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= Search for Missing Persons (1938) = The Search for Missing Persons was an American radio series which ran from 1938 through the 1950s on Chicago's WSBC station. Hosted by Radio Hall of Famer Jack L. Cooper, this radio broadcast series helped reunite thousands of African American friends and family from all over the country. The show made its radio debut three years after the vaudeville star's first radio show, The All-Negro Hour, went off the air in 1935. During the Great Migration, more than six million African Americans migrated to the North and West in search of a better life, one without the regulation of racial segregation, enforced through Jim Crow laws. However the journey would come at a cost. Whether it was a coal mining job in Kentucky or a deadly factory job in New York, many African American migrants would accept any job they could find throughout their journey. Oftentimes this meant they would become separated from their friends or family who would continue on their own journeys. Cooper's "Search for Missing Persons" radio show helped reunite these separated migrants with their lost loved ones.

The First & Second Great Migrations
Commonly referred to as an "exodus" the First Great Migration spanned nearly three decades, beginning in 1910 and ending around 1940. During this time roughly six million African Americans followed rail lines and settled in major cities such as Philadelphia, New York, Detroit, Cincinnati, Chicago, and Milwaukee, in search of factory work. From 1914-1918, during the beginning of this thirty-year period, WWI (The "Great War") was taking place. White men from all over America were sent to Europe to fight, leaving thousands of northwestern factory jobs available. African Americans (men only) were recruited for cheap labor in these factories, giving them an opportunity to escape the rampant racism of the South.

The lesser known Second Great Migration soon followed and would span the next thirty years (1940-1970). Historians argue that this second journey to the North proved even more transformational than its' predecessor. The livelihoods of both African American migrants and white Americans changed drastically during this time, as thousands more flocked to "the Promised Land" of Chicago. It was there that African American newcomers could find shelter and support with Black religious organizations, such as the the Bethlehem Baptist Association in Chicago, Illinois.

These two mass evacuations from the South would result in the separation of many African Americans from one another, ripping apart families in hopes of building a better life. Though many planned to reunite once again in the future many struggled to do so. Jack L. Cooper's radio series would eventually aid thousands in reaching a successful reunion.

Jack L. Cooper
Jack L. Cooper is "considered to be the first African American radio announcer in America." Born in 1888 in Memphis, Tennessee, Cooper was one of ten children, and had to drop out of school as a mere fifth grader to help his parents with supporting the family. As he grew up, Cooper would take a number of different jobs, such as a semi-pro baseball player and boxer, until finding his calling as a performer in 1905. Cooper would go on to be known as one of the first Black ventriloquists and vaudeville performers in America.

Around 1920 Cooper became a "columnist for The Chicago Defender," a white-owned station and would eventually grow to produce "black oriented programming" for WSBC. During this time, and for several decades more, the popular publication helped African American migrants from the South rebuild their lives, connecting them to Black resources that provided housing, jobs, and more. On November 3, 1929 WSBC broadcasted their "first radio show in the US with an all-Black cast." The All-Negro Hour, produced and announced by Cooper, was "a variety show devoted specifically to Black performers that sought to stop the spread of negative racist stereotypes."

In 1938, Jack L. Cooper created another WSBC program "centered on the Black experience." Using the radio as a "social force" for the betterment of the community, Cooper worked with The Chicago Defender, local Black churches, and nonprofit organizations, to help reunite lost friends and family of the First and Second Migrations. Cooper would go on air and read off lists of names of missing migrants from the South, hoping to connect his listeners with those they may have lost contact with; Cooper's on-air efforts have been credited with reuniting thousands African American migrants.