A Retired Black Television Broadcaster's LIFETIME OF MEMORIES:

This memoir recounts an unforgettable scheme fostered on his behalf by a group of grassroots black mill workers---a scheme that ensured that he would have a job every summer in order to complete his college education.

In the Deep South, it was not easy for parents, white or black, to raise youngsters amid the hostile and dangerous racial climate which characterized the turbulent 1960s. Rebellious white youngsters were battling to retain the status quo and protesting black youngsters were trying to destroy it. This circumstance resulted in frequent racial clashes on and off campuses of newly integrated schools. One black youngster embittered by this tense environment was Edward Thomas, the author’s nephew. His hatred of whites had become obsessive, almost a sickness.

This memoir recalls quite graphically and dramatically the author’s crusade to "save young Thomas." Thanks to an old high school buddy---a prison guard--- a secret, behind-the-scenes visit was arranged at Louisiana’s then legendary and notorious Angola Penitentiary. Posing as new prison guard recruits, the author and his highly militant nephew were privileged to see, first hand, the "real Angola Penitentiary". The one about which then-unsubstantiated rumors of killings, brutality and harsh living conditions were widespread. With the author’s prison guard friend serving as private escort, nothing was held back: the antebellum environment, the sordid lifestyles, the sadistic guards, the flagrant homosexuality. Even a visit to the room housing Angola’s old electric chair was controlled by a seemingly carefree guard who seemed to delight in harassing the condemned men. The author would say later that the visit to Angola did more to "purge young Thomas of his evil intentions" than the local minister, sympathetic schoolteachers, and several concerned community leaders.

This memoir paints a very compelling picture of the author’s "pioneering years with the CBS Los Angeles station". As an example, when those devastating 1965 Watts riots erupted, the author was the only black television newsman in Los Angeles. Yet, the station’s news management was reluctant to press this obvious advantage because the news director was fearful of sending the first black journalist the station had ever hired down into Watts to cover a black story. And, a riot at that! What if he were killed? How would that set with the black community? Then, too, would the station be accused of hiring a black "just to cover black stories"? After the author was reluctantly granted permission to cover the Watts riots, there was still another problem. All the camera crews were white! They couldn’t get down to Watts during the early rioting. Too dangerous! So, the author had to secretly do "phone-in reports," or meet the crew well outside the riot zones. He had to be careful not to "draw attention to himself". After all, he now worked for the "establishment".

This memoir recounts many of the author’s unique, and, sometimes humorous, experiences covering those riots. There are many others, including his encounters with Alabama’s then-segregationist governor, George Wallace. The memoir also details quite vividly the author’s experience at the Ambassador Hotel the night Senator Robert Kennedy was assassinated. His recollection of that infamous evening is quite spellbinding.

This memoir also documents the challenges, frustrations, and loneliness encountered by the author when he became the first black promoted into senior management at the CBS owned and operated television station. Indeed, there were those moments of awkwardness, like the time the author---a relatively new manager--- was ordered to join his new colleagues at a mandatory management breakfast meeting at a posh country club that was known to have restricted covenants that barred blacks and other minorities. Fortunately, someone at the station discovered the snafu in time, avoiding a potentially embarrassing encounter. The author said he was inclined "not to call that mix-up to anyone’s attention. After all, the meeting was mandatory for all managers. And, since I was a manager , I wanted to attend. I also wanted to see what would happen when my black face showed up at that door."

This memoir is laced with many other little gems such as the one cited above. It also includes reflections of those very moving and private moments years earlier between the author and his hearing-impaired mother who had struggled to support him and his three young sisters amid a sometimes highly charged racial environment.

Although there are many compelling episodes in this memoir, one of the most memorable is the author’s devastating discovery that he had prostate cancer---and his subsequent battle to survive the dreaded disease. Without minimizing the seriousness of prostate cancer, the author cleverly relates his shocking experience in graphic, yet sometimes humorous detail. Men, in particular, will find the author’s depiction of this episode in his life not only informative, but engaging. Women may even wish to alert their male family members and friends about it.

Indeed, this action-packed, fast-moving, easy-to-read memoir will captivate any reader who wishes to share this pioneering black broadcaster’s unique lifetime of memories.

When Dyer was about fifteen, his mother met and married a kindly man who worked at the local box factory. Things then got a little better at home. No more cotton fields. No more welfare checks. No more having to be the "little man of the house."

An all-state football player in high school, Dyer received a football scholarship to Xavier University in New Orleans. After getting a tooth knocked out and a rib cracked, Dyer decided to abandon football. He transferred to Grambling College (now Grambling State University) the following year to pursue his real ambition: drama. In high school he had garnered many awards for his acting and dramatic monologues. It was the same at Grambling. In fact, while at Grambling he starred alongside his drama professors in a college production of the Broadway hit, Death of a Salesman. Dyer played the role of Happy, one of the two sons to the fading old salesman, Willie Loman.

After he graduated from college, Dyer spent four years in the Air Force, serving for several years as editor of a base newspaper as well as the producer of a local Air Force public affairs television show, Scramble! Dyer maintains that "somebody up there kept positioning" him for that future job at CBS. While with the military, he won awards for his short stories, and regional and division talent show honors for his dramatic monologues. While stationed in Labrador, Dyer was named "Airman of the Month" twice and "Airman of the Year" once.

After leaving the Air Force in November 1961, Dyer worked a few years as a technical editor for Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It was during this period that he wrote a one-act play, The Cave, that was produced at the old Studio West workshop. It was at Studio West that he met another budding dramatist, Cassius Weathersby, who happened to be an activist with the Beverly Hills NAACP. It was Cassius who, impressed with Dyer’s previous media experience, convinced him to seek a position in news with one of the Los Angeles television stations. Dyer did--and made history.

In April 1965, Dyer became the first African -American journalist hired by a Los Angeles network owned and operated television station, KNXT (now KCBS). During his 30 years with the local CBS station, Dyer scored many historic ‘firsts’: the first African American promoted into the station’s senior management ranks; the first African-American department head; the first African American to broadcast station editorials. At one time, Dyer wrote, produced and hosted a half-hour public affairs broadcast, People’s Corner. He did this while still holding down his management position.

When Dyer retired in June 1995, he was credited with receiving some 185 awards for outstanding community service, including the prestigious Abe Lincoln Award from the Southern Baptists (for his citywide campaign for Sickle Cell Anemia) and the coveted Image Award from the Beverly Hills NAACP.

Dyer is married to the former Doris Dillon of McComb, Mississippi. They have four adult children: Monica, Karen, Kimberly and Joe Dyer III. They also have three grandchildren: Nicholas, Christian and Melanie.

Dyer is also a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, the oldest black fraternal group in the nation.