Love her or hate her, Oprah Winfrey redefined American television, book clubs, wealth, and, arguably, Blackness.
Oprah Winfrey on the first national broadcast of the "Oprah Winfrey Show" on Sep. 8, 1986. The premiere was on the topic of "marrying the right person." Rockford Register Star.
In 1984, Oprah co-hosted on a local show on ABC’s network, called AM Chicago. Winfrey soon became a rising star and the Oprah Winfrey Show premiered nationally in 1986.
Oprah is many things to many different people and her show tackled a range of topics. I’ve linked to a video I found from her show’s first season where she visited Forsyth County, Georgia, where Black people had been barred for over 75 years.
I was not a fan of Oprah before, but I was deeply impressed by her poise and her ability to challenge the people she was interviewing while also allowing them to speak their mind.
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