Brenda Malik oral history | Briscoe Center Digital Collections

Transcript

Brenda Malik 04/03/2021 Conducted using Zoom video conferencing
ERICA KOTERAS: Okay, so hi my name is Erica Koteras I'm doing this oral history with Mrs.
Brenda Malik. And Brenda, how are you doing today? BRENDA MALIK: I'm good Erica, thank you.
KOTERAS: That's good, so I’ve done some research on you and your activism, especially through
the late 60s and 70s and I saw that you had gone to (uh) St. Edwards University, Huston-Tillotson,
and then also UT. And so I guess for people that don't know,
and I myself would love to know if we could start off with just discussing
your experience at both a historically black college and also UT and just kind of
comparing the experiences that you had with both. MALIK: Okay,
yes, I did go to University of Texas. In
the early 1970s, and actually, I was there while I was working at KXAN television.
So I while I was at University of Texas, I was like in a class of .02%
of black students, so it was, it was kind of foreign to me crazily. But it was only in my
later years that I went to Huston-Tillotson and I was working then so it was--it was kind of
overwhelming, for me, even then going from HBCU. But yes, the actually working
at the university I’m going to the university and working at KXAN did opened some doors for me.
Because my news director was getting a lot of applicants from UT, and he was actually
looking for something different, he said. So I was I was hired to go into the news department,
I was a receptionist at the time. KOTERAS:
Could you elaborate on what you think he meant about something "different”?
MALIK: Well okay, let me, let me tell you the story, I was--I
was working right out of high school. And so I went to work for the then public welfare
department of the State of Texas. And I was in the basement in the back in the corner and always stay
in the dark doing teleprompting work and then that was very unfulfilling for me.
So it prompted me to look for something better. And I asked my supervisor what avenues I could
take to try to promote myself and she never could give me an answer and I think I was,
I was bugging her. So she kept sending me up to the fifth floor to talk to the director.
And I think that was a ploy though because your job depended on the number of cards you could
read per day and anytime were pulled away from the desk then your numbers would go down. But I made
sure my numbers didn't so she had to keep sending me up, sending me up and, finally, they sent me to
an EEOC representative and the EEOC coordinator said, "Brenda what is it you want?" And I said,
"Well, I really want to be in television." And so, she, she looked through her job vacancies
that she had on her desk and she said, "well look, they have a receptionist job at Channel 36 KXAN
MALIK: Want to try for that?" and I said, "Of course." so I interviewed there, and was hired for
the job. And I was the best little receptionist that they could ever have so I'm made that
a way, a pathway, for me, because I made friends with everyone that came through the door. And one
of those friends, work friends, was the director, news director, at that time at KXAN named Matthew.
And he would come out to the receptionist desk and just plop there in front of me
and complain that he could not find anyone
that was good enough to bring into his newsroom. And, of course, he was getting pressure from the
Austin media coalition, which were a group of black activists in the city at that time
who were campaigning and complaining that the network's didn't have black representation.
So he was trying to find black representation and he complained that everything he got on
his desk or was from the University of Texas and he thought that they didn't know anything.
So he kept doing that and I said, "Well look why don't you give me a chance." And he said, "You
really serious?" And I said, "Yes oh I'm serious!" So that's how I got into the news business,
he was looking for something "different." KOTERAS: Right, and that's amazing I mean
that's a lot of initiative that even like a lot of people just don't have regularly.
So did you feel I guess that leads me to my follow up question is um, did you feel like
you had--that you brought a lot of representation to KXAN and that, like you had more of a voice,
especially because you were close with Matthew? MALIK: I'm not sure if I understand the question
but um, I mean we were we weren't that close. KOTERAS: Oh no that's not really like the point
of the question I didn't want to make it sound like anything um I was just saying like since
they didn't have any black representation, but he was open to the idea that you could be the
representation for KXAN, did you feel like you were given enough opportunities to get your voice
out there? And also like I guess with your activism what were your main goals in doing so,
other than, than a general desire to be on TV, or if that was the only goal, which is totally fine.
MALIK: Well, I knew I was, I was feeling his box he could check it off that he
observed. The uh, the FCC laws—at that point that he was listening to the community and so he was
able to check that box off that he had hired someone that represented the black community.
He didn't know me. And I did feel an obligation at that time to be
