Black History Month: February 8th

The Queen Of TV

On this day, daytime and TV icon Oprah Winfrey becomes the first African American woman to host a nationally syndicated talk show in 1986. Her talk show has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history. It’s lead her to be ranked the richest African American of the 20th century and beyond and was once the world’s only black billionaire.

Winfrey experienced considerable hardship during her childhood, including being raped at the age of nine and becoming pregnant at 14; her son died in infancy. Winfrey later landed a job in radio while still in high school and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19. After boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place, she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated.

The rest the say is history.