Willa Monroe was the first Black woman in the U.S. to host her own radio show — a wildly popular homemaker program in Memphis, Tennessee.
Here's why the founder Carter G. Woodson created Black History Month and how it's different today than he originally planned.Imagine, if you will, a Black Mae West in Memphis, Tennessee, in the early 1950s: elegant, her curves corseted into tight dresses, a peach-shaped face, a cool voice. She lived in luxury, went to parties, had a maid. Unmarried, no children. She greeted visitors stretched out on a chaise, dripping with furs, wearing mules with kicky tassels.
Monroe made her radio debut in an interview with the South’s first Black host, teacher Nat D. Williams. She dropped her script but gamely ad-libbed on. The station hired her to create a show listeners had requested: “Tan Town Homemakers.” Monroe’s boyfriend was one of the wealthiest Black men in Memphis. The relationship was an open secret, if a secret at all. Monroe attended the same society events as her boyfriend and his wife.
Monroe did not share Steinberg’s work ethic. “She was lazy!” Herron said, laughing. Lying on that chaise, the radio pioneer would have a bowl of candy on one side and finger sandwiches on the other. She’d call her maid —"Honey, bring me a Coke.”What was the show like?
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