a stellar representative of the black community. And I took that very seriously
so I was just brand new except for my journalism courses at University of Texas,
but I knew very little about the TV business at that time. So the black media coalition
was pleased that I was in there but they, they even they weren't sure what
kind of commodity, I was, and so, as a newbie. MALIK : I had to jump through a lot of hoops
In fact I was the one that opened up the news office I in fact I had to go upstairs
they still have the same station location on MLK it's a two story.
And the second story was for radio at the time, so I had to do a radio
segment and then go downstairs and get ready for the news thing which meant
that I was coming into a dark office I don't think that would fare well today, but I had to open it
up through the garage and I was a young female at the time. And then lock the door back behind me,
we were in the days of film. So I had to load the magazines
for the cameras that time they were Oracon cameras, huge things, and so I go into the dark
room. Again I'm by myself and loads of 400 foot magazine into the film canister and then come out.
I don't I don't know if my news director knew it, but there were many times when that
400 film canister was dropped, and so we lost a lot of film.
But I was able to do that and get the equipment and the canisters and everything ready for the
news station, so I was, I was eager to learn and whatever it took I was going to do it, and
that (uh) thing to boring me into a news career. KOTERAS: Yeah it's I mean it definitely sounds
like it in yeah like dropping like anything just becomes part of the job,
especially if it's 400 feet I can't even imagine. MALIK: It was huge!
KOTERAS: I'm sure, yeah. Um, going back to the black media coalition,
did you find yourself having a pretty open communication with them, in terms of how
maybe they wanted you to how you could best represent the black community as a whole
through film and radio? MALIK: You know, I guess,
I was doing a good enough job because they seem not to have a lot of complaint
and I did assume a lot of responsibility. At that job I was also the voice for the NAACP
video project called "Opening Doors” that KXAN produced, so they put me in position
of authority. And I was able to go around the community, and you know just be a representative
of the news media as well as the black community so we didn't have, or at least the
media coalition, didn't have much complaint about me. So I guess, I was--I was doing pretty good
from that point, and see I was a young newscaster
with two baby boys at my hips and didn't know, you know, a whole lot about anything but I was
determined to learn. Even as a seasoned newscaster I was still a bit naive. So when I learned
that the male newscasters were making more money than the female newscasters,
I was pulled into a situation with a female, White newscaster that didn't--that didn't bode well for
me, but she was outraged so I figured I needed to be outraged as well, and so I started looking for,
you know, another position. MALIK: And
so I left KXAN with an offer to go to KTBC, the CBS affiliate in Austin.
And there I was, you know, a weekend anchor. I was producer of a weekly newscast called "Newscene."
So I was garnering more and more responsibility and that felt good and I'm sure the
media coalition felt good about it as well. KOTERAS: Right could you elaborate for people
who may not know what “Newscene” was? MALIK: What is what, I'm sorry?
KOTERAS: What “Newscene” um was, the show that you produced?
MALIK: “Newscene”, it was a local 30-minute newscast that uh talked about topics relative
to the current activities in town, so I had to schedule the guests and then interview them
live. For 30 minutes in the afternoon it was a show that came on at 5:30, just before
the six o'clock newscast, so it was a highly rated and very
popular time slot. But it carried with it a whole lot of responsibility, along with the daily news
stories that I was responsible for, and then the weekend anchor that I was responsible for too, so
it was, it was a lot of work, but it was it was gratifying.
KOTERAS: That's good. Did--since you mentioned um that Black Media Coalition not really having
any complaints, especially as you started with “Newscene,” was it because of the people
that you were interviewing or was there a broad message of just Black representation
to the community that was being portrayed on “Newscene” that you weren't seeing anywhere else?
MALIK: Well, the other stations in town may have had one, no more than one,
black newscaster that was the quota at that time. But I do recall, as an anchor and reporter
on the weekend, one of my assignments was to cover the pep rally for University of Texas. And at that
time Earl Campbell was the football star, and so it was, you know, everybody was yay yay, go Horns.
And I really wasn't a sport-caster but then, you know, there was so much.
There's so much fervor and for Earl Campbell and University of Texas longhorn
it was a news story more than a sports story. So I was assigned to go cover the pep rally
and my cameraman and I went out to get some footage. For the story, because the game,
of course, and the pep rally would happen just about the time that the newscast would come on
so we went out there early at that time that was the pep rally was held where chapter Plaza is now.
