15762. Samuel F. Yette, MA'59 (01:48)

Date:
2012
Main contributors:
Yette, Samuel F.
Summary:
Samuel Yette was the first Black Washington correspondent for Newsweek magazine, author of a landmark book and a journalism professor at Howard University. Yette came to Bloomington for his master’s degree in journalism. While on campus, he was associate editor of the Indiana Daily Student. After leaving Bloomington in 1956, Yette accompanied Life magazine photojournalist Gordon Parks on a tour of the South to document segregation. Life then published their collaborative effort as a four-part series. Yette covered the Civil Rights movement in the South for the Afro-American newspaper chain in Baltimore and Washington. That work landed him an editing position at Ebony magazine. Later, he was the first black reporter for the Dayton (Ohio) Journal-Herald. He took his journalism skills to work for the Peace Corps and later for the federal government as a special assistant for civil rights at the Office of Economic Opportunity. Several times during his career, Yette returned to Bloomington to deliver lectures to journalism students. In 1970, he was the Riley Distinguished Professor of Journalism at Indiana University. Yette joined Newsweek in 1968 as a correspondent. While working for Newsweek, Yette wrote The Choice: The Issue of Black Survival in America, which documented the effects of federal government policies on African Americans. Yette argued these policies could lead to genocide. The book, published in 1971, was used as a textbook in colleges across the country. It received several awards, including the Special Book Award from the Capitol Press Club in 1971 and the Nonfiction Work of Distinction from the Black Academy of Arts and Letters in 1972. Yette was fired from Newsweek shortly after the book’s release, an action that resulted in a seven-year wrongful dismissal lawsuit. Anticipating the firing, Yette had lined up a teaching job at Howard University’s newly created School of Communications. He taught there for 14 years. After retiring from Howard, Yette remained active writing columns for the black press and appearing as a political commentator on Black Entertainment Television. He also served as an advisor and photographer for Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaigns in the 1980s. He died in 2011.

15764. Dick Yoakam's Hall of Fame Video Bio (07:08)

Date:
2005
Main contributors:
Yoakam, Richard D.
Summary:
Video bio of Dick Yoakam, inducted to Indiana Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame in 2005. Produced by: Jed Duvall; Post-Production by: DreamVision Media Partners; Archive Footage: Indiana University; After graduating from the University of Iowa, Richard Yoakam became a reporter and newscaster for WHO-AM in Des Moines, Iowa, and later was news director at KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In 1957 he left to become an assistant professor at Indiana University, where he put broadcast news into the curriculum of the journalism and radio-TV departments. He designed the facilities for teaching television news reporting and editing in the renovated Ernie Pyle Hall in 1975. During the 1960s and ‘70s, he occasionally took leave for professional refreshment working at NBC News in New York and Washington, D.C. He was Indiana state manager of election coverage for NBC from 1964 to 1976. Yoakam helped launch many broadcast careers, and former students continued to seek his advice. His honors include the IU Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award. Yoakam retired in 1989 and died in 2004. --Words from the Indiana Broadcast Pioneers

15765. Marcia Yockey's Hall of Fame Video Bio (02:33)

Date:
2023
Main contributors:
Yockey, Marcia
Summary:
Marcia started her career in the U.S Weather Bureau, before embarking on a 35 year career in broadcast meteorology. She began a three year stint at WFIE in 1953 before moving on to WTVW in 1956. She returned to WFIE in 1971 until she retired in 1988.