Josephine Bolling McCall reflects upon her father’s lynching in Lowndes County, Alabama- The Lynching of Elmore McCall.

For decades, Elmore Bolling’s family believed myths perpetuated by white people, and even by Rosa Parks, about why he was killed: that he was involved in a love triangle or that he had insulted his assailant’s wife. Though Josephine Bolling McCall’s father was killed when she was 5 years old, it was not until she was 60 that she discovered an article in the Chicago Defender describing the real reason for her father’s killing: “Enraged whites jealous over the success of a Negro, are believed to be the lynchers of Elmore Bolling.”

Leon Von Brown is the uncle of the late and acclaimed jazz trumpeter, Clifford Brown. Leon shares memories of his uncle and efforts create a lasting legacy about him. Von Brown also talks about his amazing career. Brown has theater and dance credits to include singing, acting, dancing, and choreography. He has worked on set with Alfre Woodard, Laurence Fishburne and Malcolm Jamaal-Warner and co-starred with Samuel L. Jackson. He developed performances for the Atlanta Ballet, Agnes Scott College and Clark-Atlanta University. He recorded and toured with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir with shows at Radio City Music Hall and Carnegie Hall and performed in the Opening Ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games on NBC-TV.

KCSM radio’s own Sonny Buxton has been selected by the Jazz Journalists Association to receive the 2013 Jazz Hero Award for his contributions and dedication to broadcasting. Buxton, along with 25 other musicians and educators from the United States and Canada will be honored May 5 at the Jazz Heritage Center in San Francisco. Initially, Buxton never considered a future in radio or television as a career. In the early 1950s, he landed an internship in Los Angeles at a small radio station.

Soon after, as a member of the U.S. Air Force, he became a disc jockey for the Armed Forces Radio while stationed in Tokyo in 1958. His first official broadcast show, House of Bamboo, played jazz from midnight until 1 a.m. Fascinated, Buxton sought employment at several different stations but was shunned by the racial discrimination that plagued the ’50s and ’60s.

Radio stations were segregated which made it almost impossible to find a job. These challenges simply motivated him to push through the racial red tape. In 1962, he attained his FCC broadcasting license and tried to get a job at a radio station in Berkeley. Buxton recalls the station manager throwing his audition tape and bio in the trash after the interview.

“He called me in based upon the way that the tape sounded, but when he saw me things changed,” Buxton said. Undeterred by discrimination, he remained steadfast in his ambition. During his quest, he noticed that many stations were turning him down because he didn’t have an engineer’s license, which was necessary to work in the studio after midnight. He eventually went back to school and received his engineer’s license. This was just another obstacle that Buxton fought through which lit a fire under him and boosted his confidence. As Buxton put it, “I simply wanted to eliminate any excuses.”