Max Robinson: The Forgotten Trailblazer
The rise and fall of a controversial news anchor.
Tall, attractive, and polished.
Max Robinson had a voice that exuded authority. A presence that took up the camera.
He left his mark in American history by becoming the first Black person to anchor the nightly network news in 1978.
As a pioneer in broadcasting and journalism, Robinson once stood at the forefront of social change but has since been forgotten by the viewing public.
A difficult beginning
Predictably, Robinson's path to the anchor's chair was paved with misfortune and saturated with racism.
His first foray into journalism began in 1959 when he was hired to read the news at a local station in Portsmouth, Virginia.
True to his tenacity, Robinson applied for the job at the station, despite their advert calling for "whites only" to apply. To his shock, Robinson was successful in his audition and given the job of reading the news on air.
However, the station maintained a color barrier by projecting a picture of the station's logo to obscure Robinson's face from the viewing public as he read the news.
