THIRTEEN mourns the loss of the pioneering, courageous, and legendary TV journalist Tony Brown, who died on June 17, 2026 at age 93. Brown joined THIRTEEN in 1970 as the executive producer of Black Journal, the first and only national Black public affairs series in American television history. The program's original executive producer and hosts were William Greaves and Lou House. Brown also began hosting in 1971 and the show evolved into Tony Brown’s Journal, the longest-running series in the history of the PBS network. Brown became a central figure in American broadcasting history, with groundbreaking work that elevated Black voices on television for more than 40 years. Black Journal was known for thoughtful interviews, including with the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Nina Simone, Lena Horne and Angela Davis. Guest hosts included Nikki Giovanni and Diahann Carroll. Black Journal was publicly funded in response to the Kerner Commission (1967) with a goal of presenting Black urban life a...