And so we went out and to get some footage of whatever is going on and there was a lot of number
and junk that was piled up, but it was piled up around a shack that they had built in the middle.
And when I got there, I saw this lettering on the side of the shack read:
"If an Aggie and a [n word] jumped off the tower at the same time,
which one would hit first? Haha who cares." And so I knew that could be controversial,
but I wasn't gonna to let it pass. So I did a regular pep rally story, the University of Texas
had this game coming up against the Texas Aggies that we've been waiting for
the whole season at [inaudible] with these unknown excellence from the longhorn players. And we
expect to see 66,000 of those people to attend the pep rally and you know the usual pep rally stuff,
that I had my cameraman scroll down that lettering. And so my voiceover was over that
lettering, over that side of the chat that they put up. And so it (it--it) did cause a ruckus,
but I wasn't put in the middle of it because
I said nothing about who did it or why they did it or what it meant. I just read a regular story.
However, since I was off the next day, Sunday and Monday,
I got it I—my mother actually got a call from State Representative Wilhelmina Delco
to ask her if I was alright and oh, she had to tell her "yeah she's good, they haven't killed her
yet." But I did get the call from my news director of Channel 7, asking me, you know, what happened.
And I had my cameraman take pictures of what was out there and I read the story, and so there's
not much left to do about it. I survived that one. KOTERAS: Right, I totally forgot what I was going
to say next. That's a really intense experience and I honestly can't imagine
being in that sort of situation. But I mean, were there any other times, similar to that
which also did this experience and you not being put into the middle of it,
did it give you more confidence to go out and kind of like show your activism
through portraying like these little thing--not little--these things that,
like the average public wasn't seeing, but it was still like going on and just it's not televised or
just wasn't televised? But because you didn't get in trouble for showing it, did you feel
like you had the power and you had the voice to portray this if
another opport--opportunity had arisen? MALIK: Yeah, you know, at that time the news
wasn't as sensational as it is today.
So we were pretty--we were pretty strict about observation and not opinion kind of journalists.
But I do recall being sent out to 48 acres when Nancy Reagan came to town
and they were having a tea for her. And so I went to get an interview with her.
So I had to wait until she got through speaking to the group,
and when I had my opportunity to talk with her, I asked her
about her husband's platform, running for President.
And she gave me this, "oh I don't I don't know a thing about my husband, and I don't know
well, I don't know what he might be saying." And so I was like, "Whaaat?!"
I was really insulted. So my stand up, I said something like, "Well, either Nancy Reagan
doesn't know or she's not saying anything about what her husband sent for."
And yeah, it got me in a little bit of trouble, but I survived that too. I was naive enough
to think that I could report the truth, and I think that lasted a long time in that career.
KOTERAS: Nancy, pretending. MALIK: Yeah right.
KOTERAS: Did so with talking to Nancy Reagan I,
while I was doing my research, I did come across that you also worked on
Jimmy Snell's campaign to be mayor. Was this moment of, you know, wanting to report
the truth and wanting to get, to lean more a little bit into politics, was this the reason,
one of the reasons, why you wanted to help him on his campaign? And also, if you could elaborate on
what that experience was like on net. MALIK:
Well, Jimmy Snell, came to mind in a conversation this morning with my son, but that decision to
work for him and to campaign going in was born out of a necessity to support my family. It was a
mind boggling discovery of mine that being a reporter or an anchor
on television, it was not enough. For me, to have a family-- As a matter of fact, when I
was on the air one day and I was reading the report from a federal agency about the
poverty level, and so I read off what was the poverty level line and realized
that that's me, that's as much money I'm getting a year. So when I asked for a raise I got no love.
From the station, from [the] Lyndon Baines Johnson station, even though he,
in lieu of a raise, I--you know, I asked these guys, at least to supply my wardrobe. Now on air,
you have to look good, so that was a no as well. MALIK: So I figured out I had to leave that
arena just to survive. That's when I started working as a council aide for Jimmy Snell and
that was at [inaudible].
And, and it really being in it, my decision, never to run for office. Because it's dirty--it's
a dirty business, it's a dirty business. KOTERAS: Mmhmm,
are you um, would you be able to give some examples of like certain situations
while you were the counselor for his campaign? MALIK: Yeah, I can tell you about a couple of
things that surprised me. While I was in the office and, mind you,
they—it was a 6 seat council at the time, and so they had two, five, and 6 were for the minority.
