Joe Madison, also known as, "The Black Eagle" is a legendary voice in radio. Joe is a talk radio personality heard on Sirius 126 XM Satellite Radio, Inc.
Madison’s latest contribution to society was raising close to $200,000 for the Smithsonian African American History and Culture Museum in Washington, D.C. He successfully stayed on the air for fifty-two hours. The Guinness World Records has confirmed that Joe Madison is the new record holder for the Longest Marathon Hosting a Radio Talk Show!
Madison has been named one of Talker Magazine's 10 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts nine times. He is heard weekdays in the morning coast-to-coast on Sirius XM Radio, Inc. That recognition only skims the surface of his extraordinary commitment to social justice locally and internationally. As comedian and human rights activist Dick Gregory once said, "you can’t pigeon hole the Black Eagle. Madison is more than a radio talk show host. He is a radio activist." Madison began his career in Detroit on WXYZ, and then went to WWDB-FM in Philadelphia, he continued on the radio in Washington, D.C. at WWRC-AM, then 15 years at WOL-AM where he was program director too.
Madison was born in Dayton, Ohio. After graduating in 1971, from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, with a bachelor's degree in Sociology/Urban Planning, Madison spent a brief period working in corporate public relations. However, because of his years of student activism, and the memory of the hard-fought gains of the 1960's civil rights movement still fresh in his consciousness, Madison was summoned to what he called "the unfinished agenda of the civil rights movement."
It was then in 1974, that the NAACP board of directors named him executive director of the 10,000 member Detroit NAACP, becoming the youngest person appointed to that position at the age of 24. Madison's leadership skills, commitment, and ability to inspire those around him while leading the Detroit Chapter led to his promotion as director of the NAACP Political Action Department in 1978, by former president and CEO to the NAACP, Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks. Between 1984-1986, Madison led four separate voter registration marches called "The Over ground Railroad" in which he and hundreds of volunteers walked from Richmond, Va., to Harlem, NY; San Francisco to Los Angeles; Louisville, Ky., to Detroit, and the final march from Los Angeles to Baltimore, Md. His efforts to register new voters were entered in the Congressional Record by former Maryland Congressman Parren Mitchell.
In 1986, Madison’s talents were called upon once again, when NAACP convention delegates elected him to the national board of directors and re-elected him for the next 14 years. In 1996, Madison accepted the challenge of restoring prominence to the NAACP Image Awards when he was appointed its chairman. At the time of his appointment, the Image Awards was $2. 5 million in debt and near termination. But under Madison's leadership, the Image Awards regained its national prominence, and reversed its debt position to $1 million in profits within two years.
Directing a major civil rights organization, registering voters, marching in the streets, and giving lectures would be enough to demonstrate one’s commitment to social justice, and rightly so. Yet in the midst of the civil rights activism, Madison started another career as a socially conscious radio talk show personality in 1980 on Detroit's WXYZ-AM. Madison not only uses his microphone to bring attention to social injustices here and abroad, he also challenges himself and his listeners to do something about it. For him this has meant going to jail for civil disobedience countless times, and going on hunger strikes in opposition to apartheid in South Africa, genocide and modern-day slavery in Sudan.
Awards and Recognition:
- Joe Madison was made a member of the Red Cross Board of Governors in May 2013. The Red Cross is led by a Board of Governors with all of the powers of governing and directing, as well as overseeing the management of the business and affairs of the organization.
- Honored as an abolitionist against slavery in Sudan by the American Anti-Slavery and Christian
- Small Business Administration Advocate of the Year Award Solidarity International of Zurich, Switzerland
- SCLC Journalism Award 2000
- National SCLC Presidential Award
- Ebony Magazine’s 50 Leaders of the Future
- The Washington Association of Black Journalist Community Service Award 1997
- Who's Who in Black America
- NAACP Image Award Recipient (1996)
- Chairman of the NAACP Image Awards 1995 and 1996
- The Good Brother Award from the National Political Congress of Black Women
- University of D. C. Presidential Award
- News Maker of the year presented by the National Newspaper Publishers Association
- The African Leadership Award presented by the Liberian Community Association
- Thurgood Marshall Historical Black Public College and University community Leadership Award