A New World A-Coming

"Discrimination doesn't end in the South."

There's a New World A-Coming! Produced by the WMCA and the citywide Citizen's Committee of Harlem, New World a Coming features accounts of African-American social life in 1940s Harlem and serving in the military during WWII.

The show aired political and racial concerns through true-life accounts of people's experiences, such as black U.S. soldiers on leave denied at restaurants and movie theaters, problems of discrimination in the workplace and banks, unequal pay and opportunities, and other civil rights issues.

New World A-Coming was the brainchild of Roi Ottley. His 1943 book entitled New World A-Coming won the Peabody Award and the Life in America Award. In 1944, Ottley traveled to Europe became one of the first African-American war correspondents for major newspapers.

The producers urged people to buy war bonds and support the war against Nazi tyranny. Promoting war bonds represented buying a stake in our democracy. The announcer (usually Canada Lee) goes on to explain:

"Everyone has a stake in this fight. Now, I'm a negro and I can't help feeling that the negro in America can't be safe while millions of white men abroad are enslaved by Nazis. People, all kinds of people, need hope as never before"

New World A-Coming is an exceptional show voicing the concerns of 1940s Harlem and highlighting the problems, successes, hopes, and contributions of African-American life including an appearance by Marian Anderson.

For more interesting reading, See also: article on the history of Minstrel Shows and Old Time Radio. For additional radio shows covering African-American civil rights, see also: Destination Freedom. See also Jubilee which was created to entertain the black soldiers in WWII.

See also Civil Rights, Racism, Discrimination, and Prejudice in Old Time Radio, KKK in Old Time Radio, Superman Fights the KKK, People Take the Lead, Destination Freedom, Racist Music, Former Slave Interviews, A New World A-Coming, and Minstrel Shows.

For more WWII-era bond-sales related shows, see also: Any Bonds Today?, Four for the Fifth, Guest Star Radio, Keep Em Rollin, Music for Millions, New World A-Coming, Over Here, These are Our Men, Treasury Salute, and Treasury Star Parade.