Treviño was serving you with the five and Jimmy Snell was the sixth,
so they put those two council members at the end of the hall and some tiny offices
that you could enter from the back step. We it seems, we were always put in the back,
I don't know what the deal is; but anyways, at one point
[inaudible] Carol McClellan pretty much stomped down the hall from her office
and you can kind of hear, she was kind of heavy set at the time. And she stormed into the office
and "Is Jimmy here?" you know you had to pass the reception desk before she got to him.
And she just went right on into his office, and she was laying him low, because of a vote
that she wanted him to make she—And she wanted Jimmy and Trevino to go along with this vote.
But the surprising thing was that she told Jimmy that if he didn't go along with the vote,
she would put up, I believe the amount was like $35,000, at that time its big money. $35,000
against his re-election and that--that seemed to do the trick, he was very shaken by that.
And I was like, "Oh, this is the way it works? Okay." So I just I didn't like that, I didn't, I
knew that that would not be something I wanted to be involved in, but I, you know, I supported him.
There's a lot of compromise. KOTERAS: Alright,
I think I wanted to go back to one thing to the--I think, I'm sorry I keep repeating myself.
Were you awa--I know you're aware, but did you know any specifics, especially at KXAN,
about the pay differences between what you were making and what your--what your white,
male co-anchors were making? Or even white female? MALIK: Yeah, the specific numbers, no,
I cannot recall. I was just outraged that we weren't making the same thing, because we were
basically doing the same thing and had the same responsibilities. In fact, you know, at the time I
was doing more, because I had to open the newsroom up and get everything ready. So I can't remember
what the specific amounts were at the end of the day. So and I didn't even--I didn't even
find out on my own, it was my female counterpart that brought it to my attention, and you know I,
so I was bonding with her and she was, "Well, if they don't do right by us I'm just going to quit."
[N---a], oh la la la! I forget where she went, but I went to Channel 7,
more money, but not enough to sustain. KOTERAS: Right and then also I was looking at
other shows that you had gone on to produce and I'm not certain if this was also at Channel--if
this was at Channel Seven so correct me. If it isn't or by all means say
where it was but I would like to talk a little bit about “Jam City” and “Powerline.”
So if you could elaborate, we can start with “Jam City”, just because it was very much you and the
community reaching out to. The black youth in the community and so I'm just wondering like one,
what it was like producing a show like that and to begin, like to explain to the listeners
or to the readers reading the transcript what was “Jam City” and then also just the
direct impact that you saw from that show. MALIK: Sure. “Jam City” was a beautiful baby of
mine that came out of a realization that our youth didn't really have anything to do on the weekends.
We used to have in my youth, we used to have some dances and activities at the park, but
at that time--that was in the early 80s--they didn't--they didn't have any program that
were directed toward the youth. And I had just landed a job with Austin Community Television,
and I was one of the trainers. At a time,
in fact, that was a job that I took shortly after I left the council aide office.
And I knew as a Council aide that the city had contracted with Austin Cable Vision. To
um--produce, to contract with the city with the fees and the licensing, but they also
had a clause to work with the community, for community programming, and that's where
Austin Community Television was born. So when I got a job there, at ACTV, I was going around
training and recruiting community groups like churches and schools to do their own programming.
I figured out that our community needed that program as much as any other.
And it was just coalescing of a community activism at that time, too, because KAZI
radio had just been formed as well, and they had a program called “Teen Scene.”
And they were young DJs at the radio station, so I partnered with KAZI and that program, and brought
them over to Austin Community Television studios. And we produced an hour long dance program
called “Jam City,” and boy, was that popular. We had kids from
all the schools trying to get into “Jam City.” And we would--we would pick them up
at KAZI Saturday mornings and take them to the station Austin Community Television on Ben White.
We take them up on manor, where KAZI was located at that time, and drive them to the
ACTV studio on Ben White and we'd spend the whole morning there. But it was beautiful
because we had the kids on the cameras, we had them in the director’s booth, in the
audio booth, and they were learning skills. As they had fun producing the program every Saturday
morning and then, when we played it back--I spent all my weekends in the edit room--but
when we played back, their mothers and fathers, and aunts and uncles would be just glued to
the TV because their children were on TV. MALIK: Now, it wasn't all that, but they
came for the dance, but I made sure there was something educational in that our viewing too.
