Caption from poster__

 “I'll tell it to the hot, I'll tell it to the cold.

I'll tell it to the young, I'll tell it to the old.

I don't want no laughin', I don't want no cryin',

and most of all, no signifyin'.

This is Petey Greene's Washington.”


Petey Greene

Ralph Waldo Greene better known as Petey Greene was a pioneer in African American radio as the host of a popular
call-in show in Washington, DC, in the 1960s and 1970s. Greene's frank, on-air opinions spurred listeners to contribute
their own thoughts and gripes, and he sought to admit his own shortcomings which included a stint in prison for armed
robbery as a way to inspire others. He was one of the first personalities created by talk radio, which would become an
enduring staple of urban radio well into the twenty-first century, and he remained such a compelling figure after his
untimely death in 1984 that a 2007 film was made loosely based on his life story. “Talk to Me” starred actor Don Cheadle
as the ebullient, sometimes combative personality, along with Chiwetel Ejiofor as Dewey Hughes, the straitlaced boss who
hired the former convict at a DC radio station. Greene was raised by his grandmother, Maggie Floyd, known as "A'nt Pig."
He grew up in the Georgetown section of Washington, DC, which was then a rundown, predominantly African American
neighbor hood. In the interview with Hughes, Greene described Floyd as an excellent role model who tried to set him
down the right path in life, "but I had to be one of the fellas, you know. And being one of the fellas can get you in the
penitentiary so quick, or get you to have confrontations with the law so fast that you won't even know what happened to you."