NAACP: Hot Springs woman an ’unsung hero’

Hot Springs has an “unsung hero.”

Tiffani “Hot Chocolate” Hall, a retired radio and television broadcaster, has been included in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s “Black History Month Unsung Heroes Project.”

The project honors African-Americans who have “changed the world with small decisions every day” by listing their photographs and accomplishments on the Internet at http://www.naacp-unsung-heroes.tumblr.com.

Hall’s radio and television programs have been hailed as paving the road for the likes of Oprah, Mo’Nique and Wendy Williams in the broadcast industry.

Hall’s daughter, Marquisette, was instrumental in getting her mother’s accomplishments on the Unsung Hero Web site.

“This was all done through my daughter who decided a long time ago that I’m her unsung hero,” Hall said. “She decided to do something about it. So she wrote the article and she was responsible for getting it onto Google and also the NAACP Web site.

“I really appreciate that because not a lot of children respect their parents, and to have a child say that I, her mother, am her unsung hero means so terribly much to me,” Hall said. “I feel much loved, much respected and I’m very humbled that she would elect to do something like that.”

Hall’s elation at her Unsung Hero status extends beyond her family.

“I love it because it gives a chance for our young people who don’t know an awfully lot about our history to be able to catch up on things that have been a part of our vital past,” Hall said.

Hall believes she has rightfully earned the Unsung Hero designation.

“In my life, I’ve worked with a lot of children, not just black children; everyone from infants, teen-agers, young people, and I’ve always been told that I was an easy person to talk to. They like telling me their problems and I was able to help them resolve their problems,” Hall said.

“I wasn’t always down on them because in believing that people should listen to older people as their leaders, I also believe that we should listen to our young people. They have a lot to say, but if you’re not going to listen, you won’t ever hear it.”

Hall’s road to Unsung Hero status led her from the cotton fields and Jim Crow laws still existing in the Arkansas Delta in the 1970s to St. Louis and northward to Minneapolis. There she became the first woman and first African-American to graduate from the Brown Institute, which trains students in broadcasting, design and other technologies.

As her daughter writes in Hall’s Unsung Hero entry, “Armed with a first-class license in broadcasting and engineering, Tiffani returned to St. Louis. Pinning (on) the name ’Hot Chocolate,’ Tiffani began working as a radio personality for WESL radio in neighboring East St. Louis, Ill. Beating out most of her male personalities, a 1974 Arbitron survey rated her ’the most listened to voice in the metro-east area.”

Hall chose her radio moniker “Hot Chocolate” at the suggestion of her youngest daughter, Kimberly, after her station’s program director urged her to adopt an on-air nickname.

“She said, ’Well, mother, you are chocolate and you think you’re hot so how about Hot Chocolate?’ When I took it back to the program director, he loved it. So from that first day on, I started using it.”

Hall later became the station’s chief engineer and, as her daughter writes, “After turning down an offer to work for a nationally syndicated radio station, Tiffani embarked on a television career.”

As host of her own television talk program, “Proud,” which focused on black issues and perspectives, Hall routinely interviewed celebrities such as Lou Rawls and the Four Tops.

“I interviewed mostly celebrities that would come into St. Louis, but also a lot of people that lived there,” Hall said.

While working for KPLR television in St. Louis, Hall became acquainted with up-and-coming television celebrities such as Sally Jessy Raphael, Regis Philbin and Bob Costas.

“We were always running into each other, always doing different things where we were always on the same program,” Hall said.

Like many people regarded as “heroes,” Hall has her own hero, poet James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938). Hall has been lauded for her rendition of Johnson’s poem “The Creation,” which presents an African-American perspective on God’s creation of the world and mankind.

“A lot of people have termed it ’the Negro sermon,”’ Hall said. “I like it because it tells about the struggles and it’s about a man (Johnson) who came along a long time ago when people weren’t giving black people the opportunity.”

Hall and her husband, William, are Forrest City natives, and after enduring the cold winters of East St. Louis, they yearned for milder winters in a “low-key” place. Hot Springs was a perfect fit.

“We came down to Hot Springs for a reunion and we fell in love with it,” Hall said. “So after we left, we went home and decided that we would come back and look for a place to stay.”

Hall has stayed busy since retiring here. She’s currently involved in the Entre Nous Club, regularly performs poetry recitals and speaks to young people about life and living. Talking to young people is one of Hall’s favorite activities.

“You can reach out and maybe be able to save someone that was going astray, or be able to lift someone up so that they can keep going on in the right direction,” she said.