Where they were going to watch themselves dance, they were also going to learn.
So that was--that was our long programming that we put out to the community, and it was so popular
that we dominated all of the calls that were coming into ACTV
about programming, so it was very popular, it lasted a couple of years.
KOTERAS: Sounds great, did you have-- MALIK: And American bands are often--
KOTERAS: Did you have a general theme surrounded by the education that you tried to
illustrate for them? MALIK: Oh yeah, we had support
from the NAACP. We did interviews with artists that came through town like James Brown, Ike and
Tina Turner. We had a lot of those popular interviews, but what whatever educational segments
we can put in put that into. So it was like 30 minutes of education and 30 minutes to dance.
KOTERAS: And that sounds very exciting. So, how would--how
would you compare/contrast that, or I guess after a general explanation of what “Powerline” was?
MALIK: “Powerline”--what “Powerline” is that it came out of my work with
the Austin electric department which became Austin energy. So “Powerline” was
an hour-long program to highlight what was going on in the department in order to produce
electricity. That that the benefit is the city. Now you know they, the city, actually owns our own
electric company. So we felt like it would be good for our citizens to know
the ins and outs of what's going on. So we went through each department and highlighted
what they were doing. I had my own crew, and I would send them out on top of the generators,
I was send them in the vault. You know, wherever it was that our equipment was
or our people were working, that's where we went and it was a fun time.
KOTERAS: “Powerline” is very different from “Jam City,” I'm sorry. To kind of
hop back to “Jam City” actually, because I wrote something down and I just would love to elaborate
on if you could remember any specific
educational examples that the NAACP wanted you to get across to the community?
MALIK: Oh the NAACP had annual fundraisers, annual dinners, and at those dinners they always had
a prominent national speaker. So we would take our cameras and record those speeches,
record that programming. And we were pretty much the only ones doing that, at the time, we also
recorded all of the Miss Black Austin pageant. We recorded some of the jazz
programming that was going on in the city. So all of that was
compiled in the segment of “Jam City.” You know, we also have some historical pieces
that the University has produced at the University of Texas, and we put those in there as well. So
the point was that we know that the kids and their families were going to be watching.
It was that popular, we knew that they were going to be watching. As long as we have this
captive audience, you were going to put something out there that they may not have seen, were not
going to be able to see, and capture their minds as well. We knew we were feeding the spirits but
we wanted to feed the minds as well. KOTERAS: Right,
what you were saying, one of the examples you gave with the Miss Black Austin pageant, which I found
in the Austin history collection that they did have a keyword for "beauty pageant" and
I personally, throughout the research I did to prepare for this, couldn't find a lot of
information. So could you elaborate on what the Miss Black Austin--the Miss Black Austin Pageant
was, and also just what it meant to the community to have something like that and to have
it being broadcasted on television, and just your experiences
with showing it to the public? MALIK: Yeah, I guess, we were
pioneers in that effort as well because the Miss Black Austin pageants were usually
produced around the time of the--our Juneteenth celebrations. So Juneteenth in this Community was
much like the July Fourth celebration for the white people. So everybody was involved
in in the Juneteenth celebrations, and they would bring their families out in a family affair. So
I believe it started at Rosewood Park around the swimming pool, and they would have
their contestants there, that the contestant would strut around the pool area and the
Miss Black Austin would be chosen there. And then it evolved to the new park, which was Gibbon
Park at the time, and it was a grand affair there, and then it went to Paramount Theater. So we just
followed it wherever it went and it was--it was an integral part of the celebration of freedom, for
Black people and Texans alike and we found out that there were many states at that time
that actually celebrated Juneteenth, so the Miss Black Austin Pageant became
an important and crucial part of that celebration. KOTERAS: Are there any personal experiences
that you would want to share um
on this oral history of just how the celebration for Juneteenth was for you and your family?
Just so people can kind of get a more personal outlook on it and really like put themselves
in the mindset of what it was like for you to be celebrating
your freedom. MALIK: You know, it was for years for me
just a fun time to be out and seeing all of the community all out at one time.
But when I started working for Austin Energy, it got more formal. I mean we, Austin Energy,
just put out the red carpet for us and the black employees at Austin Energy were often
