Everett Carlton Parker (January 17, 1913 – September 17, 2015) was an American media activist and ordained minister of the

United Church of Christ The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist traditions, and with approximatel ...

. Born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, Illinois, Parker attended the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

. Upon graduation in 1935, he spent a year with the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

, then another with the radio station WJBW. After returning to his hometown for a job as an advertiser, Parker enrolled at the

Chicago Theological Seminary Founded in 1855, the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) is the oldest higher education institution in the City of Chicago and was established with two principal goals: first, to educate pastors who would minister to people living on the new west ...

, earning a Ph.D in 1943. He reentered the media world with a stint at NBC in New York, then taught at

Yale Divinity School Yale Divinity School (YDS) is one of the twelve graduate and professional schools of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Congregationalist theological education was the motivation at the founding of Yale, and the professional school has ...

from 1945 to 1957. He was the Director of the Office of Communication of the

from 1954 to 1983.Alt URL
/ref> He filed a successful petition to deny licensing renewal of television station

WLBT WLBT (channel 3) is a television station in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Gray Television, which also operates American Spirit Media–owned Fox affiliate WDBD (channel 40) and Vicksburg-licensed MyN ...

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, along with Raymond. The city had a population of 153,701 at t ...

in the 1960s. The station had a poor record with regards to the civil rights of African Americans during the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

. Dozens of times both the

FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdictio ...

and

US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...

heard testimony by Parker concerning the maintenance of equal-time provisions and fairness in the broadcasting industry. Parker was also involved in film and television. He hosted the 30-minute religious television program '' Stained Glass Windows''. It ran from 1948-49 on the ABC Television network. He produced ''Six American Families'' in 1977, a PBS television series. Each year, "Everett C Parker Lecture" takes place in Washington. The event is held to promote telecommunications equity and is sponsored by the Benton Foundation.

Personal life

He was married to Geneva Jones from 1939 to the time of her death in 2004. They had three children, Ruth Weiss, Eunice Kolczun, and Truman E. Parker. Everett Parker died at the age of 102 in a

White Plains, New York (Always Faithful) , image_seal = WhitePlainsSeal.png , seal_link = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = U.S. state, State , su ...

hospital.

References

External links

*
Statement
by

Mignon Clyburn Mignon Letitia Clyburn (born March 22, 1962) is an American former government official who served as a member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2009 to 2018. In December 2017, Clyburn and fellow Democratic commissioner Jessica Ro ...

of the

on the death of Parker
Statement
by

Tom Wheeler Thomas Edgar Wheeler (born April 5, 1946) is an American businessman and former government official. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 31st Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He was appointed by President Bar ...

of the

on the death of Parker 1913 births 2015 deaths People involved with the civil rights movement United Church of Christ ministers American centenarians Men centenarians Activists for African-American civil rights Writers from Chicago Chicago Theological Seminary alumni University of Chicago alumni Yale Divinity School faculty Works Progress Administration workers African-American activists 21st-century African-American people {{civil-rights-movement-stub