User:Crtew/Joseph Bostic

Joseph William Bostic was an American journalist and sports announcer for multiple businesses in both Maryland and New York. He first started out as a sports announcer and journalist for the radio station WCBM in Baltimore, MD, then ended his life as the organizer of the National Negro Sportswriters Association. Unfortunately, he died at the age of 79 from a severe heart attack on Sunday, May 28, 1988 at Southampton (L.I.) Hospital in Southampton, NY. [Encyclopedia]

Personal
Joseph Bostic was born on March 21, 1908 in Mt. Holly, NJ. He was the son of Lawrence and Lillian (Eldridge) Bostic. He married a teacher who went by the name Dorothy Mitchell in 1930. They had two children: Joseph Bostic Jr. and Debra Lee Bostic. He graduated Morgan State College (later University) in 1932 and also attended Columbia University. [Encyclopedia]

Career
Joseph Bostic was primarily a sports announcer and journalist, but he didn’t start off with those careers. He started as a gospel music broadcaster for the radio station WCBM in Baltimore, MD after he got out of college in 1932. After that, he became a correspondent for the weekly newspaper The Baltimore Afro-American, more commonly known as The Afro. Then left Baltimore to take on a sports editor and entertainment columnist position for People’s Voice in New York, NY in 1942 from 1945. After that, he took on the role as columnist and sportswriter for New York Amsterdam News. Then after that, he got the biggest opportunity to become an announcer for boxing and other various sports events and for television broadcasts at Madison Square Garden. Then he worked as a stevedore, a theatrical promoter, and as host of Gospel Train for the New York radio station WLIB. In 1965, Bostic became the cofounder of the Junior Academy in Brooklyn, NY and wrapped things up in his careers as the organizer of the National Negro Sportswriters Association. [New York Times]

Notable works of journalism
Newspaper columns included “Weekly Salute,” “Man about Harlem,” and “Scoreboard.” ''

Impact
Joseph Bostic broke the “color” barrier in job after job. When the Rockland Palace opened in Harlem, the owners had their hearts set on hiring a white announcer until Bostic pointed out the advantage of having someone from the black community announce the matches.

Books

 * Cosgrove, Benedict, Covering the Bases: The Most Unforgettable Moments in Baseball in the Words of the Writers and Broadcasters Who Were There, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA), 1997.

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 241: American Sportswriters and Writers on Sport, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2001.

Reisler, Jim, editor, Black Writers/Black Baseball: An Anthology of Articles from Black Sportswriters Who Covered the Negro Leagues, McFarland (Jefferson, NC), 1994, pp. 75-76.

Temporary urls

 * nytimes


 * AAiS


 * encyclopedia


 * The Joe Bostic story


 * soundstudiesblog

Jackie Robinson
 * marcnorton
 * si
 * prospect
 * huffingtonpost
 * washingtonpost
 * nytimes2
 * theroot
 * book1
 * book2
 * book3
 * tandfonline

Other black sportswriters
 * Black Writers/Black Baseball: An Anthology of Articles from Black Sportwriters Who Covered the Negro Leagues

Gospel Train
 * Copyright records

Son
 * jfosterphillips

Look up his Jet magazine obit Jet Magazine obituary, June 20, 1988, pp. 50.