Ethel Waters
Black pioneer in television
Ethel Waters was the first Black performer seen on television. Her one-night variety special, The Ethel Waters Show, aired on NBC in 1939. She was joined by fellow Black actresses, Fredi Washington and Georgette Harvey, and they performed part of her play Mamba’s Daughters. Waters in 1962 would also become the first Black person to be nominated for an Emmy with her nomination for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for her work in the episode “Goodnight, Sweet Blues” in the CBS adventure series Route 66. She is credited also as being the first Black woman to appear on radio, as well as several other “firsts.”