America's 1st Black Female Disc Jockey Was From Homestead

Do you know Mary Dee Dudley? She was the nation’s first Black female disc jockey, mixing and controlling from her post right here in the Hill District. She launched her daily 15-minute show, “Movin’ Around,'' on WHOD in 1948, and after six months, it became an hour-long program. Two years later, it was bumped to two hours.

Her coverage of community affairs, mixed with music and news, was a pioneering format. Her brother, Mal Goode — a Pittsburgh Courier reporter — ran a daily news segment covering Jim Crow segregation, housing, and politics. He eventually became the first Black United Nations news reporter for the ABC-TV network.

But back to Mary Dee — she used her platform to amplify the voices of Black artists, interviewing national acts like Cab Calloway, Jackie Robinson, and Sarah Vaughan. Dudley left Pittsburgh in 1956 to work in Baltimore, but her work in Pittsburgh broke racial and gender barriers, setting a stage for women DJs throughout the U.S.