“The passing of Merri Dee and Pervis Spann, two African American broadcasting legends, has left a deep void in the city and in the world,” says Rev. Dr. Iva Carruthers, the General Secretary of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference (SDPC), a faith-based social justice initiative and United Nations NGO located in Chicago, IL.
“Merri Dee and Pervis Spann were not just media personalities,” Carruthers added. “They were a part of the Black community. They knew us. They loved us, and they worked for and with us. We don’t know how many Black children were inspired by the work they did. This is a great loss for us all.”
Carruthers recalled that Dee spent 43 years of her career at WGN-Channel 9, and Spann, known as the “voice of Black Chicago,” worked at WVON-AM 1690 for some 60 years.
Dee was one of Chicago’s first African American female broadcasters. She was tough and fair and versatile; in addition to broadcasting, she once served as director of community relations, as a commissioner on the Illinois Human Rights Commission, and as a fundraiser and advocate for children. By the time she retired in 2008 as the manager of WGN’s Children’s Charities, she had raised more than $30 million. A victim of gun violence in 1971, she helped draft a Victim’s Bill of Rights in 1992 in the state of Illinois.
Spann, throughout his career, likewise attended to the Black community. In addition to being a disc jockey and owner, he was co-founder of Midway Broadcasting Corporation, WVON’s parent company, and was instru- mental in providing a platform for Black musical artists to gain national exposure. He was known as the person who called Aretha Franklin the “Queen of Soul” and BB King the “King of Blues.” A lover of blues, he called himself “the Bluesman.”
Both Dee and Spann pushed against obstacles that Blacks faced as they pushed into the media, but they never stopped working and they never stopped advocating for the Black community, especially Black children and youth. Both inspired many Black youth to pursue careers in journalism and communications.
“We can’t even begin to calibrate the power these two individuals shared with Chicago,” said Carruthers. “In our work for social justice, we recognize that wisdom-bearers and justice-seekers come in all disciplines.
Merri Dee and Pervis Spann are proof of that.”