On this day in 1982, Freeman Gosden, the white actor who played the African American character Amos Jones in the radio show Amos ‘n’ Andy, dies.

Gosden was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1899, and sold cars and tobacco before becoming a radio operator in World War I. Later, while managing a theater production company, Gosden met Charles Correll, another white performer. The two began performing together and developed a radio series about two southern African Americans, Sam and Henry - later, they created a similar show, Amos ‘n Andy, which debuted in 1928. The show drew more than 40-million listeners during its run, which lasted, first in a nightly fifteen-minute format and then a half-hour format, until 1955, becoming the most highly-rated comedy in radio history. However, the show was later reviled for its exploitation of negative black stereotypes. A TV version of Amos ‘n Andy ran from 1951 to 1953, starring black actors Alvin Childress and Spencer Williams.

The NAACP protested both the radio and the TV series for promoting racial stereotypes, but the protests did nothing to dampen the popularity of the shows. Amos ‘n’ Andy ran in reruns for many years around the world until the government of Kenya banned the program in 1963. This action renewed protests in the United States, and CBS finally withdrew the program from circulation.