African-American radio personalities

Mary Dudley (born Mary Elizabeth Goode; April 8, 1912 – March 17, 1964), known as Mary Dee, was an American disc jockey who is widely considered the first African-American woman disc jockey in the United States. She grew up in Homestead, Pennsylvania, and then studied at Howard University for two years. After having her family, she attended Si Mann School of Radio in Pittsburgh, and on August 1, 1948, went on the air at WHOD radio. Gaining national attention, Dee broadcast from a storefront, "Studio Dee", in the Hill District of Pittsburgh from 1951 to 1956. She moved her show, Movin' Around with Mary Dee, to Baltimore and broadcast from station WSID from 1956 to 1958. In 1958, she moved to Philadelphia and hosted Songs of Faith on WHAT until her death in 1964.
Dee is considered a pioneer in developing the radio format that combines coverage of community affairs with music and news. She was one of the first two black women admitted to the Association of American Women in Radio and Television, and was successful in campaigning for the organization to forgo meetings in segregated facilities. During her lifetime she received numerous awards for her civic work. In 2011 she was honored posthumously with the Thomas J. MacWilliams Lifetime Achievement Award from the Media Association of Pittsburgh.

Alma Vessells John (September 27, 1906 – April 8, 1986) was an American nurse, newsletter writer, radio and television personality, and civil rights activist. Born in Philadelphia in 1906, she moved to New York to take nursing classes after graduating from high school. She completed her nursing training at Harlem Hospital School of Nursing in 1929 and worked for two years as a nurse before being promoted to the director of the educational and recreational programs at Harlem Hospital. After being fired for trying to unionize nurses in 1938, she became the director of the Upper Manhattan YWCA School for Practical Nurses, the first African American to serve as director of a school of nursing in the state of New York. (Adah Belle Thoms had served as acting director of Lincoln School for Nurses between 1906 and 1923). In 1944, John became a lecturer and consultant with the National Nursing Council for War Service, serving until the war ended, and was the last director of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses from 1946 until it dissolved in 1951. Her position at both organizations was to expand nursing opportunities for black women and integrate black nurses throughout the nation into the health care system.
In 1949, John wrote a script titled Brown Women in White for production on WNBC, which led to a second career in radio and television. In 1952, she presented The Homemaker's Club on station WWRL in New York. The following year, she became the first black radio personality to be invited as a member of the New York chapter of the Association of Women in Radio and Television. She campaigned successfully for the organization meetings to be held in unsegregated facilities. In 1957, she received the McCall's Golden Mike Award for her show What's Right with Teenagers and in 1959 she became the director of women's programming at WWRL. Over her 25-year career at the radio station, she wrote and produced numerous programs giving household tips, health care advice, and providing community service information. In 1970, John began appearing on television shows at WPIX-TV. She interviewed prominent black figures on her shows Black Pride and Positively Black. John worked up to her death in 1986 and is remembered mainly for her pioneering role in radio.