Renowned Los Angeles television newscaster Warren Wilson, known for smashing racial barriers and arranging the safe surrender of almost two dozen fugitives to police, died on Friday at age 90 in Oxnard.
Wilson retired from KTLA in 2005 after a four-decade career covering some of the biggest stories in L.A. history — the Watts riots, the Charles Manson killings, the presidential nomination of Sen. John F. Kennedy and the North Hollywood Bank of America shootout. Wilson landed the first television interview with Rodney King in jail and the first sit-down interview with O.J. Simpson after he was acquitted of murder.
“His demeanor on the air as an iconic television journalist was just as authentic as he was a father, unsensational, sincere, and a calm, eloquent voice,” son Stanley Wilson said in a statement on his father’s passing.
Wilson, the son of North Carolina sharecroppers, became one of the first Black reporters on air in Los Angeles in 1969. He worked for KNBC and the NBC network news for 15 years before joining KTLA in 1984.
During his trailblazing career, Wilson collected six L.A.-area Emmy awards as well as accolades from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Los Angeles Press Club, the California Legislature, the American Civil Liberties Union, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, the Los Angeles City Council and the Los Angeles Police Department.
Striving continually to be a voice for the Black community, Wilson played a vital role in exposing police brutality through his coverage of the 1965 and 1992 riots. Because of the deep trust he established in communities of color, he was able to serve as an intermediary in arranging the the surrender of 22 fugitives wanted by law enforcement.
“People knew that if Warren Wilson was involved, that there would not be an incident where a person would be mistreated,” L.A. City Councilman Bernard Parks, who saw Wilson on crime scenes when he was chief of police, told The Times in 2005.
While some people criticized Wilson for becoming too personally involved in criminal cases, Wilson always stood by his approach and argued that it saved lives.
“I guess I can identify with the underdog because of what I’ve had to go through as a Black man working in a white world,” Wilson told The Times in 1993. “I take some pride in thinking that maybe someone — a suspect or a police officer — stayed alive because of all this.”
The journalist said he inherited his strong moral compass, including a deep-seated sense of equality, from his father, who was once was once assaulted by members of the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina.
“He told me, ‘Listen, they will knock you down on your knees, on your back, but you will have to get back up because as long as you stay there, that’s where you’ll always be,’” Wilson told The Times in 2005. “‘But if you get back up you will always be a step above them.’ ”
This advice helped propel Wilson to rare heights in an industry that was often hostile to reporters of color.
Wilson got his start in the news business working in the U.S. Navy press office in the 1950s, then went on to work for City News Service and the Los Angeles bureau of United Press International.
During his early journalism career he was confronted by white mobs, armed segregationists and police chiefs who questioned his legitimacy as a Black journalist, according to his family.
While Wilson was working at KTLA, News at Ten became the top-rated primetime newscast and held the title for 21 years.
When Wilson retired from news in 2005, he left behind an industry that had dramatically changed from when he‘d entered it — but, he noted, not entirely for the better.
In a 2005 interview with The Times, he bemoaned the fact that television news focused more on celebrities and entertainment than hard news.
He also had some problems with KTLA and in 2004 filed a discrimination complaint, alleging that he was being paid less than younger, white reporters.
Nevertheless, he said he walked away from his four-decade career with pride and satisfaction, telling The Times, “I have done everything I’ve set out to do, despite the obstacles that were in my way from the beginning.”
Wilson is survived by six children: Pamela Wilson, Melissa Jones, Elizabeth Wilson, Ronald Wilson, Stanley Wilson and stepdaughter Debra Hansen. His second eldest daughter Kim T. Wilson died in 2003.