50 Years on The Job

Tee Taylor started working at WKMG in Orlando in 1970.

He was the first Black Photographer hired by the station and he soon saw that not everyone at the station was happy about his hiring.

“It was out of the norm to have a person of color walking around the station. One guy, he said kind of funny, ‘Damn, we got one of them now,’ and it bothered the manager I was walking around with,” Taylor said.

The manager offered an apology but Taylor told him to save it. He knew what he was getting into and he was prepared to take on any animosity that was bound to come his way with patience and a sense of humor.

“I had the right temperament for the injustice that I would face, not so much within the station, but covering different stories where people had never seen a person of color with the camera. And, you know, I was kind of preparing for the reaction I was going to get,” Taylor said.

Taylor was of course no stranger to discrimination. He was born in Quincy, a small city in Florida’s Panhandle, in 1948 and grew up in segregation.

He got a Social Security card at age 5 and started working in the tobacco fields all the way through high school, first earning $10 per week and later $20. He joked that there were no child labor laws back then but he said ultimately, he views the experience as a positive one.

“When school was out, schools were segregated back then, the Black kids, we always got out a month early before the white kids because we all worked in the tobacco fields. It really wasn’t a negative because we were making money,” Taylor said.

He says he applied for a job at the station after he saw an ad on TV.

“I basically told them (I came) for the job and I see a career for me and I’m not going to take no for an answer. And the question was, ‘Have you worked in TV before?’ The obvious answer was no, not too many Black people that worked in TV before,” Taylor said. “So no, I hadn’t worked but I’m willing to make it work and I just got a feeling.”

He got the job and has had it ever since.

He’s now getting ready to retire and I think most of you would agree, Tee Taylor has earned a bit of relaxation.

He helped pave the way for many other Black Journalists in and around Orlando and while we have come a very long way, there is still so much further to go.

Thanks Tee for helping start the journey.

H/T WKMG