put at the forefront of that. What would you call it, activity, because we actually--Austin
Energy was the one that put up the money for the cars, the candy,
the booth. So, it start--it started out fun and it became a job because we had to
actually coordinate everything for that parade and--We would go from MLK and
then Chalmers. And we go all the way down MLK, which it was a block from I-35,
we would have all the others with the--with the cars and all the dignitaries there
from the city council to the county Commissioners, the fire department, and the fire department would
have all of their fire engines out there. MALIK: The electric department would
have all of their bucket trucks out there, and you know anyone that was,
that could, could be in the parade was there. So we go all the way down MLK,
east of 35, turn East on Chicon, and at every block, it was lined with kids and families,
and they would just wait for it to come by and you know throw candy. As we slowly went along
all the way to Rosewood Park and there they'd have the rest of the programming, music,
and food and games, and it was just a fun filled day for the family, all day long. It was--it was
a wonderful celebration. KOTERAS:
I think just hearing all this and as to what I hope is in chronological order, I guess, starting
with KXAN and into and when Austin energy, from an outsider just listening looking in,
they seemed, and definitely correct me if I'm wrong, even if I'm slightly like toeing the line
but um, did you notice any true progression, as you made your way through these different
news networks with the form of representation and then also just what you were
allowed to broadcast I guess in a certain, certain
way of saying it? Um-- MALIK:
Oh yeah I, you know, I made sure that we were seen as a community, as a black community,
in the best light that we could. Whether it was you know, covering any event or speaker or a guest
that came to the city. You know, I was there to make sure we were seen and heard
and even through my career progression in the news business,
you know, I still get people from the community talking about, "Oh,
I remember when you were on TV.” And--and they felt a sense of pride that I was there and that
I was able to articulate all of the news of the time, and it just gave them a sense of
belonging. So that--that was definitely a progression because it had not happened before,
and even when I went to Austin Community Television, the same thing happened there. We
had very little representation, so it was--it was all about representation.
MALIK: There was more representation of our churches, of our children, you know, of the
leaders in the community. So I made sure that they were on TV and,
as I tell you what when I went to do Austin energy, and I was hired to do much of the
same thing when I went there as a community producer; but when I went to Austin energy
I proposed the idea that we do historical stories, especially in Black history month,
about how Blacks were involved and worked with the electric company way back when.
But we kind of had to let that that one go. My research uncovered a story
of a few, of a very few black
workers for the electric company in the early days. I believe we, we were actually 1870,
76, I think that's when the company, the electric company was born. But in those early days
they had the black workers hold the dynamite and a few of them were killed with that job.
So we decided we didn't want to highlight that part, so we kind of let that one go,
but for the most part wherever there were black workers or black leaders, black
department head, you know, I made sure they were highlighted so
it was always a progression of representation. KOTERAS: I uh…That's very enlightening, and
I'm very intrigued to look more into this, the progression and honestly I could ask you
to go on about every single example that you've had to portray that progression. And also just
it'd be very interesting to hear if you, if anybody, was ever like "you inspired me to get
into activism," even if it wasn't activism that went hand-in-hand with media. Since you were,
what a lot of people, it sounds like the community was looking towards.
Of just breaking barrier after barrier of showing what the community was going through, whether it
be an up or or a down. To put that, like what's the word,
when it's not a great when the words aren't a great illustration of what's actually happening.
MALIK: Yeah I did have some down moments,
especially when I started out at KXAN. I was assigned to cover the rotary club meeting, and
my partner and I, we were always sent out in twos, one to do the camera work and the other would
hold the mic. And so we went out to the Austin country club and we were setting up the lights
and you know getting ready for the meeting start.
And there was an old white gentleman at the table. He was there very early,
there were very few people in the dining area at that time and
I understandably had on a narrow outfit, right, but he looked at me
and snapped his fingers and said, "boy, boy come here!" And I was furious. I looked at him
like you have got to be kidding, and turned around and someone came over to him,
and you know, explained things to him. But I was, I was pretty pissed off by that and went back to
my news director and told him never, never again send me to the Rotary club meeting,
