In 1996 the NAACP Image Awards was $2,5 million in debt.  It had been canceled the year before and it's future uncertain.
When Myrlie Ever Williams was elected chairman of the NAACP one of her first acts was to give Joe Madison
full autonomy as chairman of the Image Awards and instructed him to re-establish it as a national program.

Despite the internal political woes and formidable debt, Madison put together a Blue ribbon committee of entertainment executives,
financial, corporate and legal experts and turned the Image Awards around in one year. As the point man for the Image Awards,
he erased the debt and netted over half a million dollars.

To prove the first year was not a fluke, he served as chairman of the Image Awards for a second year and doubled the net
earnings to over $1 million. All profits of the Image Awards went to pay off the debt of the national NAACP.
The Image Awards was back on track in a big way. It was also aired for the first time in its 26 year history on prime time television.

At the 28th Annual Image Awards, Joe Madison was presented an Image Award not for saving the program,
but for his work in exposing the CIA, Contra, and Cocaine issue started by Gary Webb of the San Jose Mercury News.

Actors, recording artists, writers, directors, producers all responded to make the NAACP Image Awards the premiere entertainment event in America.

See how many people you recognize from past Image Awrds events.