GREENSBORO, N.C. — There's a lot of rich history to celebrate over the last 70 years of WFMY News 2.
One special date is the day Sandra Hughes started working here.
The date was July 24, 1972.
That's 47 years ago, on Wednesday.
Just two years later in 1974, Sandra made local TV history when she became the first African American woman to host a program here on WFMY News 2.
Sandra remembers it as a trying time, but she stayed persistent.
"I felt this overwhelming responsibility to do something that I wasn't sure what it was I was supposed to be doing. I had people on one side of the city in the black community saying, 'Okay, since you're black this should be a black show, isn't that what this is going to be?' And then I had people on another side of the community saying you are black, you're going to make this a show for everyone, aren't you?"
"People didn't think that the time had come for a black woman to be doing a show by herself on television," Hughes recalled.
"We got bomb threats quite often. The show was on live every day at one o'clock and for weeks and weeks we would have someone call and say there was a bomb somewhere on the set. Now, what that would mean is that all the guests would have to be taken out of the studio, but I was determined to make this show work. I wanted to make sure I was doing a good job and people out there would eventually see that, so I would stay. That's where I learned to talk without stopping. Because the guests would all leave and I would have 30 minutes of show to fill so I would sit there and talk and talk and talk and talk to make sure that show stayed on the air. And after a while, I think our viewers decided well, this person is really trying to be a person for all people and they gave me a chance."
Her determination paid off as Sandra became one of the most recognizable and beloved journalists in the Triad.
She earned the coveted Edward R. Murrow award for news reporting.
In 2002, she was honored with the North Carolina Governor's Order of the Long Leaf Pine, which is the state's top civilian honor.
The was also inducted into the North Carolina Broadcaster's Hall of Fame.
Sandra Hughes will also be inducted in the Black College Alumni Hall of Fame this year.
The inductees were announced today. Sandra is one of 14 people headed to the Hall in September.