviewed  Brooks for that inaugural broadcast. He did talk to the senior pastor and several congregants.

“I would talk to people who said  ‘I used to attend Norfolk State,’ indicating they had dropped out,” said James. “So, I produced a show  on college dropouts and what happened after they left campus.”

The episode  won the “School Bell Award” from the Virginia Education Association.

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James continued to grow in popularity.  He became the first Black male host of a local TV show called  “Norfolk State Highlights.”   It won the National Unity Award in 1977 for Best Educational Series.

“A lot of people called it the ‘Grady James Show’.   But I wanted to highlight NSU,” he said. “No other school in this area had such exposure.”

The show lasted eight years.  He also covered the first three years of Brooks’ replacement, Dr. Harrison B. Wilson.

James said when Brooks was retiring, he did a walking interview through the NSU campus with him.

“We wanted to show just how much the school had grown under his leadership,” said James. “That was the best show technically of them all.”

By the early 70s,  James continued to contribute to the university’s expanding training facilities in Madison Hall, including the campus radio station WNSB FM 91.1.

Starting in 1986, he organized the three-day NSU Communications Conference, to honor print and broadcast journalists.  It exposed students to   David Brinkley, Tom Brokaw, Susan Taylor,  Greg Gumbel, Robin Roberts, and others.

In a feature article of the NSU campus magazine “Behold,” Regina Mobley, ’81, anchor and reporter for WAVY-TV 10/WVBT FOX43, credits Dr. James with teaching her how to navigate the complexities of the newsroom. “He offered a master class on how to survive and thrive in a television newsroom,” Mobley said. “He also made us aware of the subtle ways bias could appear in news production and insisted we hold ourselves to the highest standards. I share these lessons with pride, admiration, and love for Dr. Grady James.”

Even after he retired, James could be seen at various NSU sporting and academic events with a camera in hand, capturing images for campus publications and outlets like the New Journal and Guide.

Not able to drive these days,  he still catches rides with friends to  NSU football games and  looks forward to the upcoming MEAC basketball tournament.

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Outstanding Educator of the Year, Excellence in Mass Communications and Journalism and Pioneering in Media for Excellence are among the honors recognizing his multi-decades-long plus career.

In  2023, Dr. James received the Distinguished Virginian Award from the Virginia Association of Broadcasters, and a year before,  he was inducted into the university’s Emerald Society for his longtime support.

Dr. James is a member of the Hampton Roads Black Media Professionals Hall of Fame, the Virginia Commonwealth Communications Hall of Fame, and the NSU Athletic Hall of Fame.