Charlotte broadcaster and photographer Jim Black dies

JIM BLACK VIA FACEBOOK

Jim Black, a presence in Charlotte media as a photographer and public affairs director in print, radio and television, died July 26 at age 78.

Jim Black, a longtime figure in Charlotte broadcasting and print media over three decades, died July 26 in Waxhaw at age 78. 

Funeral service is Aug. 2 at 1:30 p.m. at Alexander Funeral Serivice, 1424 Statesville Road. A GoFundMe campaign to raise $11,000 for funeral expenses has been launched. As of July 31, $1,500 has been raised. 

Mr. Black was a presence in local media, combining skill as a photographer, easy speaking style and self-deprecating humor (he referred to himself as “the Black Jim Black” when greeting friends). He was a photographer at WSOC-TV during a time of widening diversity in broadcasting, longtime friend and fellow photographer Greg McMurray said, and later transitioned to capturing still images as a freelancer at The Post in the 1980s and early ‘90s. 

“I followed in his footsteps and everything,” said McMurray, who like Mr. Black, worked at WSOC and The Post.

Mr. Black was also a force in radio as public affairs director at WGIV, Charlotte’s first station dedicated to Black listeners and host of “The Black Rap,” a public affairs program. Mr. Black was a proponent of engaging Black Charlotte through the power of radio, leading voter registration drives, food drives and health fairs to address chronic disease and raise awareness.

Mr. Black joined Big WAYS in 1978 during an era when Black on-air talent was novel at white-oriented stations. Although Big Ways was one of the Charlotte market’s top-rated stations, he believed in authenticity.

“A lot of people I might go over to a predominantly white station, be swallowed up and get lost, but I believe I will mesh with the people over there,” he told The Post in 1978. “I won’t get lost.”

Mr. Black, an Army veteran, spent 26 months in Vietnam before returning the U.S. in 1971. He recounted the combat experience as a chapter best left in the past.

“If you were a Vietnam veteran you would come home and you took your uniform off, and you didn’t tell anybody except your friends or people in the service that you’d been in service,” he told The Post in 2012. “I never took anything that was in the military out in public with me. I gave everything to my mom. I didn’t even look at photographs that I posted [on Facebook] … but I don’t have any demons or anything.”

Mr. Black, who grew up on Chicago’s west side, was spent his later years in Waxhaw, where he was a familiar presence through “Land of Waxhaw” – his photography initiative to raise the profile of the town’s people and businesses.

“Mr. Jim Black was truly one of a kind,” Snap Fitness Waxhaw posted on social media. “At Snap Fitness Waxhaw, we’re more than a gym — we’re a family. Mr. Jim was a cherished part of that family, and his presence will be deeply missed but never forgotten.”

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