Max Robinson was a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists.
19 Facts About Max Robinson
2.
The schools in Richmond were still segregated when he attended them; after graduating from Armstrong High School, Max Robinson attended Oberlin College, where he was freshman class president; however, he stayed there for only a year and a half and did not graduate.
3.
Max Robinson briefly served in the United States Air Force and was assigned to the Russian Language School at Indiana University before receiving a medical discharge.
4.
Max Robinson began working in radio early on, including a short time at WSSV-AM in Petersburg, Virginia, where he called himself "Max the Player," and later at WANT-AM, Richmond.
5.
Max Robinson began his television career in 1959, when he was hired for a news job at WTOV-TV in Portsmouth, Virginia.
6.
Max Robinson had to read the news while hidden behind a slide of the station's logo.
7.
One night, Max Robinson had the slide removed, and was fired the next day.
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Max Robinson later went to WRC-TV in Washington, DC, and stayed for three years, winning six journalism awards for coverage of civil-rights events such as the riots that followed the 1968 assassination of Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
9.
In 1969, Max Robinson joined the Eyewitness News team at WTOP-TV in Washington, DC Max Robinson was teamed with anchor Gordon Peterson, becoming the first African-American anchor on a local television news program, and the newscast took off.
10.
Max Robinson thus became the first black man to anchor a nightly network news broadcast.
11.
Max Robinson was known by his co-workers to show up late for work or sometimes not show up at all, along with his moods, his use of alcohol escalated.
12.
Together with Bob Strickland, Max Robinson established a program for mentoring young black broadcast journalists.
13.
ABC eventually caught on to what was happening, and even resorted to hide what was going on by supering a slide with the words "ABC News Chicago" on the screen during the live feed during times that Max Robinson was not live over the actual WNT broadcast.
14.
Max Robinson was relegated to the weekend anchor post, as well as reading hourly news briefs.
15.
Max Robinson left ABC in 1983 and joined WMAQ-TV in Chicago in March 1984; he was the station's first black anchor.
16.
Max Robinson was fired from the network after attending a work-related event and never returning to the office.
17.
Max Robinson had entered a drug treatment program at Hazelden, though allegedly without informing his superiors.
18.
Max Robinson was found to have AIDS while he was hospitalized for pneumonia in Blue Island, Illinois, but he kept it a secret, refusing to discuss it, despite widespread rumors about why his health was deteriorating.
19.
Max Robinson checked himself into Howard University Hospital where he died of complications due to AIDS on December 20,1988.