Max Robinson was an American television journalist and the first African American man to anchor a nightly network newscast. Robinson’s first journalism job began and ended in 1959, when he was hired to read news at a Portsmouth, Va., television station. Although the station selected him over an otherwise all-white group of applicants, it still enforced a colour barrier by projecting an image of the station’s logo to conceal Robinson as he read the news. He was fired the day after he presented the news without the logo obscuring his face. In 1965 he joined WTOP-TV in Washington, D.C., as a correspondent and camera operator, but he moved quickly to nearby WRC-TV, where he won awards for coverage of race riots and a documentary on life in poor urban neighbourhoods. He was hired back by WTOP as its first African American news anchor in 1969 and stayed there until 1978. Robinson moved to Chicago when ABC News chose him as one of three coanchors for ABC’s World News Tonight. The anchor arrangement ended with the death of coanchor Frank Reynolds in 1983. Robinson left ABC News shortly thereafter and joined Chicago’s WMAQ-TV as a news anchor (1984–87). Robinson passed away on Dec. 20, 1988, silently struggling with AIDS. A battle he kept private up until his death. His friends and family knew, he believed making it public would’ve stressed him out more sending him to an earlier grave. His friends believe maintaining his privacy was the best thing to do. Thank you for breaking color barriers in the broadcasting space. Thank you for your contributions.