Hazel Scott
Hosts a TV Show 1950
1950’s The Hazel Scott Show gets the credit for being the first series to have a Black host, according to American film historian Donald Bogle in his book Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television. The 15-minute-long program, which first aired at 7:45 p.m. Fridays – and later ran on Mondays and Wednesdays, as well – was a musical format and featured Scott, a former child prodigy who had made a name for herself in tony New York supper clubs and movies like 1943’s Something to Shout About (pictured above) and 1945’s Rhapsody in Blue.