ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) — South Georgia is remembering a trailblazer in broadcasting and politics as the Honorable John E. White, one of the very first Black anchors at WALB, has passed away at 85 years old.

White helped break barriers in local television during a time of segregation and resistance across the South. He went on to become a respected community leader, state legislator and advocate for representation in media and public life.

Getting on camera

In 1971, viewers in Southwest Georgia saw something they had never seen before on WALB when White became the first Black person to appear on-air at the station. As a person of color back then, getting on camera, let alone the anchor desk, was not easy.

White tried several times to land a reporting job at Channel 10, but the news director at the time told him they did not hire Black people.

White would introduce himself to reporters whenever he saw them out in the community, hoping someone would eventually give him a chance.

Everything changed one day when a WALB crew was preparing for an exclusive interview in Tifton with U.S. Senator and former Vice President Hubert Humphrey. White approached the crew, introduced himself and asked Humphrey for a picture.

In 2019, White recounted the day he met Humphrey in an interview with WALB.

“He said ‘mic check, testing one two three.’ Then I said ‘Senator, let me take you back to your group.’ So I walked him right away from the cameras. Channel 10 never got their interview.”

After taking the station’s exclusive interview opportunity, White got a phone call from the news director. That phone call came with an offer to work at WALB.

White went to work the very next day. Soon after, he was placed in front of the camera as a reporter.

But White said acceptance did not come easily. He faced hostility both inside and outside the newsroom. At one point, he said station leadership assigned him seven stories in one day, all more than a hundred miles away from each other.

Rather than complaining, White persevered and completed every assignment. Instead of being pushed out, he earned a promotion to the anchor desk. Still, some viewers objected to seeing a Black man on television.

“One caller said, ‘I want you to get that N-word off of the TV.’ I said ‘If you don’t like what you see, then change your channel,’” White told WALB in 2019.

Over time, viewers embraced him. White said his mission was never about fame—It was about representation.

White worked at WALB until 1972, paving the way for future generations of African American journalists in Southwest Georgia like today’s Brittanye Blake, Ashanti Drake, Morgan Jackson, Taylor Lewis, Moriah Norman, Quinlan Parker, Mackenzie Petrie, Karla Heath-Sands and Zoe Wells.

Beyond broadcast

White’s impact extended far beyond the broadcast—His resume also includes careers in education and politics.

White served the greater Albany area as a state legislator, even writing the Georgia Lottery Bill and introducing it to the House of Representatives in 1977.

During his more than 20 years in the Georgia General Assembly, White also wrote legislation to make Ray Charles’ “Georgia on my Mind” the state song.

In 1979, he ran for Mayor of Albany, but even after not winning that race, he continued a life dedicated to public service.

A lasting legacy

According to White’s son, Jason, White passed on Saturday, May 9, in the family home in Montgomery County, Alabama. White was the 11th of 12 children. Jason White said he was with his father when he passed.

John White’s legacy lives on not only in Southwest Georgia politics, but in every journalist of color who followed him onto the airwaves.

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