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Williams, Sonja D. Word Warrior: Richard Durham., Radio, and Freedom. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2015. 272 pp. $95.
In Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio, and Freedom, author and former award-winning radio producer Sonja D. Williams traces the career of Richard Durham. The purpose of this work is to present the "totality of Durham's contributions and advocacy" as a civil rights-era scriptwriter, journalist, labor organizer, and political activist. The research in support of Word Warrior was derived from primary source documents from nearly thirty archival collections, as well as interviews with friends and colleagues of Durham that took place between 2000 and 2013. Williams does a sophisticated job of letting the reader in on Durham's personal life through the use of interviews with close friends and family, including Durham's one-time editor Toni Morrison, close friend Oscar Brown Jr., and son, Mark. She narrates Durham's story in a linear, narrative style, focusing her primary attention on his work with the radio program Destination Freedom. She seamlessly weaves primary and secondary sources together to trace Durham's complex story as one of the major players in Chicago's civil rights and labor movements.
Richard Durham was born September 6, 1917, as Isadore Durham...