Madeline Anderson is the first Black woman to produce and direct a televised documentary film, I Am Somebody, which follows 400 Black female hospital workers who went on strike to demand a fair wage increase in Charleston, South Carolina. Anderson is also the first Black woman to produce and direct a syndicated TV series, and one of the first Black women to join the film editor’s union. Anderson would go on to become the in-house producer and director for Sesame Street and The Electric Company for the Children’s Television Workshop. During the early 1970s, she also helped create what would become WHUT-TV at Howard University, the country's first, and only, Black-owned public television station.
Madeline Anderson
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Films
I Am Somebody
Watch TrailerRent / Buy on Vimeo
(1970)
In 1969, 400 Black women working in a hospital in Charleston, South Carolina, went on strike to demand union recognition and a wage increase, only to find themselves confronting the National Guard and the state government.