I will not go. But yeah those kind of things happen, but you know and,
it was simply because they had not seen me or anybody like me there.
MALIK: So, you know, I was, I was that--that--that one of the first examples of black
broadcasting to them. So they, you know, they just didn't expect to see it there, but I was there,
I was there to let them know. I'm here. KOTERAS: Exactly, here to stay.
MALIK: Yeah, that was kind of a double insult, I mean at least he could have said "girl,
girl" but he said "boy, boy.” And he was snapping his fingers like you know, I was,
I was his servant and he expected me to come over and pay attention to him. That was quite odd.
But I got over it. KOTERAS:
Right, because now, you can see all the progress that you've inspired throughout the community with
being there and also just even with this oral history you're
saying what people your personal experiences with how you're treated and hopefully there's there
is a progression to where that doesn't happen anymore, because it is the norm like
we have yet. I don't personally know like statistics, but I would like to say that we do
have a good representation of black news anchors now. And of course, as you were saying earlier,
how compared to today media wasn't as opinionated but today, as you can see, media it's very
opinionated which is, I believe, a great thing. MALIK: Definitely, you know, we usually have to
hand in our scripts to news directors, so you know they could put an eye on it. But so we knew
that there was some editing that was done and we were very careful about how we told the story.
But nowadays it's “let me have all you got.” It's a different--it's a different atmosphere,
but I think it's for the best. KOTERAS: Were there, um,
did you feel like, especially working with KXAN, did you feel like you were being
more silenced than not when you went to go cover a story?
MALIK: I didn't feel restricted so much by the station as by the
norms. You know, back then, it was very cut-and-dried. You were you were there to report
what the facts were and just the facts and nothing else. And that
was really the norm of all of the stations. So this, this is kind of how we handled things, but
today is--it's a little bit looser. You can actually have a conversation
with an audience, more so than just the facts. KOTERAS: Yeah, okay, well, I think that was all my
questions, if you would want to add anything that I didn't cover that you would want people to know.
Now would probably be the time, since I don't have any more questions.
MALIK: Well, I can tell you when I when I first started out, I was a skinny little thing,
and it was at a time when all of the equipment was big and bulky, so I had to pack a wooden tripod,
a battery belt, and Oracon camera, which is just the biggest thing you could pack and a light
kit. At times, although I felt good about that now somebody's going out into my neighborhood
and covering things that other people were not covering, I got some flak from the from the
brothers, because they were like, "Why are they making you pack all that equipment.” I was like,
"it's just a job, we don't care, it's just a job." So that was kind of funny to me but you know
you learn a lot doing the things you need to do. KOTERAS:
Yeah, that sounds like a lot of stuff compared to what you see now.
MALIK: Oh it's nothing now, now they do, it's a handheld thing now and I
guess I didn't mention that it would be, it would film. So not only did you have to
pack those 400 foot canisters on the camera, but we also had to edit them.
And you had to be very careful in the editing of the film, so there was a lot of skills.
KOTERAS: Yeah, definitely. Okay, well, thank you for sitting down with me like just talking
about your experiences in the newsroom and the activism that you did and I'm very, I’m very
excited. I hope you are--that just people get to hear your experiences and that this will be put
in the records of the Briscoe and so anybody who really wants to can view it. Thank you again for
signing off on the Deed of Gift. MALIK: You're so welcome Erica,
thank you for listening. KOTERAS: Yeah, of course,
and I, you know what I hope that we can meet in person, one day, because that'd be really nice,
just like sit down regular talk. MALIK: I love it. I love
it, awesome. KOTERAS: Awesome,
I will talk to you again another time okay? MALIK: Okay, thank you okay bye bye.

In collections

Austin women activists oral history project records

Details

Title

Brenda Malik oral history

Identifier

camh-dob-004031

Description

Oral history of Brenda Malik conducted by Erica Koteras on 3/04/2021. Brenda Mims-Malik was a civil rights activist who did most of her activism in radio and television. She did so by providing Black people a voice on local television. Mims-Malik was an anchor on multiple news stations, including KXAN, ACTV, and had multiple programs for the Black community such as Newscene and Jam City in the 70s and 80s. She would also produce yearly Black history month documentaries about the Black people that worked for Austin Energy, the primary electrical company in Austin.

Brenda Malik was also a part of the NAACP and the Black Media Coalition, where she worked with them to produce programs like Jam City to depict the Black youth in Austin and give them outlets for their creative sides.

Creator